TN: Zema Estate Barrel Series 6 Cabernet Sauvignon 2001

[Alex F]

I am not usually into posting individual tasting notes, but over the years I have noticed that there is not much written about these "Barrel Series" wines. In honour of the Coonawarra roadshow I opened my last bottle of this wine, which has perplexed me over the years. This wine comes from the time when the best barrel from about ten wineries would be auctioned for charity each vintage, and the wine later bottled for the highest bidder. This wine clocks in at 13% as does the normal and family selection Zema estate from the same vintage. Now to me, a statistically strange concept to be able to pick the 'best' barrel. I am sure that blending multiple barrels together can lead to a wine better than the sum of its parts, so to speak. It would be interesting to be able to compare this wine to the other Zema offerings from 2001, but alas, there can only be at most 234 bottles of this wine left, so I assume it will not be easy to make such a comparison.

Back in 2009 I ended up with half a case of this wine for what I thought was a bargain. Over the years drank five, thinking, hmm, not much in this as it always seemed quite simple. In hindsight I think it has been shut down for these years, now only emerging from its cocoon. Sad that this is the last one.

The colour is still really dark purple at the core, with the edges fading to lighter magenta. Opened a bit thin but 12 hours of "enlarged opening" audoze has developed the wine and it hits like a freight train now, without ever being a big wine. Just beginning to develop secondary characteristics on nose: tobacco, meat stock, chinese medicine shop, earth, a bit of spicy lift. Intense. Palate: mid weight at best but is mouthfilling, complete, with perfectly integrated tannins, the blackcurrant fruit fanning out impressively at the finish. Well supported by acid. Very very long.

This is a complex, beguiling, amazing wine. Full marks. If you have any I suggest that they will keep developing for another 5 years.

[phillisc]

Alex, have tried a few of these over the years...was Coonawarra's answer to perhaps what other wine areas do with auctions and after 8 years or so fell over. I suspect that there are only ( or was back then 20 wineries, which by many regions numbers is very small), so just the usual suspects were in the position to put forward a barrel, and the tyranny of distance killed it.

You are right, I remember some of the lots being very reasonably priced indeed.
Cheers craig

[Mahmoud Ali]

It should be kept in mind that all wineries blend wines, even if they are of the same varietal. The best barrels go into their premium wine, as they do in Bordeaux. Zema Estates Family Reserve Cabernet would be a blend of their best barrels. The only difference between the Zema Family Reserve and the Barrel Series is that different wineries selected the barrels. Theoretically all the barrels would be of the finest quality and it shouldn't be all that much different from a Bin 707 except for the fact that it is all Coonawarra blend instead of a multi-regional one.

Many wines, cabernet included, go through a dumb phase , when initial fruit intensity has subsided and structure and tannin is all that is showing. The same seems to be the case with Alex's 2001 when, in 2009 he started drinking it: eight years old and past the early drinking stage. Now, with 18 years under its belt, it is starting to open up. Years ago, a young but ferociously tannic 1982 Chateau Taltarni was fun to drink. The label suggested 6-8 years of cellaring. At ten, the wine appeared dead, dull, tannic, and flat. It seemed that it was an over-extracted wine without sufficient fruit. Every two years it was the same, until one year it blossomed, suddenly the "fruit" was back. It seems the same is true of the Barrel Series.

By the way, 2001 is not old for a cabernet, especially one that aspires to be something special. I'm not surprised that the Barrel Series may only just be coming around. Right now, I'm in Vancouver, Canada for a family birthday and picnic and my cousin and host told me to pick out a couple of wines to open from a selection of five. She doesn't drink red wines anymore so some of them are old. One of them is a 2001 Robert Mondavi 'Private Selection' a regular bottle of 'California' wine made in huge quantities, yet it is still alive and rather tasty, and will work well in a backyard afternoon bbq/picnic with baked chicken, salmon and sausages.

Judging by Alex's note I expect the '01 to lastfor many a year.

Mahmoud.