Had it last night at The Botanical in Melbourne. It was decanted and left to breath for a half hour.
Not quite what I expected in that it was very smooth & velvety. I expected a fairly large tannic bite out of it. Got some lovely cassis overtones and (what I thought) was a hint of coffee.
Much like a merlot, the flavour didn't really kick in until I swallowed. Certainly some tannins, but not as much as expected. Thought for a moment that it was slightly corked, but changed my mind after talking with the sommelier. Unfortunetely I don't think my palette is developed enough to pick up bottles with only slight hints of taint.
All that said, I really enjoyed it and have a few in the cellar.
I had it at the Coonawarra wine tasting a few months ago that was going around many of the capital cities.
All of my friends had it in their favourite half dozen wines of the night. Typical Coonawarra Cab, but not quite the power of some other 2000s such as the Balnaves two.
That having been said, the "standard" labels, which admitedly were 2001s, were quite disappointing in many people's opinion.
Agreed entirely Mike, the 00 Family Selection was one of the picks of the night, and the std 01's were disappointing (at the Brisbane leg of the same roadshow).
I opened a bottle of this about 5 months ago, had one glass and put the cork back in and left it for 3 nights having a sample tasting every night. By the third night this wine had really opened up, your descriptors of smooth and velvety definitely spring to mind. I don't have tasting notes, but the quality fruit was shining through a big bodied wine that has beautiful balance and is not over the top. This wine really needs time, decanting and drinking it on the same night would not have do it justice. I tried the Barrel Series version of this (supposedly the best individual barrel selected from the batch) and it would have been in my top 5 wines of the year, last year. I absolutely loved it.
I opened a bottle of this about 5 months ago, had one glass and put the cork back in and left it for 3 nights having a sample tasting every night. By the third night this wine had really opened up, your descriptors of smooth and velvety definitely spring to mind. I don't have tasting notes, but the quality fruit was shining through a big bodied wine that has beautiful balance and is not over the top. This wine really needs time, decanting and drinking it on the same night would not have do it justice. I tried the Barrel Series version of this (supposedly the best individual barrel selected from the batch) and it would have been in my top 5 wines of the year, last year. I absolutely loved it.
