Wynns Black Label Cab 2015

[mjs]

Think I'm with Craig on this one, 96 and 98 are pretty good for me. Tasting of the '93 a couple of weeks ago was a revelation as well. By the way, very pleasantly ran into Sparky in the crowd at the Coonawarra Roadshow in Melb recently, she seems well!

[felixp21]

Think I'm with Craig on this one, 96 and 98 are pretty good for me. Tasting of the '93 a couple of weeks ago was a revelation as well. By the way, very pleasantly ran into Sparky in the crowd at the Coonawarra Roadshow in Melb recently, she seems well!

that's nice to hear. I still have about 4-5 diamonds (60-75 bottles) full of 90's Wynns BL, mainly 94,96,98, so I will give them another test run when next down in Melb. Hard to believe the 96 has come around though, never seen a wine get "longer" as it matures. Not too surprised about the 93, often "poor" vintages in SA sprout great Cabs. The 1993 Thomas Hardy Cab is amongst my favouite Aussie cabs of the 90's, all regions, all vintages.

[Luke W]

The 1996 Wynns BL was one of 3 BL's that GPK brought along to the Brisbane offline on 31st March this year. It and the 86 and 91 were the wines of the night. All stunning marvellous creations......
I think my generation romanticize about the 76 as it was a beautiful wine straight out of the bottle, won the legendary JW and was only a couple of bucks a bottle. In the mid 80's we often had Wynns nites when we'd get Bondi Cellars to send up verticals of the 50's and 60's and even 20 and 30 years later they were wonderful wines. I'm not sure though that they were significantly better wines than the wines we had earlier this year. Just that we were younger and they stood out.....

[Mahmoud Ali]

Not too surprised about the 93, often "poor" vintages in SA sprout great Cabs. The 1993 Thomas Hardy Cab is amongst my favouite Aussie cabs of the 90's, all regions, all vintages.

The '93 Thomas Hardy Cabernet was indeed a fine bottle of wine. A friend brought it to a wine dinner and it was memorable. Not had one since unfortunately.

Mahmoud.

[felixp21]

Not too surprised about the 93, often "poor" vintages in SA sprout great Cabs. The 1993 Thomas Hardy Cab is amongst my favouite Aussie cabs of the 90's, all regions, all vintages.

The '93 Thomas Hardy Cabernet was indeed a fine bottle of wine. A friend brought it to a wine dinner and it was memorable. Not had one since unfortunately.

Mahmoud.

yea, amazingly, I picked up a six-pack at Auction in Melbourne in 2014 for the princely sum of $22 each!!! Incredible how no-one seemed to know how good it was. Finished all the bottles, every one fantastic and still humming along.

[FredericoWines]

In my place, '14 just started showing up. Should I save up money, skip the '14 but wait for the '15?

[Sean]

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[Mark Carrington]

Get both. Get the 14 because it is very good, but don't miss out on the 15 if you see it.

Chris Shanahan did this write-up on the 60 vintages tasting at Wynns earlier this year. It is worth reading if you want to see what the fuss is all about.

[url]http://chrisshanahan.com/articles/2017/wynn ... es-tasted/[/url]

Extremely useful link.

[felixp21]

sat down and had a good look at the 96 and 15 Black Label's with dinner last night.
The 2015 is even better than I first thought, gorgeous fruit, slaps of cassis, very pure. Just a tiny bit clipped to render a huge score. 93+ pts. for me
The 1996 is green, short and one-dimensional. Consistent with the last time I had a look, this isn't going anywhere. 85pts.

[FredericoWines]

sat down and had a good look at the 96 and 15 Black Label's with dinner last night.
The 2015 is even better than I first thought, gorgeous fruit, slaps of cassis, very pure. Just a tiny bit clipped to render a huge score. 93+ pts. for me
The 1996 is green, short and one-dimensional. Consistent with the last time I had a look, this isn't going anywhere. 85pts.

Have you compared '15 to '14?

[Redwine&Rum]

sat down and had a good look at the 96 and 15 Black Label's with dinner last night.
The 2015 is even better than I first thought, gorgeous fruit, slaps of cassis, very pure. Just a tiny bit clipped to render a huge score. 93+ pts. for me
The 1996 is green, short and one-dimensional. Consistent with the last time I had a look, this isn't going anywhere. 85pts.

Have you compared '15 to '14?

I have mate. Had a few bottles of the 14 and only 1 of the 15 but the 2015 was absolutely singing. I had the 2015 rated at around 96+ and a few points above the 14'. I really enjoyed it and the wine was in such balance. I've put it right up the back of my cellar so I don't touch it or come across it easily. haha

[FredericoWines]

Thank you Redwine&Rum. Unfortunately only 14 showed up at stores recently here.

[rooman]

sat down and had a good look at the 96 and 15 Black Label's with dinner last night.
The 2015 is even better than I first thought, gorgeous fruit, slaps of cassis, very pure. Just a tiny bit clipped to render a huge score. 93+ pts. for me
The 1996 is green, short and one-dimensional. Consistent with the last time I had a look, this isn't going anywhere. 85pts.

Have you compared '15 to '14?

I have mate. Had a few bottles of the 14 and only 1 of the 15 but the 2015 was absolutely singing. I had the 2015 rated at around 96+ and a few points above the 14'. I really enjoyed it and the wine was in such balance. I've put it right up the back of my cellar so I don't touch it or come across it easily. haha

At $24-25 pb it has to be an absolute steal this year. I have buried a case deep in the cellar knowing in 10 or more years I will be staggered at how good it is for this price. It will be the ideal mid week wine.

[Redwine&Rum]

Have you compared '15 to '14?

I have mate. Had a few bottles of the 14 and only 1 of the 15 but the 2015 was absolutely singing. I had the 2015 rated at around 96+ and a few points above the 14'. I really enjoyed it and the wine was in such balance. I've put it right up the back of my cellar so I don't touch it or come across it easily. haha

At $24-25 pb it has to be an absolute steal this year. I have buried a case deep in the cellar knowing in 10 or more years I will be staggered at how good it is for this price. It will be the ideal mid week wine.

Agree. I can't name a wine around the $25 dollar mark that is just such value for money. Or a $25 wine with such quality and cellaring potential.

[Sean]

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[Redwine&Rum]

If you are a Wynns John Riddoch member, which some of you may or may not be.
Pretty sure you can get them for $27.50/bottle.

[swirler]

Get a bottle and try it yourself. If you like the wine, get some more and cellar it.

Best advice ever.

What does 96 points actually taste like?

[Matt@5453]

If you are a Wynns John Riddoch member, which some of you may or may not be.
Pretty sure you can get them for $27.50/bottle.

TWE had a mailer out about a month ago sending this out for $27 delivered ex winery. Also had big savings on wolf blass and Annie's Lane going for an absolute song.
No special membership required was offered on Facebook.

[cuttlefish]

I expect it’ll go back to $25-26 through the chains at some stage.

[Ian S]

As an aside, I opened a 2003 Wynns Johnson Block Cab/Shiraz tonight, which really impressed me, not least because back in 2011 I struggled with it. Back then I thought it would probably improve in the cellar, but was all the while thinking I would have rather had the less imposing Black Label CS. Well time has worked plenty of the weight off and it's a lovely minty-edged red of medium body, yet with an impressively long finish.

Funny how the (few) other CT notes (including my 2011 note) are pretty unimpressed to negative. Time it seems. was all it needed.

[shauno]

I'm now hanging out for this to get back to the ~$25 mark...

[Sean]

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[phillisc]

Sean, interesting and informative thoughts as always.
I have just brought another 12 current vintage BL.
I went into the chains and said you had this at that price a little while back...(did not even have to finish the sentence)...certainly sir we should be able to do that for you.
I smile at the whole wine as commodity thing, roughly 85% water.
Some of these youngsters, who work at the chains and a few of the oldies too, who are all on rotation through the myriad of retail stores that these conglomerates own, just see it as a another product, sparkling water with a bit of enthanol in it...no different to toilet paper, all about volume and margin.
What amuses me, and those who work for Wynns/TWE bang on that BL is the most important in the portfolio...not so sure.
For me its John Riddoch, its the beacon and the barometer for each release, and without it, the others in the range struggle. With no current JR release, it leaves wines like the Michael to do a lot of heavy lifting, and reminds me of your anecdote of stacks of cartons on the shop floor...there seems to be plenty of Michael...at least in the last 6 stores that I have been to.

Cheers
Craig.

[Redwine&Rum]

Sean, interesting and informative thoughts as always.


For me its John Riddoch, its the beacon and the barometer for each release, and without it, the others in the range struggle. With no current JR release, it leaves wines like the Michael to do a lot of heavy lifting, and reminds me of your anecdote of stacks of cartons on the shop floor...there seems to be plenty of Michael...at least in the last 6 stores that I have been to.

Cheers
Craig.

Not too many people are going to shell out over $120 for a bottle of wine. Maybe for a special occasion. The Michael and JR need ages in the cellar, especially JR. And I would expect that most people who buy these wines in bulk would be buying directly from the winery. As I do. If I'm going to shell out big money for a while, where possible, I try and get it delivered directly from the winery. I don't know anyone that just rocks up to a chain such as Dan Murphy's and goes and buys JR and Michael by the half dozen/dozen.

[Sean]

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[mjs]

Couple of comments for my 2c worth ...
The trashing or disappearance of historic brands, gobbled up by bigger corporates etc, gives me the sh!ts. Ryecroft is a good case in point. A wonderful CD that I used to visit in the mid/late 70’s (having ridden my motorbike down from Adelaide to McLaren Vale) along with many others, then Rosemount and TWE came along. I guess it remains to be seen if a Warren Randall can do good things there. How much has Lindemans been trashed in the last twenty years? Then what about Mildara almost disappearing from the Coonawarra.
On to Wynns. Wynns is a massive operation, more than 500 ha in Coonawarra. Massive output. How much BL? Not sure, but there’s lots. However, they also run the joint like a small winery, with lots of parcels from single vineyards. BL is an icon, but so is JR as Craig says, perhaps not quite the heritage of BL, but 30+ years is not bad. The thing that’s coming to the fore now is their V&A Lane wines and their single vineyard stuff. The rejuvenation of their vineyards over the last 10 years or so is well reported as well as the work they are doing on keeping data on the whole operation. Kudos for all that in my book.
Marketing is interesting, I sometimes feel that Wynns and TWE are on different pages, going in different directions. Pricing on Cellardoorco and Wynns JR Club never lines up.
But at the end of the day, Wynns sits just behind Penfolds in importance to TWE and arguably the Australian wine industry. Looks like we are about to go into the next round with Penfolds releases.

[phillisc]

Sean, interesting and informative thoughts as always.


For me its John Riddoch, its the beacon and the barometer for each release, and without it, the others in the range struggle. With no current JR release, it leaves wines like the Michael to do a lot of heavy lifting, and reminds me of your anecdote of stacks of cartons on the shop floor...there seems to be plenty of Michael...at least in the last 6 stores that I have been to.

Cheers
Craig.

Not too many people are going to shell out over $120 for a bottle of wine. Maybe for a special occasion. The Michael and JR need ages in the cellar, especially JR. And I would expect that most people who buy these wines in bulk would be buying directly from the winery. As I do. If I'm going to shell out big money for a while, where possible, I try and get it delivered directly from the winery. I don't know anyone that just rocks up to a chain such as Dan Murphy's and goes and buys JR and Michael by the half dozen/dozen.

and
RW&R,
I have done both, my love hate relationship with this winery over the years has ebbed and flowed, but probably more love at present.
Around the time of the 09/10 vintage release, I brought 6 packs from Wynns of JR and Michael...and then at the chains...spoke to the manager and suggested if I am going to drop a grand or more...which is incredibly rare for me, what more can you knock off on a dozen Riddoch, there was an extra 10% or so off a dozen price, they want to sell and I am happy to buy.
Cheers
Craig

[GraemeG]

I have 9 TNs of the 96 on CT, I see, dating back to 2003. Apart from one corked, two were encouraging, and the rest generally disappointing. I thought at peak in 2012, three tastings over 2015 & 16 have been disappointing. I have none left now, and I think that's about the right number to have!
cheers,
Graeme

[Redwine&Rum]

Graeme here what your saying, but the 2015 really is that good. For a $25-$30 bottle of wine it is great value for money.
I've tried the last few vintages (2012-2014) over the past few years and the 2015 is head and shoulders above the rest.

My wife isn't all that clued up with red wine, but tried it and instantly knew it was a cracker. As did I. From the very first sip.
Don't let the past experiences get you down. The vineyard improvements Wynns have done over the past 10+ years are really starting to make the fruit sing. Hook in.

[phillisc]

I did... another 6 pack today... can't help myself... like a Chicky buy'n shoes
Cheers
Craig