Melbourne Offline / 25 November / Rhone style wines from anywhere

[Chris H]

Great night, thanks guys. Great to meet the HK Pilot too. Notes to follow.

[via collins]

The most intimate comment on a wine forum ever? Paging Wine Beserkers, we have a situation in Melbourne.

[mjs]

yes, another very enjoyable tasting, some very interesting old and new world wines, great to meet Jamie as well

[Ozzie W]

Another great Melbourne Offline. Despite no planning, we had a great balance between Old World and New World Rhone style wines. Thanks to everyone for their awesome wine selection. Details to come ...



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[Ozzie W]

Photos of the bottles:

[Chris H]

That third last bottle label is so descriptive.

Btw whose job was it to remind me to take home the meauring glass.....

[Michael R]

Rayas was a generous contribution!
What vintage, and how did it show?

[Chris H]

96. Showed really well and consistent with others I have opened. Typically light but intense savory herby red fruits. Long finish. The Burgundy of the Rhone perhaps.

[Benchmark]

Can't believe you gave this up to get another tatoo on your arse.

Priorities.

Looked like a fun night.

Highlights apart from my absence?

[Chris H]

2011 Domaine Georges Vernay Condrieu Coteaux de Vernon
Aromatic nose, more ripe peaches and nectarines than apricots, with floral aspects as well. Good structure underpinning the fruit, which was ripe and rich but not cloying in any way. Great start to the evening.


2006 Paringa Estate Shiraz
Sweet scented and a possible lift from a touch of Viognier made me think of Clonakilla (until the options didn't include Canberra ). Sweet, spicy mid palate, good length. Lovely drinking.


2005 Domaine La Roquete CNP
Owned by the Bruniers of Vieux Telegraphe fame and sitting adjacent to Chateau Rayas geographically. I liked the Grenache based perfume on this, red cherries, raspberry lollies and sprinkles of mediterranean herbs. Complex layers on the palate compared to most new world wines. Great to drink.


2007 Trinity Hill Homage Syrah
Deep colour, reflected in the wine. Intense and deep aromatic blackberry fruit. Rich and ripe but still possessed cool climate refinement.


2​005 Chapoutier Le Pavillon Hermitage
​Solid and youthful blackberry fruit, and still a bit young and tight at this stage.​ Serious wine, needs another few years.


1996 Chateau Rayas CNP
Light red. Colour is deceptive as there is plenty of intensity and subtle power to the savoury, complex red fruits on nose and palate. Allmost ethereal in CNP terms.


2010 Honey Moon Vineyard Adelaid Hills Shiraz
Initially smelled a bit like a Bounty chocolate bar (hence the joke references in some of the forum posts) then opened up to reveal floral top notes over deep blackberry fruit, with some spice and chocolatey oak. This would have benefited from a decant to help it unfurl as it turned out.


2005 Langi Ghiran Shiraz
A strong vintage for Langi Shiraz. Ruby red, blackish middle. Some reduction initially, then spice and blackberry fruit. Not that forthcoming though. Deep fruit to taste, still slightly tight. Blackberry fruit and some spice, tannin on back palate, though not aggressive. 2+ years to open out fully.


2004 La Pleiade Shiraz
A partnership of Chapoutier and Jasper Hill, so Heathcote fruit. Inky blackberry fruit, lots of potential complexity underneath but possibly needs more time to properly open up and show what its got.


2009 Georges Vernay Cote Rotie Blonde du Seigneur
Perfumed elegant red fruits. Feminine style, more in common with good Grenache than Shiraz for mine. Refined and starting to be approachable.


2000 Yarra Yering Portsorts
Wasn't sure about this one. Had a dominant raw tree bark character I smell in Chinato, not vintage Port.

[via collins]

Great notes Chris, cheers.

Aside from being the usual top notch social evening - Jamie as a grounded bonus - I just found the spectrum of wines we tasted across a reasonably specific bracketing was just fantastic.

The Rayas was a festival of brightness, the Langi and others pretty impenetrable, but such a quality across the top line. And as you suggest, the Pleaide is going to be fascinating down the line, but I loved it now.

You wouldn't want the food getting too much better either or the wine might take a back seat:).

Grand salut to Oz and Chris for helming it.

[mjs]

Finally got round to reviewing my notes, such as they were with no room on the table to put the iPad (I can hear Chris saying ... "what's wrong with pen and paper ). They don't really add much to Chris' excellent summary, so here's some isolated highlight comments.

Wines covered a wide spectrum. both old and new world, all pretty good to excellent I must say.

Condrieu was great, honey apricots for me, great structure and finesse
Liked the Roquette, nice spicy grenache.
Rayas was superb, smokiness, dried herbs, beautiful wine
Pleiade shiraz also v good
Honey Moon opened up well. It's interesting, I had my back-up from Friday last night which was the '12 Honey Moon shiraz. I think it was even better than the '10. Really think that Hylton McLean is doing some great stuff there. Both wines were shipped over from Adelaide this week, arriving on Friday, so the travel might have played a part.
Cote Rotie was also good, very classy
I think most of the wines would benefit from more time in bottle

All in all, a fantastic tasting. Great company, plenty of laughs and great wine and food. First time at Choi's for a long time for me even though it's relatively local for me, food was excellent, puts SFI in the shade even if a little pricier. Looking forward to MBSC there in a couple of weeks. Thanks to Ozzie and Chris for organising, particularly Ozzie, for his non-marshalling of the wines, worked perfectly.

Great to meet Jamie, hope it was enjoyable for you.

cheers, Malcolm

[JamieBahrain]

Thanks Gents, great evening , very good Chinese food too . All worked in together very well.

Hope I can make the odd offline in MEL as a truly wonderful city.

[Chris H]

Hope all goes smoothly tomorrow.

[mjs]

Yes, it would be a shame if you had to spend more time in MEL to recuperate, might have to come to more off-lines

[Ozzie W]

It was certainly a great offline to end the year for the Melbourne Auswine crew. The combined differences in the breadth/depth of our cellars ensures that we get a great mix of wines every time. Jamie, it was great to finally meet you.