As usual, all wines were tasted blind and served in the order listed, and after about an hour all participants voted for their two most preferred and their least preferred drops. This was a difficult line up to judge, as almost all the wines were closed and/or stinky at first, and featured dry gum-sucking tannins that never really eased up. By the end of the session a single point separated my top four wines, with the rest significantly behind.
2001 Geoff Hardy K1 Shiraz $27: Dark inky purple colour. Ample oak and sweet cherry/plum characters on the nose at first, with some slight varnish, leathery and sweaty characters, finishing with liquorice. The intense palate has ample plummy fruit, slight alcohol heat, and finishes very dry. I felt this could have been much better with more breathing, and thought it had good cellaring potential.
My ranking – 5th place
Votes: 0 most, 5 second, 1 least
2002 Saltram Mamre Brook Shiraz $20: The best colour of the line up with a dark inky purple and an inviting glowing purple hue. Slightly closed nose at first, with very deeply set plum, earth and chocolate characters. With a little breathing it opened up with intense plum fruit, grand mocha oak, and some lingering VA and coffee. The palate is medium in weight, and very soft at entry featuring very sweet chocolate/blackberry fruit. I thought it was maybe a little hot at first, but this disappeared in time, finishing with a sweet aftertaste with coconut and mocha. The American oak is very obvious in this wine, but it’s masterfully handled if you’re reasonably tolerant; it was the most preferred wine for 8 of the 14 panellists, indicating most of us were.
My ranking – 1st place
Votes: 8 most, 5 second, 0 least
2002 Mitchelton Parish Shiraz Viognier $25: Dark purple/red colour. A slightly stinky nose with some sweet apricot, then some BBQ smoke and tomato sauce; I thought the Viognier influence was pretty obvious, even though there’s only 2% in the mix. The palate had great structure at first, with a slow build up of fine knit-tannins and chocolate/apricot fruit, but fell away on the finish, giving me the impression it's lacking in fruit power; it does hide that 14.8% alcohol fairly well though.
My ranking =7th place
Votes: 0 most, 4 second, 0 least
2002 Hugh Hamilton The Rascal Shiraz $24.50 CD: Dark purple/red colour. Extremely sweet and stinky nose of funky apricot, barnyard and meaty/BBQ characters made me think this had some Viognier contamination too. The palate is just as quirky, with fully fledged tannins making their impact on entry, and the fruit appearing on the finish, with alcohol heat and apricot/medicinal characters. This was my least favourite wine, and 7 of the other 13 panellists agreed.
My ranking – 9th place
Votes: 0 most, 1 second, 8 least
2002 Olivers Taranga Vineyard Shiraz $27: Dark purple/red colour. An extremely reserved but perfumed nose, featuring plum, blackberry, earth/dust and some mint. The spicy palate is just as elegant and compressed, with ample fruit hiding under the surface of gum-sucking tannins, finishing long with a subtle coffee aftertaste. This was one of two wines that only just missed out on top billing, but I thought had excellent cellaring potential.
My ranking =2nd place
Votes: 0 most, 3 second, 1 least
2002 Hugh Hamilton The Villain Cabernet Sauvignon $24.50 CD: Deep inky red colour. Apart from being slightly stinky, the nose really failed to make any impact. The tannins were flushed throughout the minty, hot palate, finishing very dry. This was an improvement on the Rascal, but not by that much.
My ranking =7th place
Votes: 0 most, 7 second, 1 least
2002 Coriole Old Barn Shiraz Cabernet $30 CD: Dark purple colour. Very closed nose at first, slowly releasing some very perfumed chocolate, mint, earth, liquorice and medicinal characters. The minty palate is very plush and slippery/silky on entry, but finishes rather short and a little hot. When it’s identity was revealed, the region didn’t surprise me, but the label did. This is made up of the leftover bits of the Lloyd Reserve and Mary Kathleen, and was showing a lot less of the oak influence than back in March; maybe it’s going through a bit of a sulky stage.
My ranking – 6th place
Votes: 0 most, 0 second, 1 least
2002 Moss Wood Amy’s Vineyard Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon $30: Dark purple colour. The nose was slightly meaty at first, then flushed with rich chocolate and spices, making it appear slightly porty. The palate has a very soft entry with tightly knit tannins woven throughout, resulting in a deceptively powerful structure, and finishing green and long with coffee and chocolate on the aftertaste. I liked this very much, but it was not popular among the other panellists.
My ranking - 4th place
Votes: 0 most, 1 second, 2 least
2002 Maxwell Lime Cave Cabernet Sauvignon $28 CD: Dark, inky purple colour. A complex nose featuring ample oak and herbal characters at first, then coffee, cinnamon and mint/menthol. The palate has a great feel in the mouth, with an ample cassis body and intervowen tannin making a big impact. There’s a real kick in the finish, with lingering gum-sucking dry tannins and black olives. I ranked this the same as the Olivers, including the cellaring potential.
My ranking =2nd place
Votes: 0 most, 5 second, 0 least
Again my thanks to the Black Tongues for putting together another great evening.
Cheers
Ian
TN: Blacktongues - Current Releases 11/8/2004
TN: Blacktongues - Current Releases 11/8/2004
Last edited by n4sir on Sat Sep 10, 2011 8:01 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Forget about goodness and mercy, they're gone.
