2000 -2009 Greatest SA Vintage??

[ross67]

What SA vintage/s do you rate as something pretty special or just plainly the best??

Place a single vote / or vote for up to 3 vintages if you cannot split them.

Should be an interesting poll!!

ross

[Gavin Trott]

I voted

2004, then 2006.

I could, over time reverse that order.

Unlike many others, not such a big fan of 2002, and find 2005 quite varied, some great wines, some a bit overdone.

But then, I am a personal fan of wines with better structure, not such a fan of 'lushness' necessarily, so there is, as there must be, some personal bias in all of this.

.

[tos]

Also went for 2004 because in my relatively limited experience so far I generally prefer 2004 Coonawarra reds over 2005 + 2006 (but like I said, have had many).

Also 2005 was very good for top reds/reds that are drunk early + excellent for many whites from the Adelaide Hills, Clare + Eden ... maybe if I'd factored in white wines I would have gone for 2005?

[Mike Hawkins]

Gavin's thoughts are in line with mine. Toss up between 04 and 06. 2002 has produced too many porty wines.. 2005 has studs and duds...

[n4sir]

An easy call for me - 2004 followed by a lot of daylight. Simply it was a perfect red vintage just about everywhere with a huge yield of quality fruit.

Unlike Gavin I'm not a great fan of 2006 - never have been, and that's unlikely to change. Too many green wines, overripe wines, and blends of the two mashed together for my liking. Many top end wines have been impressive, but often that's been at the expense of ones lower down the chain.

2005 reds looked very pretty early, but some are ageing way too quick - as Tos has said the whites are impressive to date.

I was pretty wary of what reds I bought from 2002 having purposely avoiding the high-alcohol jobs, and that appears to have paid off going by the wines I'm going back to now. It could be variable, but the right wines still look fresh, long and well balanced even considering they're well into the black fruit spectrum. The whites across the board are superb (especially from Clare), so this could be a sleeper vintage that might turn out better than some expect - that said I still think 2004 will always be King.

Cheers,
Ian

[dlo]

Yeah, what Ian wrote, but with a caveat - 2002 is (generally) really strong for Riesling (Eden /Clare) and 2004 is my strong suit for reds across the board.

It's very dangerous to generalise with vintages so don't take these polls as a "given".

[ross67]

An easy call for me - 2004 followed by a lot of daylight. Simply it was a perfect red vintage just about everywhere with a huge yield of quality fruit.

Unlike Gavin I'm not a great fan of 2006 - never have been, and that's unlikely to change. Too many green wines, overripe wines, and blends of the two mashed together for my liking. Many top end wines have been impressive, but often that's been at the expense of ones lower down the chain.

2005 reds looked very pretty early, but some are ageing way too quick - as Tos has said the whites are impressive to date.

I was pretty wary of what reds I bought from 2002 having purposely avoiding the high-alcohol jobs, and that appears to have paid off going by the wines I'm going back to now. It could be variable, but the right wines still look fresh, long and well balanced even considering they're well into the black fruit spectrum. The whites across the board are superb (especially from Clare), so this could be a sleeper vintage that might turn out better than some expect - that said I still think 2004 will always be King.

Cheers,
Ian

Some interesting thoughts Ian.....where do you think 01 fits in to everything??

I am finding now and for the last year or so that that many are now starting to slide

ross

[ticklenow1]

I went with 04, followed by the 02. I was also impressed with 01 as well although I was only very early in my wine journey when they were around. Some of the best wines I have consumed were 01's. I only have a few left and they always seem to perform.

I went long on 04 wines from SA as it was my wedding year and they are definitely outstanding. 06 was a year I also bought plenty of. I have very few complaints about 02 either. I bought a lot of Barossa Shiraz and we are really enjoying drinking them now.

I wonder how the 09 vintage will be remembered. Grenache suffered from the heatwave by reducing yields. But I am under the impression that shiraz and Cabernet, as well as the whites were quite good. Can anybody elaborate? I want to get a few quality wines from 09 as it is my youngest son's birth year.

[n4sir]

I wonder how the 09 vintage will be remembered. Grenache suffered from the heatwave by reducing yields. But I am under the impression that shiraz and Cabernet, as well as the whites were quite good. Can anybody elaborate? I want to get a few quality wines from 09 as it is my youngest son's birth year.

I think you've got the conditions of 2009 & 2010 a little mixed up.

I posted this at the other place in a reply to a similar question about 2010:

Many red regions in SA were effected by the intense heatwave in 2009 like the one in 2008, but the timing was different (it was earlier, even hotter, but also a few days shorter): in 2008 many late ripening varieties were roasted just before picking, hence there won't be many good results for things like Cabernet outside of Coonawarra and the Limestone Coast, but people will talk up wines from "fruit picked before the heat".

2009 was virtually the opposite - the heatwave hit areas like Langhorne Creek, McLaren Vale & some parts of the Barossa during or just after verasion, and a lot of Shiraz & Grenache payed the price. At picking time Roger Pike of Marius, and David & Pam Cross of Winter Creek thought the fruit wasn't good enough to make a vintage altogether, and when that happens to people who are that careful with their vineyards it says a lot to me. Vineyards and regions where the heatwave hit before verasion like Adelaide Hills & Coonawarra (the vines just shut down a week or so and lost a few leaves) and especially later ripening varieties like Cabernet had a slow, virtually perfect ripening season, and those are the things to keep an eye out for. I should add that Clare Riesling (particularly Watervale) was outstanding.

After the trials of the previous three red vintages, about the only real glitch in 2010 was the ridiculously early heatwave in November 2009 which buggered up the flowering process in some cases, particularly Grenache (some are looking at as little as 30% of a normal yield). Things seemed to be running a little early at one stage (someone told me they thought it could have been that early burst of heat stuffing up the vines natural clock, or the cumulative effect of the three previous hot years training the vines into some kind of "hurry-up" mode) but a little splash of rain just prior to many picking their reds delayed things long enough to put it back to the start of March. I've yet to hear a winemaker who isn't happy with the 2010 vintage - at the moment I suspect the only people who aren't are the grapegrowers who had their prices slashed due to the ongoing problem of the glut.

Cheers,
Ian