It's the last Sunday of the year - drinking reports due....

[TORB]

You know the drill, vibes, list or notes welcome.

[Deano]

2006 High Noon Rose and 1999 Seppelts St Peter Shiraz...a nice finish to the year, but i did drink a little too much...an alcohol-free day today for sure.

[Attila]

2000 BLUE PYRENEES Vintage Brut

Popped it on NYE, I wasn't expecting too much for AUD $18. Bubbles slightly coarse. Fine, dry but not a good enough sparkler for serious consideration. Acid structure should have been better. Anyway, an OK drink.

Cheers,
Attila

[Julio]

It's not every weekend you get engaged so I wanted to make sure the wines were memorable....

Pre-proposal (night before)

Yalumba D99 Sparkling Cab/Shiraz
Quality example showing the benefits of abit of age - all the best qualities from both varietals present and singing.

Pierro 2003 Chardonnay
I have posted separately about this. Think it was a dud bottle.

Picardy 2005 Chardonnay
Absolutely stunning and will one day be considered one of Australia's great white wines.

Leeuwin 2003 Art Series Chardonnay
All the superlatives you read about this wine are true - a great experience. It has blazed the trail that the Picardy will follow.

Stanton and Kileen 2000 Shiraz Durif
Wow - what a massive wine. Brandy, fruit cakey (but not jammy)
on the nose and on the palate. Deliciously rich but not for the faint hearted.

... she said yes and we celebrated with

Krug NV
Beautiful golden honey hues, and great bead. Lovely buttery mousse and super long finish. Quality wine but can't come at it for the price.

Leeuwin 2003 Art Series Chardonnay
see above

Leeuwin 2001 Art Series Cabernet Sauvignon
I am a Cabernet is King man and absolutely love this wine. Quintessential Margaret River Cab with lots of juice left in the tank - must buy some more.

Peller Estate 2004 Cabernet Franc (Ice wine from Vancouver)
Quite an experience - lovely Cab Franc varietal flavours despite the abundant fruit sweetness. Lovely dry finish which seems to be a bit of a contradiction.

[Ian S]

It's not every weekend you get engaged so I wanted to make sure the wines were memorable....

Pre-proposal (night before)

Yalumba D99 Sparkling Cab/Shiraz
Quality example showing the benefits of abit of age - all the best qualities from both varietals present and singing.

Pierro 2003 Chardonnay
I have posted separately about this. Think it was a dud bottle.

Picardy 2005 Chardonnay
Absolutely stunning and will one day be considered one of Australia's great white wines.

Leeuwin 2003 Art Series Chardonnay
All the superlatives you read about this wine are true - a great experience. It has blazed the trail that the Picardy will follow.

Stanton and Kileen 2000 Shiraz Durif
Wow - what a massive wine. Brandy, fruit cakey (but not jammy)
on the nose and on the palate. Deliciously rich but not for the faint hearted.

... she said yes and we celebrated with

Krug NV
Beautiful golden honey hues, and great bead. Lovely buttery mousse and super long finish. Quality wine but can't come at it for the price.

Leeuwin 2003 Art Series Chardonnay
see above

Leeuwin 2001 Art Series Cabernet Sauvignon
I am a Cabernet is King man and absolutely love this wine. Quintessential Margaret River Cab with lots of juice left in the tank - must buy some more.

Peller Estate 2004 Cabernet Franc (Ice wine from Vancouver)
Quite an experience - lovely Cab Franc varietal flavours despite the abundant fruit sweetness. Lovely dry finish which seems to be a bit of a contradiction.

Congratulations on your engagement!

[mattECN]

2003 Petaluma Chardonnay – drinking fantastic at the moment, lovely with Crayfish.

2005 Kaesler Old Vine Semillon – good honest Semillon, nice acid, went really well with Indian Food.

2005 Kaesler Old Vine Shiraz – delicious, seriously good wine! Bit pricey for me to stock up on though.

2005 Kaesler Old Bastard Shiraz – different oak treatment than the Old Vine, still a very good wine, but I prefer the Old Vine over this

2002 Seppelt Original Sparkling Shiraz – enough written about this before, thoroughly enjoyed it!

[Serge Birbrair]

1971 Cheval Blanc... - WOW!!!!!!!

[Kieran]

2003 Petaluma Chardonnay – drinking fantastic at the moment, lovely with Crayfish.

2005 Kalleske Old Vine Semillon – good honest Semillon, nice acid, went really well with Indian Food.

2005 Kalleske Old Vine Shiraz – delicious, seriously good wine! Bit pricey for me to stock up on though.

2005 Kalleske Old Bastard Shiraz – different oak treatment than the Old Vine, still a very good wine, but I prefer the Old Vine over this

2002 Seppelt Original Sparkling Shiraz – enough written about this before, thoroughly enjoyed it!

Are you sure these were Kalleskes? Sounds more like Kaesler.

Kieran

[Wayno]

Petaluma 2003 Chard:

Agreed, had this recently. Lovely wine.

[Broughy]

Turkey Flat Cabernet 2003 Good honest Barossa Cab, intense fruit, mid weight.
Henschke Henry's Seven 2004 Very good drinking wine, lighter weight and not too much going on to interfere with the here and now pleasure.
Richmond Grove Watervale Riesling 2002 an excellent wine continuing to improve all the time. if you like lime juice this is the go.
Charles Melton Rose of Virginia 2006 I think this needs fairly robust food, high alcohol for a rose and dosen't fit the light quaffing mode on a sunny day.
Guigal Cotes du Rhone 2003excellent value wine with a little spicy complexity. Very good drinking now, tannins nicely balanced.

[Wizz]

NYE Wines, list only I'm afraid:

NV Bollinger: nice
02 Voyager Chardonnay: very nice
03 Fromm La Strada Chardonnay: really nice
04 Jean Claude Boisset Chambolle Musigny: really nice
00 Houghton Gladstones Shiraz: really nice
01 Cepparello: nice, showed badly between the wines either side...
01 D'Arenberg Dead Arm: I hate this style, but very nice
00 Paradise Ranch Riesling Icewine, Okanagan Valley. 251g/l residual sugar! super nice
02 Noble One: really nice
NV Roederer: very nice

[redwine]

We had some very good wines over the holidays:

1995 Chateau Bourgneuf Pomerol
Very nice drinking, cherries and blackberies, long finish.

1995 Chateau Calon Segur:
Good structure and length, soft and harmonius.

1994 Jim Barry Armagh
Perfect wine - despite the age it showed a lot of strength, with loads of fruit. This one will easily last another five to ten years (glad that I was able to buy some bottles at a very good price).

1996 Rockford SVS Hoffmann
WOW - Highlight of the evening, wonderful drinking now. Rich, silky with very nice fuits. Stunning wine.

1999 Rockford SVS Hoffmann
Also a perfect wine, just a notch lower than the 1996.

1997 Taylor's Vintage Port
Good wine, but a bit dissapointing - probably needs some more time.

Cheers.

Nick

[Gasman]

NYE wines

Rockford Black Shiraz ('99 disgorg) - Delicious start to proceedings.

1997 Grosset Polish Hill - Quite forward for its age - not stored very well. Any one else have experience with this?

2000 Penfolds 00A Chardy - Drinking beautifully now. No point keeping longer.

2001 Greenock Creek Seven Acre - Quite a feral nose. Rich fruit. 1st of a half case. Keeping well.

2004 Gibson Shiraz - Never seen this label before. A Barossa. Bit of a mouthful at this age.

1998 Penfolds St Henri - ? Mildly corked. Don't think this was just too young.

1995 Frankland Estate Olmo's reward - Excellent Bordeaux blend. Most who tasted this thought it was only a couple of years old. Real quality.

1996 Blue Pyrenees Red Blend - Bit of eucalypt, bit of fruit. Nothing special.

1994 Reynell VP - Towards the end of the night, and a mate pulled this from my cellar to serve blind. Initial thought was a Warrabilla shiraz, though the sugar content did eventually sway us all to a VP. Too young, and tipped us all into "Hangover tomorrow" territory.

[KMP]

New Years' Eve and we dropped in on a friend's for dinner and I took along a bottle of 2004 Giaconda Chard, too young I know, but it was so pleasant to drink. Especially so considering that we then moved on to a party where I agreed to a glass of Red Bicyclette Rose. If you check out the Red Bicyclette web page (turn up the sound) you will get an idea of the wine style and some idea of the shock my palate received upon putting this liquid into my mouth. A young lady at the party noticed that I was a "swirler and sniffer", said that she and her boyfriend were wine lovers, had just visited the Napa Valley, and thought the Red Bicyclette was quite a nice little wine. I thought she had to kidding me but she looked deadly serious.

We went home and finished off the last of our first bottle of Dutschke Sun Dried Shiraz. You have to start a new year off on the correct footing!

All the best to all for 2007,
Mike

[bacchaebabe]

Had a couple of nice wines on NYE at Otto. $35 per bottle corkage nearly made me choke although still a lot cheaper than buying off the wine list. Still, $140 for opening the wines and supplying the glasses really is a bit much, especially considering we shared some of each wine with the sommellier. Anyhoo...

NV Bollinger As part of the meal deal on Arrival. Nice bead. Refreshing with toasty aromas. Credit

91 Seppelts Reserve Sparkling Show Shiraz Bit of a brett bomb, as expected. Still, it didn't overpower every flavour and we all drank it all anyway. The age and complexity still came through. Expecting my other two bottles to be similar. Credit as I can tolerate brett.

86 McWilliams Lovedale Semillon Pale golden yellow still. Not looking like a 20 year old wine by any stretch of the imagination. Absolutely singing on the night. Lovely toasty, lemon flavours with plenty of length and complexity. Felt like it could age even further but drinking exceptionally well now. High Distinction

02 Seppelt St Peters Shiraz Decanted for 3.5 hours but seemed to have little efffect. This was quite big still and difficult to get anything from it at the moment. Certainly full bodied but the fruit is not distinguishing itself much other than the aniseed. Would suggest 10 years minimum in the cellar over extended decanting. Credit at the moment.

1927 Solera Alvear PX This is the third bottle of this I've had recently and I absolutely adore it. Lovely raisen, sultana, malty, toffee flavours rolling over and over the palate. Total bargain for the age and quality. High Distinction.

Happy New Year all.

[Gianna]

$35 per bottle corkage nearly made me choke although still a lot cheaper than buying off the wine list. Still, $140 for opening the wines and supplying the glasses really is a bit much, especially considering we shared some of each wine with the sommellier. Anyhoo...

Kris,

I got charged this at a restaurant in Melbourne once. They justified it by saying that they were charging me the price of their cheapest wine on their list. Given the I brought an 83 Grange ( $900 on their list ) , an
86 HOG ( $750 ) an 86 707 ( $425 ) plus several others, I just shrugged the shoulders and paid. Interesting looks from the other tables though as they lined up the 7 bottles we had which would have cost $3,000 inhouse.

[Mike Hawkins]

AUD 35 is not too bad. There are dozens of restaurants here that charge in excess of USD 50, and its almost impossible to find a reasonable place charging less than USD25 per bottle.

[oakboy]

Happy Xmas/New Year to all....
Had alot of wines since last post but only able to give a list/impression of the ones that stood out and some sort of stupid grade(a,b,c)...
(I hate scoring wines, every one is different)
Pre Xmas:
Peppertree Grand Reserve 1999 Cabernet
Very nice, opened up after 1 hour... B+(needs time)
St Halletts Old Block 1998
Who said 98's where unachieveing?, this was magnificent, WOTY, easily,
a great balance of fruit/oak/tannins/...... A++(in the window)
Fox Creek Reserve Shiraz 2004
Had this with Chis Dix at a wine tasting in Sydney earlier in the year and since then this has blossomed, it still carries some baby fat but when it sheds that in a year or two, that spicey pepper and blackberry/aniseed and lingering finish will be superb(Thanx to Chris, the 99 JSM was good too) A+
Wirra Wirra Woodhenge Shiraz 2004
My Staple wine since wineOz... easy drinking, good juice...time on its side
Choc/Blackberry good length, A (Easily higher grade with time)
Plantagenet Cab Sav 2001
WOW, this was great, no notes but this was the best 2001 MR I've had..
A

Xmas was a blur..... (Cause i had to work till 4.00 in the Rest)
Katnook Odyssey 2000 Cabernet
Choc/vanilia drink now if you don't want the fruit to disappear B (because of the price)
Brokenwood Misstress Block 2003
Hunter at it's best, earthy/choc/blueberry, med-full weight, still way too young, glad i still have 6 left, this can only get better, and Brokenwood make this a true hunter style with this one A+
Turkey Flat 1998
A little let down after the first 2, still ok, but nothing great, usual suspects of vanil/choc/some fruit.... maybe in a hole? B

(there was also some Cloudy bay sav blc, Tyrells Vat 1 98, Noble 1,Good France sparkling(Moet i think), all good, etc..)

In the New Year..
Heathfield 'Jennifer' Shiraz 1999
From Padthway, Great nose but fell away after that.. B
Am on the
Sandalford Shiraz 2001
Very nice, spicey Blackberry/chocmint finish... a bargin A

[bacchaebabe]

Gianna and Mike, $35 is certainly a lot better than paying the premium on any wines off the list. Particularly wines of that standard and with some age. I think we were quoted $30 a bottle though when we asked originally if we could do BYO. They did also say that they don't usually do BYO so I can't really complain too much. The meal was a set price thing for NYE. At five courses for $190 with a glass of bollie, it's still quite a premium over their usual a al carte menu. With the tip, it ended up being $250 a head, which I don't mind, BUT we walked out hungry (but quite drunk). Mostly dissapointed with the very small portions. Set a new standard for nouvelle cuisine really.

Still, we had a great night and I wasn't in the mood to complain and there was plenty of bread (just as well).

Saying all that, it has been my experience more often than not, in these sorts of restaurants, if you bring decent wine as BYO and share it with the sommelier, they often knock down the corkage a bit or not charge for one bottle or sometimes even not charge at all. In fact, we went to Nove next door (same owners) for my mother's 60th and took a 45 Grandfather port and shared some with the staff and weren't charged at all. Admittedly, all the other wine we drank was off their list.

Did BYO at Level 41 a few years ago and had similar experience to you, Gianna. Brought a 71 Grange and a 69 Y'Quem. Was charged $30 a bottle corkage but they had the Grange at around $1200 and the Y'Quem closer to $1800 and considering I'd paid $200 and $260 respectively, I was quite happy to pay just $30 extra to drink them there!

[Serge Birbrair]

Special thanks to the several friendly strangers on Colins Street who shouted 'Happy New Year' far too loudly and shook my hand as I passed by and the blokes who mooned us from the car while the driver tooted his horn yelling 'Happy New Year'.

ahhh...the moments that make any wine or events just unforgettable

[cuttlefish]

2000 BLUE PYRENEES Vintage Brut

Popped it on NYE, I wasn't expecting too much for AUD $18. Bubbles slightly coarse. Fine, dry but not a good enough sparkler for serious consideration. Acid structure should have been better. Anyway, an OK drink.

Cheers,
Attila

Interestingly, this is the exact same wine I popped on NYE. Two bottles. Both decent. Call me a heathen !
Prior to these we were scoffing some of that Kirrihill Sauv.Blanc 05, and the Starvedog Sauv Blanc 05. Both really still very good drinking.

Cuttlefish.