TN: 1994 Wynn's Cabernet John Riddoch

[Alan Rath]

Decided it's time to try one of these, and am taking it to a small dinner tomorrow night. Opened it tonight, just to make sure it's OK, and took a 2 oz pour to check it out. Half the cork came out initially, leaving the other half, which I extracted with an Ah-so opener - lower part of the cork was a bit soft and spongy, but there was no sign of wine penetration beyond a couple of mm into the bottom of the cork. Wife (better nose than mine, well, actually almost everything better than mine ) thought it was a little green, maybe bell pepper, but I couldn't pick that up. Color is youthful, and flavors are rich and cabernet true. Still quite tannic, and clearly opened before it's time, with some hints of very nice secondary notes starting to appear. Will report back after drinking through the bottle, but I can pretty much tell this is a wine that shouldn't see the light of day for another 5-10 years, and should be gorgeous at that point.

Cheers,
Alan

[Craig(NZ)]

Agree, it is a gorgeous wine. I opened my first one out of curiousity 2 years ago, and I agree it needs another 10 years. Classical cabernet, in an era when many it seems are trying to emulate barossa shiraz.

It is amazing what people pick up as 'green' or 'stalky'. Slight leafiness, ripe stalkiness, and dusty herbal characters I feel are as much a part of cabernet as blackcurrant, cassis etc. I think in the past in New Zealand we have been over forgiving, and Australians showed distain on anything less than sweet jam.

These days it seems to be a happy medium where Australians seem to really value the Aussie cabernets that are actually closer in style to a fine kiwi examples (Moss Wood, Cullen, Howard Park bla bla). In the same breath kiwi drinkers denounce any thin weedy NZ wines (which thankfully a few and far between now)

Just random thoughts, hope someone can make sense of them

[Decca]

I opened my first one out of curiousity 2 years ago, and I agree it needs another 10 years.

This is a bit of a worry. Well, insofar as I'm looking to drink a '91 in the next few months.

Just in the drinking window perhaps?

Anyone had some recent experience with the '91 JR?

thanks,

Mark