Tasting Forty Years of Australian Shiraz (1966 - 2001)

[markg]

Peter Lehmann, Andrew Wigan, Peter Scholtz and Andrew Caillard (from Langtons) took about 30 of us through a very interesting, structured tasting of four decades of Shiraz. An excellent morning and a very insightful experience listening to the early days of winemaking at Saltrams, tasting those wines and seeing how they progressed and comparing them to the comments made by Peter Lehmann with additional comments coming from Huon Hooke, Max Allen and other wine writers interspersed throughout the tasting group.

Brief tasting notes follow;

1966 Saltram bin 44 shiraz
13.55% alcohol
A light brown, predominantely coffee and treacle on the nose with a pleasing, pruney palate, a hint of VA and some tannins in the finish. Peter Scholtz made the comment that is was opened an hour previously and many of the fruit flavours had since declined.

1968 Saltram Bin 61 shiraz
13.0 % alcohol
I loved the nose on this, sweet chocolate, fruits and raisins, however, others tasting nearby me did not share my opinion and said it was disgusting, smelling too porty. The palate was very pleasing (too me anyway) with delicate fruit and swiss chocolate flavours finishing with some fine tannins and acid.

1971 Saltram bin 71/88 shiraz
13.3% alcohol
A darker, chocolate brown color with a strong nose of earth and truffles. The palate was, too me, predominately earth and a hint of chocolate, not my style, but still very pleasamt to drink for a 33 year old wine. What was interesting was that this wine sold throughout the mid-70's as an everyday drinking wine for around the $2.50 mark - not bad for something that was not meant to last this long.

1973 Saltram Shiraz bin HP (Hydraulic Pressings)
13.9% alcohol
I found this wine one of the most interesting of the line up. On release this was supposed to be a highly extracted, high alcohol, high acid, muscular blockbuster. It matured for 27 months in oak and then got bottled as a show dry red in champagne bottles. Apparently very popular in the mid 70's and people would line up to get it on release.
Today, it probably still has 10 years left in it !
Dark brown with a nose of earth, fruits and some chocolate and a lovely, earthy palate of truffles and swiss chocolate, finishing with a good backbone of integrated tannins.

1981 Peter Lehmann Shiraz
Just a standard commercial release of a wine that is still very much alive today, probably with another 10 to 15 years left in it. A dark brown color with a nose of earth and mulberry. Pleasing acid, nice weight in the mouth and nicely structured layers of fruit with good, stiff tannins on the finish.

1989 Peter Lehmann Stonewell Shiraz
Sourced from a magnum this was a lovely wine. A delightful, complex nose of black fruits. The palate had a wonderful mouthfeel and a good structure of fruits and chocolate.

1998 Willows Vineyard Shiraz
A dense opaque purple with a sweet nose of fruits and coffee. A lovely, silky smooth palate with layers of fruits, cinnamonn, coffee and dark chocolate.

1998 Peter Lehmann Eight Songs Shiraz
Not my style. Most others thought it was great, I thought it as dry and closed. I could not get any fruit on the nose or the palate.

1998 Peter Lehmann Stonewell Shiraz
A dense, dark, glass staining purple. A nose of chocolate and berries. Tanninc, muscular fruits and long lingering flavours of coffee, dark chocolate and some plum.

2001 The Willows Bonsetter Shiraz
Yum, a wonderful savoury, earthy nose and a dense savoury palate with a wondeful finish and flavours that lingered for ages.

[Kieran]

It's all very cool, and I'm really jealous, but it's hardly 40 years.

Kieran

[markg]

It's all very cool, and I'm really jealous, but it's hardly 40 years.

Kieran

2001 - 1966 = 35 years ?

Ok, Ok - how about four decades, which was the title of the tasting ?

[Kieran]

Fair enough, although it could be argued that the wines came from five decades.

Kieran

[Daryl Douglas]

1998 Peter Lehmann Stonewell Shiraz
A dense, dark, glass staining purple. A nose of chocolate and berries. Tanninc, muscular fruits and long lingering flavours of coffee, dark chocolate and some plum.

G'day Mark

Sounds like a most interesting experience.

Have a 6pack of Stonewell 98 stashed in climate-controlled storage in Sydney. What rating would you give it and have you an opinion on it's cellaring potential? Value? I prepaid $460 a few months before delivery to the storage facility late last year; the price includes 3 years storage.

Thanks for the notes on the wines at the event. Can't help but wonder whether comparatively-priced wines made these days, using the latest techniques, would have anywhere near the legs of some of these oldies.

Regards

daz

[markg]

1998 Peter Lehmann Stonewell Shiraz
A dense, dark, glass staining purple. A nose of chocolate and berries. Tanninc, muscular fruits and long lingering flavours of coffee, dark chocolate and some plum.

G'day Mark

Sounds like a most interesting experience.

Have a 6pack of Stonewell 98 stashed in climate-controlled storage in Sydney. What rating would you give it and have you an opinion on it's cellaring potential? Value? I prepaid $460 a few months before delivery to the storage facility late last year; the price includes 3 years storage.

Thanks for the notes on the wines at the event. Can't help but wonder whether comparatively-priced wines made these days, using the latest techniques, would have anywhere near the legs of some of these oldies.

Regards

daz

Hmmm.. I wasn't really taking notes with a view to scoring. Comparatively, out of the later 80's plus bracket I would have rated the Bonesetter as my favourite, the 1989 Stonewell as my 2nd, for sheer elegance and character, and the 1998 Stonewell 3rd (the 1999, which we tried afterward, is a very nice piece of work as well).

It was actually mentioned by some of the atending wine writeres that many of those wines that have lasted the distance, tasted then, like some of the maligned ones of today, of high alcohol and extract.

[KMP]

Mark:

You lucky... Did they mention how and where these wines were stored?

It would be nice to see the Bonesetter over here. Is the 2002 out yet? I'm tempted to bring over the black sheep of the Scholz family in December for a taste-off. The best '02 I've tried so far. Pity you guys can't get it!

Mike

[Adair]

1989 Peter Lehmann Stonewell Shiraz
Sourced from a magnum this was a lovely wine. A delightful, complex nose of black fruits. The palate had a wonderful mouthfeel and a good structure of fruits and chocolate.

Slightly off the topic: When I was at Peter Lehmann a year or so ago, one of the staff told me that the 1989 Stonewell was only bottled in magnum, so if I saw a 750mL bottle of it, it was definitely a fake... my next stop was Elderton and in their famous cabinet with a bottle of every Jimmy Watson Trophy winner is a 750mL bottle of the 1989 Stonewell!

Adair

[markg]

Mark:

You lucky... Did they mention how and where these wines were stored?

It would be nice to see the Bonesetter over here. Is the 2002 out yet? I'm tempted to bring over the black sheep of the Scholz family in December for a taste-off. The best '02 I've tried so far. Pity you guys can't get it!

Mike

Hey Mike,

All the wines were sourced from Peter Lehmanns personal cellar (apparently his cellar is so big he has a forklift stationed in there permanently).

I beleive the 01 Bonesetter was only recently released here and vanished of the shelves in a short time. Not sure when the 02 will be out but something to keep an eye out for !

[markg]

1989 Peter Lehmann Stonewell Shiraz
Sourced from a magnum this was a lovely wine. A delightful, complex nose of black fruits. The palate had a wonderful mouthfeel and a good structure of fruits and chocolate.

Slightly off the topic: When I was at Peter Lehmann a year or so ago, one of the staff told me that the 1989 Stonewell was only bottled in magnum, so if I saw a 750mL bottle of it, it was definitely a fake... my next stop was Elderton and in their famous cabinet with a bottle of every Jimmy Watson Trophy winner is a 750mL bottle of the 1989 Stonewell!

Adair

Yes, they were released as magnums BUT there was a small amount released as 750ml though, can't remember who told me that though so don't quote me.

[KMP]

Mark:

I hope you are going to keep us updated with other events at Shiraz Alliance?

Mike

[markg]

Mark:

I hope you are going to keep us updated with other events at Shiraz Alliance?

Mike

Sunday was the last day and unfortunately I couldn't justify the thousands of dollars for the conference.

Perhaps Steve (707) or others could fill us in on the tasting they went to at Rockfords, hosted by Robert O'Callaghan - apparently they tasted their way through quite a few back vintages of Rockfords wines...

[SueNZ]

2001 The Willows Bonsetter Shiraz
Yum, a wonderful savoury, earthy nose and a dense savoury palate with a wondeful finish and flavours that lingered for ages.

Had the Bonesetter 2001 last night at a tasting. Awesome Shiraz. Wine of the night. Prior to this I had never heard of it.

Sue