Adelaide Offline - Pinnochios Unley - 1 Sept @ 7pm

[Seven]

it's gonna be a fun night!

damn! really wanna change my mind now...

[Mark Jappe]

it's gonna be a fun night!

damn! really wanna change my mind now...

Chi

You should change your mind (as should Ian), I am sure that Paul could swing a couple of extra seats at the table.

[Mark Jappe]

In light of some of the speccy wines being brought by others, I have decided I will bring all three wines. Who needs a liver anyway!

[PaulG]

I both have to drive and work tomorrow, so I will be making liberal use of a spitoon, I think!

[n4sir]

it's gonna be a fun night!

damn! really wanna change my mind now...

Chi

You should change your mind (as should Ian), I am sure that Paul could swing a couple of extra seats at the table.

Sorry guys, but late appointments last night and early ones this morning snuffed out any final shot for me to make it.

I hope everyone had a great time, and your heads aren't too sore this morning.

Cheers,
Ian

[PaulG]

Thanks everyone for making last night a lot of fun! I hope everyone else enjoyed it too!

WOTN for me was Gavin's German Riesling - just beautiful!

[Wayno]

Sorry to have missed it. I'm sure the wine was good... but what was the food like?

[PaulG]

I thought it was superb, but I should let others who didn't organise it comment!

[Steve]

I thought it was superb, but I should let others who didn't organise it comment!

I thought the food was pretty damn good, too. Thanks for sussing the evening out - it was very enjoyable. I think we have a future with Pinnochio...!

I have a few tasting notes to write up later, but I'm quite lazy and very busy so they have to wait until later in the week

[Waiters Friend]

Thanks again Paul for arranging the night, and to the dozen people that showed up for providing good company and interesting perspectives on wine.

I took notes on all 19 wines opened that night, but with work commitments and a trip to the Great Southern next weekend, it will take me possibly a fortnight to assemble them and post them. They probably won't be as good as Ian's, and it is a shame he couldn't make it.

Nice to meet you all. And especially Gavin, the face behind the forum.

Allan

[Mark Jappe]

Thanks for organising the night Paul. Gail and I very much enjoyed the food, wine and company.

While I did not take notes, the stand out wines for me (in no particular order) were the German riesling, the 2001 Howard Park Riesling and the 2004 Wendouree Shiraz. But for the cork issue, I suspect that Steve's '96 John Riddoch might have trumped them all however.

Cheers

Mark

[PaulG]

But for the cork issue, I suspect that Steve's '96 John Riddoch might have trumped them all however.

Just as, but for my complete lack of sporting ability, I would have won gold at the Olympics in the 400m!

I agree the German Riesling, and the Howard Park 2001 were excellent!

[via collins]

The suspense is killing me - will someone get stuck into the details on this mystical German riesling?

[Gavin Trott]

The suspense is killing me - will someone get stuck into the details on this mystical German riesling?

I brought it.

Was good.

That do??

.

[via collins]

Perfect, I could not ask for more than that.

I can nearly taste it from your notes.

[markg]

Anybody care to share a little more about the German .. perhaps a vintage ?

Wait.. wait.. I get it.. its like a virtual blind tasting ?

Ok.. I'll start first.. was it a 2004 Dr loosen Erdener Pralat Auslese GC ?

close ?

[PaulG]

I'd offer to help, but I didn't take down the label!

It was good though - fruity, with a bit of spritz, far from what I would expect from an Australian Riesling (and I say that in a good way!)

[Gavin Trott]

from memory

2009 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Kabinett Trocken

Lovely stuff.

I think most at the dinner had not tried much Germanic Riesling (please let me know if that's incorrect) and really enjoyed the class, and the delicate, not quite dry, style?

I sure did, really good wine.

.

[Waiters Friend]

To put everyone out their misery.....

The German riesling was a Fritz Haag Brauneburger Riesling Trocken 2009. My notes describe a pale yellow colour, clean acid and lemon flower. Off-dry style with a hint of honey. A medium, not too long finish. Then we moved to the next wine and I stopped writing about this one........but I definitely enjoyed it. Certainly not as acidic as the average Australian dry riesling.

I'll get to the rest of the notes when I can. One down, 18 to go

Cheers

Allan

[Waiters Friend]

G’day

It was delightful to catch up with Adelaide forumites at the offline. It was especially good to put faces to names I have been occasionally talking to for years, and they are a nice bunch in Adelaide.

The theme was (approximately) Riesling and Shiraz, from Great Southern WA, and South Australia generally. 19 wines in total were served, but not quite all matched the theme. That was probably a relief for some people. Spittoons were provided, and used liberally.

The venue was Pinocchios Restaurant in Unley, about 5 minutes from CBD. The venue looked after us pretty well, but were possibly bemused by the appearance (40 minutes before the start) of a bedraggled Western Australian fresh off the plane, with an armful of Styrofoam packs. Well, I had to allow time to get the whites chilled……

Now to the wines:

Fritz Haag Brauneburger Riesling Trocken 2009: My notes describe a pale yellow colour, clean acid and lemon flower. Off-dry style with a hint of honey. A medium, not too long finish. Certainly not as acidic as the average Australian dry riesling.

Howard Park Great Southern Riesling 2010: HP also made a Porongorups Riesling in 2010, but this is the standard model. Pale yellow. A little shy on the nose, but the palate opened up to zingy lime, some florals, and the citrus and prominent acid flowed through to a clean finish. Perhaps a hint of the age-worthiness of the wine?

Grosset Polish Hill Riesling 2006: Yellow gold in colour, with a big whiff of kero on the nose. Lime, toast and honey on the nose, and the palate followed that theme with a fair amount of intensity and concentration. Typical good aged Riesling, although I would have picked it a couple of years older than 2006.

Howard Park Great Southern Riesling 2001: No kero at all. Fully mature with honey, lime and citrus. This was the white wine of the night for some people, and definitely for me.

Houghton Frankland River Riesling 2001: Gold colour. Very faint hint of kero. Fully mature, but with lime and some acid still up front. Not as honeyed as the Grosset, and in some senses fresher. Will go another few years easily, but will it get better? I’ll drink mine soon-ish.

Rovally Riesling 1976: This is now Leibich Wines in the Barossa. Scanlon generously brought this wine of her birth-year, with the cork already removed, and the wine stoppered. A clear golden yellow with no sign of oxidation. Honeyed and rich, almost Riesling essence, with some viscosity. Surprisingly intact and a very interesting wine to sample – this has held up well for a 35 y.o. wine. Thank you Scanlon.

Ocean Eight Mornington Peninsular Chardonnay 2008: Medium yellow. Typical Mornington Chardonnay, with grapefruit and cashew nut. I also thought I could taste some lemon, but this could be a consequence of tasting 6 rieslings! By the time we got to this it was near room temperature, and showed slight yeasty, mealy characters.

La Curio McLaren Vale Grenache 2007: Medium bodied, and not confectionery in style (which some Grenaches can be), good fruit with minimal oak influence and fine, modest tannins. I’m not generally a Grenache fan, but this was better than most I’ve tried.

Domain Day Barossa Sangiovese 2005: Slightly savoury, slightly hot for my taste, big, oaky, with blackcurrant and anise.

Then to the Shiraz. We decided to separate the wines into region, then approach the ‘lighter’ regions first, from young to old.

Capel Vale Whispering Hill Shiraz 2008 (Great Southern): Slightly savoury, with red fruits. Medium bodied, with vanilla / cedar. It opened up and got better over an hour, with blackberry. Combined elegance and power and was very much to my taste (not surprisingly, I brought this with me).

Capel Vale Kinnaird Shiraz 2000: Some bloke called Brett had climbed into this bottle as the cork went in, and wish the winemaker’s curse upon it. I could smell it from a metre away by the end of the night.

Capel Vale Kinnaird Shiraz 1998: Brett hadn’t visited this bottle (nor one of these tried a few weeks previously) but it was somewhat past its prime. There were strong hints of what the wine could have been, but the wine was a little flat and tired. Not corked, just not right. That’s two in a row for these.

Houghton Frankland River Shiraz 2001: A partner for the riesling opened earlier, and very similar in its development. Still with some way to go. My somewhat disjointed notes go: “Rich plum. Ripe but not overpowering, with defined flavor profile and fruit without flooding the palate”. I hope you get the idea…. I am a fan of this wine, BTW. Now marketed as Houghton Wisdom.

Hollick Wilgha Shiraz 1998: For me, quite hot, some nice clove / spice and a little boot polish, but a little disjointed.

JJ Hahn 1914 Barossa Shiraz 2002: Dusty tannins, ripe plum, vanilla, big but not over-ripe, warm but not overly alcoholic (some balance perhaps). Regardless, too big for me.

Schubert The Gosling Shiraz 2008: Very ripe fruit with a hint of floor polish, not as hot as some of the other Barossa wines. It will be interesting to see how this one ages.

Colonial Exile Shiraz 2009: Big, plush, over-ripe, with furniture polish. For me, too big, too young, too syrupy. Described by others as ‘fire accelerant’. Phew!

Wendouree Shiraz 2004: I have been laboring under the misapprehension for years that the pronunciation of the name accents the second syllable, not the first. A bunch of South Australians corrected me, for which I am grateful.

Too young (by Gavin’s admission) and totally different in style to the big Barossans. Massive, concentrated, tar, ink, bitumen and licorice. Way too young and unbalanced now, but I would be fascinated to see this at 20 years. In the meantime, however, it was summed up by another taster as “I’m enjoying the experience of tasting it, but I can't DRINK it right now”.

Wynn’s John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon 1996: This should have been fabulous. But SOMETHING got to it, and we couldn’t work out what. Big toasty oak, fruit diminished and stewed / over cooked. A shame.

For dessert, Mount Horrocks Cordon Cut Riesling 2009 showed really well. Candied lime and lemon brulee, good acid and a lovely clean finish. I love this stuff.


So, a night of ‘hit and miss’ where some of the wines were concerned – reds particularly. I declined the restaurant’s generous offer of a port or limoncello to finish – I still needed to work the following morning (as did many of us). Fortunately, judicious use of the spittoon meant I was clear-headed the following day.

My thanks again to Paul for arranging the night, and to those who turned up – it was an absolute pleasure to meet you.

Cheers

Allan

[daz]

Good notes Allan - Capel Vale seems a bit to the fore.