TN: Offline @ Cos with Jamie 28/5/05

[n4sir]

Mark Wickman arranged this special dinner at the Cos bar (Leigh Street, Adelaide) last Saturday while Jamie Bahrain was in town. All bottles are 750ml unless noted otherwise.

1992 E&E Black Pepper Sparkling Shiraz: Dark red with a good mouse and steady bead. A clean and complex nose at first, with leather, mint, dried herbs, mixed spice and cedar/sandalwood; with breathing it tends to bounce between the extremes of ripe banana, cloves, smelly leather/tanned hide and fish sauce. The palate was rich and velvety, with sweet raspberry fruit and chocolate/mocha accents, finishing with some black olive and banana characters. I tend to like my SS relatively “clean” in style, and this fitted the bill nicely.

1990 Penfolds St. Henri Shiraz: Dark red colour with no sign of bricking. I was concerned before the tasting this could be overwhelmed between the sparkling Shiraz and the big wines to follow, but one whiff and I knew I shouldn’t have worried. Gorgeous, elegant, and complex nose of pretty violets with a touch of dried herbs, sweet leather and star anise, concentrated raspberry, and at times spearmint and camphor-wood. The palate is rich, multi-layered and remarkably soft and lingering, featuring contrasting spicy blackberry/sweet raspberry, and finishing very long with flashes of black olive and coffee. It’s a more elegant, restrained wine than the 1996 vintage, and yet it’s still remarkably complete with a lot of gas left in the tank.

1993 Balnaves Cabernet Sauvignon: Inky red colour with a hint of brick on the rim. A big, bold and remarkably young nose from the first whiff with beetroot, chalk and capsicum, and some star anise, mint and menthol with breathing. The palate opens with those regional chalk and capsicum characters, but drops off remarkably quickly leaving very dry tannins exposed on the long finish – this was a little better with breathing, but still very disappointing compared to the bouquet.

1991 Wynns Coonawarra Estate Centenary Shiraz Cabernet: Glowing dark to inky red colour. Coming straight after the Balnaves the nose was multi-layered and very tightly knit at first, but opened up beautifully; varnish/floor polish, VA, peppermint, violets, roasted capsicum, and spicy cedar, it just seemed to get sweeter and denser with time. The palate was very complex from the opening salvo, with spicy/smoky tobacco, mint and mineral characters matched to a soft, lingering, multi-layered structure that won me over with it’s finesse. Like the St. Henri it’s deceptively powerful; they both remind me of that Duracell bunny – while they’re superb drinking now, they will keep going, and going, and going…

1990 Jim Barry The Armagh: Dark to inky red colour. Amazingly closed and juvenile at first – luckily at this stage additional glasses were provided and I had the luxury of letting this sit until the last couple of heavyweights were poured. The nose was a perfect reflection of its maker’s lofty Grange-like intentions matched to regional Clare Valley fruit, with choc-mint, crushed ants/formic acid, choc-cherry, eucalyptus, molasses/licorice, pepper, raisin and soy sauce all there. The palate is similarly a slow, massive crawl of powerful, earthy fruit with smoky tannins, and hints of mushroom, licorice and soy sauce. Despite the double decanting this still looked like a sleeping rhinoceros: immensely powerful, but there’s no real sign of stretching its legs out yet.

1991 Rockford Basket Press Shiraz (Magnum): Dark to inky red colour with some brick on the rim. Every so slightly stinky at first with some fish sauce/freshly tanned hide, but then the nose sweetens up remarkably quickly with concentrated blackberry fruit matched to roast coffee oak. The complex palate features a spicy entry, with savoury/velvety fruit matched to sweet banana oak and ample black olive tannins, finishing long and creamy. Great drinking now.

1994 Cyrill Henschke Cabernet Sauvignon: Dark to inky red colour. A green and complex nose, a bit like the Balnaves but more exotic featuring roasted capsicum, star anise and soy sauce, cigarette paper and some iodine. The mid-weight palate was spicy and far more complete than the Balnaves, with slightly green cassis fruit matched perfectly to the structure.

1997 Craiglee Shiraz: Glowing, dark to inky red colour. A very open, sweet and clean nose of mint, ground pepper, leather and chocolate that’s replicated by the palate. It’s mid-weight, clean and spicy with mint, sweet raspberry/blackberry fruit, supple tannins and great length. This was another convincing 1997 wine that’s just so easy to drink – great stuff.

1998 Greg Norman Estate Reserve Shiraz: Glass-hugging dark to inky red/purple colour with a glowing rim. A very young and sweet nose reflecting its origins of McLaren Vale fruit matched to ample American oak, with violets/blackcurrant and spicy coconut. The palate opens with a rush of dark chocolate/cherry and mint on entry, before becoming quite spicy/peppery mid-palate, finishing with choc-cherry and sweet coffee/mocha. One can say it’s been obviously tailored for it’s American export market, but overall I still thought it’s a pretty good effort.

1998 Wirra Wirra Chook Block Shiraz: Inky red/purple colour with a glowing purple hue. A massive, extracted nose featuring varnish/nail polish remover (EA) and some chocolate. The palate is just as wild, with syrupy, concentrated blackberry/blueberry fruit with again that hint of varnish, matched to creamy/nutty vanilla oak, finishing a fraction short with roasted cashews. This was an incredibly juvenile, intimidating wine that needs a lot of time to settle down, although the amount of EA characters and short-ish finish are a bit of a worry already.

2003 Kalleske Johann Georg Troy Kalleske was good enough to sell Mark an additional bottle of this extremely rare and special wine for this tasting, and it didn’t disappoint. Glass-hugging inky red/purple colour. A complex nose already, with wheaty/malty scents, perfumed violets, marmite, hot/molten steel, cashews, and some creamy mushroom/lobster bisque scents. Like the 1990 St. Henri and the 1991 Centenary, the multi-layered structure of the palate really stood out in this wine already, letting us know how special it is; rich, ripe blackberry/mulberry fruit is supported by sweet coffee oak on the finish, with those creamy/mushroom highlights again surfacing with breathing. This seemed to have facets of so many good wines we’ve tried at these offlines, like the 1999 Roenfeldt Road and the 2002 St. Peters – thanks Troy and Mark, this was indeed a rare treat worth savouring!

2002 Chateau Tanunda Botrytis Semillon: This was produced at the end of the night to match our Quince pudding desserts and cheese platters, and seemed to match the challenge of following the massive reds pretty well. Pale to golden yellow colour. A youthful, waxy/citrus nose with some honey/apricot flashes with breathing. The palate is just as refreshing, with honeyed/citrus characters and good length.

My thanks to everyone for another fantastic evening, especially to Mark thinking of it and putting this together at Cos. The food (especially the eye fillet) was just as superb as before, and the service was again brilliant. I hope you had a great time Jamie, because this was about as good as it gets!


Cheers
Ian

[JamieBahrain]

Thanks for putting together a great evening gentleman. And again thanks to Mark for organising the offline and venue.

The line up was just superb. There were wines I never thought I would ever try- the Wynn's Centenary excellent and by nights end the 90 St Henri had truly transformed into a special wine.

I heard someone cry a Basket Press vertical for a future offline! Great idea.

[markg]

Thanks for putting together a great evening gentleman. And again thanks to Mark for organising the offline and venue.

The line up was just superb. There were wines I never thought I would ever try- the Wynn's Centenary excellent and by nights end the 90 St Henri had truly transformed into a special wine.

I heard someone cry a Basket Press vertical for a future offline! Great idea.

Your welcome chaps. The only down point for me is that my camera (including the photos from this evening) was stolen/lost from the taxi on the way home.

A basket press vertical would be an excellent idea. Let us know when your back in town.

[JamieBahrain]

Shame about the camera Mark.

If it doesn't turn up happy to bring one back from HK for you. I think they are pretty cheap here as I am always lugging electronic gear back to Oz for people.

[markg]

Nice offer Jamie, thank you very much, however my insurance will cover it without a problem.

[Maximus]

Nice offer Jamie, thank you very much, however my insurance will cover it without a problem.

'without a problem'???

Good Lord Mark, please enlighten us all, which company is it??!!!!!!!

[markg]

Nice offer Jamie, thank you very much, however my insurance will cover it without a problem.

'without a problem'???

Good Lord Mark, please enlighten us all, which company is it??!!!!!!!

CGU, Blue Ribbon home contents policy (no excess), they have always been excellent.

[n4sir]

Thanks for putting together a great evening gentleman. And again thanks to Mark for organising the offline and venue.

The line up was just superb. There were wines I never thought I would ever try- the Wynn's Centenary excellent and by nights end the 90 St Henri had truly transformed into a special wine.

I heard someone cry a Basket Press vertical for a future offline! Great idea.

Your welcome chaps. The only down point for me is that my camera (including the photos from this evening) was stolen/lost from the taxi on the way home.

A basket press vertical would be an excellent idea. Let us know when your back in town.

It's a bummer about the camera - at least you didn't lose a swag of shots of Steve drinking Chardonnay; that would have been priceless.

Maybe Jamie will be back for the much vaunted Yalumba Signature vertical too?

Cheers
Ian