Adelaide Cult Dinner - too much of a good thing.....

[707]

........is never enough.

Yes, it's very early here in Adelaide but I thought I'd better get out of bed to look after my slightly sore head.

A group of nine tackled some of our rarer drops at one of Adelaide's best restaurants for this type of event, The Sauce. Food and staff were excellent and the all inclusice cost of $50 per head for three courses and coffee is sensational by any standard. We really are blessed here in Adelaide.

But what about the wines? We had the usual number of corked wines, two identified at home and replaced, one not identified because someone failed in their duty to check before coming to dinner. He'll be penalised next outing!
Not sure anyone took notes but I'm sure some of the others will weigh in with their TVs Here's a list of what we consumed and a few of my TVs dredged from the brain:

1990 Hill of Grace - this is a well cellared example and like previous HOGs I've consumed both young and mature, I'm beginning to think that the hype around this wine far exceeds the reality of what's in the bottle. LOvely mature wine that opened as the night progressed but no better than dozens of other Barossa Shiraz in my cellar at a fraction of the current asking price.

1998 Sally's Paddock - haven't seen this label for a while but this was impressive well balanced wine

1999 Greenock Creek Creek Block - lovely example of what this winery does so well, individual Barossa Shiraz in the dark chocolate mould.

2000 Kay's Block 6 Shiraz - one of the only wines where oak was obvious (Shirvington also) but even then it was carried really well by the rich fruit. An excellent wine from a lesser vintage it would stand comparison to the best. Those looking for Kay's Shiraz shouldn't discount the Hillside which is so close to the Block 6 in quality and tends to drink well sooner. Every vintage has been excellent.

2000 Greenock Creek VII Acre Shiraz - again showed the strength of this winery. From what is generally regarded as the poorest Barossa vintage for a decade, this slightly herbaceous but quite rich Shiraz drank really well

2001 Cullen Dianne Madeline - excellent example of WA Cabernet, just too young (of course) and should look really special once it starts to mature. Ric, not sure I can agree with your rating bestowed during your WA trip but happy to share a bottle with you in a decade to see if we can agree!

2001 Veritas Heysen Shiraz - another excellent wine true to Rolf Binder's fruit driven style. Power and complexity without being jammy, excellent balance and mouthfeel, classy

2001 Veritas Hanisch Shiraz - as above but even better

2002 Jasper Hill Georgia's Paddock - I've tried this wine three times now and rate it the best young wine I've seen this year. Highly rated by all tasters at the dinner it has such intensity and purity of fruit, drinkable now but wait for 6-10 years, wow

2002 Shirvington Cabernet - bit sweet in both fruit and oak treatment, almost a bit simple to my taste. How Parker can give this 96 points (and the Shiraz which I tried recently 99 points) is beyond me, particularly when he gave the 200 Kay's Block 6 only 90 points. He's a pest that man!

Not sure if there were other wines (other than the d'Arenberg VP which I could have done without!) but if there were I'm sure someone will tell me/us.

[Red Bigot]

Hi Steve,

Good to see people getting stuck into some good young reds. I have a few of those in my cellar, thanks for the progress notes.

What were the wines that were corked?

[JamieBahrain]

707

Thanks for the notes. Delighted to see Kays showing well.

IMHO Jasper Hill the most approachable of all monster shiraz in youth. Have conmsumed and purchased a lot of Jasper over the years.

The 375mls of the 94/95 vintage under 20 bucks. A nice way to treat yourself back in those days.

You don't see much old Jasper showing up in notes. The delicious factor of the wine in youth had me captivated and felt that with faith they would age well.

For this reason would be good to see more notes on old Jaspers'.

[Ed W]

hi Jamie you have certainly lured me the lurker.

Jasper hill's boss Ron Laughton hosted a wine dinner in Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago with his 92, 97 and 02 vintages of emily's and georgia's paddocks. The 93 and 02 georgia's rieslings were also presented as aperitif.

The reds were served in 3 flights. Here are my TVs (you see it was becoming a bit hazy towards the end)

flight 1
2002 Georgia's: sweet soft cherry nose, with lead, spice as well. Heavy weight with lots of tannin, oak is subtle

2002 Emily's: nose so different from georgia's. rose, 5-spice. Compared to the georgia this was much more complex with loads of berry fruit, plums and more spice. Long lingering finish

filght 2
1997 Georgia's: some excessive muskiness on the nose from my glass. a quick sniff from the glass of a fellow drinker showed the same but not so dominant. But Ron thought both glasses were OK But the palate was nicely rounded classical cherry fruit, with fine grainy tannin.

1997 Emily's: WOTN. Fragrant totally leaps out of the glass with almost a cabernet like aroma / pencil shaving/cedar?. Tones of wild flowers and roses. Huge on palate, again on the sweet/chocolate-like side with an extra dose of complexity compared to the georgia's.

flight 3
1992 Georgia's: placed in a tough spot as the wine that followed the big 97 emily's. The bouquet was not as strong as the previous 2 georgia's. The fruit had gone softer but the tannic comonent was still quite prominent. Compared to the left-over 02 georgia this was still felt to be the lesser wine. Would probably be perceived as a better wine if served along side flight 1 at the beginning

1992 Emily's: still in very dark purple without any brick hue at all. Everything was more integrated. no sign of fruit fading. Unfortunately by then the senses were already overwhelmed and the TV could not get any more specific.

staying on the theme of victorian shiraz, had the 98 georgia's paddock and 2001 St Michaels shiraz (Heathcote, Vic) a few days back (both were half-bottles):

98 georgia's: double decanted (absolute must to get rid of tons of residues) dark+. Straight after opening there was already huge wave of chocolate, mocha, and port-like fragrant leaping up. Remained the same over 3 hours before the chocolate gave way to some wild flower, cedary scent. Huge on palate, big jammy, chocolate, very coating, on the sweet side. very ripe. tannin was still prominent but acceptable. A mammoth.

01 St Michael's: highly recommended by the wine merchant; probably another one of those export-orientated small winaries. Aged in French (and Russian!) oak according to the labels. Again hit by wave of chocolate/cherry fruit on both the nose and the palate. Took a couple of hours to open up. good balance of fruit and acidity/tannin. Overall I suppose it was made in a similar heavy-weight style to the jaspers and it succeeded to a certain extent, although with less fruit density and complexity.

Ed

[michel]

2001 St Michaels shiraz (Heathcote, Vic)



Ed

Nice to see notes on old Jaspers.
Hmm never heard of this wine though- maybe export only??
thanks
michel

[Guest - Justin]

........is never enough.

1990 Hill of Grace - this is a well cellared example and like previous HOGs I've consumed both young and mature, I'm beginning to think that the hype around this wine far exceeds the reality of what's in the bottle. LOvely mature wine that opened as the night progressed but no better than dozens of other Barossa Shiraz in my cellar at a fraction of the current asking price.

Thanks for the notes - well done.

Only point of dissension is 90 HoG. Like many, I regard as one of the very greatest wines produced in Australia - ever!

This was what the words seamless, harmony and perfect balnace mean.

I've had it 3x since 1999 and every time it just revelas extra dimension. In a taste off with 90 Grange it killed it and this was the consensus view of 12 tasters at a tatsing a bottle shop at Balgowlah earlier this year.

To say it is no better than dozens of other Barossa Shiraz is plain silly IMO but u r entitkes 2 ur view. For me it is the 2nd greatest wine of the 90s ade in Australia - after the astonishing 1996 Penfolds Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon.

I'm keeping mine for at least another decade.

[Ed W]

Hmm never heard of this wine though- maybe export only??
thanks
michel

yep i struggled to find info on this winery on the net. apparently its a 500 cases pa production winery.

btw i actually had the 2002 not 2001. Costs the equivalent of A$30 for the half bottle over here in hk with the horrendous markup and tax.

ed

[Guest]

What a great dinner, I'd kill to have been there.

Despite the probability of being labelled an idiot, I too found my encounter with a 1990 Hill of Grace a less that ethereal experience. In fact I wondered what all the fuss was about.

Horses for courses I suppose but I sometimes thing people get carried away by the label. Blind tasting sorts out what is really good as opposed to what we want to be really good having just forked out $300 a bottle.

Ed

[Gavin Trott]

What a great dinner, I'd kill to have been there.

Despite the probability of being labelled an idiot, I too found my encounter with a 1990 Hill of Grace a less that ethereal experience. In fact I wondered what all the fuss was about.

Horses for courses I suppose but I sometimes thing people get carried away by the label. Blind tasting sorts out what is really good as opposed to what we want to be really good having just forked out $300 a bottle.

Ed

Ed

I too was at the dinner, and was underwhelmed by the 1990 HOG. Nice older wine, yes, wonderful wine experience, not on that night. It wasn't corked, must just be bottle variation, some may be great, others not so?

[GraemeG]

Despite the probability of being labelled an idiot, I too found my encounter with a 1990 Hill of Grace a less that ethereal experience. In fact I wondered what all the fuss was about.

Horses for courses I suppose but I sometimes thing people get carried away by the label. Blind tasting sorts out what is really good as opposed to what we want to be really good having just forked out $300 a bottle.

Ed

The last time I had 90 HoG it was blind, in a line up 2 years ago that included plenty of other high quality Oz shiraz - Meshach, St Henri, Michael, Mt Langi, Lawsons, Old Block, etc. When the HoG came around the glass just oozed class. It's not so much that it was bigger than the others - it wasn't, but it had a purity to it that no other wine matched that night. I may have been lucky with the bottles I've tasted, but it's never been a less-than-stellar experience for me.

cheers,
Graeme

[markg]

Good notes Steve, although I am a little bit scared about what form the payback will take - Hopefully its only just to bring along an extra Magnum next time

The 2002 Jasper Hill Georgia's Paddock was the outstanding wine of the night for me - An excellent wine and (thanks to Gary) I am now the proud owner of 6 bottles

My other favourites for the evening would have been the 7 Acre and the Hanisch.

An excellent evening - Thanks very much for organising it Gavin and an excellent resteraunt choice Steve - Great food, superb wine and interesting company - what more can you ask for.

[JamieBahrain]

Welcome Ed

The Fragrant Harbour seems to have plenty of wine culture but at a price?

98 Jasper GP a favourite of mine. Brooding hot summer flavours - bitumen etc. And never to be had on an empty stomach!

1990 HofG- Two things I wouldn't do personally. Try and match this great wine with food-what a risk. Or line up blind with anything but an "appropriate" line up. Avoiding a dulling of the senses some syrupy Austrralian shiraz have a habit of doing.

And on the senses. Heighten them! Even if it involves looking at the label. A 1990 HofG label should stir the sensory neurons.

[markg]

Welcome Ed

The Fragrant Harbour seems to have plenty of wine culture but at a price?

98 Jasper GP a favourite of mine. Brooding hot summer flavours - bitumen etc. And never to be had on an empty stomach!

1990 HofG- Two things I wouldn't do personally. Try and match this great wine with food-what a risk. Or line up blind with anything but an "appropriate" line up. Avoiding a dulling of the senses some syrupy Austrralian shiraz have a habit of doing.

And on the senses. Heighten them! Even if it involves looking at the label. A 1990 HofG label should stir the sensory neurons.

Actually we had the HoG first before the other wine and before any food was served. It started to develop later into the evening.