TN: Hunter wines with dinner

[GraemeG]

NOBLEROTTERSSYDNEY - HUNTER VALLEY - Verde, East Sydney (7/04/2014)

We haven’t had a Hunter theme for quite a while: this one was a bit more structured than our usual dinners in that wines were assigned (young Semillon, old Semillon, etc) rather than just left to fate as is our usual wont. It worked pretty well (except for the old Semillon)! A night of very fine wines followed. Four table wines under cork; two of them compromised. Just like the good old days!

2006 Egly-Ouriet Champagne Grand Cru VP - France, Champagne
{cork, 12.5%} (Gordon) Extra Brut. 72 months on lees and disgorged Jul-12 according to the back label. Yeasty and cheese-dominated. Initially rather pongy. Turned into liquid brioche on the palate. Firm texture; solid and leesy. Weighty; medium/full-bodied, but with something of a hollowness at its core. That’s despite a hefty mid-palate. The bubbles were fairly creamy but pretty large nonetheless. Very dry, as you’d expect, with medium acidity. An intriguing, if somehow slightly unsatisfying wine, which probably needs a bit more time in bottle to pull together a bit. I do find this hard to judge, I must say.

2013 Brokenwood Sémillon - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{screwcap, 11%} (Glenn) Youthful and grassy. Grassier than a golf course. The palate offers a touch of lemon tinge to the flavours, but otherwise it’s a putting green in a glass. Medium but soft acid, dry, light-bodied palate, fairly even on the tongue but pretty low-key; it makes a fairly watery impression all-round, I must say. Short-medium length finish. For the last decade or so Brokenwood seem to have made this in an abashedly early-drinking style; look to the ILR cuvee for aging potential. Pleasant but unremarkable; drink up.

2012 Krinklewood Sémillon - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley, Broke Fordwich
{screwcap, 10.8%} (Geoffrey) Youthfully gooseberry-like to the point of smelling exactly like a new-world sauvignon blanc. This is quite disturbing. The label specifically quotes only the Broke-Fordwich subregion of the Hunter as the source. It’s light-bodied, with medium acidity, and a dry medium length finish, but really it tastes just like sauvignon; even the winery’s own tasting notes list passionfruit as a flavour! Anyway, if you like sauvignon get into this over the next few years.

2010 Krinklewood Sémillon - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{screwcap, 9.8%} (Glenn) In light of the extreme 2012 it was reassuring to taste this blend of Broke and Hunter fruit, which tastes much more like mainstream Hunter Semillon. It’s a touch developed, picking up a smoky note to the aroma, which remains one of the flavours, along with hay and a brown-leaf quality. This is light/medium-bodied but still quite opaque, even dense-tasting, an impression emphasised by the fairly low, soft acidity. No sign of the sauvignon quality of the 2012. Even palate, medium finish. Good wine, ready now, or cellar for a short time.

1999 Richmond Grove Sémillon Hunter Valley - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{cork, 9.8%} (DavidM) Very old; deep golden yellow; a touch stale, with browning, bruised apple aromas. There’s a distinctly sherry-like oxidative quality to the flavours, which are very flat and lack interest or depth. It may never have been a really great semillon, but I think it should show a bit better than this. NR (flawed)

2005 Tyrrell's Chardonnay Vat 47 - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{screwcap, 12.5%} (DavidC) Gorgeous nutty/grapefruit aromas. Steely and assertive structure, with lively acid and fresh fruit. Barely developed at nine years old. Long even palate, medium-bodied weight; it offers persistent warm chardonnay fruit without ever getting too tropical. A spectacular, classy wine good for another ten years easily.

1998 Tyrrell's Chardonnay Vat 47 - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{cork, 14%} (Stephen) Wonderfully aged nose. Furry oak, grapefruit aromas. The palate rides perfectly-judged acidity; no malo to speak of has done this wine proud. The finish is endless and offers all the nougat, peach and cream flavours through a prism of development. It’s showing no sign of falling over, but it’s too good to keep, especially in view of the cork lottery involved. Phenomenal wine.

1994 Tyrrell's Chardonnay Vat 47 - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{cork, 12.5%} (Stephen) The cork on this had wept just enough to make all of us do the same. Rather too dark a gold to promise much; there are traces of a great wine under here (especially in view of the 1998 just tasted), but the palate here is flat, and the wine has gone quietly into the night. Pity. NR (flawed)

1996 Thalgara Shiraz Show Reserve - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{cork, 14%} (Kim) A bit fungal and compost-like. Not quite brettanomyces, but close! Old-fashioned Hunter Burgundy, this would have benefited from a judicious but carefully timed decant, as it seemed to manage a small window between the pong blowing off and the wine flattening out. During this brief moment it managed a light/medium-bodied presence of leathery, earthy old fruit, dry, softly acidic presence but a fairly short although even finish. Past its best, but not without a little interest if your timing is good.

2007 Tyrrell's Shiraz Old Patch "1867" - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley, Lower Hunter Valley
{screwcap, 13.5%} (Greg) Rather closed, hard-to-grasp nose. Vague violets, spicy red grapes but not quite at the pepper stage; this is a bit sullen. There’s a bit of star-anise on the palate to add to the aromas; bit it seems disjointed and almost fragile still. Rides on medium/high acidity; there are medium dusty tannins, fine-grained, but there’s not much oak evident overall. It’s only really light/medium-bodied; the palate is even but low-key, and the medium/long finish is discreet. This is about 20 years too young still, that’s the reality of it. Ought to be great given an age in the cellar.

2005 Meerea Park Shiraz Alexander Munro - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{screwcap, 14.5%} (Vlad - guest) This might be the closest thing to a ‘typical’ Australian shiraz tonight. It has a seductive nose of liquefied blackcurrant and earth, with notes of iodine and cedary oak. The palate is strongly acidic, medium/full-bodied; this is a powerful wine showcasing blue/black warm-climate fruit, never jammy, but always with an authentic, dusty Hunter accent. Tannins are in context, there’s plenty of mid-palate presence, and a medium/long finish. Very impressive, if perhaps the least ‘Hunterish’ of the reds, and still presumably improving. Not showing much development at all; seems like a twenty year wine easy.

2003 Brokenwood Shiraz Graveyard - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{ screwcap, 13.5%} (Graeme) A developed and spectacular mix of earth and spice; ripe grape aromas but all savoury promise. The palate is medium-bodied, with soft chalky tannins. It’s seamless, with a long even presence on the tongue; hints to blackberry and dust, with a little leathery oak are evident. Medium-bodied, but with a long, dry, savoury finish, this is seriously evocative and almost wistful in is seductiveness. A standout wine, presumably at peak, but showing no sign of falling over. A reasonable but not great vintage in the Hunter, I’d drink these (if I had more) over the next five or so years.

NV McWilliam's Muscat Show Reserve - Australia, New South Wales, Big Rivers, Riverina
{cork, 18.5%} (Gordon) A twenty-five year old bottle, so the relationship it bears to a contemporary similarly-named wine from McWilliams is unknown. “Limited Release MCW11” this was called. It has a spectacular and ancient rancio and raisin quality to the bouquet; with blended prunes, raisins and Christmas cake on the palate. Warm and cuddly. A wine with a candle burning in the background. It is tooth-achingly sweet, but still cut with plenty of acid. Thoroughly decadent.

Top night, top wines. It’s been a while since we had a Hunter night; past versions have been blighted by too many crappy wines from the 80s and 90s. It may have taken twenty years, but it finally seems that the region once again has many makers who can be relied upon to make top-notch wines, not just a few select labels from a handful of wineries. Two brilliant Vat 47s, Graveyard and Munro were the night’s highlights, with the Old Patch shiraz promising much later this century.
cheers,
Graeme

[The Hunter]

Graham,

with regards the 2012 Krinklewood, it's worth noting that 2012 was a very wet vintage and a large number of producers didn't release whites let alone Reds. Out in Broke I think it may have been slightly better, but still very wet and I guess this type of style is the result !
Pleased to hear about how the Old Patch is coming along. Have a 6 pack sleeping on the cellar. Not sure if you know Neil Stevens the grower, but a top block, and be sure to search out some of his Glenoak wines (made, not surprisingly by Tyrrells), which are very nice, as you expect from the Old Hillside and Glenoak vineyards fruit.
Cheers

[Polymer]

It sounds as if Glen Oak might have a cellar door. I'll try to check them out next time I'm in the Hunter. Thanks for that!

[The Hunter]

Polymer,

Not a cellar door as such, but from their home. Occassionly there is a sign on the bend on Marrowbone road (at the small Old Hillside sign, between Mt Pleasant and Ivanhoe), saying open, but generally use their website or give them a call. Last time I caught up with them (earlier this year), they had an '09 Semillon, '11 Shiraz, '13 Chardonnay (Usher Tinkler made this one). This was the first release under their own label, but obviously great vineyards !

Cheers