Rockford Basket Press 90 and 91

[phillisc]

Tried these two side by side and unfortunately quite a stark difference.
1991
Perfect cork 2 mm stain, decanted for about 2-3 hours, still plenty of purple with some gentle bricking round the edges.
Nose took ages to get anywhere, convinced that this wine was stripped, but could not really detect any wet cardboardy smells, and there were 3 or 4 ladies who were seasoned drinkers with much better olfactory apparatus than my good self who could smell hints of fruit.
Palate was sublime, virtually all evidence of tannin gone with a water like texture that lingered for ages, beautiful sweetness of what fruit there was.
Not a great bottle, but not a write off.
1990
Cork was soaked, but still at low neck, better colour than the 91. Again decanted, but took about 30 minutes in the glass to open right up.
Could smell the forest of florals, spices and a beautiful bees wax in the core. Just kept going back to the aroma over and over.
Palate a delight between berry, spice, savory and sweet, finishing strongly.
A stunning bottle and on this form might make its 30th birthday.

Cheers
Craig

[dave vino]

At that age, it's the old adage of 'no great vintages, only great bottles'. I wonder if he made them for more short/mid term cellaring/drinking in those days to help drive sales?

Thanks for sharing.

[Mike Hawkins]

As Dave said about older bottles... shame. For my tastes, the 90 and 91 BP are the two best wines under this label. I was fortunate to buy a lot of both when they were as cheap as chips, and thankfully most have been superb. Might pull the cork on one of each after reading your notes - its been some months since I've had either.

[Mahmoud Ali]

Ahh, the 1990 Basket Press, a wine I tasted at cellar door a long, long time ago. It was a very good wine, good enough to buy a case or two. In fact I did buy a case but never got the chance to drink any of them and, alas, likely never will.

Okay, here's the back story. I was taking the India Pacific across Australia, something I had always wanted to do since my school days, but now that I was interested in wine I chose to break journey in Adelaide and head up to the Barossa for a few days before catching the next train (it used to run twice a week). The first day up in the Barossa I hired a bicycle and cycled to Henschke and on the way back stopped off at Yalumba. Since the bicycle had no lights I was warned to return back to the hostel before dark since the police were vigilant about these things. Anyway, the Yalumba cellar door staff were amazing and they allowed me to taste everything, even beyond closing time, including a fantastic sticky that wasn't on the list. Cycling back in the dark with a 1982 Henschke Cabernet Franc and a couple of bottles of the Yalumba sticky in my backpack, I would quickly hop off the bicycle at the approach of any headlights just in case it was a police car. Needless to say that after all that tasting and not having had anything to eat that day I wasn't the most adept at the manoeuvre. While cycling, I remembered that I had a pie in my backpack. It was when I was reaching for it while cycling that a pair of headlights appeared over a rise. Desperately trying to extricate my hand from the backpack while trying to dismount I spilled off the bicycle and onto the gravel by the side of the road. Fortunately none of the bottles broke, my first concern, but one of my knees was badly scraped.

When I got back to the hostel my scrapped knee had produced a trail of dried blood down to my ankle. Naturally it caught the attention of some of the people staying at the hostel. One of them was a Michael from Melbourne who was there on a buying trip. We got to talking about wines and soon enough he offered to take me to some of the smaller wineries around the Barossa. That is why on that trip I discovered Charles Melton, Bethany, and Rockford, wineries that I hadn't heard of in Canada, instead of visiting Penfold's, Wolf Blass, and Peter Lehmann.

Before arriving at Rockford my new-found friend told me that he had only been there the day before and had tasted a wine that he really liked but that cellar door purchases were limited to only one case per customer. He asked me if I could buy a case for him and that he would repay me when we got back into his car. Getting into the mood I told him I would make a good show of being impressed with this 'Basket Press' wine so that the cellar door staff would not suspect anything. In the end, after tasting through the other wines, no acting was required to be impressed by the Basket Press and I walked out the door with a case. It went into Michael's car, and eventually to Melbourne, while I returned to Adelaide to catch the train to Perth.

As a postscript, the '82 Henschke was consumed at a restaurant in Perth along with an '86 Elizabeth. The last bottle of the Yalumba Museum Release (Muscat?) I carried with me to China where, in Beijing, I happened to meet an Aussie expat who just happened to say to me that the one thing he missed most of all was an Australian sticky. It was his lucky day.

Cheers.................Mahmoud.

[phillisc]

Mahmoud, what a classic and the fetching of the pie, laughing my head off!!
I take it that Michael cleaned up and you never got to get back what you paid for.

My own little Rockford story was coming into the cellar door in about 1984 and getting a mention in the rag for being one of the first ever customers. Then about 3-4 years later my best man to be and I dropped in and brought 2 dozen of the 86 BP for about $11 pb plus a heap of other reds and whites and even a botrytis if I recall.
Robert gave us two bottles to have with lunch. Between us we spent $700 and filled the boot.
Ah carefree days.
Cheers
Craig.

[Waiters Friend]

Both great stories. Is it about time Bert put a 'like' button on this forum?

[Hacker]

Both great stories. Is it about time Bert put a 'like' button on this forum?

Don't mix up your forums! Gavin may consider it

[Mike Hawkins]

Mahmoud, what a classic and the fetching of the pie, laughing my head off!!
I take it that Michael cleaned up and you never got to get back what you paid for.

My own little Rockford story was coming into the cellar door in about 1984 and getting a mention in the rag for being one of the first ever customers. Then about 3-4 years later my best man to be and I dropped in and brought 2 dozen of the 86 BP for about $11 pb plus a heap of other reds and whites and even a botrytis if I recall.
Robert gave us two bottles to have with lunch. Between us we spent $700 and filled the boot.
Ah carefree days.
Cheers
Craig.

Nice one Craig... Have you had an 86 recently? It's been a long while for me and I think I only have 1 left. That said, looking fwd to the 91 I'm opening on Saturday. All of my remaining 91s have outstanding fill levels - almost too good to be true !

[Mike Hawkins]

Opened a bottle of the 91 on Saturday and it was close to the best red I've had this year. Immensely perfumed nose dominated by roses & violets. On the palate, lovely dark chocolate notes with a hint of earthiness. While the tannins have expectedly softened, there was velvety mouthfeel that is a hallmark of the best bottles from this vintage and a finish that went on and on. Superb wine.

[Mahmoud Ali]

I take it that Michael cleaned up and you never got to get back what you paid for.

I did get paid. I carried out the case and loaded it in the back of the car while he took out the cash from his wallet. From there I think we drove to Bethany. By the way, nice story about your purchases. Carefree days indeed.

Cheers...............Mahmoud.