1991 Wynns BL Cab Sav - WOW

[brodie]

opened this for dinner tonight, bought a case of 12 on release, this is the 3rd bottle and the best by a long shot.

Cork was absolutely total rubbish, it was crumbly and fell apart - even with the Durand. I ended up filtering the wine thru a paper towel in a sieve into the decanter. Despite this abusive treatment, it was calling loudly to me during the entire process, the delicious aromas of mature cab took over the kitchen.
Colour is a youthful dark red. The nose is powerful and intense and demands your attention, dusty & earthy with lots of cassis and dark plummy fruits. The palate is where the wine really kicks ass. Powerful, deep and long. Rich and youthful, this is a really big mouthful of black currant and black plum with some lovely red earth notes. There is a small army of dusty tannins framing the long finish. Nice balanced finish and nice clean acidity. Crikey this is soooo young it is ridiculous. This is a flat out great bottle off wine that is performing way above its price point. It is the epitome of a stupid smile wine - as in every time you take a sip you get a stupid smile on your face! Very very happy,

Brodie

[Mike Hawkins]

Thanks Brodie... Will open one soon after reading that note

[mjs]

Have had some wonderful examples of the pigeon pair, '90 and '91 BLs over the years, most recently a fabulous '90 at a cabernet off-line. If cellared well, both years are definitely worth searching out.

[Cloth Ears]

Bodes well for us. Just picked up one of these at Dan's and I do not want to get my money back (if you know what I mean)!

[Chris H]

Provenance might be an issue with older wines from Dan's now it is linked with Woolies and Langton's. Hopefully you are lucky. I note Brodie's comments about bottle variation despite being from the same case bought on release (which echoes my experience with the 91).

BTW, was in Dan's for the first time for quite a while and noticed they still have their top wines behind glass under bright lights. Buyer beware. Personally I'd steer clear.

[mjs]

I have experienced a little bit of bottle variation on the '91 from the same case. Been cellared since birth. Not much though, perhaps the difference between "very very good" and "wow".

Also cannot understand the "suitability" of Dan's displays of premium wines, similar in many shops.

[Scotty vino]

I have experienced a little bit of bottle variation on the '91 from the same case. Been cellared since birth. Not much though, perhaps the difference between "very very good" and "wow".

Also cannot understand the "suitability" of Dan's displays of premium wines, similar in many shops.

like walking thru some duty free setups in airports.
pass.

[Chris H]

My feeling is that the variation is related to the corks used rather than the winemaking or batching. Luck of the draw now the wine is 25 years old. Good cork = good wine, lesser cork = lesser wine.

[Mahmoud Ali]

Brodie,

Thanks for the note, it suggests to me that I need to wait a bit longer before opening my bottles of 1996 Black Label, bought almost 16 years ago.

I note Brodie's comments about bottle variation despite being from the same case bought on release (which echoes my experience with the 91).

My feeling is that the variation is related to the corks used rather than the winemaking or batching. Luck of the draw now the wine is 25 years old. Good cork = good wine, lesser cork = lesser wine.

I think there is a bit of a misconception here. Brodie is talking about the cellaring and improvement of the ’91 Black Label over the past 25 years, not bottle variation:

opened this for dinner tonight, bought a case of 12 on release, this is the 3rd bottle and the best by a long shot.

It is quite natural that the same wine opened years apart will taste different, but this is because the wine has evolved in the bottle. A wine tasted on release will never be the same as when opened a decade or more later, regardless if it was under cork or screwcap The more cellar-worthy the wine the better it will be in time. Therefore it is the evolution of the wine that has resulted in its "improvement", not the variability of cork. One would have to open two bottles at the same time to determine bottle variation.

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

[TiggerK]

Worth noting that Brodie didn't say when he opened the previous two, he could have been referring to natural time evolution or cork variability, of course the two are always randomly entwined with wine under cork.

[Mahmoud Ali]

That's true, but not having mentioned bottle variation I think to assume it is presumptuous. My take on it was that having bought the 1991 on release, which is more 20 years ago, he would have opened the other two bottles somewhere along the line and not all at once. Also, he did say the current bottle was the "best of the lot" which casts no aspersion on the other bottles. Also, he never alluded to any worries about the remaining bottles. I guess the best thing to do is ask Brodie.

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

[mjs]

Well, Chris and Brodie can confer this Friday night!!

[Chris H]

Based on this conversation and your comments on Mt Mary I can only assume you shit-stir for effect rather than anything constructive.

[brodie]

OK so the 3 bottles opened so far have all been opened in the last 12 months. Yes, I actually sat on an unopened case of this wine for more than 20 years since purchase! that is another whole other story.

So.... all three bottles opened so far have been very good, none of them were disappointing in any way whatsoever. But last night's bottle was amazing and was just fantastic. Yes there is definite bottle variation but it was between "fully meets my expectations to "completely exceeded my expectations".

Given how happy I am with last night's bottle, I reckon I will slowly consume the remaining bottles over the next 5 years. I am sure the wine will keep longer than 5 years but I still have the 1994, 1996 and 1998 to get to after all.

cheers Brodie

[mjs]

Brodie, don't drink all your '91's as I have. Old Wynns cabernet in good nick is some thing very special. Keep a couple to try in another 10 and 15 or more years

[brodie]

Malcolm, I think I can do that..... Nice thought and no real impediment to putting a few away for longer.

Brodie

[Chris H]

He can just revert to drinking his First Growths while waiting For the 91's to age

[brodie]

He can just revert to drinking his First Growths while waiting For the 91's to age

busted!

[grb2001]

I'm down to my last 90 and my last 91.

[Mahmoud Ali]

Based on this conversation and your comments on Mt Mary I can only assume you shit-stir for effect rather than anything constructive.

I think that's more that a little unfair. A discussion on bottle variation versus cellaring may not appear constructive but it is the bane of all collectors who have to decide how many bottles of a particular wine he/she should buy and how long to hold it before opening them.

Brodie said his third bottle of '91 Black Label was his best bottle yet. When reading it I thought it meant his best bottle so far but a couple of other posters thought it meant bottle variation. All I did was point out that Brodie didn't say anything about bottle variation in his original post and that to assume so might be presumptuous. Tigger rightly pointed out that Brodie did not say when he opened the bottles and that he could have been referring to either time evolution or bottle variation. He was correct in pointing that out and I admitted as much and went on to explain why I thought that it was bottle evolution.

I don't see the problem. And as for the Mt Mary topic I think my posts regarding the evolution of Chateau Palmer may be substantiated by Brodie's experience in waiting as long as he did to open his bottle's of '91 Black Label.

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

[Edited to change a question mark to a period.]

[phillisc]

I'm down to my last 90 and my last 91.

Geoff, yes about the same, think I have about 2 or 3 only of these two, yet full cases of Michael and Riddoch

Cheers
Craig

[grb2001]

I'm down to my last 90 and my last 91.

Geoff, yes about the same, think I have about 2 or 3 only of these two, yet full cases of Michael and Riddoch

Cheers
Craig

Ha! First-world problems, eh!

[Mahmoud Ali]

First world problems indeed. In my case I have only 4 bottles of the '96 Black Label and thought that the optimum time to open them was fast approaching but am reconsidering based on Brodie's experience with the '91 BL. I do have a couple of bottles of '90 Wynn's Oven Valley that I found in a Barossa Valley bottle shop and transported back home to Canada. Perhaps that is the one that needs opening next.

[JarrodB]

I'm down to my last 90 and my last 91.

Go slow, go slow

[grb2001]

I'm down to my last 90 and my last 91.

Go slow, go slow

[mjs]

I'm down to my last 90 and my last 91.

Go slow, go slow

I went to look for mine in the cellar a couple of weeks ago for the C vs MR offline, but couldn't find them! They are now gone!
Bloody incompetent upkeep of cellar database

[phillisc]

Mahmoud, Halliday wrote an article in the Australian back in about 1992/3 extolling the virtues of Ovens Valley and particularly Wynns. Based on that I went out the next day and purchased three dozen 90 OV Shiraz for the princely sum of $45 a dozen. I still have about 15 left. IIRC, he gave it about a 20 year drinking window...not bad for a $4 red. At the time I managed to track down some 86, 91 and 95 vintages, but think these are long gone.

If only with a wine like this and 90 Koonunga Hill, 86 Kaiser Stuhl Red stripe, 86 Henschke K E (all sub $5 wines), had I brought 10 doz of each instead of a measly 2

Cheers
Craig

[phillisc]

I'm down to my last 90 and my last 91.

Geoff, yes about the same, think I have about 2 or 3 only of these two, yet full cases of Michael and Riddoch

Cheers
Craig

Ha! First-world problems, eh!

Agreed
Cheers
Craig

[Ozzie W]

Go slow, go slow

I went to look for mine in the cellar a couple of weeks ago for the C vs MR offline, but couldn't find them! They are now gone!
Bloody incompetent upkeep of cellar database

CellarTracker is your friend. Excel is not.

[mjs]

I went to look for mine in the cellar a couple of weeks ago for the C vs MR offline, but couldn't find them! They are now gone!
Bloody incompetent upkeep of cellar database

CellarTracker is your friend. Excel is not.

Ozzie, my problem is the user, not the platform