Delatite 1992 Devil's River

[Mahmoud Ali]

1992 Delatite 'Devil's River', Victoria (13%)

According to the back label the "predominant cabernet sauvignon and merlot cntribute weight and length, while the malbec and cabernet franc lend breadth and spice to the rich flavours of berries and plums." The wine was aged for 12 months in French and American oak barriques while the vines were hand-pruned and hand-picked. Furthurmore, "the wine will cellar for up to 10 years."

DelatiteDevil'sRiver'92.jpg

I bought this bottle quite some time ago, a back vintage on a shelf in a suburban town just north of Edmonton. It was already almost a decade old and when I tried a bottle it seemed firm and in need of more time. It has slumbered in the cellar since then and now at 25 years of age I felt it was time to open one. The colour is now brick red, fairly deep in the core and browning at the rim. My better half immediately identified this as "old world, Bordeaux" and for that I had to give her credit for indeed it was a Bordeaux-blend and to my mind very claret-like. The nose was perfumed, laced with tobacco and black cherry, with a glossy, polished leather sheen. Really quite lovely. The palate was dry and medium-bodied, again leathery, mineral-flecked, and savoury, with a fairly long finish. This wine was a delight and perfect with lamb chops. And believe it or not, there is no hurry with this wine, a remnant pour in the open decanter was still rather nice. I hope the wines of today will be able to show this kind of elegance and class with time in the cellar. Note the alcohol level of only 13% and the non-descript cork.

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

[paulf]

Delatite is one of those wineries that was more prominent back in the 90s when I was getting into wine, but dropped off the radar a little bit in the last 15 or 20 years. At least that is the case for me. I don't imagine that there are too many bottles of this floating around. I used to drink a bit of their Riesling. back in the day

[Mahmoud Ali]

What first brought Delatite to my attention many years ago was a moderately aged bottle of Delatite's 'Dead Man's Hill' Gewurztraminer that was served to me. It was excellent, dry, elegant and fine-boned. Not seen hide nor hair of Delatite since then, well except in Australia of course.