Sunday reports

[monghead]

Hello all.

Reports are now due for marking.....

Cheers

Monghead

[xsorxpire]

Cape mentel Sav blanc. Starts with gooseberry, then goes a little citrus and finishes with metal. Boring, horrible, unexciting and difficult to drink.
Cape metel MArmaduke. Not much in the way of flavour at first so i grabbed the bottle, put my finger in the hole and shook the shit out it. This resulted in a wet finger. Again, boring, horrible, unexciting and difficult to drink.

Yarraburn blanc de blanc. Bubbly.

The sparkiling became a lovely drink, tasting of watermelon, citrus, honeydew and a hint of orange. Mind you i wouldn't expect anything less when you pick the fruit off the platter and shove it in a wine glass to add flavour to the rubbish you are drinking.


It's work christmas party time.

Woo fucking hoo!

[cuttlefish]

I had a bottle of 2009 Chalkers Crossing Chardonnay yesterday and today. Good drinking.
Just now have opened the 2006 Delatite Shiraz, which is peppery, and has a damp earth aspect. Really peppery, actually. Probably just full-bodied, juicy, a little rich with black berries, etc. It's got dead set firm acid, and some grip to the tannins. Not bad. Will hold my other bottles for a year or three.

[griff]

A few christmas season wines as well

1998 Veuve Cliquot La Grande Dame
Pale gold. Initially provides an impression of brassiness with a whiff of yeast and apple. WIth time some vanilla and white peach emerges. Prominent small bubbles without being aggressive. Great line of green apple acid surprised me considering the year and the amount of pinot in the blend. Nice balance with future potential here. Excellent.

And I should write up some of the sherries we have been sipping on recently as they are bargains over here:

Gonzalez Byass Apostoles Palo Cortado VORS
VORS stands for at least 30 years old. Light brown with orange rim. Volatile nose of orange peel and nuts. Sweeter than I expected with a long persistent palate. Acid present but the palate of sweet grapes is the dominant impression. Excellent.

Gonzalez Byass Matusalem Sweet Oloroso VORS
Mid-brown with yellow rim. Volatile nose. Intense sweet-sour palate. Here the balance is perfect. Lovely rancio finish. Outstanding.

1982 Bodegas Tora Albala Don PX Gran Reserva
Limpid black with brown rim. Molassas on the nose. Sweet and raisined but doesn't cloy. Excellent.

Harvey PX VORS
Darker than the Don PX. The bouquet is more volatile with some furniture polish. Less fragrant and fruity with more depth. More persistent as well. Outstanding.

cheers

Carl

[monghead]

Cape mentel Sav blanc. Starts with gooseberry, then goes a little citrus and finishes with metal. Boring, horrible, unexciting and difficult to drink.
Cape metel MArmaduke. Not much in the way of flavour at first so i grabbed the bottle, put my finger in the hole and shook the shit out it. This resulted in a wet finger. Again, boring, horrible, unexciting and difficult to drink.

Yarraburn blanc de blanc. Bubbly.

The sparkiling became a lovely drink, tasting of watermelon, citrus, honeydew and a hint of orange. Mind you i wouldn't expect anything less when you pick the fruit off the platter and shove it in a wine glass to add flavour to the rubbish you are drinking.


It's work christmas party time.

Woo fucking hoo!

Shame about the bad run. It does make you think life's too short to be drinking crap isn't it?
Hope things pick up soon.....

[monghead]

2010 Grosset Polish Hill Riesling- Very Very Good
2004 Flying Fish Cove Sparkling Shiraz- Solid Good
1999 Domaine Bouchard Chambertin Clos de Beze- Very Very Good

Cheers,

Monghead.

[Peter NZ]

Outside of Friday's offline:

1998 Orlando St Hugo Cabernet Sauvignon Excellent -- drinking very nicely now, but with plenty of life left.
2006 Astrolabe Riesling 1st time I'd come across this, another Spatlese styled Marlborough riesling. Pretty good with good acid / sugar balance, though a notch below the best of this style.
2004 Clearview Reserve Chardonnay Hopefully just bottle variation, but significantly more developed than the last one I had a few months back.

Cheers
Peter

[bacchaebabe]

Did a late thanksgiving dinner at an American's friend's place. Took along two each the following:

NV Laurent Perrier Champagne This marque is one of my favourites and never fails to please. Good bead, light colour and clean lemon acid with a touch of toastiness.

04 Disgorged Rockford Sparkling Black No cork problems and right on song. Absolutely gorgeous wine with very pure and deep blackcurrant core. This was really something special and impressed everyone at the table. Everything was in balance. Right amount of sweet, right amount of savoury, very impressive indeed. One of the better sparkling shirazes that I've had. The last of my 04s unfortunately.

[dlo]

Did a late thanksgiving dinner at an American's friend's place. Took along two each the following:

NV Laurent Perrier Champagne This marque is one of my favourites and never fails to please. Good bead, light colour and clean lemon acid with a touch of toastiness.

04 Disgorged Rockford Sparkling Black No cork problems and right on song. Absolutely gorgeous wine with very pure and deep blackcurrant core. This was really something special and impressed everyone at the table. Everything was in balance. Right amount of sweet, right amount of savoury, very impressive indeed. One of the better sparkling shirazes that I've had. The last of my 04s unfortunately.

2004 seems to be a terrific year for SA reds in general, Kris. The 2004 E&E Sparkling is a rip snorter (93 points, gold medal standard) and possibly still available. I paid very low 40's (was a great deal, hope you can get something like it, too).

[Matt]

Flametree Shiraz 2008 (Frankland River)
Blackcurrents, liquorice, some dusty dark chocolate notes. Intergrates with very fine and impressive oak. Impressed and recommended.

[bacchaebabe]

Did a late thanksgiving dinner at an American's friend's place. Took along two each the following:

NV Laurent Perrier Champagne This marque is one of my favourites and never fails to please. Good bead, light colour and clean lemon acid with a touch of toastiness.

04 Disgorged Rockford Sparkling Black No cork problems and right on song. Absolutely gorgeous wine with very pure and deep blackcurrant core. This was really something special and impressed everyone at the table. Everything was in balance. Right amount of sweet, right amount of savoury, very impressive indeed. One of the better sparkling shirazes that I've had. The last of my 04s unfortunately.

2004 seems to be a terrific year for SA reds in general, Kris. The 2004 E&E Sparkling is a rip snorter (93 points, gold medal standard) and possibly still available. I paid very low 40's (was a great deal, hope you can get something like it, too).

Thanks David. The 04 Leasingham Classic Clare sparkling shiraz is pretty good too. I've got a lot of other choices though so won't be skimping at Chrissie. I do love a good sparkling shiraz.

[dlo]

I'll try and find some. I clean forgot about this one. Been drinking the Leasingham since the 1991 vintage. Great wine as a rule. Thanks for the tip.

[Stavros]

Dinner with afew like minded wino's last saturday night and this is what we had....

1991 Leo Buring Leonay Rhine Riesling.
1996 Burge Family winemakers Draycott Reserve Shiraz
2008 Craggy Range 'Te Muna" ( ithink that's what it said?) Pinot Noir
1998 Penfold's Bin 389
1998 Leasingham Classic Clare Shiraz
1999 Houghton Gladstones Cab Sauv.
1999 Houghton Gladstones Shiraz
2005 Yering Station Reserve Shiraz Viognier
NV Lancaster Wines Sticky Shiraz

All wine under cork ( and all good) except the Yering Station. There wasn't a bad drop amongst them, although, for me
the Rizza was a bit past it ( one of my wines). The Gladstone's were singing!, the Classic Clare has years ahead of it as did
the Yering Station and 389....come to think of it, they all did, reds that is........

S

[Tucker Wine Studios]

I'll throw in a red bubbly and a couple of whites here that I had in the recent past:

Peter Lehmann Black Queen Sparkling Shiraz 2001 (disgorged 2008): Was in the mood for a bubbly and haven’t had a red sparkling for a long time so this one went into the fridge. Quite powerful and savoury sparkling shiraz. Has a hint of saltiness but that didn’t irritate me too much. Very very good.

Bellarmine Pemberton Riesling 2010: This is their off-dry Riesling version. Chilled it is a very attractive wine on a sunny Sunday afternoon. To be honest the fruit profile seems to me a little bit one dimensional and simple, but sweetness and acidity is very well balanced. A good quaffer and good good.

Shaw & Smith Sauvignon Blanc 2010: Ahhh...love this wine year in year out. Explosion of tropical fruit flavours but also tangy gooseberry. Good balance between fruit ripeness and acidity. Great food wine. Very very good.

Peter Lehmann Margaret Barossa Semillon 2003: Oh wow – beautiful golden colour and quite rich on the palate. Interesting aroma mix of melony fruits and nutty-oaty-woody notes, some bees wax and lanolin. Loved it. Very very good.

Woodlands Margaret River Chardonnay 2008: Very delicious wine, leaning towards a fruitier and slightly richer style but in no way just big and bold. Certainly not restrained or minerally. Easy drinking on a high level. Very very good.

TarraWarra Estate Reserve Chardonnay 2006: Hmm…hard to describe and all I can think of is funky. Sort of medium bodied, in between minerally and fruity, shows some mature characters. Not too sure what to make of it.

Seville Estate Chardonnay 2006: Ooops, what a wonderful and delicious wine. Crisp but also mouthfilling and rich, very balanced and harmonic, a wine in peace with itself, perfectly drinking now. Very very good to excellent.

Cheers,
Mario