The Auswine Forum

but your drinking reports are still due. Please let us know what you have been drinking. TN's vibes or lists welcome.

I have had a pretty dry week, but I thoroughly enjoyed a bottle of Sylvan Springs 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon. For a wine that cost $18, it is remarkly good quality and developing very well. At 5 years of age, it has just hit its peak drinking window and should last for sometime. Ample in weight, the balance and structure is credible and the wine shows true varietal characters. Very easy to drink and was terrific with a rack-off lamb that had been marinated and baked in hot mango chutney.

Tried Troy Kalleske's stuff at an instore (except the 2005 Greenock Shiraz which was completely sold out - the 2006 is not far off coming out of the barrel) and had these brief thoughts:

2006 Clarry's White - quite waxy/lemony, easy drinking quaff.

2006 Lorraine Late Picked Semillon - sweet but no botrytis, very grippy finish. If this had a bit of the noble rot I'd be interested.

2006 Clarry's Red - great sweet fruit and well backed oak, great drinking already. If this is an indicator of what they achieved in 06 it's a very good sign.

2005 Pirathon Shiraz - seemed a bit stewed/toasted with awkward oak & alcohol heat on the finish. I preferred the Clarry's.

2005 Old Vine Grenache - this is still meshing, a little closed with none of that trademark eucalypt at the moment, but there's still meaty/chocolaty raspberries & black pepper. Needs a bit more time to really hit its straps, but still showed up the Pirathon at this stage.

2005 Johann Georg - outstanding already, full bodied, dark plum/black cherry, cinnamon, black pepper & chocolate, grippy and extremely long with a nutty finish.

2005 JMK Vintage Port - much more earthy than the sample we tried at T-Chow, but still the dark/pruney, chocolaty fruit & complex spirit stand out.

Cheers,
Ian

2004 Wynns Johnson's Block Cab-Shiraz
Tasted blind over a meal last night. Had everyone fooled. Superb drinking right now (lengthy decant please). This is soooooo good it doesn't get a mention on the Wynns web site

2006 Clos Pierre Pinot Noir
It's OK. Very smooth and quaffable, so good we got through 2 bottles in the blink of an eye. Good value at under $20.

St Hallett The Black sparkling shiraz NV
First was oxidised. Second was very lean and quite complex. Not as old as the Joseph but nice Barossa character. Like a little brother to the Elderton sparkling shiraz (and priced accordingly it seems) Finishing very dry. Overall pretty good but better value out there. Anyone else had this?

Schild Estate Sparkling Shiraz 2005
Bah! Lightweight cherry cordial. This is nowhere near as good as their 2003 effort (I think the last/inaugural release). I'll give it one more chance but was quite disappointed.

Tim Adams Cabernet 2004
This is serious mum! This was picked up for $17 (I think this was an error) and blew away anything else at that price. Tim is adding 11% Malbec to this and aging in French oak. Compares favourably to the Leasingham Bin 56, another of my faves. This wine even developed some pencil lead character and hardly any mint discernible. To be critical the finish was hotter than I prefer. Fine tannin, fruit and lift. Should age for up to a decade but drinking very well now with a dish of pork belly last night. Great wine.

Peter Lehmann Shiraz 2004
Interesting. I have had one good bottle under SC and two poor showings also under SC. Hard to work out what is wrong with them though. They were flat, thin and lifeless. Almost as though they were suffering randox. Haven't had reductive characters like that before but they would have been more common under SC I would have thought. Weird. Replaced with a cork jobbie that I shall look at soon.


cheers

Carl

Yarra Ridge Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2005 – It has all the signs of pinosity displaying cherry, a skin of plum, a shake of spice and even a drop of sap, but there’s a bitter green steminess that likes to poke its head around the corner. Still, it’s an honest unassuming drop for the $17 mark in an easy drinking aperitif stylee. 86/100

Vasse Felix Cabernet Sauvignon 1999 – I decanted this bottle but most of the sediment had hardened as a crust around the bottle so it’s not imperative. With grapes sourced from vineyards in Margaret River and Mount Barker this is a delicious wine showing tertiary characters just beginning to swell beneath its excellent fruit. There is dust of graphite and blackberry upon opening the bottle and a hint of bricking in its deep glossy red depths. After an hour it displays beautiful aromas of blackberry, blackcurrant, bitter chocolate, graphite, toffee and coffee bean oak. The palate follows the nose with the teensiest dip in the middle but otherwise has found an excellent balance of fruit, oak and tertiary characters extending through to a long back palate upheld by fine and delicate tannins. 13.5%. This is in its drinking window now and will plateau at least until 2012.93/100

05 Craggy Le Sol
05 Craggy Sophia
05 Carrick Pinot Noir
05 Peregrine Pinot Noir
02 Rongopai Ultimo Merlot

and many others, notes later im shattered or see kwfc. A very very interesting weekend for sorting out in my mind the good from the great.

1998 Dalrymple Vineyards Pipers Brook Tasmania Sauvignon Blanc : This was in an auction catalogue for some time and I decided to rescue it for $8 as I've always enjoyed Dalrymple wines and thought it might be " interesting " compared to many current release '06 Sauvignon Blancs. Indeed it was.

Starting with the cork - it is not often these days you get a SB in cork anyways nonetheless one that crumbles and snaps in half when trying to remove then requires " decanting " to remove the bits of cork - but that's what happened here.

The wine ? Well not as brown as many a same aged Chardonnay has for starters. The actual nose and palate was amazingly similar to dill gherkin " water " - which was not as bad as it sounds. Besides Pelicanette politely sampling a small glass before moving on to a Chianti I drank the whole bottle of this !

1999 Hardys Tintara McLaren Vale Grenache : lovely stuff showing that big companies can make some soulful wines too !

Hewitson Ned & Henry's Shiraz 2004- Very deep crimson, black colour. rich, intense, full-bodied 2004 Shiraz. Ned & Henry's displays extraordinary purity and typical Barossa Valley style. The palate has excellent weight and mouthfeel, with flavours of spice, liquorice and blackberry. Very nice 93/100. I Think it was around $24.


Coriole Shiraz 2004 - Coriole Shiraz is always good value. They produce excellent wines. Yet another top Shiraz from Coriole is the 2004. The palate is mouthfilling and smooth with long white and black pepper flavours overlaid with spice, liquorice and blackberry.
Very smooth 94/100. $25.

Jeez! How come you get a long weekend off for the old bird's birthday You must really love her

Slightly esoteric of late
Last night
1994 Hamilton Russell Pinot Noir - South Africa, Walker Bay (6/9/2007)
Certainly showing age with it's tawny-red body and a significant orange/brown band at the rim. There's a degree of farmyardy bottle stink as well.

Their is some smokiness on the nose and background raspberry together with some meatiness I can't place. Pleasant without being stunning.

The palate is consistent, with good body for the 12.5% and the age. Acidity is well-judged and the finish balanced, but relatively low-key.

All in all, very pleasant and holding together well. I've drunk their Pinot a number of times as a younger wine, and it's good to see the same balance remain in an older bottle.

Earlier in the week
Bodegas Argueso 'San Leon' Manzanilla Classica
... from half bottle, screwcapped. 15% Alcohol and £5 for a half bottle. Code L6V140 (suggesting bottled on 140th day of 2006). This on day 3 (we had a couple of small glasses at the weekend).

Very pale straw coloured. A pungent nose, even when fridge-cold. In fact it's a wine you can smell from a distance, suggesting tangerine/mandarin rind and cointreau from a foot away. Up close it's much more brutal, with petrol/creosote like intensity and it even smells dry and salty if that's possible. There's actually quite a bit of complexity to the nose, but the pungency can be overpowering - I daren't swirl!

On the palate it's dry, but not fiercely so and the alcohol whilst showing isn't 'too' spirity, has a nice long complex finish, but the initial taste is again pretty pungent allied to bitterness/sourness. It's almost like climbing a hurdle to get at something interesting the other side. There's a degree of nuttiness about it and also herbiness (Oregano springs to mind). Definitely a hint of black olive in there as well.

There's plenty going on here, in fact there are very few table wines that could offer this level of complexity - even at the higher echelons. However few have such a confronting edge to them - even at the lower echelons. Challenging for sure.

regards

Ian

97 Roxburgh Chardonnay
Bottle 1.....dead
Bottle 2....RIP
Bottle 3....deceased
Bottle 4.....no more
Bottle 5.....pushing up daisies
Bottle 6....engine degreaser

Knew they were a few years over drink time....but all dead

Gave up at this point and just had a few rums.....

Graham

graham wrote:97 Roxburgh Chardonnay
Bottle 1.....dead
Bottle 2....RIP
Bottle 3....deceased
Bottle 4.....no more
Bottle 5.....pushing up daisies
Bottle 6....engine degreaser

Knew they were a few years over drink time....but all dead

Gave up at this point and just had a few rums.....

Graham

no no...its pining! Its pining for the fjords.

cheers

Carl

graham wrote:97 Roxburgh Chardonnay
Bottle 1.....dead
Bottle 2....RIP
Bottle 3....deceased
Bottle 4.....no more
Bottle 5.....pushing up daisies
Bottle 6....engine degreaser

Knew they were a few years over drink time....but all dead

Gave up at this point and just had a few rums.....

Graham

Graham, I owned some of this many years ago, perhaps in 2001. I thought it was on a very fast downhill even then.

griff wrote:

graham wrote:97 Roxburgh Chardonnay
Bottle 1.....dead
Bottle 2....RIP
Bottle 3....deceased
Bottle 4.....no more
Bottle 5.....pushing up daisies
Bottle 6....engine degreaser

Knew they were a few years over drink time....but all dead

Gave up at this point and just had a few rums.....

Graham

no no...its pining! Its pining for the fjords.

cheers

Carl

'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This bottle is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker!
'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace!
'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!!

THIS IS AN EX-CHARDONNAY!!

I am SO impressed with the level of stubbornness that you opened six bottles! Sir, I honour you ...

Myself -

Shingleback McLaren Vale Shiraz 2004 Good. Nice quaffer.
Thorn-Clarke Sandpiper Shiraz 2004 Very Good. My go-to quaffer at the moment.
Gemtree Uncut Shiraz 2005 Average, finishing short.
Seppelt St. Peters 2005 Excellent. From memory - Very fresh/opulent. More elegant than magnificently structured (but leave it for a long long time) 2004 and barossan (have not tried it) 2002. Long and pure. Putting on weight after a few hours open. I think the critics may go gaga on current drikability and purity. For me becoming my Leoville Barton of shiraz - affordable, value, a regional classic always showing the best or near the best from it's year, and always class. Moving more to(wards) a Rhone-model of weight, maybe.
Wynns BL 1998 Very Good/Excellent. Drank a few from auction.
Penfolds Bin 28 1998 Very Good/Excellent. Bit syrupy but long and impressive. Nice but not my style.

The 98's were cheap at auction but generally would not seek them down again as slightly ott/clumsy. I'd buy the Sandpiper again (bargain Barossa) and bought some St. Petes '05 (class act, cheaper than Castagna) to take back to the UK on return in August.

Jay.

Rosemount Mountain Blue 2000 - bought a half dozen in the great Fosters clearout recently. For a $40 plus wine it made a good buy at $18.50. Still available at the original price for a select group of excitable bidders at a current auction.

Seriously though, a very good drop for the money I paid. Quite smooth and elegant, but with substantial complexity. I'm pretty happy I bought a half dozen (provided the rest are like this).

Seppelt Victorian Shiraz 2004 It's been said often on these fora. Great wine for the money. Still had balance and flavour 3 days after opening.

Wynns Shiraz 2005 A good buy for under $10 but not a patch on the Seppelt. Still, quite decent for a cheap quaffer.

Delatite Dead Man's Hill Gewurtztraminer 2005 - Very aromatic. Somewhat broadly sweet but with acid to carry. Will continue to hold for 3-5 years but would not repay long term cellaring.

Penfolds Bin 128 Shiraz 1996: Holding up well and probably ready to drink over the next 5 years. Medium bodied, fine tannins. Dark cherry fruit with dried herbs. More mint and eucalypt as it breathed. Good wine but not in the same league as the 1996 Bin 28.

Penfolds Bin 407 Cab Sav 1996: This was looking excellent with lots of time still left. The colour is brighter and more youthful than the wines age would indicate. The nose was revealing cassis, some earthy tobacco, cloves and a little greenness – think green capsicum. Palate showed great length and balance with deep cassis fruit, coffee, cedary oak, a touch of aniseed and a little dried herb. Excellent wine. I have 3 stashed somewhere in the cellar and hey can sit there for another 10 years.

Shaw and Smith M3 Chardonnay 2004: toasty nose showing wheatmeal and soft melon. The palate was nutty with touches of grapefruit and stone fruits with fresh, vibrant acid carrying through to the finish. Elegant and restrained style. Very good.

Montalto Pinot Noir 2004: boring Pinot Noir. Nothing wrong with it but no excitement to be found. Very straight up and down.

Alvear 1927 Pedro Ximinez Dolce Viejo (750 ml bottle): Delicious. Viscous, treacle like in the mouth. Lots of sweet raisins, citrus peel, caramel – great concentration and length. Sweet and luscious. Perfect for winter night caps.

Kays Brothers Tawny Muscat: dirty, funky spirit. Nutty, raisiny fruit, burnt orange peel. Ok.

Zema Estate Cab Sav 2001: disappointing. Flat, hollow palate, quite short. Lots of breathing showed a little more fruit but a more astringent, green finish. Perhaps a dud bottle.

JaJa Shiraz 2004
Second bottle of this and it is an excellent wine for the price.

Mildara Cab Sav 2005
A steal at the current silly prices nicely balanced with fine dusty tannin and a hint of mint on the nose. The rest is just good Coonawarra Cab

[/b]Warrabilla CSD 2005 cleanskin
Better balanced than the straight Durif cleanskin, outstanding value for all that flavour packed in the bottle.

Majella Cab Sav 2003
More green characters than the 04 but still a nice wine. Is still a baby though and needs to be left alone for a few years yet.

Maglieri Cab Sav 2002
Nothing special buy the real stuff these days (Serafino)

Peel Estate Shiraz 1999
Just starting to show some secondary development with some cigar box and cedar on the nose. Sour cherry on the palate, maybe a little green but nice enough.

Marius Shiraz 2003
Note to self, keep grubby fingers of the rest of this for a couple of years. Fantastic stuff at the moment but will keep getting better.

Penfolds Bin 389 1995
A little dissapointing really but it may not have been stored particularly well. Lifted a little after an hour or so but remained fairly muted and uninteresting.

Glen

Over the past couple of weeks:

Rockford Basket Press Shiraz 1998 - seemed a bit unbalanced first sip on opening, but a good decant removed any worries. Delicious but moving out of my price range.
Sevenhill St Ignatius Cab/Merlot/Malbec/Cab Franc 2001 - bit thin and uninspiring. Previous bottles better, maybe getting past it.
Wirra Wirra RSW Shiraz 2002 - could open the batting for McLaren Vale in any test; a beauty and perfect with roast rib of beef.
Journey's End The Beginning Shiraz 2002 - well made and enjoyable McLaren Vale shiraz, punching well above its weight for a sub $20 wine.

2005 Lloyd Bros Shiraz A tight wine, nice black fruit, Raspberry. American Oak Vanillia but has fruit weight to take it. 91 pts and serious jealously rating ($19.99 at Auswine!)

2005 Lloyd Bros 'White Chalk' Reserve Shiraz Very tight tannins, needs another few years in the cellar. More obvious meaty characters and the wine is a touch rounder in the mouth with a more alcoholic body. I like it though. Excellent french oak chocolate. A better wine but I am not so jealous because at $38 it is priced OK and I am not so threatened. 94 pts.

long weekend sleeps extended my sluggishness to forum activities...

2005 Amon Ra this is a revisit after tasting it not long after bottling last year. At that time, I felt this was better than the 2004 due to a shift from 100% American oaked to some use of new French oak. The wine has apparently settled down, and is more balanced in terms of aromatics and flavours. While previously you'd have to search past wafts of alcohol, I got no hint of the 14.5% that's held within. Instead, it's creme de cassis, mingled with hints of dark, ripe raspberry and smell of freshly chopped soft wood on a cold morning (a most appealing nose bringing me back to my logging days no doubt!). Silky and elegant, it's got a long way to go due to some residual tannins, but is current vibrant and accessible. Fresh and fruity, there's no overbearing heat. Instead, it's sufficient to make you smile and enjoy. A+ effort!

Stonehaven Rat & Bull Cab/Shiraz 2002 The last of a dozen or so. Good, some complexity but there was a corky oakiness about it. Similar to another bottle not too long ago. Drink up.

Grant Burge Barossa Shiraz 04 Plums and chocolate initially, some black cherries but then there's a slight bitterness on the finish that's not at all attractive. Perhaps too much added acid, just lacks balance. Pass.

Old Plains Longhop Shiraz 06 Somewhat closed/reductive when first opened but with a bit of air this is a juicy wine with restrained tannins and some charry oak. It is big but not so much so when compared to Taylors Shiraz 05. Alcohol only just noticeable on the finish, it has good balance. Nice. I'll keep on buying 3pks for as long as they're available freight-free.

Murdoch The Merger Cab/Shiraz 04 Good as ever, I won't repeat earlier TN's other than to say it's one of the better cab/shiraz blends around and very good value.

Jim Barry Watervale Riesling 06 Consistently good value wine. This vintage is sweeter than some earlier ones I've tried but it does have nice underlying lime/citrus flavours and would please just about any white wine drinker looking for a quality quaffer.

I'll get another few bottles each of Taylors cab 05 and shiraz 05 when I next find them discounted so I can compose reasonable TNs of each. I think the 05s are continuing the resurgence of the quality of the staple (red) wines offered by Taylors. The Clare is a great wine area in Australia when the wines are well made.

Cheers

daz

Ian S wrote:Bodegas Argueso 'San Leon' Manzanilla Classica
... from half bottle, screwcapped. 15% Alcohol and £5 for a half bottle. Code L6V140 (suggesting bottled on 140th day of 2006). This on day 3 (we had a couple of small glasses at the weekend).

Very pale straw coloured. A pungent nose, even when fridge-cold. In fact it's a wine you can smell from a distance, suggesting tangerine/mandarin rind and cointreau from a foot away. Up close it's much more brutal, with petrol/creosote like intensity and it even smells dry and salty if that's possible. There's actually quite a bit of complexity to the nose, but the pungency can be overpowering - I daren't swirl!

On the palate it's dry, but not fiercely so and the alcohol whilst showing isn't 'too' spirity, has a nice long complex finish, but the initial taste is again pretty pungent allied to bitterness/sourness. It's almost like climbing a hurdle to get at something interesting the other side. There's a degree of nuttiness about it and also herbiness (Oregano springs to mind). Definitely a hint of black olive in there as well.

There's plenty going on here, in fact there are very few table wines that could offer this level of complexity - even at the higher echelons. However few have such a confronting edge to them - even at the lower echelons. Challenging for sure.

regards

Ian

Hi Ian,

Can't tell from your note whether you like this or not!! Your note rings dead true for me, definitely dry salty, iodiney, pungent on the nose. Great length too. For the price, this for me is just a stunner although I would happily admit to knowing bugger all about such wines! . However, my palate is well attuned to the arid end of dry . Try paired with Jamon Iberico, just divine!!

Just for clarity, I know the Oz importer rather well so large pinches of salt apply to any interpretations!!

Cheers

Dave

Dave Dewhurst wrote:Hi Ian,

Can't tell from your note whether you like this or not!!

Damn, I was hoping you could work it out and let me know

In reality like and dislike, not disimilar to a partially oxidised great wine, or another with a huge dose of brett.

I really enjoyed tasting the wine and it's a cracker of a wine for a tasting as there's so much to capture - a great experience. Sometimes it's good to break the routine of similar wines and try something challenging. Would I choose to drink it again? Possibly but as well as getting suitable food to go along with it, I'd really need to be in the mood - and that might not be very often.

regards

Ian