TN: Adelaide Offline at Cliche Exhibition 11/5/18

[n4sir]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/nq5jgic.jpg[/img]

It’s been a slow burn, but finally the first Adelaide offline for the year kicked off in style upstairs at Cliché Exhibition, O’Connell Street North Adelaide. The theme was vintages ending in 8 of Langton’s Classification standard (or better) – needless to say the standard of wines was excellent. My thanks to the 11 others who attended, and to David for organising.

2008 Franck Bonville Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut Millésimé magnum (cork): Pale straw with a vigorous mousse and fine bead. A lovely way to start the evening, attractive baked bread, grapefruit with a hint of white chocolate, finishing lean and minerally.

1988 Penfolds Magill Estate Shiraz, Adelaide (cork): Impressive medium to dark red colour. I last tried one of these 13 years ago at Penfolds, and while that bottle was good, this one was much, much fresher and better, full of gorgeous coffee, cedar, dark chocolate, truffle, black cherry and black olive. The palate is big for a Magill, McLaren Vale-like with a gutsy mid-palate and a long, silky finish. It’s a privilege to try a bottle like this in perfect condition. Thanks Jason!

1998 Mt Langi Ghiran Langi Shiraz, Grampians (cork): Medium red. Medicinal with savoury mint, cherry, barnyard, truffle and blue metal; the palate’s leathery, bright and medium-weight with a minerally finish. The brett is obvious, which was kind of expected for something from this winery at that time; I think it’s drifted to a point where the fault is too much, although others with a higher tolerance threshold will be kinder.

1998 Rockford Basket Press Shiraz, Barossa Valley (cork): Medium to very dark red with a purple rim. Dark chocolate, raspberries and cherry cola, earth and a little concentrated tomato, very big and very Barossa; the palate’s bordering full-weight, ripe but not over the top, finishing with thick, velvety tannins. I still rank 1998 as one of the best vintages of Basket Press up there with 1990 & 1991, and this was a great bottle.

1998 Rockford Basket Press Shiraz (Winemaker’s Stock Release), Barossa Valley (cork): Dark red. Opens with much more obvious vanilla oak, the palate less earthy and seemingly lighter in weight, the fruit in the raspberry spectrum, bordering cherry, finishing silky but without the oomph of the regular bottling tonight. Notably this bottle was double decanted in advance, while the other was opened on the spot; it was fascinating to see the two releases side by side, and preferences seemed to be evenly split.

1998 Wynns Coonawarra Estate John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon (cork): Badly corked.

1991 Wynns Coonawarra Estate Michael Shiraz (cork): This was the replacement for the corked John Riddoch; while we were robbed of the chance to see the 1998 John Riddoch against the Michael, it was still a joy to see two classic vintages paired together. Very dark red. Beautifully perfumed, cedar, peppermint, black cherries and earth; the palate is silky and elegant for a Michael, but then this is one of the best vintages ever.

1998 Wynns Coonawarra Estate Michael Shiraz (cork): Very dark to almost inky red. Like the colour, everything else about this wine is huge in a good way, thunderous blueberry/blackberry fruit supported by cedar/vanilla oak, with hints of peppermint, chocolate and pencil shavings; the palate is velvety, long and mouth-coating. It’s been a few years since I tried this wine, but it always seems to be getting better and better with a peak that must be decades away. My WOTN in an excellent field tonight. Thanks Mark!

1998 St Hallett Old Block Shiraz, Barossa Valley (cork): Dark red. Opens with heavy coconut and cedar oak with deep, raspberry fruit, cocoa, vanilla and chocolate with breathing; it’s very sweet and chocolatey, bordering porty without being over the top, lacking the complexity and texture of the Basket Press. Still a very good drink though.

1998 Hardys Eileen Hardy Shiraz, South Australia (cork): McLaren Vale, Padthaway & Clare Valley. Dark to inky red with a hint of purple, an outstanding colour for the age! Opening with eucalyptus, spearmint, dusty, slightly jammy plum fruit, earth and perhaps a little dampness in the background? The palate is big and gutsy to the mid-palate with some rather clumsy bourbon-like oak with breathing, but suddenly stops, a sign that this maybe ever so slightly scalped. I have to admit I have never been a fan of the Eileen Hardy style, but I also think this bottle may have been flawed.

2008 Elderton Command Shiraz, Barossa Valley (screwcap): Dark to inky red. Very minty with strong cedar oak that appears heavily charred with breathing and blackberry/prune fruit that borders being jammy. The palate's full weight, yet lacks the cohesiveness of the previous 1998 Shiraz wines we had tonight; it's okay and will improve a bit with cellaring, but like many wines from this vintage it doesn't quite measure up to the true greats.

2008 Hemera Estate JDR Shiraz, Barossa Valley (screwcap): Dark to inky red. Very tarry and volatile with heavy vegemite characters matched to jammy/prune fruit, the oak charred oak like the Elderton but without the mintyness; it's big and brutal, in this bunch the VA and dead fruit characters were too much for my liking.

2008 Penfolds Grange, South Australia (cork): 98% Shiraz, 2% Cabernet Sauvignon: Barossa Valley, Clare Valley & Magill Estate. Dark to almost inky red/purple. Huge and yet classy and refined, especially for Grange, the fruit towards the red spectrum compared to the previous two wines - no sign of any prune here! The oak is relatively restrained too, graphite and dark chocolate matched to blackberry and plums, the palate massive with thick, ripe, grippy tannins resulting in outstanding length. This wine was in the decanter all evening and had a last second double decant, yet seemingly needed more time to show more of its beauty - I certainly felt I could have spent a lot more time with this glass, but there were other wines waiting to be poured. Thanks again Jason!

2008 Kellermeister Wild Witch Shiraz, Barossa Valley (cork): Dark to inky red/purple. It's rare that I will say that a wine is badly overoaked - this is one of those wines. It's sappy and gluey with sickly sweet, medicinal cherry fruit, black liquorice, peppermint and wintergreen, resembling an Aussie Vintage Port that's sat in new oak for around 3 years. No thanks, especially after that wonderful Grange.

1998 Wendouree Cabernet Malbec, Clare Valley (cork): Corked.

2008 Balnaves The Tally Cabernet Sauvignon, Coonawarra (procork): Dark red. Blackcurrants and menthol and peppermint, the nose and the front palate explosive with perfume and power, leading to a soupy, meaty mid-palate and rather slender finish. A good wine, but I noted down it was a typical '08 Coonawarra, solid without being brilliant.

2008 Yarra Yering Dry Red No 3, Yarra Valley (cork): Touriga, Tinta Cao, Tinta Amarello, Roriz and Souzao. Very dark to inky red/purple. Startling, savoury and perfumed with green liquorice, boysenberry, blackberry, wintergreen and fruit pastilles, which all carry through to the medium to full weight palate, with a sweet, jubey finish. A very nice surprise packet to finish.

Cheers,
Ian

[Chuck]

Thanks Ian for great notes. Interesting to note of the the 13 wines under cork 4 were either badly corked, corked, scalped or potentially flawed. Not a good result after about 18 years of patient cellaring of potentially great wines.

Carl

[Scotty vino]

Good write up/notes Ian. Pretty much sums it up for me across the board.

[JamieBahrain]

1998 Wynns Coonawarra Estate John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon (cork): Badly corked.

I had badly corked 98 JR a few months ago and Wynn's were professional in their assessment and replaced with a JR 2013 and BL 2015 ( yipeee finally got one )