TN: A tasting of 16 Hunter Valley Wines 2/3/09

[n4sir]

Last week I attended a tasting of a selection of wines from the Hunter Valley, which were all served blind – all were bottled under natural cork:


2002 McWilliams Mt Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon: Light yellow colour with a hint of green. Closed nose at first, then grassy/mineraly, some hazelnut, diesel and shortbread characters emerge; lemony/pithy entry followed by an equally dry/lemony mid-palate, finishing dry and spicy with a little grass and lime, then hazelnut and apple. A young and elemental wine.

1992 McWilliams Mt Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon: Dark gold with a hint of amber. Heavily developed but also attractive nose of nutty/oyster characters and lemon, drying out with breathing; the palate also starts with heavy nutty/vanilla characters, followed by a massive mid-palate hole and a mineraly finish. There are some nice aspects but it lacks guts, and I can’t see it going anywhere.

1982 McWilliams Mt Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon: Dark gold with a hint of amber. Damp nose with some limestone and a little lanolin/butter and fino-like characters, but it’s always on the baggy side; the palate hints at what could have been, the structure’s there along with hint of golden apple sweetness, but it’s killed by the cork taint.


2000 McWilliams Mt Pleasant Lovedale Semillon: Medium yellow to light gold. Fresh nose with lemon blossom/mineral and dried flowers; bright/tangy entry followed by lemon/menthol and a hint of tinned tuna/cheese, finishing very long and spicy, then buttery and nutty. A ripe, quickly evolving style for this bracket, it had quite a few fans.

2000 Tyrrell’s Vat 18 Belford Semillon: Light medium/yellow. In contrast to the previous wine the nose was very elemental and possibly showing some oak influence, with wool carpet, a little fennel, grass and lemon peel before closing down hard. The palate entry’s tight and spicy, followed by tangy lemon/citrus and finishing with toasty then vanillin characters.

1999 Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Semillon: Light yellow/straw, and because this was served very cold some visible frosting on the glass. Perhaps because of its temperature it was very tight and ungiving on the nose, letting out little hints of hazelnut and lanolin; in contrast the palate while restrained was magnificent, extremely long and layered with grass, lime, mineral, and a hint of fennel/tuna and spice in the background. A brilliant wine that’s delicately perfumed and perfectly structured, and at ten years of age has barely flexed a muscle – my WOTN, and by a large margin.


1987 Lindemans Hunter Classic Bin 7071 Semillon: Medium gold/amber. Nutty/oysters on the nose at first, becoming more fishy and then closing up – later on more of the original characters reappear; lemony/tuna entry leading to a noticeable mid-palate hole, finishing dry and spicy with good length. I could see some similarities between this and the 1992 McWilliams Elizabeth in the first bracket – it has a similar palate structure, and its holding on by the skin of its teeth.

1970 Lindemans Hunter River ‘Chablis’: Medium to dark gold/amber. There are remnants of greatness here but not much, occasionally some concentrated lemon juice but mainly sherry/brandied and strange coriander characters on the nose; the palate’s just as knackered, a hint of blue cheese and dried out fruit hanging off what’s left of the structure. I reckon we must have been 5-10 years too late getting to this.


1987 Lindemans Bin 7403 Hunter River ‘Burgundy’: Light brick red. Floral nose with some tea rose and cherries, a little model airplane glue/nail polish remover and barnyard, then mushroom and smoky/leather characters. The same smoky and black cherry characters are there on the palate with a little vanilla, which is elegant and light to medium weight; an elegant, lightweight style that was well liked, but it’s also on the edge.

1987 McWilliams Mt Pleasant Maurice O’Shea ‘Burgundy’: Light red/brick. A little darker/richer on the bouquet, some oyster/tart raspberries followed by ground coffee and cigar box, saddle leather, barnyard and vanilla. The entry to the palate’s tangy, sweet and slightly medicinal, followed by a dry/minty mid-palate, finishing minty and a little slender, some nectarine popping up with breathing.

1999 McWilliams Mt Pleasant Maurice O’Shea Shiraz: Light to almost medium red. Like the colour the nose is noticeably fresher than the previous two wines, floral cherries with a hint of geranium and banana, then some medicinal characters and cigar box; tarry entry followed by dark cherries, a minty/spicy mid-palate and a sweet/musky and slightly medicinal finish.


1987 Brokenwood Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz: Light red/brick. Sweaty saddle/leather, sweet vanilla/cherries and some diesel, then celery stalks, bandaids and cloves; sweet cherries on entry lead to a rather hollow mid-palate, finishing mousy/metallic with some more cloves. I suspect the previous bracket of three wines highlighted the 4-ethyl-guiacol molecule related to brettanomyces (the smoky/mushroom and cigar box characters), while this on the other hand reeked of the less attractive traits of the 4-ethyl-phenol molecule (sweaty saddle/bandaid/mousy/metallic characters).

2005 Brokenwood Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz: Bright cherry red. In contrast to the surrounding wines this was slightly stalky and remarkably clean and almost Rhone-like, full of black cherries/black jubes; the palate’s just as fresh, clean and impressive, black cherries/blueberries backed by vanilla oak, medium weight but tannic with a long, grippy finish. My favourite of the reds, again by a good margin.

2004 Lake’s Folly Cabernets: Light to almost medium red. Dead millipedes and molten metal, medicinal/cherries and some biscuity oak and cloves; metallic entry followed by over-sweet/medicinal cherry characters, finishing long but metallic. Despite being presented double blind I guessed what this wine was – unfortunately it hasn’t changed (for the better) in the last two years.


1990 Lindemans Sparkling Shiraz: Light to medium red/brick with little to no fizz. Old leather and tea leaves, earth and minty/coriander characters; spritzy/spicy entry followed by light to medium weight cherry/raspberry fruit, finishing minty and dry. Still alive – just.

1958 McWilliams Mt Pleasant ‘Sauternes’: Medium amber. Rotting bananas, caramel, a hint of hazelnut and oyster with breathing; nutty/sweet entry leads to a rather weak/watery palate with some caramel/banana characters, finishing long but very dry with some remnants of nutmeg and cold tea. This curio seemed to summarise the tasting as a whole – interesting if not particularly satisfying..

Cheers
Ian

[Wayno]

Terrific notes, Ian. I found

Dead millipedes and molten metal

particularly poetic.

[fred]

Ian,

Starting with the best: that Lindemans 1970 Chablis: if you get a good bottle it is still (arguably) the best white ever made in Oz - certainly the best semillon (and I am a huge vat 1 fan) - but after nearly 40 years it is a random number generator. The last one I tasted (18 months ago) was sublime (but a previous bottle a few months earlier resembled your note).

Lindemans 1987 semillon : started to fall off its plaeau about 2005/6 but very good prior to that and a very good wine in its own right (if you find good bottles of the 1991 they are ok but should be knocked off sooner rather than later), and the 1998 is just starting to strut its stuff.

Tyrells Vat 1 1999: big fan of Vat 1 but didnot think 99 was a great Vcat 1 - but not a bad Vat 1 either. Even good Vat 1s take about 15 years to start to open up for my tastes : the 91 & 93 are now starting to drink wonderfully....I think this should be left another 5 years...

Interesting the 2 x 2000 semillons: I thought 2000 in the Hunter was very good for shiraz but not as good for semillon - and my pick of the noughties is the 05 for potential (but I buy Vat 1s most years, and Lindemans when they are good - unfortunately much more rarely in the last 15 years than previously)

Lindemans 1987 7403 shiraz : the ripper from that vintage was/is the Steven while the 7403 was decent but now heading into decline (funny the 1988 declined first and the standard bottling ending in 03 was better than the Reserve - signified by the bin numbers ending in 00).

Brokenwood Graveyard 1987: good year for Hunter - but not for Graveyard which lives very much in the shadow of the 1986 (notwithstanding most of the 86s for Hunter very average indeed)

Lakes Folly is pleasant but atypical: I think they are doing better with the chardonnay than the cabernet these days - in fact ever since Stephen took over from Max...

just my thoughts,

regards

[Michael McNally]

Terrific notes, Ian. I found

Dead millipedes and molten metal

particularly poetic.

Ah Ian, but what species of millipede and which metal?

Just joshing mate, great notes.

Michael