Interesting to note that, according to JO, many recent Giaconda Cabernets and Pinots have gone from stellar, 19+ wines to, well, very ordinary 15-17ish wines in the space of a few short months. Recent scores...
PINOT
2001 16.6/88 Drink 2002-2005
2000 15.8/86 Drink 2002-2005
1999 15.3/84 Drink 2001-2004
CABERNET
2001 17.2/90 Drink 2006-2009+
2000 17.0/90 Drink 2008-2012
Kinzbrunner has been complaining about the effect that global warming is having on his vines! Perhaps he has a point.
I have some of all of the above wines in my cellar, and based on past form, I have been waiting before drinking. After reading the above, it might be time to start drinking!
Giaconda
Re: Giaconda
Gregoire wrote:Interesting to note that, according to JO, many recent Giaconda Cabernets and Pinots have gone from stellar, 19+ wines to, well, very ordinary 15-17ish wines in the space of a few short months. Recent scores...
The wines haven't declined in a few short months, but since first tasted, which according to the article is usually at release or just prior, so probably 3-4 years for the wines you list. It is of course just a few months since the higher scores were included in the 2006 Annual, but they were based on the same prior tastings.
JO is the only Oz writer I know that keeps an online database of ratings/tastings and goes back and adjusts scores when there is a re-taste. I'm pretty happy he does this, but this one doesn't affect me as I have no Giaconda wines in my cellar. Like anyone, I make my share of mistakes on cellaring potential of wines I buy and I appreciate heads-up like this.
Now if he could just retain the history of of prior tastings/scores, that would be a big bonus (and not a very difficult database / web site change).
Cheers
Brian
Life's too short to drink white wine and red wine is better for you too! :-)
Brian
Life's too short to drink white wine and red wine is better for you too! :-)
RB - you are of course correct in that the wines didn't change overnight. Minor slip of my keyboard. That said, what does concern me more is that so many Giacondas have changed so much (for the worse, in JO's opinion - I am yet to taste), and what does this say about future releases, which, I might add, must now be bought en-primeur 2 years out?
Further, for JO to so universally praise these wines, almost every one a 19+, and then to demote the lot of them, says what exactly?
I will base my final opinion on the bottles I will now soon be pulling from the cave.
Further, for JO to so universally praise these wines, almost every one a 19+, and then to demote the lot of them, says what exactly?
I will base my final opinion on the bottles I will now soon be pulling from the cave.
Let the kids out!
Gregoire wrote:Further, for JO to so universally praise these wines, almost every one a 19+, and then to demote the lot of them, says what exactly?
Why don't you ask him?
http://www.onwine.com.au/feedback/
Speaking personally, I sometimes am swayed by previous good experiences with a wine label having long history and am willing to have faith that a minor blemish in a new vintage will resolve with a bit of age. Sometimes that trust has not been rewarded and I'm more pragmatic now, for example I haven't bought the 2002 Petaluma Coonawarra as I think it has a slight hard green edge (tried on 3 occasions) that may not fade with age, despite Petaluma's good record from poor vintages. This is the first Petaluma Coonawarra I haven't bought for many years.
Cheers
Brian
Life's too short to drink white wine and red wine is better for you too! :-)
Brian
Life's too short to drink white wine and red wine is better for you too! :-)
Someone already has ....
Question submitted by Andrew Connolly, Australia
At some point recently you have downrated - at times significantly - many of the scores for Giaconda's reds, notably the cabernet. What has happened to these wines? Only the '02 shiraz seems to have bucked the trend.
Answer (from JO's web site)
One of the best, and possibly most revealing tastings I conducted last year was a full review of Giaconda's wines in February (2005), which Rick Kinzbrunner staged (in considerable heat) at the winery to mark its 25th Anniversary.
This tasting, which was the first Giaconda vertical I had tasted for a number of years, confirmed a number of things, especially the status of Giaconda Chardonnay as arguably Australia's finest. It was the first vertical of this winery's Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz I had ever had the opportunity to taste, while it was the most extensive Pinot Noir tasting I had seen for ages. Usually I get the chance to taste these wines when they are released to the market, or just prior to this.
I was as surprised as anyone by the performance of the Cabernet Sauvignon, and indeed by the (non) performance of the Pinot Noir. The good vintages of Cabernet Sauvignon (2002, 1999, 1998, 1991) stood their ground, but the mean standard was below expectation. I am sure that global warming has played a role in this, by contributing to an increasing number of hot seasons. Indeed Kinzbrunner has reacted by grafting over his original pinot noir vines and by planting more pinot on a significantly cooler site on his new (Warner) vineyard.
The common issue with the Cabernet Sauvignon that I downgraded was a presence that had developed in the bottle of excessively herbal and greenish characters, while several Pinot Noirs shows baked and greenish qualities, with brettanomyces clearly evident (and occasionally dominant) in several vintages in the mid 1990s while Kinzbrunner was admittedly pushing the funky style rather hard.
As a group, the Shirazes showed more than enough from a young vine vineyard to suggest that this variety is very likely to become Giaconda's signature red wine.
Question submitted by Andrew Connolly, Australia
At some point recently you have downrated - at times significantly - many of the scores for Giaconda's reds, notably the cabernet. What has happened to these wines? Only the '02 shiraz seems to have bucked the trend.
Answer (from JO's web site)
One of the best, and possibly most revealing tastings I conducted last year was a full review of Giaconda's wines in February (2005), which Rick Kinzbrunner staged (in considerable heat) at the winery to mark its 25th Anniversary.
This tasting, which was the first Giaconda vertical I had tasted for a number of years, confirmed a number of things, especially the status of Giaconda Chardonnay as arguably Australia's finest. It was the first vertical of this winery's Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz I had ever had the opportunity to taste, while it was the most extensive Pinot Noir tasting I had seen for ages. Usually I get the chance to taste these wines when they are released to the market, or just prior to this.
I was as surprised as anyone by the performance of the Cabernet Sauvignon, and indeed by the (non) performance of the Pinot Noir. The good vintages of Cabernet Sauvignon (2002, 1999, 1998, 1991) stood their ground, but the mean standard was below expectation. I am sure that global warming has played a role in this, by contributing to an increasing number of hot seasons. Indeed Kinzbrunner has reacted by grafting over his original pinot noir vines and by planting more pinot on a significantly cooler site on his new (Warner) vineyard.
The common issue with the Cabernet Sauvignon that I downgraded was a presence that had developed in the bottle of excessively herbal and greenish characters, while several Pinot Noirs shows baked and greenish qualities, with brettanomyces clearly evident (and occasionally dominant) in several vintages in the mid 1990s while Kinzbrunner was admittedly pushing the funky style rather hard.
As a group, the Shirazes showed more than enough from a young vine vineyard to suggest that this variety is very likely to become Giaconda's signature red wine.
Let the kids out!