Sydney offline Thursday March 20

[TiggerK]

OK no worries griff, I've now asked dingozegan and Dan.... dingo is in flu-recovery mode so not likely at this point, just asked Dan now so will wait to hear back. Happy to have 8,9 or 10, it's all good.

Cheers
Tim

[RedVelvet]

Hey Tim, I am out now too sorry.

[TiggerK]

No worries Mr Velvet, I know you've got a big week on the go.

So we have....

Red Smurf
Dave Vino
TiggerK
Michael R - White Burg
Krusty - Mayer Doktor Pinot Noir 2012
Rooman - Noble One 2002
Polymer
nineredpens (maybe)


Anyone else keen or not keen? With 6 or above, I'm fully up for it, but if we get down to 5 or fewer, maybe not.

[Polymer]

I'm still keen...

[TiggerK]

Yeah we're still all good to go lads. Final numbers can be confirmed tomorrow, if anyone else wants to join us, please say so! If not, it just means a bigger pour!

[Krusty]

Good to go.

Cleared the first hurdle by remembering to bring the wine to work !

Looking forward to it. What is everyone else bringing ?

[9redpens]

Thanks for the invite guys, but i'm a very unlikely starter. Hopefully you'll still pull off an excellent one and we can all catch up again soon!

It would have been good to meet the Krusty one and Rooman as well as the now marooned waiters friend.

[rooman]

guys i assume we are still good to go. are we meeting at the restaurant? or the wine bar down the road? at what time?

[Red Smurf]

Hey Mark,
It's 6:30-7 for 7pm sit down.

Oh and trust me...you don't want to drink before our offlines.
You will know why soon enough

[dave vino]

Final line up was as follows, tasting notes and pics to follow. Great night.

2008 Rockford Vine Vale Riesling (someone picked up the 08 instead of the 98 doh)
2007 Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet
2009 Pyramid Valley Lions Tooth Chardonnay
2012 Dr Mayer Pinot Noir
2011 La Solana
1993 Wendouree Cab/Malbec
1975 Ch. Chasse-Spleen
2006 Meerea Park Hellhole Shiraz
1977 Tahbilk Cab Sav
2009 Bernard Baudry Chinon
2002 De Bertoli Noble One

[Red Smurf]

Yep, really enjoyable night.
Was great to meet you Matt and Mark.
Thanks everyone for their generosity. It was a great range of diverse wines and enjoyable banter.
Standouts for me.
Baudry
Wendouree
Dr Mayer

Cheers,
Smurf

[rooman]

Guys I also had a great time and can't believe its been 4 fours since I last attended an offline. So many superb wines. I think my favourite wine of the evening was a 1993 Wendouree Cab/Malbec if only because I have finally had a Wendouree that has lived up to all the hype. Also loved the 2007 Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet and the Pyramid Lions Tooth.

Next time I will dig out the Puffeney Arbois and contribute that.

Cheers
Mark

[Polymer]

Great night...a lot of good wine..a lot of good company.

Standouts for me:

Baudry Le Clos Guillot 2009 - Showing better than I thought this would given it is still pretty young...Good fruit, good structure, great acidity....Shows why this is one of my favorite regions of the world and for my sake I hope it stays under appreciated. Might be too green for some..I like it though...

Wendouree Cabernet Malbec 1993 - Showing a lot younger than the 90 we had at the Wendouree offline..but the tannins have really come around on this...still a good amount of grip...great nose....Still a lot of life left in this though whereas the 90 wasn't going to get any better..

[Waiters Friend]

Thanks for the hints, guys, and I look forward to dave vino's write up!

How was the food / venue? Glassware, etc up to scratch? Who showed up in the end?

Too many questions!

I look forward to a bloody good read.

Cheers

Allan

[maybs]

Sounds great. Also interested to hear about the food and venue as I haven't been before. Work on Friday ended up being more straight forward than expected, disappointed I decided I couldn't come

[rooman]

Having suggested the restaurant, I will be the first to admit I thought the food was a bit below par compared to the meal I had for two just before Xmas. It seems some restaurants just struggle with preparing top foods for larger groups. I am returning again next Friday with two friends but I would be interested to hear whether people will use the restaurant again for a larger group. Re the glassware, I was happy especially since Dave brought along his own glassware.

I was very glad to hear however that some people had followed up on the Brown Sugar recommendation. I really enjoy this venue especially since it is 200m from home. I felt very sorry for some the dinners who had long train trips home. I think with this in mind that Fix is almost the only option given people came from as far afield as Hornsby and Deep South.

[dave vino]

Notes as promised. Very enjoyable evening, with some really interesting wines. Tim also had a 2002 French Champers but unfortunately it was corked.

2008 Rockford Vine Vale Riesling (someone picked up the 08 instead of the 98 doh) Quite fruit forward, no reticent Hunter Semillon here, lemon, pineapple, lemon sherbet, quite full bodied and rich a very Barossan Semillon. Maybe lacking in a bit of acid but otherwise aging well. Nice length and persistence. (ignore this one, didn't start notes until the second wine and had it in my head that it was a Semillon as I did a note from memory - so the note is for a Riesling so you can can ignore the comparisons to Semillon) - clear as mud?

2007 Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet – lots of oak, cream, vanilla ice-cream finishing with sweet tropical fruits. More oak on the palate, quite rich and Moorish, lovely texture and mouthfeel without being cloying, medium to long length with a touch of heat on the back palate. This was textbook ‘Dave Chardy’ so I thoroughly enjoyed it. Many thanks to Mick for bringing it along.

2009 Pyramid Valley Lions Tooth Chardonnay – another favourite of mine, thanks to Tim’s regular contributions at tastings. Very fresh, pure fruit on the nose which comes bounding out of the glass, candied lemon, grapefruit, pineapple, oaky notes. Soft on the palate, with a lovely backbone of acid (lip smacking stuff) which balanced out the oak very well. My only concern was the shortish finish. This would be on page 2 of the textbook

2012 Dr Mayer Yarra Valley Pinot Noir – first time for me on this one with the very Rousseau Chambertin bottle. Good fruit on the nose with some stalkiness to add a bit of interest, cherry, blackberry, raspberry all intertwined and on different layers. The fruit is the star here, very powerful yet elegant on the palate amazing purity of fruit with a luxurious texture and wonderfully balanced the only quibble being a bit of heat at first which settled down after a spell in the glass. This is an interesting and complex wine which has a lot happening with it. Has made me a fan.

2011 La Solana Listan Negro/Cordon Trenzado – served blind, this was a bit shy on the nose, hints of blackcurrant were coaxed out of it, a bit thin and anaemic with some secondary characteristics coming through, some sour cherry and lots of acid. A drink now style in the mold of very young cheaper Chianti.

1993 Wendouree Cab/Malbec – Upon taking the first whiff I knew we were in for a treat, lovely elegant nose, with secondary characteristics coming through, leather, and spice and rounded off by a hint of stalkiness. Lots of plum to stewed plum as it sat in the glass. Very well balanced and in a good place at the moment with the tannins still evident and providing a good counterpoint to the fruit. The tannins having softened somewhat have created a lovely wine in the mouth, the plums and blackcurrant coming through providing it with lots of length. At 21 years old it’s really hitting it’s straps.

1975 Chateau Chasse-Spleen Medoc – lots on funk on the nose, chicken poo, smoked meats, with a hint of taint to my nose. Bit of iodine poking it’s head out, still had a good amount of structure with nice furry tannins that coated the inside of your mouth. Maybe a bit past it, interesting nonetheless.

2006 Meerea Park Hellhole Shiraz – Nice power on the nose, clean fresh fruit, marzipan, dark cherry, very soft and resolved on the palate with a good amount of acid and tannin. Nice jammy, sour cherry notes on the palate with some dark fruits and lashings of spices. The oak was unobtrusive and lent a nice sweet(?) complexity to the wine. A mix of Barossan and Cool Climate shiraz if I had to try and pigeon hole it – give it another 5 years to resolve a bit more and it’s true identity might come out.

1977 Tahbilk Cabernet Sauvignon – nice colour with very little bricking on the edges so showing remarkably well for its age. Lots of plums, and blackberry fruits with surprisingly good length and a structure that carried it through the mouth to a nice finish. This wine had no right to be this good at 37 years old, certainly adheres to the ‘no good wines over 25 years only good bottles’.

2009 Bernard Baudry Chinon Le Clos Guillot – Blackberry and very in your face, still a very young wine with spicy white pepper, olives and a hint of saltiness?, a wine showing good refinement. A touch of heat straight up, which moved to a nice softening on the palate as it was worked around in the glass. Had a nice savoury feel with the acid providing a good counterpoint to the fruit almost refreshing in nature. Would love to see this in 10 years. Really enjoyed this.

2002 De Bertoli Noble One – Orange marmalade, rockmelon, tangerine/mandarin all combining to produce a lovely balanced wine with good acid. Reminded me a bit of orange cordial which brought back the memories of when I was a kid drinking it around the pool on a hot summers day. (funny how some wines can trigger olfactory memories). A great way to finish the evening off, only reinforces my belief that Noble One has no peers, in Australia at least.

Oh and nearly forgot, funny anecdote from afterwards…Mick and Tiff kindly let me stay at their place in Surry Hills after the dinner. Mick had a golf day the next day so in true champion style was up and out by 6am. Anyway I got up at around 6-ish and it’s still pretty dark inside the apartment and needed to visit the toilet, and I walked out of my room to head down the hallway to the toilet and I just stopped, and there was this dark black object about 4ft tall in the middle of the hallway. I just froze, it didn’t move and I’m having flashbacks of every horror movie I’ve ever watched with the small girl in it with the dark hair, I was waiting for it to turn around, I’m moving closer to it (as you do, and I even clicked my fingers to see if I could get a reaction lol) I’m thinking there is nothing that could be that tall just sitting in the middle of the hallway, it was just a dark shape…(I knew I shouldn’t have watched that video…)



It turned out to be Micks black golf bag he’d put there just as he was about to go out....

[Michael R]

Terrific notes, thanks Dave!
And thanks everyone for a great night, and some lovely wines.

Till the next.
Mick
Ps...the vineyard for the Ramonet was les Ruchottes
Pps....only 4 more days till La Paulee gala dinner.....I'll be at a RWD table filled with Grapemates.....any other forumites going?

[catchnrelease]

Great notes! Interesting about the Wendouree, funny considering a '97 Cab Malbec I had recently was nearing the end of its life - I guess '93 was a superior vintage? Or maybe its just the bottle.

[Krusty]

Thanks for the notes Dave, I agree it was a good night, and I am happy to hear I have created a Mayer fan out of you, Timo might need to start paying me kickbacks for the number of people I have converted to his cause during the last couple of years ( I hope you are reading this Timo - ill take my commissions in the Close Planted thx )
It was great to meet Dave, Mark and Greg and share some really interesting and diverse wines. Food was a tad disappointing but the hectic pace of keeping up with each new bottle put those considerations happily to the side.

Standouts for me were:

The Ramonet - beautiful texture, really came together in the glass, I could have sat on this for a long time
Wendouree - Excellent. Dusty, earthy, dry to start and then a looooong finish with amazing depth of fruit at the back end, really, really enjoyed this. My fav of the night.
Tahbilk - Just to see some life in this was a pleasure. Amazing life for a $2.30 wine ( if I recall the original price sticker correctly !)

Special thanks to Greg for the loan of the Zalto, love these things.

Looking forward to the next one.

Krusty

[Waiters Friend]

G'day - it looks like I missed out on an interesting line-up. Hopefully I will be in Sydney soon and can rectify this.

Thanks for the notes and pics. The Chinon notes are especially interesting, as I swore off the stuff after some pretty ordinary example in France. I might have to get hold of a reputable example and change my conceptions.

Cheers

Allan

[Polymer]

If you're looking for Chinon...Alliet and Baudry are both pretty good examples....I think Alliet is hard to source in Australia (almost any Chinon is pretty hard to source) but Baudry is relatively easy to find....

[dingozegan]

I believe 2009 was pretty warm in Chinon, so the wines are perhaps generally bigger/riper, making them more appealing to some.

If you're looking for Chinon...Alliet and Baudry are both pretty good examples....I think Alliet is hard to source in Australia (almost any Chinon is pretty hard to source) but Baudry is relatively easy to find....

I've found Baudry pretty easy to source in Australia (Bibendum has been bringing them in for years and the distribution has been reasonably wide, considering). I agree that Alliet is harder to find - just seems to pop up randomly.

The likes of Joguet, Breton and Raffault seem not to even make it here(?)... Couly-Duthiel and Coulaine are rare... but if you see/know otherwise, please let me know!

[Polymer]

Coulaine is available at some online retailers....but overall Chinons are really hard to source...The few I've had in Australia I brought in myself or had someone from Europe bring them...