50th birthday wine list

[Croquet King]

I'm hosting a birthday celebration at a local Italian restaurant and am supplying the wines.
Should be enough wine but a few of my friends will really get stuck in. 35 people.


Here is the list

Riesling
12x Taylors St Andrews 2009

Sparkling Red
12 x Leasingham Classic Clare Sparkling Shiraz 2006

Pinot Noir
6 x Argyle Nuthouse 2013 Oregon USA

Shiraz
6 x Penfolds St Henri 2009
6 x Grant Burge Meshach 2009
6 x Seppelt St Peters 2002
6 x Rockford Basket Press 2012

Cabernet Sauvignon
Lakes Folly (Magnum) 1996
Lakes Folly (Magnum) 1997

Dessert
Special Blend Muscat Rutherglen VIC

Just in case
6 x McWilliams Rosehill Shiraz 2011

[JamieBahrain]

Happy Birthday !

Awesome list.

The wine industry should be most pleased with you. That's a lot of premium wine you'll need to replace.

[Croquet King]

Thanks Jamie. I need a bit more room in my cellar anyway.
It's funny, as a student I used to go up the Hunter Valley and drink / taste 4 times a year for 4 days at a time, visiting 9 wineries a day. We drank a lot.
Over the years the industry has well and truly got the $ out of me for those student days.

Also forgot to mention - I'm having a blind tasting of 4 wines and people have to put them in order of their favourite.

The wines are all Shiraz from SA:

Yalumba 2L cask (~$3.50 per bottle)
Barefoot (~$10 per bottle)
Pepperjack (~$20 per bottle)
Kay Brothers Basket Press (~$30 per bottle)

[Sigmamupi]

I'm hosting a birthday celebration at a local Italian restaurant and am supplying the wines.
Should be enough wine but a few of my friends will really get stuck in. 35 people.


Here is the list

Riesling
12x Taylors St Andrews 2009

Sparkling Red
12 x Leasingham Classic Clare Sparkling Shiraz 2006

Pinot Noir
6 x Argyle Nuthouse 2013 Oregon USA

Shiraz
6 x Penfolds St Henri 2009
6 x Grant Burge Meshach 2009
6 x Seppelt St Peters 2002
6 x Rockford Basket Press 2012

Cabernet Sauvignon
Lakes Folly (Magnum) 1996
Lakes Folly (Magnum) 1997

Dessert
Special Blend Muscat Rutherglen VIC

Just in case
6 x McWilliams Rosehill Shiraz 2011

Sounds great - enjoy the night. Your views on the 2002 Seppelts St Peters would be appreciated. I bought a dozen after it cleaned up trophies at the National Wine Show and they have been resting in my cellar ever since. I don't drink very much Aussie shiraz nowadays as I have gone down one of those all roads that lead to Burgundy but if you reckon it is ready, I will have to start dragging them out when I have a drink with mates who remain true to Aussie shiraz. If I remember correctly it was a pretty limited make of about 400 dozen only from old vines near the cellar and the then proprietors promptly cashed in by making much larger quantities in the following vintages from a number of vineyard sources.

[Alex F]

That seems like a lot of wine. Do you need anymore guests? XD

[Mahmoud Ali]

A nice selection of wine there, and some with age on them. Let us know how it goes, as well as the results of the blind tasting.

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

[dave vino]

You have around 60 bottles of wine for 30-odd people...the RSA officer would like to have a word with you...

Happy Birthday big fella!!

[mjs]

You have around 60 bottles of wine for 30-odd people...the RSA officer would like to have a word with you...

Happy Birthday big fella!!

Dave, how do you know that the people are odd
Serially, have a great dinner/tasting. Birthday dinners are always special. Nothing from ‘69 though?
Cheers, Malcolm

[Croquet King]

Dave, how do you know that the people are odd
Serially, have a great dinner/tasting. Birthday dinners are always special. Nothing from ‘69 though?
Cheers, Malcolm

Thanks - Hard to get enough wine from '69 for everyone.

[Croquet King]

You have around 60 bottles of wine for 30-odd people...the RSA officer would like to have a word with you...

Happy Birthday big fella!!

Cheers Dave.
I just don't want to run out of wine.

Luckily I can't spell RSA - I'm expecting to have 6 Riesling and 6 sparkling left over plus Rosehill.
The shiraz and cabernet will all go.

Decanting starting shortly.
Will report on the wine and night.

[WAwineguy]

Decanting starting shortly.
Will report on the wine and night.

He must still be recovering

[phillisc]

Must be a f*cking big decanter
Or that the cork gods were very angry.

Cheers craig

[Croquet King]

Must be a f*cking big decanter
Or that the cork gods were very angry.

Cheers craig

He must still be recovering

Brilliant WAwineguy and philisc - gave me a good laugh.

What a night.
Cork gods were very friendly with no wines corked.
Meal was spot on. Heaps of food and the staff really looked after us.
Food ended up about $65 a head. Slow cooked lamb for main really went well with the wine.
I order a caramel on caramel on caramel cake. Yum.

Yes we had too much wine - the last of the Rockford was drunk out of the bottle at about 3am in my backyard by one of my good mates.
And I have the photo.

Some thoughts / feedback

Lakes Folly (Magnum) 1996
Lakes Folly (Magnum) 1997
The wine people loved this wine. Very typical Lakes with some medicinal and herbal characters. The 96 showing more fruit but both excellent.
Polarised my non wine friends. They didn't get it or rate it.

Taylors St Andrews Riesling 2009
Those who drank it really enjoyed it - good feedback but I started straight with the reds.

Leasingham Classic Clare Sparkling Shiraz 2006
A smash hit - everyone loved it and raved about it. A lot of people had never tried sparkling shiraz before and are hooked.
A lot of this was consumed.

Argyle Nuthouse Pinot Noir 2013 Oregon USA
Hard to comment as I didn't try it. Again those who had it really enjoyed it.

Now onto the Shiraz.
They all showed brilliantly - I was so happy with the quality and that I could give my friends an experience they hopefully will remember for a while.
To order them is difficult but if pressed my order was

Penfolds St Henri 2009
Rockford Basket Press 2012
Grant Burge Meshach 2009
Seppelt St Peters 2002

The St Henri was so good. Screwcap but aging nicely - I say but because I always have this worry about how long screwcaps take to age. this will keep for a while yet.

Basket Press was actually more aged than I expected. I'm not sure how long a keeper 2012 is - another 5 to 8 maybe.

Grant Burge - a couple of people just raved about it and one of my mates drank most of a bottle as it's his favourite wine of all time.

St Peters was great - I'd be starting to drink these. Really getting into the secondary, earthy, briary characters with hints of black fruit. The wine people loved it, other friends not as much.

The theme of the night was "It's all about me"- There was a 25 question trivia quiz all about me with the winning group getting a bottle of Rockford Black Shiraz.

It was one of the best night I've ever had.
Great food, great wine and great friends.

[Ozzie W]

Leasingham Classic Clare Sparkling Shiraz 2006
A smash hit - everyone loved it and raved about it. A lot of people had never tried sparkling shiraz before and are hooked.
A lot of this was consumed.

I've had this wine quite a few times, the last time in 2016. A brilliant sparkling shiraz (but not as epic as the 2005). The 2006 was the last vintage ever made. Such a pity that this brand was destroyed by Constellation. I've enjoyed many bottles. Sadly I have no more.

[phillisc]

Thanks CK, but I beg to differ on the 12 BP, will be a 25 year proposition...went really long ( for me anyway) on these. If not will let them go, unopened sixers are fetching a grand now. Thinking of some extra '16s as have a feeling these will age well too.

Glad the event went well.
Cheers Craig

[Scotty vino]

Thanks CK, but I beg to differ on the 12 BP, will be a 25 year proposition...went really long ( for me anyway) on these. If not will let them go, unopened sixers are fetching a grand now. Thinking of some extra '16s as have a feeling these will age well too.

Glad the event went well.
Cheers Craig

I was under the impression the 12 BPS are long haulers. haven't touched any of mine.
Same with 2010s. A mate of mine did open a 2010 a few weeks back and raved it up but also said it's got a fair bit ahead of it.
I have opened a couple of 2011s and they seem quite approachable. 13s and 14s pretty solid but my impression of the 15 was that it was more in line with the 2011 vintage. Haven't tried 16 yet but will soon and im hearing it's another long hauler from a lean but quality vintage.

[ticklenow1]

Thanks CK, but I beg to differ on the 12 BP, will be a 25 year proposition...went really long ( for me anyway) on these. If not will let them go, unopened sixers are fetching a grand now. Thinking of some extra '16s as have a feeling these will age well too.

Glad the event went well.
Cheers Craig

I was under the impression the 12 BPS are long haulers. haven't touched any of mine.
Same with 2010s. A mate of mine did open a 2010 a few weeks back and raved it up but also said it's got a fair bit ahead of it.
I have opened a couple of 2011s and they seem quite approachable. 13s and 14s pretty solid but my impression of the 15 was that it was more in line with the 2011 vintage. Haven't tried 16 yet but will soon and im hearing it's another long hauler from a lean but quality vintage.

I found the '12 on release to be the best young drinking Basket Press I've tried, but also with the ability to age quite well. I had one last year and while it still drinks nicely, it certainly has plenty of life left in it. The '10 was IMHO always going to be a longer term wine than the '12.

The '11 is a short termer and '13 and '14 were not up to the standard of the '10 and '12.

I didn't think the '15 was as bad as The WInefront made out, but it definitely isn't a 97 point wine as Mr Halliday rated it. I thought it was OK when I tasted it. Having said that, on the 100 point scale it's probably a 92. I didn't think it had the balance to be a long termer. It will be interesting to see the 2016.

Big changes afoot at Rockfords and it will be interesting to see the direction the wines go in.

I still stand by my opinion that in most vintages, the Rifle Range is the better wine though.

Oh, and that was a fantastic wine list for a 50th. Happy Birthday Croquet King, you celebrated in style.

Cheers
Ian

[felixp21]

FWIW, we had the 90,91,94 and 96 Rockford Basket Press last weekend. 94 was pretty average, the remaining three good, but certainly nothing to call mum about. Would have rated the 90 and 91 about 92pts, the 96 about 93 pts.
In the interest of total fairness, however, the other guys thought they were better than I did, although not a lot better. All of them smashed to smithereens by Meshasch's from the 91, 94 and 96 vintages, which were brilliant. I'll get around to writing them up hopefully.

[JamieBahrain]

For context, what was BP versus Meshasch price wise in those vintages?

I just recall when I started out, BP was the bargain south of $20 wine bought after hunting other Barossa nobles at the time.

For the price it is an excellent wine but hoo-hah has built up over the years and we have lost the wine’s soul and origins of simplicity ? And I’m interested in a critique of Ben’s winemaking with grumblings from some quarters - not a sledge just interested .

[felixp21]

Hi Jamie,
you are 100% correct..... for it's price, Rockford was a fantastic wine (and bargain) much like the old Wynns Black Label. It was cheap as chips, as was the Black Shiraz, and meant as a "standard" offering. All the hoop-la these days is making the wine something it was never designed to be. It isn't and wasn't a super-premium, and certainly was never priced as such. The scores handed out by many are quite strange to my mind, it's just a good, honest Barossa shiraz, nothing more, nothing less.
I can't recall exactly, but for sure the Meshach would have been at least twice the price of the Basket Press in those vintages, perhaps more. So, it's only fair and reasonable that it has aged better and presents as a better wine.

[Croquet King]

For context, what was BP versus Meshasch price wise in those vintages?

I just recall when I started out, BP was the bargain south of $20 wine bought after hunting other Barossa nobles at the time.

For the price it is an excellent wine but hoo-hah has built up over the years and we have lost the wine’s soul and origins of simplicity ? And I’m interested in a critique of Ben’s winemaking with grumblings from some quarters - not a sledge just interested .

I remember buying the 2009 Meshach for $90 per bottle back in about 2016. Not that is matters but it had/has an RRP of $180.
I'm not sure if anyone pays that.

The Rockford would have been approx $60 then.
The St Peters had the price written on the outside of the case - $45 per bottle back in 2006
St Henri I'm guessing was $65 for the 2009. Only that I got the 2010 for under $70.

[phillisc]

1190 Meshasch was actually quite good value for the 1990 vintage, around $30, '90 BP was $16.
I don't buy that BP is a good ordinary Barossa Shiraz, I have tasted plenty above and below the price that could also be classed as good ordinary Shiraz or indeed just plain awful Shiraz.
Must be some really hard task masters here if BP is considered a bog standard expression of Barossa Shiraz.
Cheers Craig

[Redav]

And I’m interested in a critique of Ben’s winemaking with grumblings from some quarters - not a sledge just interested .

Have there been any other winemakers other than Robert, Chris and Ben?