TN: Blacktongues - Grenache & Blends 30/6/04

[n4sir]

Last Wednesday night I was again invited by Steve Norman (aka 707) to fill in at a sitting of the Black Tongues to sample a line up ten current Grenache & blends. All were tasted blind and served in the order listed. All participants then scored the wines, and voted for their most preferred, next two most preferred, and their least preferred drops. It was an incredibly strong field, and there was absolutely nothing between my top three. My apologies in advance for getting any of the names wrong, and thanks again to Steve and Co for another great evening!

2001 Torbreck The Steading - $32: Unimpressive dark red colour. The nose is quite spicy featuring pepper, chocolate, and some mint, and with additional air some meaty characters. The palate is just as spicy, again with pepper and raspberry the main characters in the hot mid-palate, and some medicinal characters in the long finish. A solid opening to the strong line up, but I like the 2002 a lot better. My Ranking: 8th

2002 Noon Eclipse - $25: Superb inky purple/black colour, with an intimidating glowing hue! A classic Grenache nose, with sweet plum/confectionery characters, and I thought I could pick up a hint of VA. The slightly hot palate has a fantastic slow build-up, with incredibly rich blackberry fruit dominating. A lot of the panel ranked this highly, and it wasn’t far off my top three. My Ranking: = 4th

2002 Kaesler Avignon - $40: Dark purple colour with a vibrant purple hue. Slightly closed nose, with a very deep-set hint of dusty chocolate. The palate is quite spicy, with hot alcohol, meaty characters, and a metallic/olive sense on the aftertaste. Simply not in the same class as the top wines. My Ranking: 7th

2002 Kalleske Old Vine Grenache - (sold out long ago): Deep, inky purple/black, amazingly even denser than the Eclipse! An incredibly different nose to all of the wines in the line-up; very minty, almost eucalypt characters, mixed with lashings of cinnamon and chocolate. The palate was the biggest of the brigade, with a savoury entry, and a massive build-up of mud-chocolate, cinnamon, and raspberry with interwoven tannins, coffee on the aftertaste, and a times a hint of medicinal characters. The structure and cinnamon rebound just got bigger with more air - I was thinking possibly there was some Mourvedre in this, but Craig sitting next to me nailed it as the Kalleske. I guess that huge structure and lush Barossan dark chocolate with a hint of ironstone should have given it away! I think it was so different to everything else and comparatively un-Grenache like that Martin was the only panel member to ultimately vote it the best, but a lot of people still ranked it second. I don’t remember it having this much mint or cinnamon at Gavin’s tasting panel a few months ago. My Ranking: = 2nd

2002 Penfolds Cellar Reserve Grenache - $42: Impressive dark purple colour. Powerful classic Grenache nose of boiled lollies, jelly babies, chocolate, rich raspberry syrup and a touch of apricot. The palate again is huge in scale, slightly porty at first but not hot, with powerful chocolate, confectionery and blackberry fruit that again got bigger and more impressive with time. I’ve always been impressed by this wine previously, and at the end of the night I was bouncing between this and the other two top wines trying to choose a winner. My Ranking: =2nd

2002 Dust of Ages Fonthill - $25: Dark red/purple colour. The nose of this at first threw me; quite stinky and funky with a hint of mint in that wet dankness – was it faulty? Later on there was some sweet perfume and floral notes on the nose, but the palate was again dank, green and stinky, with some earth and chocolate lost somewhere in that mess. Others were more forgiving, but it ranked dead last on my scoresheet. My Ranking: 10th

2002 Tintara Reserve Grenache - $39: Deep inky purple colour. Very floral and meaty nose making me swear there was some Viognier in this; sweet apricot and BBQ pork sausage characters were very obvious. The palate is again very meaty and savoury as much as chocolaty; the rich raspberry fruit is soft and approachable, but really seems to go nowhere in this field of wines. I wasn’t overly impressed with an advance tasting at the Sea and Vines festival a few weeks ago, but I didn’t think it was quite this bad either. It seemed to be in the process of morphing right at the end of the night, with the ground coffee oak starting to kick in; maybe it needs a lot more time and air to do something. My Ranking: 9th

2001 Hutton Vale Grenache Mourvedre - $30: Dark red colour. Appealing dusty chocolate and earth on the nose, with a hint of engine oil. With air it becomes raisiny/porty, something reflected on the palate. The structure features an impressive huge build-up but loses its way, dropping off on the finish to leave a spicy aftertaste. My Ranking: 6th

2002 Burge Family G3 - $45: Inky purple colour. Complex and appealing nose; there’s dark chocolate, some mint, and some real savoury meatiness – a bit like a meat pie with tomato sauce in the brown paper bag! The palate has a slow, impressive build-up, with a long meaty finish. This got better as the night went on, and I think potentially could even have made a challenge to the top-three with a few more hours under the belt. My Ranking: = 4th

2001 Charles Melton Nine Popes - $40: Dark purple colour. A very elegant perfumed nose with some musk, deep-set red fruits and hints of lanolin, coffee, mint, briar and liquorice that drew me back to the glass all evening. The palate is just as elegant and evolving and subtly powerful, and oozed pure class all night. There was quite a bit of speculation among the Black Tongues as to which wine was the Nine Popes – Craig again suspected correctly this was it when I mentioned the lanolin character, pointing to the French oak. It seems a little ironic that I should be the only person to pick this as the best wine, as I was very disappointed with the 2000 vintage a few weeks ago. It was a toss of the coin between the top three, and the class of this wine won me over - it also happened to be the first glass I finished off too! My Ranking: 1st

Cheers
Ian

[Wizz]

Ian, by the description you give, the Fonthill was indeed faulty, its much more a mediium weight blackberry based wine, great tannins,and not the alcohol monster grenache can be.

AB

[n4sir]

The Fonthill didn't have the hot alcohol a couple of the other Grenaches in the line up had, but no blackberry either, and it was a shock just how stalky and funky it was.

With a lot of air it seemed to drop the dank stinky smells, and became very, very floral, but the palate was just as foul as the nose was at first.

All the wines got the OK for no TCA before the tasting began, which left me thinking this was just a bad wine/bottle.

Cheers
Ian

[JamieBahrain]

N4Sir

Thanks for the notes.

I agree with you on the Burge Family G3; time in the cellar will see an improvement.

Doesn't surpise me the 01 9Popes showed so well in youth. Everything in moderation with the style-oak, soft and not overly ripe fruit, generous length. All meld well making the wine very approachable.

Cellar door staff, incidently, mentioned the 02 9P to be outstanding. And not just vintage hype!

[Grant Dodd]

Re Fonthill,

I'd say definately a poor bottle, it's a pretty sharp wine and worth another look on that tasting.

Cheers