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Luke W wrote:Sitting on the Yangtze drinking a Chinese Great Wall Reserve cabernet - gotta say it's about the worst muck I've ever drunk. No body, no nuance,no complexity - think most Australian casks would be better tipples - should have stocked up on the 2013 389's for $100 a bottle I saw the other day in Guilin.
JamieBahrain wrote:Luke W wrote:Sitting on the Yangtze drinking a Chinese Great Wall Reserve cabernet - gotta say it's about the worst muck I've ever drunk. No body, no nuance,no complexity - think most Australian casks would be better tipples - should have stocked up on the 2013 389's for $100 a bottle I saw the other day in Guilin.
Ha ha ....Been there, done that Luke ! Should check my roster and if it coincides drop you off emergency supplies from HKG.
mychurch wrote:
Wed its my 2nd last 50th birthday meal.. a mature mosel spatlese to start, La meal Blanc 98, 06 Ramonet Montrachet, 66 Vouvray Demi Sec, 66 Margaux, 66 Mouton, an unkown 66 red Bordeaux and a 67 Nieport Colheitha to finish..A lot for 4, which means the 88 707 and 96 Block 42, amongst others, will be kept for the final summer BBQ
Bobthebuilder wrote: but I won be leaving the other bottle for too much longer, it's drinking really well right now
sch5252 wrote:For those visiting Clare, Seed Kitchen is a 'must do' for lunch or dinner. Impressions from last night:
2013 Rudi Rabl ‘Spiegel’ Gruner Veltliner, Langenlois, Austria
Toast, slight touch of honey, white pepper, very refined, nice touch of acidity, very good mouthfeel and length. Nice style of wine, heavier/more oily than the Adelaide Hills versions I have tried - Very good.
2013 Delamere Vineyards Chardonnay, Pipers Brook, Tasmania
A very balanced wine. Excellent wine making; the stone fruit flavours meld beautifully with the fine French oak. A good line of acidity further balancing out the palate. Very good mouth-feel and palate weight. Excellent.
2012 Domaine Cornu Ladoix Premier Cru, Beaune, France
Light/medium bodied, raspberries, spice, a ‘kiss’ of oak and very fine tannins. Very good palate, with the raspberries building and completing a very good finish. Drinking very well and very enjoyable.
2014 Savaterre ‘Frere Cadet’ Pinot Noir, Beechworth
Much darker and full bodied compared to the Damaine Cornu. Dark cherries, acidic, nice use of oak but not as balanced as I was expecting. It was Okay without being stunning – perhaps too young.
2006 Mitchell McNicol Shiraz, Clare Valley
Lovely fragrant nose, elegant, dark fruits; blackberries/plums, dark chocolate on the palate supported by fine and integrated tannins. All in balance and drinking very well. Excellent.
2009 Taylors ‘St Andrews’ Cabernet Sauvignon, Clare Valley
Dark and brooding; a ‘sweet’ core of black current, touch of olive, dark chocolate, a full and rich palate. Just got better and better in the glass. Excellent.
2013 Tokar Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2013, Yarra Valley
Cassis, roasted bell pepper, a greenish/herbaceous touch which adds complexity and interest; there is also a ‘crunchiness’ to the wine. Very good tannin structure and cedary oak. Good now will get much better with time.
mychurch wrote:Girlfriend stayed in Auz after our Xmas holiday and last night she sent me a WhatsApp from her mothers 60th birthday BBQ. Apparantly ma's boyfried was not aware of the "special" wine stack and so a bottle of 2013 Wendouree Shiraz was plonked on the table along with a few normal reds...Trudi and Jodi were slugging it straight from the bottle and the comment from Sis Jodi was "this tastes like shit"..I'm hoping that means there is some brett...
deejay81 wrote:Bobthebuilder wrote: but I won be leaving the other bottle for too much longer, it's drinking really well right now
Don't worry, if you do want to keep it longer, i'm sure you can give the other bottle another stint in the freezer too!
rooman wrote:mychurch wrote:Girlfriend stayed in Auz after our Xmas holiday and last night she sent me a WhatsApp from her mothers 60th birthday BBQ. Apparantly ma's boyfried was not aware of the "special" wine stack and so a bottle of 2013 Wendouree Shiraz was plonked on the table along with a few normal reds...Trudi and Jodi were slugging it straight from the bottle and the comment from Sis Jodi was "this tastes like shit"..I'm hoping that means there is some brett...
I suggested to one of our colourful national wine critics earlier this month that enjoying Wendouree Shiraz was a classic case of the Emperor's clothing. It takes someone who is not a wine pointy to state the obvious, the stuff "tastes like shit". Of course i got a long response pointing out how well the thread enhanced the perfection of the fine material or in this case "I like their indelible reflection of site and season" and "their idiosyncratic nature is fascinating [which makes them] great to drink".
Sadly I never got a response to my question as to whether their site was located in the midst of a French oak forest. Personally i would invite Jodi to drink more often.
Cheers
Mark
rooman wrote:mychurch wrote:Girlfriend stayed in Auz after our Xmas holiday and last night she sent me a WhatsApp from her mothers 60th birthday BBQ. Apparantly ma's boyfried was not aware of the "special" wine stack and so a bottle of 2013 Wendouree Shiraz was plonked on the table along with a few normal reds...Trudi and Jodi were slugging it straight from the bottle and the comment from Sis Jodi was "this tastes like shit"..I'm hoping that means there is some brett...
I suggested to one of our colourful national wine critics earlier this month that enjoying Wendouree Shiraz was a classic case of the Emperor's clothing. It takes someone who is not a wine pointy to state the obvious, the stuff "tastes like shit". Of course i got a long response pointing out how well the thread enhanced the perfection of the fine material or in this case "I like their indelible reflection of site and season" and "their idiosyncratic nature is fascinating [which makes them] great to drink".
Sadly I never got a response to my question as to whether their site was located in the midst of a French oak forest. Personally i would invite Jodi to drink more often.
Cheers
Mark
I may be over-simplifying but I remember a general disappointment on lack of overall enjoyment. I hadn't bought any then and apart from one case filler, haven't now as this seems to be the reaction when people actually drink Wendouree most of the wines.Rossco wrote:Went to the Bowen Estate 40th vintage tasting yesterday. Never been to such an exquisite event with such a flight of wines available. Doug & Emma are fantasitc and really open about thier wines...good and bad.
The 91 cabernet was a babe and hasnt even reached its window yet. My wine of the tasting. The 75 claret (their first vintage where the vines were only 4ish years old) and a blend of shiraz & cab. So elegant and light....very light actually, and drinking beautifully.
89 was second fav
96 shiraz was all arms & legs. If it hasnt integrated by now...will it ever?
98's very powerful. Decades left
Best thing about bowen. Have never changed their label, given into trends or tried to change their style. It showed of the 40 years. They pick for flavour and their style, not what people or market demands. This really showed in the alcohol % (which wasnt shown on the labels before 84). Ranged from 12.3 to 15% and everything inbetween.
Never experienced anything like this before, and not sure i will again.
Jay60A wrote:rooman wrote:mychurch wrote:Girlfriend stayed in Auz after our Xmas holiday and last night she sent me a WhatsApp from her mothers 60th birthday BBQ. Apparantly ma's boyfried was not aware of the "special" wine stack and so a bottle of 2013 Wendouree Shiraz was plonked on the table along with a few normal reds...Trudi and Jodi were slugging it straight from the bottle and the comment from Sis Jodi was "this tastes like shit"..I'm hoping that means there is some brett...
I suggested to one of our colourful national wine critics earlier this month that enjoying Wendouree Shiraz was a classic case of the Emperor's clothing. It takes someone who is not a wine pointy to state the obvious, the stuff "tastes like shit". Of course i got a long response pointing out how well the thread enhanced the perfection of the fine material or in this case "I like their indelible reflection of site and season" and "their idiosyncratic nature is fascinating [which makes them] great to drink".
Sadly I never got a response to my question as to whether their site was located in the midst of a French oak forest. Personally i would invite Jodi to drink more often.
Cheers
Mark
Yeah - I seem to remember a pretty large scale tasting on reasonably aged Wendouree done by a group of fairly experienced Australian wine fanatics on the old St*rforum that reached the conclusion "this generally tastes like shit".
If you Google you might find it, search is broken over there and it looks moribund these days.
To be fair I haven't tried but to be equally fair at £50 a bottle in the UK it's not looking great QPR either ...
JamieBahrain wrote:Jay60A wrote:
Yeah - I seem to remember a pretty large scale tasting on reasonably aged Wendouree done by a group of fairly experienced Australian wine fanatics on the old St*rforum that reached the conclusion "this generally tastes like shit".
If you Google you might find it, search is broken over there and it looks moribund these days.
To be fair I haven't tried but to be equally fair at £50 a bottle in the UK it's not looking great QPR either ...
I can understand if you drink mainstream Australian shiraz Wendouree will disappoint.
Now here's the catch, I've presented comprehensive Wendouree verticals to Old World drinkers ( high end collectors ) and they are very well received. The last dinner, in a general discussion, it was met with disbelief that Wendouree is a polarizing style at home. Now, "the fairly experienced Starforum fanatics " were pretty much evolving palates from memory, could be wrong, though I reckon they'd only just started delving into Burgundy and had pretty limited exposure to other classic Old World regions.
To say Wendouree tastes like shit is a little rude though understandable if you drink commercial berry jam shiraz day in, day out.
phillisc wrote:Rossco, MJS, GRB and I went to the 40th Anniversary Bowen dinner last June in Coonawarra.
Just out of interest where was this tasting held, (was it a dinner?) Melbourne, Sydney, hope they do another in Adelaide.
Cheers
Craig
Jamie
In defence of the "other forum" participants, they were a long way past starting to delve into burgundy. At least one cellar I knew of was valued in exceed of $1m with many of the other forumites having extensive collections of French wine including vast amounts of grand cru burgundy and first growths from Bordeaux , hence there was definitely no shortage of exposure to Old World regions. I stopped attending dinners more because it was too hard to participate with wine at the level that everyone else was bringing along. So they were working off a reasonable knowledge base.
As for the berry jam comment, personally I haven't purchased any South Australian shiraz for close to a decade and Wendouree still tastes impenetrable to my palate. But then that is why I suggested its like the Emperors Clothing - if you are going to go to all the effort of getting the bleeding distribution list, few are going to question whether the wines are really worth the effort, humbly IMO.
rooman wrote:In defence of the "other forum" participants, they were a long way past starting to delve into burgundy. At least one cellar I knew of was valued in exceed of $1m with many of the other forumites having extensive collections of French wine including vast amounts of grand cru burgundy and first growths from Bordeaux , hence there was definitely no shortage of exposure to Old World regions. I stopped attending dinners more because it was too hard to participate with wine at the level that everyone else was bringing along. So they were working off a reasonable knowledge base.
As for the berry jam comment, personally I haven't purchased any South Australian shiraz for close to a decade and Wendouree still tastes impenetrable to my palate. But then that is why I suggested its like the Emperors Clothing - if you are going to go to all the effort of getting the bleeding distribution list, few are going to question whether the wines are really worth the effort, humbly IMO.
