04 Quartage

[simm]

That does sound stripped to me. Not at all what I experienced just recently.

This from a definate Australian label bottling. I believe that there is still puppy fat that shows all signs of sliding off over time.

04 Thorne Clarke Shotfire Ridge Quartage – Deep and vibrant burgundy with a purple rim it has a fruit forward nose of currants, cassis, violets, and dusty winter leaves.
The front palate of red and black currants and plum steps easily over a just noticeable rut and up onto a rhubarb tinged plateau that flows seamlessly onto a long palate of blackberries, blueberry, cigar box, prosciutto, and the dense brooding fruits of Malbec and Petit Verdot filtering through with an inky, self-assured ease, toward gently peppered plum and cloves sheathed on the back palate by dusty tannins.
Given another year or two this will show the wisdom of the blend as it softens to velvet. 92/100 and very good value at $17.

[roughred]

Haven't tried the wine, but vague references to 'bottling problems' and 'cork' problems dont really provide any answers. If there was a problem with bottling what was it, and how did it seemingly affect the entire bottling run? To me for an entire batch to have problems would suggest a problem with the wine rather than the bottling.

LL

[griff]

I'm sure the winemakers here can help out but entire bottling runs can just go for various reasons other than the base wine being unsound. Examples include contaminated equipment, incorrect amounts of suphur/citric acid/other additive additions, a whole batch of poor corks and problems after bottling such as poor storage at either winery or distributor.

Just some thoughts.

cheers

[n4sir]

You've probably seen from the Sunday drinking reports I've had another look at this wine, this one from the latest batch:

2004 Thorn Clarke Shotfire Ridge Quartage (Screwcap): Dark to (almost) inky purple with a bright violet rim. At first this smelled extremely yeasty, much like a fermenting must of freshly crushed grapes and yeast, and this took a good decant and some time to blow off. After this it was the familiar malty blueberry scents, pleasant enough but simple, and after a lot of breathing blueberry/blackcurrant with just a dash of black cherry, iodine and licorice. The medium weight palate opened with syrupy/jammy blueberry fruit & spicy oak and a hint of black olive, before dropping away to leave a massive, Kenworth-sized hole mid-palate – the “other” varieties aren’t showing a sign of filling this void. There’s a secondary wave of jammy fruit but the finish of the wine is very dry, with the fine tannins and that 14.5% alcohol just sticking out on the finish with breathing. Another worrying aspect of the wine was the slightly metallic finish, which like the jammy aspects and heat intensified with time. The final verdict was that while this bottle wasn’t as bland as the other batch I still have my reservations; what I’ve tried has been quaffable but far from outstanding.

I was seriously thinking of not posting this TN. I suppose the jammy aspects could be the Malbec and (very ripe) Petit Verdot, and the rough edges could be because it's just been bottled under screw - something hinted at by those initial, persistent yeasty characters. Maybe the plain truth is that I just don't get this wine - it just doesn't seem to fit my idea of a top Bordeaux-style blend. A tasting at Blacktongues sometime this year is probably on the cards to give it a blind run against others.

Cheers,
Ian