TNS: 1989/1992/1994/1997/1997 Reserve/2002 Tahbilk Marsanne

[Adair]

Tasted at Offline on Saturday 13th September 2003 at restaurant Atelier in Newtown, Sydney:


1989 Tahbilk Marsanne: Deep orange starting to brown. Oxidative characters dominated the honeyed marmalade upon opening and over the next 24-36 hours. The fruit and acid seemed to be gracefully passing away. Although it had the balance and harmony of an excellent wine, it was more of a curio than an enjoyable wine. Past its peak. No rating.

However, after 48 hours, a deep caramel arose out of the wine replacing the previously described fruit and oxidative characters. The little enjoyment the wine provided in the first 48 hours was indicative of the fact I had half a bottle left on the wineÂ’s 3rd night. This ended up being a great thing, as I thoroughly enjoyed consuming that last half bottle within an hour. This wine ended up providing an excellent wine tasting experience, at least for me!


1992 Tahbilk Marsanne: Bright orange. Floral, citrus, honey and apricot flavours on a soft creamy palate, nearly fine French oak sort of soft creamy palate despite the absence of any oak. Beautifully integrated acid. Long, balanced, gorgeous wine. Excellent wine at its peak and will hold for a few more years – significantly longer than the 1989 I suspect. I can't imagine the style getting any better than this! Rated as Outstanding.


1994 Tahbilk Marsanne: Bright orange/yellow with SO2 bubbles present in the glass. Not as honeyed as the Marsannes either side of it in the line up, but still present. More orange-citrus with florals. The wine was long but the acid was slightly aggressive and I am concerned it will not balance with time. It did not carry the beautiful Marsanne flavours to the end, instead leaving a slightly raw, dirty finish. Rated as Recommended.

This was the wine that first opened my mind to the pleasures of Tahbilk Marsanne and I can still see why. The beautiful Marsanne honeysuckle flavours are present and it is well structured, which is something my palate finds important, but next to the other vintages, its shortcomings are clear.


1997 Tahbilk Marsanne: Yellow. Intense flavours of significantly honeyed citrus fruits and florals on nose and palate. This seemed more forward flavoured with a more-rounded palate than the rest. However, the acid is still there giving good length. A very hedonistic wine now. I note that GaryW found a spicier component to the wine. I agree. I found this added interest. Rated Highly Recommended/Excellent. Although not detrimental, I donÂ’t think age will be of any significant benefit.


1997 Reserve Tahbilk Marsanne (made from the oldest block of Tahbilk Marsanne and is not due for release until 2007): Due to it being significantly darker than the standard 1997, it was hoped that this wine was oaked. It seemed to be. There was some sweet creamy apricot fruit on the palate but it was very restrained and subdued. A soft oakiness on palate and mouthfeel was the prominent feature of this wine at the moment.

I tasted and finished the wine the next evening and more sweet, but restrained, fruit appeared as did more acid and length. It was a better wine than the previous night but still provided nothing to get carried away over.

Despite my comments, given the wineÂ’s pedigree, the nature of Marsanne and the sense of unrevealed layers of fruit, I am willing to allow the wine the extra 4 years Tahbilk are giving it before passing judgement. Thank you Tahbilk for the opportunity to sample this wine. I look forward to comparing my notes in 4 years.


2002 Tahbilk Marsanne: Clear with green tinges. Intense aromatics, lemon and sweet citrus. More complexity opened up on the second night. Quite forward. Smooth integrated mouthfeel with long, well-integrated acid. Given the flavour, probably not a long-living Tahbilk Marsanne. I suspect that it will develop like the 1997. Rated as Highly Recommended. Ridiculously good value drinking nowÂ… but we all know that.

Adair

[Rock]

Thanks for the notes --- further evidence of how good this is especially considering price. Just curious if anyone has tasted the 2000 recently? Also is 2000 considered a good vintage for this wine?

Rock

[SueNZ]

Adair,
How I envy you tasting those Marsannes. The Tahbilk Marsannes are some of the most interesting wines I've ever tasted - I just love they way the complexities develop as they age. And at the price you guys can buy them from on the cellar door at release, they have to be one of THE great wine bargains in the world.

I tasted that 1989 3 years ago and it was the most glorious thing. However on the day Alister Purbrick had said it was more developed that he would have hoped. Even so, it is hard to believe this wine had crumpled up to an oxidised mess in just 3 years so suspect it was a less that desirable cork seal on the bottle you opened, but this seems to be a problematic theme.

From my notes - if this is of interest to you

. . . . The 1989 Chateau Tahbilk Marsanne (developed apricot gold in colour) was just sublime. First of all there was the developed aromas reeking of honey and apricot. Then there was the dried apricot (not the hard dried apricots, but the plumper apricots that are so moreish you can't stop eating them-kind of apricot) and stone fruit flavours on the palate. Sweet and full with a toasty richness, lovely balance and v.v. long length. Just delicious with a lovely mouthfeel. I can imagine this served with thin slices of fresh fruit and some dried fruits such as apricot and mango. 18.5/20 with an arrow up.
Well, I was surprised when our host said this was not a good bottle of the 1989! Explaining, he said it was a little more developed than he wanted to show us - it was drinking more like a 15 to 20 year old. Perhaps it was useful for us to see it like this, then, for there was no 1984 or 1979 for us to taste ......
Tasted Oct 2000.

Cheers Sue
PS Hopefully the new releases are in screwcap.

[Murray]

Sue,

Tahbilk have realeased some of their range in screwcap. Their latest mailer offered a "All Screwed Up" pack including 02 Marsanne and 03 Viognier, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc.

Murray

[Adair]

Hello All,

Thanks for your replies:

1) Rock, 2000 is considered by Tahbilk to be a 7 out of 7 vintage for Marsanne. The only previous 7s being 1992, 1989, 1982, 1980.

2) SueNZ, this is the second bottle of 1989 I have tried in the last 3 months with similar results. The helpful people (and I mean that comment sincerely) at Tahbilk tell me that the 1989 should be showing better but now I am beginning to suspect that they are falling quickly. Has anyone else tried a 1989 recently? Tahbilk?

Kind regards,
Adair

[GraemeG]

Sue,

Tahbilk have realeased some of their range in screwcap. Their latest mailer offered a "All Screwed Up" pack including 02 Marsanne and 03 Viognier, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc.

Murray

I gather from the conversation I had with them at the Tucker's tasting in Sydney earlier this month that all the Marsanne & Viognier will be in screwcap for the 2003 vintage. The Marsanne was only a small run under cap for 2002.

Needless to say I encouraged the use of caps. 'Moving to caps for reds too?' They seemed to think that as their wines already take 15 years to become "drinkable" any further prolonging of maturity, as they seem to think the screwcap will do, is unnecessary. Presumably the TCA rate isn't bothering them at the moment...

cheers,
Graeme

[Quizmaster]

Adair,

I recently had a 97 and, like you, thoroughly enjoyed it. Exceptional value. I thought it would age and develop further though as this bottle still had plenty of ‘kick’.

[PaulV]

Regarding the Marsanne vertical, which I was lucky enough to be a participant and grateful to Adair for organising, the thing that struck me was the level of complexity and structure the better aged ones showed.

While I knew that with age they would gain a more honeysuckle nose and some richness I had always thought that they would be one dimensional. maybe the couple I have had in the past were either lighter year wines or not well kept.

The 97 and 92 in particular were great wines - complex honey, nutty creamy noses following onto similar palates with wonderful richness but with beautuful cutting acidity to freshen and even lenghten the palate.

As a born lover of aged complex semillons and rieslings, these 2 bottles would have stood up proudly with their similarly aged semillon and riesling brothers. Maybe never as devastingly awesome as a 70 Lindies semillon, or Burings 70's rieslings, nevertheless i left the offline with a new found appreciation of a humble grape.

Cheers

paul Verdich