Langton's Ultimate Classification Experience - Sydney

[Andrew Jordan]

Anyone going to this tomorrow night (15th May)?

[sparky]

No, but for any forumites coming to Melbourne on Friday, come and say hello on the Penfolds table!

[Krusty]

I am going to the general tasting but not the ultimate experience

[Polymer]

Same...going to the general stuff but not the 250 level one..just way too much...There are some great wines there but not enough to shell out that much money for a taste...

[TiggerK]

Same, going to the general one.

[Andrew Jordan]

Was also planning to go to the general tasting, but work decided to put up the $250 so how could I say no!!

[mjs]

No, but for any forumites coming to Melbourne on Friday, come and say hello on the Penfolds table!

Sparky, will see you on Friday!!

[Dennisr]

I am still trying to work out which order to have the 16 odd tastings of the ultimate wines and still catch the bus home.
Any one worked out a rough order?

[Diddy]

No, but for any forumites coming to Melbourne on Friday, come and say hello on the Penfolds table!

Will there be two Penfolds tables? One for the Exclusives and one for the Outstanding/Excellent?

[Diddy]

I am still trying to work out which order to have the 16 odd tastings of the ultimate wines and still catch the bus home.
Any one worked out a rough order?

I'm actually putting together a list in Excel at the moment - I'll see if I can upload it later on.

[Polymer]

I am still trying to work out which order to have the 16 odd tastings of the ultimate wines and still catch the bus home.
Any one worked out a rough order?

Spit. It may sound gross but if you spit you get to taste on the way in and on the way out...Your palate doesn't get as fatigued either so you'll get to try more stuff...

[Diddy]

Langton's.xlsx

Give this a go! It has all the wines from the Excellent & Outstanding classifications.

You can sort and filter according to: Varietal, Region, Classification and a user-defined Tasting Priority.

[Andrew Jordan]

Langton's.xlsx

Give this a go! It has all the wines from the Excellent & Outstanding classifications.

You can sort and filter according to: Varietal, Region, Classification and a user-defined Tasting Priority.

Thanks for this. Will come in most helpful tonight!

[sparky]

No, but for any forumites coming to Melbourne on Friday, come and say hello on the Penfolds table!

Will there be two Penfolds tables? One for the Exclusives and one for the Outstanding/Excellent?

Yes, there will be. I'm on the Outstanding/Excellent so I'd better do a good warm up as we've got a few wines there to pour!!

[Dennisr]

Langton's.xlsx

Give this a go! It has all the wines from the Excellent & Outstanding classifications.

You can sort and filter according to: Varietal, Region, Classification and a user-defined Tasting Priority.

Great Work- I have printed the list. I maybe lucky as I am doing the exceptional wines- which I guess gives me access to the outstanding+excellent wines?

[Dennisr]

I enjoyed the experience- thank God for the french chef continuous supply of pate/prosciutto/ cheese and bread in between sips.I really liked the Petaluma 2010 and the Seppeltsfield Para Port. Disappointed in Torbreck Runrig and Brokenwood Graveyard 2011. Like to hear what everyone else thought of the evening and WON?

[TiggerK]

Highlights for me included the Wendouree Cabs, the Kilikanoon Oracle 2010, the AWESOME lineup of Maurice O'Shea Shiraz (94, 98, 99, 00, 03 and 09 - well done and thanks McWilliams - hard to pick a fav - prob 98 or 99 for me, and enjoyed the 07 Lovedale Sem too), Vat 1 2008 Sem, Nine Popes 2001, Crawford River Riesling 13, Castagna Genesis 2010, Lakes Folly Cab 2011, Parker 1st Growth 2008, Yarra Yarra Cabernet, Savaterre Chardonnay (nice old school feel) and the Art Series Chard 2011. But I think my WOTN was the Best's Thompson Family Shiraz (was it 2010 or 2012? It was very good).

[phillisc]

Highlights for me included the Wendouree Cabs, the Kilikanoon Oracle 2010, the AWESOME lineup of Maurice O'Shea Shiraz (94, 98, 99, 00, 03 and 09 - well done and thanks McWilliams - hard to pick a fav - prob 98 or 99 for me, and enjoyed the 07 Lovedale Sem too), Vat 1 2008 Sem, Nine Popes 2001, Crawford River Riesling 13, Castagna Genesis 2010, Lakes Folly Cab 2011, Parker 1st Growth 2008, Yarra Yarra Cabernet, Savaterre Chardonnay (nice old school feel) and the Art Series Chard 2011. But I think my WOTN was the Best's Thompson Family Shiraz (was it 2010 or 2012? It was very good).

What a little ripper Tim
If only I could afford the $200 for the Thompsons. Fairly sure it was the 2012, 8 of these for 1 Bin 170???
Really pleased that you concur with out thoughts last week or so ago here in Adelaide that it was WOTN by an expletive kilometre .

Cheers
Craig

[TiggerK]

And I didn't even remember that you guys liked it, so great minds do indeed think alike! Cheers!

[Krusty]

Highlights for me included the Wendouree Cabs, the Kilikanoon Oracle 2010, the AWESOME lineup of Maurice O'Shea Shiraz (94, 98, 99, 00, 03 and 09 - well done and thanks McWilliams - hard to pick a fav - prob 98 or 99 for me, and enjoyed the 07 Lovedale Sem too), Vat 1 2008 Sem, Nine Popes 2001, Crawford River Riesling 13, Castagna Genesis 2010, Lakes Folly Cab 2011, Parker 1st Growth 2008, Yarra Yarra Cabernet, Savaterre Chardonnay (nice old school feel) and the Art Series Chard 2011. But I think my WOTN was the Best's Thompson Family Shiraz (was it 2010 or 2012? It was very good).

Another good night, can't fault the space, interesting that a few of the winemakers had a couple of sneaky bottles of their top rated stuff "under the table" for the $85 plebs as they disagreed with the $250 ultimate package philosophy. Won't name names but reinforced a few good reputations in my mind.

All the 2012 reds were showing well, agree with TiggerK on a lot things, including his highlights above. The Maurice o'Shea vertical was brilliant (thanks Polymer for the heads up), the '98 still very youthful and can go for a lot longer for mine, the '99 a lot more secondary and in its window. Nine Popes '01 showed well, super impressed with approachability of all the '12 Wendouree wines - bring on late June for the mailer!, Crawford River rizza was special, Yarra Yering Dry Red #1 2005 was extremely fresh and vibrant, the Seppelts St Peters was great and with the Mt Langi Ghiran a close 2nd behind Bests Thompson Family for WOTN for me - stylistic preferences showing through here , all of the chards were great and pretty closely tied, Coldstream Hills reserve took the Pinot gong over Bass Phillip and I thought the WA cabs were all pretty good, particularly the Heytsbury

Once again the schooner of Coopers Pale Ale at the Erskineville Hotel afterwards was a highlight. Need to review my very scratchy notes, very proud of myself for getting through more than 75 wines but that number will be put in the shade by TiggerK who was a phantom after initial sighting early doors, and Polymer who told me he was aiming to get through the lot - subsequent sightings and very brief chats suggested he was close to achieving the goal !

[Hacker]

So did anyone vent their spleen about the Langtons website to any Langtons staff, or wasn't it appropriate on the night?

[LGW]

A great night, I'm paying for it today though.
Some highlights for me were
12 Bests Thompson family
06 domain A
12 wendouree cabsav
11 jack mann
10 st henri
My WOTN was the 12 bass phillip reserve, the finish on that was thrilling!
A couple of wineries were showing their 11 pinots which were undrinkable!
It was also great to see yarra yarra there with their 10 red

[TiggerK]

So did anyone vent their spleen about the Langtons website to any Langtons staff, or wasn't it appropriate on the night?

Didn't see anyone clearly associated with Langtons, maybe they were with the high rollers in the $250 section...

But many of the initial major issues are fixed. It's still crap, plenty of problems and room for improvement, still nothing shows at all on Firefox, but at least vaguely functional in IE11 or Chrome. I'm going to send them another email sometime with my 'wishlist', FWIW.

[mjs]

Went to the Melbourne tasting last night, and like LGW have been paying for it to day. Thought it was pretty good, glad they had a few nibbles as well. Grb2001 and I bit the bullet and went for the $250 option. Was it worth it, well, probably yes. There were only 19 tables in the Exceptional area and a total of 45 tables in the Outstanding/excellent area. Tried most of the Exceptional offerings but could just as easily spent more time with the riff raff, as there were many wines there that were equal or better to some in the Exceptional category. Stand outs for me were the 12 Mount Mary Quintet and the Seppletsfield 100yo tawny in the Exceptional group. Honourable mention to Pennies 707 and Wynns JR (my Cabernet bias is showing !!) In the other categories, the Balnaves Tally, Bests Thompson Family Shiraz, Doug Bowen's modest 12 Cabernet was very good. There were many others as well. I'll do some more notes shortly. The one wine I didn't get was the Chris Ringland Shiraz, $795 and completely undrinkable.
More people there than what I thought there would be, all in all very enjoyable

[mjs]

Oh, caught up with Sparky as well!

[Dennisr]

So did anyone vent their spleen about the Langtons website to any Langtons staff, or wasn't it appropriate on the night?

I told the guys on the Rockford stand that the web site sucks. Their
reply forget the web site deal with your broker?

[Diddy]

I really enjoyed the event, but if I had to mention one gripe, it would be that they needed some extra spittoons away from where they were pouring.

[Polymer]

Thomson was definitely one of my top wines of the night..
Biggest surprise for me was the Langmeil Freedom...Not one I expected to like but it was far better than I expected..A big wine but it had really good acidity..very complete. Kilikanoon Oracle likewise..much better acidity than I was expecting which really help make these wines complete (to me).
Maurice O'Shea vertical was fantastic. Big big props to them for doing this. 98 was my favorite of the bunch...2000 seemed to have a big change in style and wasn't a fan.
2012 Wendourees were very interesting. The Shiraz Malbec was very approachable, almost sweet... The Cabernet Malbec continues to be my favorite...To me it makes the straight cab look relatively simple.
Really enjoyed the St. Peters and both Chambers.
The 2010 St. Henri seemed very very young..and I suspect the lack of any new oak made it feel like a barrel sample to me...structure was good..firm tannins, good acidity...fruit was very young. Given the track record, this will probably age very well...not sure it is something I'd want to drink now and it wasn't that it was unapproachable..just seemed a bit awkward.
Bowen 2012 was nice and the price makes this pretty attractive...much much better than their poor 2011.
The Bass Phillip Premium was probably my favorite Pinot for the night...getting more than a 2ml pour was nice..Bannockburn Serre and By Farr are both quite good though (and very similar to each other).
Not every wine in the classification was present from what I saw....Both Greenock Creeks were not there. Bin 389 I didn't see. They listed the 407 but I don't remember having it. The 128 and 28 were there but honestly, they were severely out of place here.
There are a ton of other wines I really enjoyed..Just like all other past Langtons events, so many good wines it is hard to go wrong.

One thing I noticed was this time was a lot more crowded...almost the same setup a lot more people. Last time was pretty much ideal, this was good but not as good. As someone mentioned earlier, some spittoons placed elsewhere would have been better. Last time it wasn't an issue but with more people, you need some where people can move away from the table to spit. Also, there was quite a bit of wasted space (they tried to clear a lot of space between exceptional and everyone else) and that probably didn't help. Still, overall a really good event. As much as they can't get their website right, their event was still very well done.

[Andrew Jordan]

As per previous comments, I really enjoyed the Sydney event. Well planned and executed. The event space was fantastic as was the food. Great to see many of the wine-makers there representing their product and the surprise bits and pieces some of the tables had were a bonus. Although the crowd was sizable, there was enough room for everybody and you did not have to wait long to get a taste at any of the tables. I suppose the only negative is the time you have to taste all these wine - 3 hours!! Pity they cannot have it run for half a day or even 5 hours. Wouldn't mind paying a bit more either if this was the case. Anyhow, my Studs and Duds of the night were:

STUDS
Whites
Giaconda Chardonnay - this was beautiful and for me my white of the night
2007 McWilliams Mt Pleasant Lovedale Semillon - bought some of this for the cellar and glad I did. Still going strong and has plenty of years left in it yet.
Savaterre Chardonnay - nice surprise. Had not had this before.

Reds
Rockford Black (dsigorg 2012) Sparkling Shiraz - this is drinking lovely now and the lady behind the Rockford counter said it was not built to age - drink in the next 2-3 years. Personally I like to drink these with a bit of age on them, but kept going back to this during the night to fight the palate fatigue!
Domaine A Cabernet - love this most years and this was very nice.
Mount Mary Quintet - two vintages on tasting here 2011 and 2010 (or was it the 2012?) from memory. As expected 2011 very elegant, finished short, food friendly wine and not really built for the long haul. 2010 the full package.
2011 Lake's Folly Cabernet - deserves every point of JO 97 points.
2010 Woodlands Reserve Cabernet - Another fantastic reserve from the Woodland's boys. Was good to catch up with them. Andrew was in fine form as usual and I think Stuat just wanted to go to bed. Poor boy!
2010 Castagna Genesis Syrah - This is back to form, reminded me of the 2004 vintage. Good to see and talk to Julian.
2010 Seppelt St Peters Shiraz - another Victorian shiraz back to form. Must get some of this!
2012 Kalleske Johann Shiraz - hadn't seen Troy in about 5 years so was good to have a catch up. This is beautiful and could beat the 2010 which Troy thinks is his best effort yet. Released later in the year.
2010 Rocford BP - believe the hype. This is one hell of a BP.
2010 Penfolds St Henri - still very primary but you can tell this will be a very good wine if you have patience. Although not sure it is 100 pointer ...?
Kilikannon Oracle - Last vinatge I bought of this was the 2004 but this was very good. Well balanced. Nice surprise.

Fortified's
Seepeltsfield 100 yr Para Port - WOTN for me. Truely spectacular and the 2nd time I have tasted this in my life - the first being with Mr Hawkins at the cellar door many years ago. Lost count how many shots of this I had but boy it was good and I can still taste it. Not sure I can afford the WW1 special boxed edition - 5 bottles 1914-1918 - at the bargain basement price of $5,000.


DUDS
Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay - Australia's best Chardonnay? Not tonight.
Kaesler Old Bastard Shiraz - usually like this but this was a jammy fruit bomb.
Claredon Hills Australis - ho hum
2006 Chris Ringland Shiraz - even now I still do not understand this wine. Tasted like any other $10 furry critter wine that is exported to the US. Was really looking forward to tasting this but was probably my worst wine of the night and did not belong in the Exceptional area or even in the building for that matter. Sorry Chris.
2009 Penfolds Grange - Ok I know opened way to early. BUT, this is he second time in 2 weeks I have tasted this and the first the 2009 HOG made it look very ordinary and tonight the Bin 707 made it look 2nd rate. Maybe it will come around in 20 years from now, but I am not quite sure?!? Interestly, by the end of the night while most of the other Exceptional wines were running out or had closed up shop, there was still plenty of Penfolds Grange to be tasted ....

There were plenty of other great wines that could have made the STUDS list ... especially many more of the Margeret River Cabernet's. Wonderful evening and hopefully the people at Langton's will put it on next year as well.

[simon1980]

It must be said that I was fairly critical of the previous Langton’s tasting in Melbourne, as it was far too busy. However, I thought this year it was very good indeed. The space was ideal, with a good layout, and just the right level of “busy”. Clearly a lot of attention had gone into the details, and the staff were friendly and helpful. I know Langtons have moved this tasting around a bit, but I thought this was probably the best home for it…and I’ll certainly be looking to go whenever held going forward.

In terms of the wines, I’m clearly a bit late to the party, as my feelings are similar to many that have gone before.

The Shiraz
Best’s Thompsons 2012 was sensational…with the Bin 0 a very strong back up. The Castagna’s (2009 and 2010) were brilliant, with my preference going to the 2010. The Clonakilla SV 2006 was a nice surprise too - it is startinng to drink well, as the tannins fade. Kept away from oaky monsters, but much to LGW’s delight, I thought the St Henri was looking pretty strong.

The Cabs
Mount Mary (2011!) was looking very refined. Domaine A was the find of the day for me – the 2006 was one of my wines of the night.

The Pinots
As others have said, the Bass Phillip Reserve 2012 was truly exceptional…probably the best Pinot I have ever tasted. Main Ridge 2012 was also very good, in a restrained MRE way.

The Wendourees
My favourite was the Shiraz/Mataro…as is often the case. However, all looked good, apart from the Shiraz Malbec, which just seemed too fruit forward.

I’ll not name and shame others (there were some pretty average wines from “big names”), but I am surprised we have not seen more wines “downgraded” in the classification. Maybe next time?

Overall a great night, and I’ll be returning,

Simon