2003 Tapanappa - the debut vintage A fascinating new wine coming from some of the best terroir in Australia expressing the joined cultures of Old and New World wine making. Drinking well already yet with 3 to 5 years cellarage potential, this wine is on allocation reflecting the small production of its very first vintage and some room should be made for it in your cellar.
Property Profile:Tapanappa is the new joint venture between wine giants Bollinger, Jean-Michel Cazes (owner of Chateau Lynch-Bages) and Australian wine guru Brian Croser (Decanter's 'Man of the Year' 2004). The trio purchased the Koppamurra Vineyard, which lies in South Australia in Wratton Bully and covers 20 ha. 40 ha of vineyards adjacent to the Koppamurra Vineyard were purchased, also on terra rossa which covers limestone. The 2003 Tapanappa is a blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Shiraz and 10% Cabernet Franc.
"The debut wine - silky textured with a dry, slightly dusty finish - is certainly very much subtler and gentler than the average Australian red. You can really taste some Bordeaux influence – talented Lynch Bages winemaker Daniel Llose has visited the site and Petaluma winery where it was made – and I fully expect it to find favour with the finesse-hounds in the Australian wine media such as Huon Hooke. Croser [the property owner] admitted that the co-operation with the Bordelais had taught him a lot about tannin management, a peculiarly Bordelais skill which Australians tend to ignore... I really enjoyed it... I urge anyone interested in the greater world of wine and developments within it to taste a bottle of Tapanappa 2003. It marks a distinct evolutionary phase for Australian red." Jancis Robinson, 16th June 2005.
Wrattonbully = Poor version of Coonawarra?
Croser - lost the battle for extending the famous "Terra Rossa"strip?
JBA wrote:Call me a cynic, but I wonder if JR would even have bothered tasting or mentioning this wine if the [property owner] was Joe Scaggs!
Of course you are correct, but what is your point? Bollinger, Jean-Michel Cazes & Brian Croser have a proven track record of many, many years, with numerous & varied projects. Some of those projects have produced some seriously great wines, of course she was going to be interested enough to want to taste the end result! I wouldn't call you a cynic so much as a tall poppy chopper!
BTW I tasted Joe Scaggs latest release & it wasn't a patch on Wrattonbully's worst offerings, but I reckon Joe should keep at it, just look at what the Tigers & the Cowboys have achieved.
JBA wrote:You stroke my back and I'll stroke your *#ck!
Call me a cynic, but I wonder if JR would even have bothered tasting or mentioning this wine if the [property owner] was Joe Scaggs!
JBA, You are a cynic.
Have a look back through the publicly accessible Wines of the Week, I guess you could conjecture some cynical relationship with Gemtree, Cockfighters Ghost, Bloodwood and Longview, pretty high-profile wineries all. Hewitson, Talking Tree, Shaw & Smith, d'Arenberg (she's probbably best mates with Chester, he gets around a bit!)
Then again she's probably getting paid by the importers/retailers. (just kidding!)
Cheers Brian Life's too short to drink white wine and red wine is better for you too! :-)
Yep, Croser did say that the coonawarra should be bigger, of course he did have some land just outside the boundary, and if his vineyard had of been included the value would have gone up substaintially, but I am sure that would have been irrelevant to his thinking....
Good luck to him, he knows the network and how to work it, thats what a good businessman does
cheers
