Coonawarra Cabernet Celebration

[mjs]

[url]http://coonawarra.org/event/coonawarra-cabe ... ebrations/[/url]

A month of events in Coonawarra, celebrating all things cabernet. Masterclass and other tasting events on this weekend which is the busiest of the four weekends. There’s a few of us going from Melb/ADL. Anyone one else attending?

[Redwine&Rum]

Bugger. Hopefully coming down near the end of October. Hopefully there are still a few events left to do.

Mjs, you're probably well aware the 2015 Black Label Wynns Cabernet was amazing.
What other 2015 Coonawarra cabernets are amazing as well?

Cheers

[phillisc]

Malcolm will say just about all of them!!
Cheers
Craig

[mjs]

Bugger. Hopefully coming down near the end of October. Hopefully there are still a few events left to do.

Mjs, you're probably well aware the 2015 Black Label Wynns Cabernet was amazing.
What other 2015 Coonawarra cabernets are amazing as well?

Cheers

Yes, I have a few six-packs of the ‘15 BL. Will let you know on others after the weekend, might be on the lookout for ‘14 Johnson’s Block, which I feel is the pick of this years releases from Wynns.

[Redwine&Rum]

Any notes on the wines mjs? Would love to hear which wines knocked it out of the park.

[mjs]

I’ll add a couple of instalments to cover some wines sampled over the weekend.

Mid afternoon Friday we went to Balnaves and sampled the range. The Blend was a standout value wise and loved the sparkling Cabernet. However, I was more interested in The Tally. Tasted the 09, 12 and 13. The ‘09 was far more developed than I thought it would be, definitely showing some red around the rim, rather then deep purple that you expect from this wine. Very nice to drink however, but I’m not sure if it’s a really long term keeper. The ‘12 and ‘ 13 were in a different league, tight, dense core, dark red plum, some slight mint character, some cedar, mouth coating tannins, black red fruits, cigar box, very enjoyable, ‘13 was a little more approachable. Both excellent wines for 15+ yrs.

[phillisc]

Malcolm, I have never got round to posting the 60 or so notes that I had from the August 2017 Roadshow, but was mightily impressed by Katnook's Odessy and Prodigy from the 2012 vintage...they were in the top 5 of the night. Also Majella's new single vineyard Cabernet...a four number/digit code (can't remember now)...certainly a step up from the Mallea.
Cheers
Craig

[mjs]

Malcolm, I have never got round to posting the 60 or so notes that I had from the August 2017 Roadshow, but was mightily impressed by Katnook's Odessy and Prodigy from the 2012 vintage...they were in the top 5 of the night. Also Majella's new single vineyard Cabernet...a four number/digit code (can't remember now)...certainly a step up from the Mallea.
Cheers
Craig

Craig,
I’m not sure I missed something at the recent Roadshow, but I don’t recall a single vineyard cab from Majella. I might have missed it perhaps ... haha.
Anyway, more notes on Cabernet Celebration shortly
Cheers, Malcolm

[mjs]

Last Saturday morning, after a very pleasant breakfast in the Balnaves winery with a 120 of our closest friends, we did this year's Masterclass Tasting in the John Riddoch Room at Wynns. This year's tasting theme was about the influence of soil, in fact entitled "Forget sexy, let's get dirty - an exploration of the influence of soil". An ambitious topic perhaps, although the terra rossa is renowned, there must be a reason for it. Co-compared (and curated) by Brett Sharpe (winemaker from Lindemans, winner of the Provenance award at this year's Adelaide Show) and Pete Bissell (winemaker from Balnaves). About 45 punters, a few Coonawarra industry locals and other Coonawarra tragics like us.

[img]https://s19.postimg.org/ejnfetihv/DSC0511.jpg[/img]

As usual a line up of ten wines, although this year we knew what we were tasting, cabernet or cabernet dominant blends, six from Coonawarra, a Bordeaux, a Kiwi, a Chilean and a Marg River.

[img]https://s19.postimg.org/i39d4msxf/DSC0512.jpg[/img]

[img]https://s19.postimg.org/6qwrmu4sz/DSC0514.jpg[/img]

There was bit of discussion about the effect of soils and diverging views, e.g. minerals in rocks are not soluble, so how can they be taken up in the vines, compared with, well stuff in the soils which comes from rocks, gravels etc is soluble and can influence the wine. So, the focus was on seeing if we could characterise any influence of soils on wines from different areas ... plus of course have an enjoyable and high quality tasting

And that we did. Here are some brief notes, in order of tasting and in l-r order in the pic above. You will see that I don't get carried away with too many detailed descriptors ...

2009 Chateau La Mission Haut Brion (100pt wine apparently)
Attractive plum red, deep core, beautiful dense bouquet, dark fruits, cedar, cassis, served a little cold perhaps, balanced tannins, blackberries, plush (the merlot), balance, long finish

2010 Majella
purple blood red with a deep core, some mint, dark fruits, bright in the mouth, some acid, dark red fruit florals, perfume, tannins on the end finish

2012 Patrick Home Block
deep garnet plum, lovely dark fruit bouquet, slight mint, fruit a little short at first but developed elegance later, tannins on the end palate

2012 Balnaves The Tally
dense core, dark plum red, again some minty characters, some cedar, mouth coating chalky tannins, but pretty good balance now, some cigar box, dark fruits, a little closed perhaps. pete made the point that there was some ironstone in the limestone in the block for this fruit, I couldn't pick it

2013 Leconfield Sydney
dense red purple, restrained bouquet, some plum, mouth filling fruit, some blackberries as it opened up more, perhaps a sense of minerality, beautiful wine

2013 Te Mata Estate Coleraine
purple red, medium core, elegant fruit, not a splash as others, gravelly character?, blackberries, some cassis, not a long finish

2013 Wynns Harold
deep purple plum, lovely dark fruit bouquet, red black fruits, linear, not plush, fine grain tannins, perfume, cassis, purity of fruit.

2013 Concha y Toro Don Melchor
Black purple, dense, solemn feral character at first, plush mouthfeel, red berries and dark fruit, some chocolate

2013 Lindemans St George
purple plum with dense black core, slightly restrained bouquet, beautiful cassis, blackberries, beautiful mouthfeel, nice tannins, WOTT for me

2013 Deep Woods Estate Grand Reserve Wilyabrup
plum, medium deep core, cedar, black fruits, some plushness, with time, beautiful flavours, complexity, bit of bayleaf, elegance, more savoury rather than the perfume of the Coonawarra cabs

So, in terms of quality of wines, its was a great tasting. Still it should have been, many of the wines were premium labels and the La Mission was about $1700 apparently (you can get 50 Majellas for that). The discussion on soil was interesting. The Coonawarra wines did have a perfume about them, the Coleraine was leaner, was that an effect of the gravels? But the Don Melchor also comes from free draining gravels and was plush. The Deep Woods was meatier. All in all, a great couple of hours was spent with ten terrific wines, mixed with a lot of conversation. Perhaps didn't quite nail the objective of the tasting in terms of the influence of soil, but we did nail an hour and a half of good wine experiences. As noted above, the St George was my favourite of the tasting in that lot. Others liked the Leconfield, it was very good. The La Mission was also impressive, but it would want to be, partly different to the rest because of the blend. In reality, all of the wines were good and it was great to have the opportunity to see them on the bench together.

[mjs]

Links to photos in the above post are now fixed. Photobucket.com, which was my previous platform of choice for posting pics apparently now charges an exorbitant sum for doing so. Now using postimage.org (Thanks to Ozzie W for the advice).

After the Masterclass and a spot of lunch at the local bakery, we went to see Prof Lynn and Bruce Gregory at Majella to do a ten year vertical tasting of the Magellan cabernet. All cabs from 2017 back to 2008. Clearly the 2017 and 2016 were unfinished wines.

[img]https://s19.postimg.org/n36tc78qb/DSC0515.jpg[/img]

Mrs mjs looking enthusiastic I must say, Bruce Gregory and Michael Marcus in the background

What was striking was how similar each vintage was, Bruce Gregory really has a formula and sticks to it. You could see how the 2017, which has had very little time in barrel so far, would develop into a finished wine. The 2016 was mostly there and the 2015 was drinking well. All with great fruit, blackberries, cassis, good tannins and structure. Perhaps Majella has a slightly higher acid profile than other Coonawarra producers, but all excellent age worthy wines. I have to say that even the 2011 was looking pretty smart as well, not quite as big a wine as adjacent vintages, but nothing like a disaster that is the popular view of that year. Sue Hodder has said the same of the Wynns BL. Definitely worth a look.

[michel]

Excellent notes
Much appreciated

[mjs]

Of course, the weekend wasn't all about technical tastings. On Sunday morning we sampled cabernets from three decades at Bowen Estate, including the '95. the '05 and the '15. The '95 was drinking superbly. We followed that with a glorious picnic lunch on the lawn outside CD, under one of the trees, just a glorious day, incredibly relaxed.

[img]https://s19.postimg.org/lbjthp40j/DSC0529.jpg[/img]

After lunch we went to Redmans for a mystery tasting, then did the walking trail thing through the vines via Laira to Wynns where we had a tasting of four vintages of single vineyard cabernet. The '14 Johnson's Block was a highlight as was the '10 Messenger. The two others were the '09 Glengyle and the '13 Harold. A great weekend

[img]https://s19.postimg.org/g04wwzpnn/DSC0539.jpg[/img]

Just out of interest, the table at Wynns, depicts a map of the Coonawarra area, including the terra rossa. The soil to the east (left side of pic) is represented by spotted gum, the terra rossa in the middle by redgum and the soil to the west (right side of pic) in walnut. Definitely worth experiencing this.

[Michael McNally]

Great pics and sounds like a fab weekend Malcolm.

Cheers

Michael

[felixp21]

great write up and pictures, many thanks!!
interesting the 2013 St George showed so well, it seems to be a wine that polarises the critics, Decanter being particularly harsh. I thought it pretty one dimensional and short, but, as with so many Coonawarra Cabs, there is likely to be tremendous bottle variation with this wine. Clearly, when on song it is a great wine!!
the La Mission will be a great wine one day, sounds like it might have been a tad closed, as are so many left bank wines from 09 at the moment (which in itself is a surprise, I would have sworn they would behave much like the 82's ) Had a Branaire Ducru the other day, it has entered a tannic phase and needs sleeping for another five years... up until now, this wine had been a plush and open knit red that was fully accessible.
Good point about the cost, and the 50 bottles of Majella. I guess it is all relative, but that price is simply too much for all but a very few people to actually enjoy the wine. Besides, there are wines from Pessac that are pretty much as good in 2009, and about one fifth the price.