two good: 92 Wendouree & 82 De Bortoli Sauternes

[brodie]

Two wines that were just wonderful. The twos have it!

1982 De Bortoli Botrytis Semillon Sauternes: The famous first vintage and before it was renamed Noble One. Opened for a friend's daughter who is 36 and had never had a wine from 1982. Dark brassy amber colour. Lovely sweet orange and apricot nose. Decadent rich thick textured with tons of orange marmalade and some dried apricot on the palate. Nice balancing acidity kept it fresh. Powerful and intense with a very long finish. To me this was 36 years young, it is fully mature but there were no signs of decline or drying out. A huge hit with the 36 year old and her family. One left.

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1992 Wendouree Cab/Malbec: Youthful dark red colour. Lovely integrated and complex nose of dark red fruits, black plums with some earth and a bit of mint. Palate was deep and strong and full of dark fruits. Firm but fine grained tannins kept it in shape. Very interesting and enjoyable. Balanced and long and deep without any effort. At 26 years this is possibly (!) approaching maturity but is good for another 10 years easily. Sadly only have two more bottles left. Authentic class here.

Brodie

[Mahmoud Ali]

I had the priveledge of tasting the 1982 De Bortoli at Fig Tree Cellars in Sydney about a decade ago. The tasting was hosted by Jeremy Oliver. It was a lovely wine back then so it is nice to know that it is still going strong. Looks a lot darker now though.

Thanks for sharing.