1994 Coonawarra Cabernets

[Andy]

Hello all,

I am putting together a 10 year Coonawarra tasting in a few months.

I have obtained the following (1994's) and am wondering if anyone has any TN's or TV's:

Mildara Cab Sauv
Wynns Black Label
Chapel Hill Cab Sauv
Lindemans St George
Rosemount Show Reserve Cab Sauv;
and for a shiraz....Penfolds Bin 128

I am considering adding the following as well:
Zema Family Selection CS
Katnook CS
St Hugo CS

Thanks in advance

Andy

[Kieran]

I'm not dreadfully good at TNs (especially from memory) but the 94 Bin 128 is drinking beautifully.

Isn't the Chapel Hill mostly McV fruit?

Kieran

[Wizz]

Andy, we had the 94 St George from Magnum on Saturday night. Unfortunately I didnt take TN's on the bottle, but it was still fairly fruit sweet, and others rated it well,

cheers

Andrew

[Mike Hawkins]

My mate had the 94 Wynns Black label and has asked to buy my stocks of this wine. As he doesn't part with $$$ too easily, it tells me it must be drinking spectacularly.

[MartinC]

The St.George 1994 (my fav. of the trio) was superd, 1st drank 1999 & early this year. IMO better than their later effort such as 96 & 98.
This is the old style Coonwarra which required min. 7 years of cellaring.

[David Lole]

My mate had the 94 Wynns Black label and has asked to buy my stocks of this wine. As he doesn't part with $$$ too easily, it tells me it must be drinking spectacularly.

Sell the lot to him. Anything over 20 bucks and you're in front IMO. Better still, try one and let me know if this wine is somewhat lean and short - my bottles were, anyway. Good luck, Mike if yours are significantly better. Mine have gone to another resting place.

[David Lole]

Andy,

The last three you're thinking about should be crackers. Make sure you include them.

[David Lole]

I'm not dreadfully good at TNs (especially from memory) but the 94 Bin 128 is drinking beautifully.

Isn't the Chapel Hill mostly McV fruit?

Kieran

Pam Dunsford sourced a lot of Cabernet from Coonawarra over the years for Chapel Hill. It wouldn't surprise me is this a blend of regions, though.

[Mike Hawkins]

David,

I'm part of Wynns Cab vertical tasting in January, so I'll let you know how the 94 (and others) are looking.

Mike

[Andy]

Thanks everyone for the replies,

Kieran and David, you are both right in that Chapel Hill Cab was a blend of Coonawarra and McLaren Vale fruit, so I will probably exclude it from the tasting so as to ensure an accurate comparisaon (with the 128 shiraz thrown in for a smoky).

Otherwise it sounds like the St George is pretty good and the Wynns variable.

Has anyone tried the 94 Rosemount Show Reserve C-S?

Regards

Andy

[Guest]

Been a while since I've tried one, Andy. I only bought a few and if my alcohol-affected memory holds true, I wrote up a tasting note on the old Auswine site. My gut tells me it was pretty smart and expect the wine to drinking close to its' apogee. I've got the '96 and '98 of same and consider this label to be pretty reliable in the better years. I say go for it.

[David Lole]

Sorry that was me. Forgot to log in, again!

[Matt Irwin]

I recently had a vertical tasting of 1994,96 and 98 St Hugos CS. Whilst we kept no tasting notes there was debate as whether 1994 or 1996 was better. My view was the 1994 was at its peak and the 1996 was still youthful and would benefit with further cellaring. The 1998 needs to be forgotten for a number of years, still way too young.

Enjoy

Matt

[PaulV]

I've had quite a few Wynns 1994 Cab Sav in the last couple of years and found them very good/to bit less than an excellent. Drinking nicely now in a real "claret" style - mid weight, slightly austere with some cedarly characters over the typical minty, black fruit flavours. I like it for what it is.

Unlike the 1994 Rosemount which while good does have too much capsicum for my palate - but would be very useful in a coonawarra horizontal.

Cheers

paulV