The Auswine Forum

I guess they figure that brands come & go to reflect the times. Perhaps what worked back the day of Jamison's Run, Robertson's Well (which were all 'invented brands' by Mildara Blass, to be fair) doesn't work now. Hence '19 Crimes' and whatever else is going around. Although when you consider th...

I think the ":" colon mark seems to stuff up the current version of this software. Every time I post from Cellartracker I have to go through and delete all the colons each times they appear after "http". It does seem odd to me that Treasury have all these moribund 'brand names' t...

All too young, almost, with the exception of last century!
Do I assume a Yalumba was corked?
I am wondering if, as I get older, I want the wines I drink to be older as well!

I'm no grand expert, having had only 71,72,75 (documented) from that decade. I'd reckon the style is pretty much the same, except for a little less VA since Duval's era, maybe? I think you're safe!

mjs wrote: ↑Tue May 12, 2026 11:04 pm Would have been good to taste a 1996 Block42, that would have set a standard

Oh, yes, would love to try one of those. I've had the Bin 920 a few times, but none of the Special Bin wines since that 1990 vintage. Open to offers!

NOBLEROTTERSSYDNEY - PENFOLDS AT 10 20 30 YEARS - Glass Brasserie, Sydney (6/05/2026) Another Penfolds theme – 2016, 2006, 1996 if possible. Pity we had no 76s… Small group – just the eight of us. A number of wines have missed the ‘6’ target, but not by too much. Everything was decanted right at th...

By your evidence, they’ve changed the style to fit the closure? I wouldn't argue the two are related, no. I don't think it's particularly built to age any more - it feels like that change happened around the turn of the century. All the screwcap's done is given you a better chance of avoiding oxida...

They've had time to work the screwcap out. Looking at my old CellarTracker notes, every vintage from 2005 & onwards has been screwcap, every vintage 2003 & earlier was under cork. I've never had an export bottling (still under cork?), nor a 2004!

It's a decent wine, although I think they've been a bit acid-deficient this century. They certainly darken very quickly nowadays. I don't think they age (as in develop tertiary interest) as well as local riesling-based botrytis examples. Or even non-botrytis examples; for interest at a decade old I ...

A mail-list mixed 6-pack from Pressing Matters in Tas. Fizz, cab blend, pinot, 3 rizzers (new/old/off-dry). Value's OK at $270, but they try to sell the BdB fizz for $80 at CD, which is pushing it a bit. Anyway, the combined pack value isn't too bad.

Several wineries have latched on this as a marketing gimmick, I think. Make a wine, stick it on the website for $400 or something silly, then sell it off through various retailers for punters to buy at around $50. Bit of a risky approach if you're managing the business for the long-term I reckon, bu...

The 'something different' nights are usually a lot of fun. We had one five years ago and finished up with fourteen wines from thirteen regions, from seven different countries, and at least a dozen different grape varieties without counting the CdPape! WA pinot really is a mystery to the rest of the ...

So here are the notes... 4 ORANGE WINERIES - APR-26 - Orange, NSW (4/04/2026) Orange seems only really to have been around as a serious wine region since the 90s. The trick with the ‘Orange’ GI is that it includes only land that is more than 600m above sea level. The attraction is the volcanic soils...

NOBLEROTTERSSYDNEY - CABERNET-SHIRAZ BLEND - Glass Brasserie, Sydney (1/04/2026) In all the years of Rotters’ dinners, I’m not aware we’ve ever had a night devoted exclusively to the Great Australian Red Blend. So here it is. Heroic efforts were made to avoid an all-Australian night, but it was onl...

I had a 2005 last month that was lovely - an auction buy that set me back all of $33. Astonishing value.

Tough crowd, Felix! Even the old courses? Oakmont, Baltusrol, Merion? I can accept the verdict on Augusta - it was never really meant to be a "championship course", though, was it? Bob Jones' private club was the idea. It's probably thirty years since I played a handful of the top Melbourn...

No Mike, the wines are not from the Augusta cellar, they come from the reigning Masters champion. As I understand it, the champ chooses, and the Clun organises. Augusta has an incredible cellar, and the wines are ridiculously cheap if you look carefully at the list... the Cali cabs are prevelant, b...

Occasionally I've sat down to 10-vintage verticals. I get the unblind, sequencial-year approach, although it seems almost more in the line of research than fun. Think I'd be too susceptible to pre-judging on the basis of vintage. I had a dinner with - as it turned out; bottles were blinded - 10 cons...

Yes, it's a classy menu, and definitely wine list!

I went back to look at old Steingarten notes and found I thought the 01 looked pretty good, but then it was only 12 months old at the time! 2001 Jacob's Creek Riesling Steingarten - Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Eden Valley (6/09/2002) NobleRottersSydney - Hunter Valley dinner (Darling Mills,...

Thanks for the feedback, all. I'll research these suggestions and see which works best. I'll try for two if I can, it might depend what time the rehearsal finishes on the Saturday (music festival) !

I have some time free (I think) on the afternoon of Easter Saturday.
Who would you recommend visiting around the Orange District, NSW?

I've always thought that about one in ten Petaluma riesling vintages are wonderful.
1980 was terrific, 1990 was good. 2002 is decent.
That's why I don't buy it!

NOBLEROTTERSSYDNEY - SHIRAZ BAROSSA V HUNTER - Glass Brasserie, Sydney (4/03/2026) A semi-single blind tasting to compare shirazes from their great historic Australian regional homes: Hunter & Barossa. We knew the year and region of each wine as an overall group (but no other details) and had t...

NOBLEROTTERSSYDNEY - PAUL'S ITALIAN TOUR - Glass Brasserie, Sydney (5/11/2025) Paul returns from Italy and generously provides a curated all-Italian night for our indulgence, matched with a multi-course Italian offering (including a to-die-for duck ragu) from the Glass kitchen. All reds double-deca...

NOBLEROTTERSSYDNEY - PAUL'S ITALIAN TOUR - Glass Brasserie, Sydney (5/11/2025) Paul returns from Italy and generously provides a curated all-Italian night for our indulgence, matched with a multi-course Italian offering (including a to-die-for duck ragu) from the Glass kitchen. All reds double-deca...

... then from mid-30's onwards, it was all French. That's 30 years ago, when Burgundy was cheap, Different story now, and sadly, the young wine lover is deprived of one of the World's greatest wine regions because 99% of the stuff is stupidly priced. That's where they're counting on you to be gener...

VinoEd wrote: ↑Wed Feb 18, 2026 5:09 pm ...and while I sometimes get the “green” sentiment, I can’t say it’s been a common experience. Maybe it’s just me.

My prejudices are lessening. Lots of 90s wines I used to call "British Racing Green in a bottle", but times are a-changing, I admit.

NOBLEROTTERSSYDNEY - WEST AUSTRALIAN REDS - Glass Brasserie, Sydney (3/09/2025) West Australian cabernet night. Turned out to be almost entirely Margaret River in the end. Finally the old green olive asparagus flavour so indicative of Margaret River (with only a few notable exceptions) seems condem...

...I have always shared the same thoughts on Tasmanian wines. While some are quite good, very few represent value for money. There seems to be a "Tasmanian tax" added to each bottle of about $10-15 (and some much more) between whats in the bottle and the cellar door pricelist. When I was ...