Had a long weekend in the Barossa and the lunch on Friday at Rockford was special. As were the new SVS 1999 wines on offer.
The 02 Charlie Melton wines looked superb and a taste of the 94 Barossa Shiraz which had been opened due to a visit by Phillip White showed the class and poise these wines develop with some bottle age.
A visit to Yalumba had me pick up a few bottles of the 04 Mesh which was steely and seemingly a long-liver and a drop of the 01 Octavius had me impressed - I was expecting lashings of oak but didn't find any intrusive wood on the palate. Good wine but the price stretched the relationship somewhat!
Other than that, the weekend was dominated by bubbles with a 96 Pol Roger being the highlight and some NV Billecart an appropriate chaser. The St Hallet sparkling red was a nice drop also, but I was in my cups by then and probably didn't get (or deserve) any of the finer points of this wine.
Good weekend to be repeated in late August when we get offal and aged reds - perfect combo!:)
-- George Krashos