Can't remember the full listing of wines last Saturday night, but until Sputilla or Stilled-dressed-in-his-cricket-whites finally get around to posting something I'll defer making any comments on the mostly terrific wines served that evening.
Otherwise the remainder of the wine I packed for this trip (very gingerly) made its way down to Bawley Point from Paddington last Sunday for 4 days fishing, fun and food with various "senior" members of the family. The fishing was relatively tough but most rewarding. The final tally of 92 Blackfish includung a couple of terrific Black Drummer was a terrific catch for this time of year. (I've never caught a Blackfish in November in over 30 years of fishing Bawley!) So on to what wine was consumed at the coast.
Penfolds Aged Release Clare Valley Riesling 1998
Still mostly primary with the requisite fruit, acid, balance and structure to repay medium to long-term cellaring. Excellent (and still available!)
Hugel Riesling Vendange Tardives 1989
Beautifully poised between the dry and sweet with haunting smells and flavours of peaches, spicy apricots, petrol, smoke, minerals and the sublime perplexing other bits and pieces that make these enigmatic Alsatians what they are. Excellent with some time to go.
Tyrrell's HVD Reserve Semillon 1995
Remember reading a thread on this somewhere recently and decided to crack another to see what all the fuss was about. Brilliant wine. Fresh as a daisy with some bottle development and at least another decade left in it. Probing bouquet of lemon butter on toast, freshly mown hay, citrus, sunlight soap, honeysuckle and grilled nuts. Sensational palate of similar nuance, perhaps a frac tighter than the nose suggests but no problemos to this taster. Perfect structure, great presence and a whopping long finish of great poise. Probably the best bottle I've tried thus far and worthy of an Outstanding rating. Drink now to 2015.
Piper's Brook Riesling 2001
Stangely mute and baggy on the nose but a more forthcoming palate with delicate floral, limey fruit, some tropical character, a touch of residual sugar and soft acid finish. Barring the nose, quite commendable. Judgement deferred until another one cracked.
Billecart-Salmon NV Brut (Old Label)
Lovely complex bubbly with toasty, biscuity fruit, good weight and still crisp and lively at the end with good persistence. About Excellent.
Giaconda Chardonnay 1998
The usual top-shelf quality expected of this label, although not one of the last 3 bottles up to the mindblowing proportions of the first bottle I opened recently with the Mayor and Deb. Excellent, bordering on Outstanding, all the same. Plenty of time left to go with this one.
Devil's Lair Cabernet Blend 1998
Can't give you more than a mere impression on this. Of Excellent quality with considerable cellaring and drinking windows ahead. One of the better MR Cabernets.
Knappstein Enterprise Cabernet Sauvignon 1998
Deep ruby/purple colour. Intense wine on both nose and palate revealing abundant integrated dark-berried fruit, oak with some mintiness and plenty of bitter chocolate. Savoury, malty oak, good acid, substantial furry tannins and a big finale round things off. Needs several years to be ready. Still, Excellent and second only to the Grosset 1994 Cabernet tasted a few months ago as the best Clare red I've drunk this year. Excellent.
Seppelt DP 63 Muscat (375ml thin bottle- UK export label)
Aged rancio characters with abundant raisins and jumbo muscatels. Terrific palate of sweet raisined Christmas cake fruit with amazing length and a touch of astringency at the end. Outstanding and better than the current "Grand" label. Perhaps closer to the "Rare" in quality.
