KL Hilton wine dinner with Andrew Caillard

[vintry]

These are my thoughts and tasting notes on the wine dinner titled "Vintage of the Decade" at the Kuala Lumpur Hilton on the 19th March 2005, Saturday with Andrew Caillard. The theme was a horizontal tasting of selected 1998 Australian wines, with an emphasis on Shiraz.

First Course: Roast Summer Peach & smoked Duck, shaved Fennel & baby Herb Salad
Craiglee Shiraz 1998: Craiglee was disappointing with unbalanced acidity and fading cherry accented fruit.
Bannockburn Shiraz 1998:Typical in its style, quite sappy with fine tannins but with a plum and cherry palate. This was the year that the vineyards were struck by hail and the grapes that made the wine were sourced from various vineyards all over Australia. A pleasant but unexceptional wine. I would suggest drinking over the next 2 years.

Second Course: Smoked & roasted Tasmanian Quail, Parsnip, Pear & Chicory
Parker Coonawarra Terra Rossa First Growth 1998 – Initially was hit by a whack of acidity but gradually fleshed out with typical mint and blackcurrant. Tried a second bottle with the same results. Wonder if anyone else has had this experience with this wine?
Yarra Yering Dry Red No.1 1998 – My first ever Yarra Yering wine. Typical cool climate cabernet with a greenish tinge on the palate with a medium weight palate and hints of capsicum, tobacco and cassis. Good.

Third Course: Roast Lamb Tenderloin, Truffled Potato puree, caramelized Shallots, seared Foie Gras & Jus
Cheese Course: Double Jindi Brie with Fig Jam
Coriole Lloyd Shiraz 1998 – Now were talking. When I first tried this wine upon released I was bowled over. Consistently one of my favourite McLaren Vale shirazes. I remembered there was a rich cascade of ripe plummy licorice fruit which soaked up the oak quite well. 3 years on, the wine is still a baby, big but less fruit forward. Only criticism is that the oak does tend to be a little more obvious than upon release. This may be a concern in the future as the fruit continues to fade but for now it is offering fine drinking for those looking for a classic McLaren Shiraz from 1998. Excellent but watch the oak.
Jasper Hill Georgia’s Paddock 1998 – On the nose this had it all, dark fruits, a dusty spice and pleasant musk laden bouquet. So different to when I first tried the wine a few years ago when the tannins were still aggressive and the fruit was pushed to the background. This baby is singing right now with the palate showing similar complexity and judiciously handled oak which perfectly frames the still substantial licorice, black fruit laden palate and a lingering spicy finish. The WOTN for me.

Dessert: Caramelized Passionfruit Cream, Berries & Toffee wafers
Mt. Horrocks Cordon Cut Riesling (1998?) – As the wines were flowing pretty much freely by now, I did not note down the vintage. A classy dessert wine a light amber brown colour tasting of apricots, orange peel and enough acidity to maintain a fresh zippy finish. Excellent!

All in all an enjoyable night which ended with Andrew auctioning some magnums the highlight which was a Rockford Basket Press Shiraz 1997.

[Anthony]

Hi Vintry,
I am very interested in your comments regarding the 98 Bannockburn Shiraz. I have had this wine three times in the last 2 years and have been blown away each time. The last was about 6 months ago at an Offline and if fooled everyone. Stood up to wines double the price. I have 11 bottles left and I think they will continue to age for quite a while yet. Maybe you guys had a bad bottle or this wine has taken an unexpected turn for the worse. Will have to try another bottle soon.

cheers
anthony

[Guest]

Anthony - I've had two bottles of the 98 Bannockburn shiraz in the past few weeks: the first was great, the second was good-to-middling. The first bottle was from my stash, the second was bought from auction. On the basis of the first bottle, drunk about three weeks ago, this has plenty of years left in it. Even though there's a lot of Barossan fruit in it, it's got an elegance to it, and a tannin structure that doesn't look Barossan. Beautiful wine - which is why I then topped up some more via auction.

Campbell.

[Chow Chow]

Hi Vintry,

I didnt attend this event simply becos only 1 wine attracted me, that's the Georgia. The rest I can live without
After retasting some of my '98, for Langton's to proclaimed it as the vintage of the century is a BIG CALL! Most of the '98 were exceptionally good upon released with its primary fruits and youthful exuberence but sadly only a handful will last a decade. Some of it are declining with very loosely knited components and fruits are fading.
1996 a better vintage IMO, some of the wines I had recently r firing on every cylinders.

3 mths. ago I did a horizontal '98 Barossa ICON with Octavius, Command, Grange, Stonewell and Meshach and the cost for each participant was the same price with this Cellarium dinner @ SanFransisco Steakhouse(cheaper venue ) It's a non-profitable event, I even lose money on some of those wines since I wont be able to open all the wines on my own. All the wines were fantastic except the Meshach which is declining.

[vintry]

Chow Chow,

I do agree, for the price there are other venues and wines which can be consumed offering a greater range of styles and consistently high quality. Maybe an idea to do a comparative tasting of some benchmark 1999's vs 1998's or just a horizontal of 1999's in the near future. Nevertheless the Jasper Hill and Coriole were flowing freely so that kept the night going well.

Surprised about your comments on the 1998 Meshach. I do have a semblance of a verticle from 1990 of the Meshach but stopped at 1996. Maybe lucky I missed out on the 1998? Have always been a fan of this wine though.

[Chow Chow]

Vintry,
There's another comment on the '98 Meschach by DAVO --> http://www.auswine.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2909

Had the '99 Mechach, IMO a better wine than the 98.

Beside the Meschach, here r some of the 99, I prefered over the 98.

Armagh, E&E B.Pepper & Saltram#1.

[TORB]

I have not tried the Meshach since release but was concerned about it at the time; when I stated that the inheret sweetness worried me, everyone thought thought I was crazy. There was something that caused alarm bells to go off when I tasted it.

Glad i bought the 99 and not the 98.

[Grant]

re Bannockburn 98- this wine just rocks my world. I love it. I would add though that there has been the odd bottle that was way off colour; I took one overseas a couple of weeks ago to show off the complexity of great Oz shiraz and it failed to impress. Such is the way of the cork, so much unexplained mystery wrapped around it, and too many wines summarily damned as inferior because of it.

I'm happy to have a couple of cases, and I'll keep buying it when possible.


Cheers

[dingo]

... wine dinner titled "Vintage of the Decade" at the Kuala Lumpur Hilton on the 19th March 2005, Saturday with Andrew Caillard.

I thought initially 1998 was proclaimed as Vintage of the Century by Langtons?

http://www2.langtons.com.au/magazine/ma ... azineID=36

Have they gone conservative or am I missing something?

[vintry]

Dingo,

You are right, there seems to be a discrepancy in the hyperbole from Langtons. On the night it was definitely decade and not century.

What is not in doubt that Parker definitely rates the 1998 as the vintage of the century judging from his comments and his ratings.

[Chow Chow]

1998 vintage was Parker's "rennaissance" for OZ wines esp. the "Cults" Prior to that he only knew of Clarendon Hills with the exception of Grange & HoG (estb. Icons)

For Langtons, it's the 80's and by looking at their "classification" many do not deserved the merits. Time for a change?