TN: Blacktongues 18/5/05 New Releases

[n4sir]

For those of you not familiar with these events all the following wines were tried blind, and after about an hour all participants voted for their most preferred, two next preferred and their least preferred drops.

I’ve included my own impressions and rankings, the group votes, and a group ranking based on most preferred votes counting for double, second and third one vote, and least preferred minus one vote.

Steve promised a very powerful group of wines, and they mostly lived up to his word. The voting was very evenly spread due to how good the group was.


2002 Warrabilla Shiraz Durif $23: Inky purple colour with a glowing purple hue. A sweet, earthy nose begins the proceedings, with plums, confectionery, dark stewed fruits and aniseed to the fore and malty oak in support; with a lot of breathing it really does open up to something quite flamboyant, with some cedar, chocolate, VA and orange zest. The palate has a slippery entry, a spicy mid-palate with tangy red fruits, and a well structured finish with blackberry and pepper. This was a powerful wine with huge, ripe fruit and tannin extract that hid its 16% alcohol extremely well.

My ranking: 3rd place
Panel ranking: =7th place

Votes: 0 most, 3 second & third, 1 least



2002 Heathcote Winery Curagee $54: Inky purple colour with a glowing purple hue. What appears to be very obvious buttery/coconut American oak dominates the nose at first, with hints of chocolate and licorice underneath the surface that intensify with breathing. The palate opens with dry, puckery tannins, before a burst of ripe cherry fruit appears mid-palate with a touch of alcohol heat, finishing long with sweet cherries and dry tannins. Given the amount of oak treatment and the scale of the tannins I thought this needed more time to bring out its best – maybe one to watch.

My ranking: 5th place
Panel ranking: =7th place

Votes: 1 most preferred, 1 second & third, 1 least



2002 Charles Melton Shiraz $38: Inky purple/red. The nose was relatively closed and simple in this group, with stewed plum fruit and a hint of ground pepper throughout the tasting. The palate opens with rich blackberry fruit, and spicy pepper on the mid-palate, finishing long with a mixture of ground pepper, aniseed and dry tannins. Like the Craiglee I thought this needed a lot more time to bring out its best – one for the cellar.

My ranking: 6th place
Panel ranking: 9th place

Votes: 0 most, 1 second & third, 1 least



2003 Winter Creek Barossa Shiraz $30: Inky purple colour with a glowing purple hue. The nose opens with some sweet blackberry, then some ozone before becoming quite stinky. The palate features sweet, rich blackberry fruit on entry, a spicy mid-palate with olive/licorice, finishing soft with great persistence. At first I thought this may have been an earlier drinking style, but with breathing those spicy tannins became more obvious on the palate – the nose could have been better though.

My ranking: =7th place
Panel ranking: 5th place

Votes: 1 most, 4 second & third, 1 least



2003(?) Twofold Heathcote Shiraz $30+: Inky purple colour with a glowing purple hue. This was disarmingly sweet at first, with confectionery/boiled lollies, sweet cherries and cassis, before becoming quite floral with rose petal characters. The lemony oak is masterfully handled adding support and complexity: tight and grainy at first, then sweet and perfumed with lemon sherbet wafting from the glass at the end. The palate is just as classy, with a slow, brawny build up of sweet/spicy fruit, black olives and fine tannins providing superb length. Its total class won me over from the beginning.

My ranking: 1st place
Panel ranking: =2nd place

Votes: 2 most, 4 second & third, 1 least



2003 Massena The 11th Hour Barossa Shiraz $30: Inky purple colour with a glowing purple hue. Stewed blackberry/plum fruit with very obvious apricots made me wonder if this was a Shiraz Viognier blend at first; with breathing it became more elegant and appealing with cedar and rich Barossa chocolate, but then abruptly lost me again at the end with soap/detergent characters. The palate generated feelings that were just as mixed, with a sweet chocolate entry, a spicy mid-palate featuring a hot spike of alcohol heat, before finishing very long with some chocolate, and then that soap that was on the nose. There was a lot to like and dislike about this wine, but in this strong group the latter won out.

My ranking: 9th place
Panel ranking: 6th place

Votes: 0 most, 5 second and third, 1 least



2002 Squid Ink 3 Associates McLaren Vale Shiraz $45: Inky purple/red colour. A very musty, reserved nose, slightly stinky and very closed not revealing a cracker. The palate was just as muted, with a dry entry, massive structure and a disturbing lack of fruit. I got the feeling early on this may have had the effect of minor TCA contamination, and the panel voted it dead last which defied its (local) cult status and price tag.

My ranking: 10th place
Panel ranking: 10th place

Votes: 0 most, 0 second & third, 3 least



2002 Amicus Langhorne Creek Reserve Shiraz $35: Dark to inky purple/red colour. The nose opened with dark fruit with a hint of fireplace/toasted oak, before showing a lot of VA and oak influences with varnish, texta-fumes, vanilla and formic acid. The palate features sweet vanilla oak with some VA on entry, a spicy mid-palate with some alcohol heat and sweet cherry/plum fruit, finishing with great length and fine tannins. The wine was cleverly made with a lot of extract and oak, but I thought the fruit power wasn’t quite there to match its maker’s lofty intentions.

My ranking: 4th place
Panel ranking: =2nd place

Votes: 3 most, 3 second & third, 2 least



2002 Kies Klauber Block Barossa Shiraz $24: Dark to inky purple/red colour. A glorious mix of classy Barossa fruit and rich, sweet oak, with roasted/bitter chocolate and a hint of toast, then concentrated blackberries, sweet caramel, licorice allsorts, vanilla and milk chocolate. The palate is just as slippery and plush, with sweet milk chocolate and licorice dancing around the mouth like a fist-full of chocolate bullets, finishing soft and long with deceptively fine tannins. This is such an easy wine to enjoy, and while narrowly missing out on my top vote it was best overall for the panel in a close one.

My ranking: 2nd place
Panel ranking: 1st place

Votes: 3 most, 4 second & third, 2 least



2002 Claymore Clare Valley Reserve Shiraz $39: Inky purple colour with a glowing purple hue. An extremely closed nose at first, with some plum, pepper and aniseed surfacing only after extensive coaxing. The palate opens very spicy, with some blackberry, licorice and some alcohol heat, but was quite simple (although powerful) in this group. I thought this needed a lot more time to show its stuff, although quite a few of the panel thought they had a good enough idea already. Another one for the cellar.

My ranking: =7th place
Panel ranking: =2nd place

Votes: 3 most, 2 second & third, 1 least



Cheers
Ian

[TORB]

Ian,

Thanks for the notes, well done. When ever I see a group list like this, whilst it does have its uses I remain skeptical for a number of reasons. For a start, how does one calibrate your palate to a group of wine tasters who you are unfamiliar with, (although I do have a reasonale idea about yours and Steves.) Secondly, on what basis is the wine evaluated? Technicially or on enjoyment?

The reason this comes to mind so strongly is that I have recently tried a number of wines in the line up. For example, if I have a look at the Kies (group top choice,) I can see why people enjoy it; no arguement, it is a hugely drinkable wine, but IMO both the Winter Creek (5th place) and the Melton (9th place) are far better wines in terms of structure, balance and class. So if you are rating on "enjoyment" in the glass I would agree, but if you are rating on class, structure and balance, I would disagree completely with the group.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[Grant]

Ian,

The Heathcote Winery wine is called "Curagee". Interestingly, I tried it only a couple of weeks ago at the cellar door, and I concur with your sentiments about it needing time. It is a quite interesting style, intense but in the cherry spectrum rather than the fuller dark fruits, and with a dusty/crushed rock character on the nose that seem to be replicated in the tannins, which are fine,abundant and gravelly/dry. A wine that requires patience ,I think, and not one for those requiring instant gratification.


Cheers

[n4sir]

Ian,

The Heathcote Winery wine is called "Curagee". Interestingly, I tried it only a couple of weeks ago at the cellar door, and I concur with your sentiments about it needing time. It is a quite interesting style, intense but in the cherry spectrum rather than the fuller dark fruits, and with a dusty/crushed rock character on the nose that seem to be replicated in the tannins, which are fine,abundant and gravelly/dry. A wine that requires patience ,I think, and not one for those requiring instant gratification.


Cheers

Whoops!

Thanks for the correction Grant - I typed up the notes without checking carefully enough; sorry about that folks.

Thanks for the notes, well done. When ever I see a group list like this, whilst it does have its uses I remain skeptical for a number of reasons. For a start, how does one calibrate your palate to a group of wine tasters who you are unfamiliar with, (although I do have a reasonale idea about yours and Steves.) Secondly, on what basis is the wine evaluated? Technicially or on enjoyment?

I can't really comment for the others here, except to say it was an extremely strong group of wines and the voting was very, very even.

This was the second time the Charles Melton Shiraz was tried, and the second it didn't do too well. There were a few that thought it was a bad bottle, where I thought it was just closed up - yes a very good structure but closed and not letting out too much giving the impression (for now) it was relatively simple compared to the rest. With time this could be very different.

Cheers
Ian

[JamieBahrain]

Nice notes Ian

The 97 Craiglee shiraz we had on Saturday night must have made an impression.

[smithy]

Glad you enjoyed the 02 Blend.

Interested in your comparative system and can sort of see how it works.
I would have thought rating wines out of 20 and then averaging would make for a better system.

A better comparision to these wines would have been the straight Shiraz, either Reserve or Parola's as they get better oak.

Cheers
Smithy

[n4sir]

8)

Glad you enjoyed the 02 Blend.

Interested in your comparative system and can sort of see how it works.
I would have thought rating wines out of 20 and then averaging would make for a better system.

A better comparision to these wines would have been the straight Shiraz, either Reserve or Parola's as they get better oak.

Cheers
Smithy

When I'm ranking the wines I do use the 20 point scoring system (but I don't include my scores in the tasting notes) and I'm sure quite a few others on the panel do too.

At the end of the tasting the voting for most, second & third most and least preferred tends to take long enough itself at times!

There's no formal Blacktongues ranking, so after some previous posts where people have been confused over the tasting notes vs personal rankings vs group votes (not at this forum), I decided to add an (unofficial) group ranking.

In doing this I made the assumption that a most preferred vote is more valuable than a second/third preferred vote, and in close votes like this it does tend to spread the rankings out, as opposed to having one big log-jam of wines with equal votes. It's nowhere near perfect, but it does tend to give a rough idea of the group's thoughts as a whole.

Cheers
Ian

[bacchaebabe]

Hey Ian,

This tasting group has been around for a while and I always find both the wines on tasting and the notes very interesting.

I was just wondering how you go about selecting the wines though. You obviously choose a theme but then do the members just bring a bottle in line with that theme or do you all chip in and someone goes out and buys a range within the theme?

Obviously some wines for some tastings are in the aged category so I expect personal cellars are being raided.

[n4sir]

Hey Ian,

This tasting group has been around for a while and I always find both the wines on tasting and the notes very interesting.

I was just wondering how you go about selecting the wines though. You obviously choose a theme but then do the members just bring a bottle in line with that theme or do you all chip in and someone goes out and buys a range within the theme?

Obviously some wines for some tastings are in the aged category so I expect personal cellars are being raided.

Steve Norman (707) is normally in charge of the tastings (apart from the c-thrus he doesn't have much interest in). I think for the aged tasting themes the wines come from his cellar.

Cheers
Ian