Tied on a big one last evening to send off another poor lost soul to some forlorn Pacific island for a year of bludging (house husbandry, he calls it!) on his partner's good fortune of picking up a plum job.
WBI of 3 and this morning I feel just dandy!
Petaluma Riesling 2002 - under cork
Straw/green and bright. Mineral, lime and blossoms. Still fresh, steely, slatey, tight and limey on the palate with the first vestige of toasty development. Long, crisp, beautifully integrated acid finish. Invigorating. Excellent/Outstanding. Drink now-2012.
Pipers Brook Riesling 2000
Glowing lemon/green. Very impressive upon opening. Lush and intoxicating with eerie Alsatian undertones. Mainly mandarin and exotic tropical fruit with citrus and mineral notes in the background. Nice balance of sweet and sour with the acid spiking, marginally, at the back. Didn't sing for long, becoming disjointed and broadening relatively quickly. Almost Excellent falling to (just) Good. Drink now and, on this performance, very fast!
Tyrrell's Vat 47 Chardonnay 1999
Deep yellow gold. Honeyed peach and fig nose supported with subtle, integrated cashew oak and mealy notes. Rich, fat and mouthfilling with "peaches and cream" fruit, adequate counterbalancing acidity, subservient, but noticable, oak input and a long satisfying finish. Perhaps atypically big and bold for a Vat 47, but rated Excellent, all the same. Drink soon.
Maurice Ecard Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru "Narbantons" 1996
Rusty deep red/brown. Mature hue. Funky and quite feral upon opening. Flowered in the glass to reveal an earthy, sappy Pinot with bright sour cherry, plum, undergrowth and gamey fruit over a solid acid backbone and very fine, persistent tannins. Long, complex departure. One person thought this a little too rustic, everyone else liked it more and more, until there was no more! Rated, in the end, as Excellent and particularly good value at $40. Should last for many years.
Yarra Yering Pinot Noir 1998
Dreadful. Full of acetone and VA. An utter abortion of a wine. Undrinkable.
Ch. Margaux 1983
Hubba, hubba! Still a healthy deep ruby right to the edge. Superb integrated/seamless cedary/sandalwood nose harboring a wealth of blackcurrants, herbs, sweet earth and gorgeous vanillin/savoury oak. Something you could smell for hours. Still fresh, tight on the palate with years, possibly decades ahead of it. Aristocratically structured with relatively full body, very powerful fine-grained tannins, surprising bright acidity and bountiful, concentrated blackcurrant/earthy/herb-tinged fruit, this Outstanding wine literally explodes in the mouth, finishing long and with great power and authority. A wonderful drinking experience, indeed! The only thing I can think of that was missing was the tell-tale Margaux violets. Not to worry!
Platagenet Shiraz 1993
Mid ruby. Savoury, spicy, peppery and plummy nose with licorice, earth, tarry and grilled meat characters lending added attraction. Mature, dry savoury palate with the plummy/leathery fruit holding all the way to the back. Tannins and acid are almost fully resolved and perfectly integrated. This one's right to go. Excellent but in need of being drunk over the next year for maximum pleasure.
Ch. Dutruch Grand Poujeaux (Moulis) 1978
Not too bad at all, for what it is. In fact, I rated it as Good with a sweet/weedy/minty nose of fading red cherry fruit, although the astingency on the palate tended to dominate the light- to medium- weight of fruit similar to that found in the bouquet. A curio, given to one of the lads by his son as a present recently.
Yalumba Octavius 1994
Surprisingly developed red colour with some amber in the meniscus. Dill, creosote and burnt leather dominate a spicy/cinammon stick/vegetal bouquet with traces of coffee and distant dusty red fruit. Similarly overoaked and underfruited on the palate with more vegetal/astringent/volatile character you could poke a stick at. The provider of this bottle liked it but with the caveat of needing at least another 10 years. Good Luck! Poor
Then followed a lucky dip of Rutherglen fortifieds from our hosts stash which included a little tired but relatively ok Buller's Classic Release Muscat, a bottle of Jone's White Port in poor condition and an Excellent Morris Old Premium Muscat in 750ml format with the old Burgundy label. A nice way to close out a long and enjoyable evening.