TN: Dinner with TORB

[n4sir]

What a line up for Ric aka TORB’s farewell dinner at The Sauce. Special thanks to Gavin and Lynn Trott for organising the event, the staff for a superb meal and service, and all attendants for their outstanding contributions.

1979 Leo Buring DW116 Riesling: This was the first (and hopefully not the last) time I have tried a Riesling over eight years of age. Rich golden honey colour. The slightly acidic nose is huge, with toasty, wheaty gingerbread characters, with hints of petroleum. At first that toasty acid really bites on the front palate making a huge impact. It drops away rather sharply, leaving some fresh lemon pith and later some apple lingering on the long aftertaste. Mark and Gary thought this wasn’t as good as the previous bottle they tried, but I was still very impressed with this 25-year-old.

1991 Charles Melton Shiraz: Deep rich red colour. A very perfumed nose at first, with old leather dominating, and sweet rose petal lingering in the background, but it closed up quite quickly. The palate is very much in the medium/light spectrum, with what appears to be a split between the restrained fruit up front, and the dry tannins dominating the finish. Maybe the very first signs of drying out.

1994 Henschke Mount Edelstone Shiraz: Deep, glowing ruby colour, with a hint of purple. The oak, at first toasty, then sweet vanilla, dominated the big nose to me with some violets lost in there somewhere. The palate has a soft entry and rich mid-palate, and a spicy red berry finish. Not big, but persistent; Ric thought this wasn’t a good bottle.

1991 Yalumba Signature Cabernet Shiraz: Deep, inky red with a hint of brick on the rim – this did look darker at the restaurant afterwards. Magnificent, complex nose of cigar box, ash, menthol and mint, with flashes of banana, herbs, and a touch of aniseed when I first opened it. At the restaurant it continued morphing, at one stage throwing masses of fresh ground coffee and mixed spice. The palate was soft and persistent, featuring spicy red berry fruit, mint, and integrated powdery tannins driving a long, velvety black cherry finish. As time went by, those tannins softened, and the fruit more intense. I fell in love with this when I first opened it, and it was always a pleasure to come back to at the end of the night. A slightly biased opinion, by my WOTN in an outstanding line up, and probably about 5 years left in the tank.

1994 Leasingham Classic Clare Shiraz: I double decanted this in advance, with about 45 minutes in the vessel, two flushes of air using the breatheasy, and another two hours back in the bottle before pouring at the restaurant. Deep crimson colour with the barest hint of purple on the rim. Sweet nose of dark, Swiss chocolate, mocha, mint and menthol which intensify later on. A major step up in scale compared tho the previous wines, with deep set dark chocolate and mint, and some coffee on the soft but full-bodied palate. A very stylish, youthful and opulent wine that is the exact opposite of the Jimmy Watson Trophy winner stereotypes.

1996 Best Great Western Thompson Shiraz: Deep rich crimson with a glowing slightly purple rim. There’s ample coffee oak on the perfumed nose at first, with rich chocolate, and some rose petal too. I sneaked a second glass at the end of the night, and that time it was slightly green and meaty. The spicy, slightly peppery palate is another step up in power from the Leasingham, with black olive on the back palate. The length is superb, with lingering coffee on the finish. An incredibly youthful and yet complete wine.

1998 Ey Estate Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon: A youthful glowing red/purple. Initially black bitumen/tar leaps out of the glass, before the nose settles quickly into familiar Coonawarra cassis and mint/green leaf characters. With breathing the nose gets even greener, with sweet peas and even soapy characters lurking in the background. The palate structure is almost the exact opposite of what you would expect; a very soft entry, followed by a big mid palate with some slight coffee oak characters, and chalky tannins on the finish that leaves the cassis fruit lagging behind. Outclassed in this strong field.

1998 Shingleback McLaren Vale Shiraz: Again a youthful glowing red/purple. A mixture of violets, greens and coffee oak on the nose at first, which seems quite spirity. The palate has a spirity, sweet entry of licorice, a spicy, peppery mid-palate, and a big olive finish. An immature wine with a lot of classic McLaren Vale characters that left me wondering if it will settle down and improve in time.

1999 Veritas Hamish: A big nose featuring mint and cigar box characters. The mint is present in the spicy palate too with menthol, and later ground coffee. To me the palate seemed a little hot and finished up short, leaving very drying tannins. Not my style.

2002 Arkaroon Clarendon Shiraz: Very deep nose with raspberry/blackberry fruit and obvious coffee oak. The palate is very big and extracted, with a giant spike of alcohol heat in the middle (15%), and syrupy/molasses characters, finishing with lingering sweet fruit. Again not my style and very unusual, but it’s in a tough line up.

2002 Hazyblur Adelaide Plains Shiraz: Inky red/purple colour. A very minty/menthol dominated nose, with earthy/briary characters in tow. The soft entry features some dark chocolate and mint characters, followed by a big, hot, peppery mid-palate, dropping off in the finish with some medicinal characters in the aftertaste. Like the previous four wines, a bit out of its depth in this company.

2001 Cullen Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon: Amazing glowing purple colour. Huge, sweet, velvety blackcurrant nose. The palate seemed slightly warm to me at first (for the record 14%), but again featured that lovely minty cassis fruit, with some menthol, slight savoury/meaty notes, and huge chalky tannins. I was worried a few minutes later when I thought I could detect some salt/brine characters in the aftertaste of my last two mouthfuls from that first glass. I snagged a second glass at the end of the night, and that wasn’t the case, but there was some varnish on the nose, and that acid/tannin structure seemed to be even more powerful. I think Gary nailed it when he said exactly what I had written down a couple of minutes earlier – we’d love to try this again in about ten years time when all these glorious pieces fit together.

1986 Penfolds Grange Hermitage: Deep crimson, with possibly some purple flecks (it was near the end of the night so it was hard to tell). A huge, lifted nose, with very obvious formic acid (VA), green leaf, mint and dark chocolate. Breathing coaxed out ground coffee and spice characters, and at one stage I thought I could detect some fish sauce! At this stage Ric turned to me and said “stop sniffing and drink the bloody thing!” which I promptly followed. The rich, velvety palate is simply amazing, featuring a slow, huge, impossibly long build up of peppery/briary milk chocolate fruit and fully integrated tannins, that as Ric described perfectly “just crawls along the palate”. The finish is very long and smoky, with black olives, and minutes later sweet blackberry. A magnificent wine that’s restored my optimism of what a Grange can possibly be after trying the disappointing 1973 last month.

2003 Bent Creek Black Dog: As expected, a youthful purple colour. A sweet, youthful nose with blackberry fruit and coffee oak, with some raspberry and mint with breathing. The palate seemed slight in this company, finishing with sweet fruit and hot 14.5% alcohol. Following the 1986 Grange was always going to be a tough ask for any wine.

Cheers
Ian

[TORB]

Great notes Ian, thanks for taking them.

[Wizz]

Excellent notes Ian! The Adelaide crew put together an amazing lineup too! A few questions/comments:

The 79 Leo Buring, what a super super wine this is, good to know it is still going. I have to ask, did Ric try it?

The 91 Melton, when do you think the drinking peak is/was/will be?

The Arakoon Clarendon, is that the JJ's Shiraz, the super limited edition one? I'm interested in others' impressions of this wine, I snaffled a couple ot put down for a while.

cheers

Andrew

[TORB]

I have to ask, did Ric try it?

OK, I'll bite - you have got to be kidding! No way.

The Arakoon Clarendon, I'm interested in others' impressions of this wine,

Beyond being warm, it was noticeably hot. I couldn't drink it.

[Wizz]

I have to ask, did Ric try it?

OK, I'll bite - you have got to be kidding! No way.

I know this is flogging a dead horse, but you should if you get a chance, its awesome. All the more for the rest of us I guess..

The Arakoon Clarendon, I'm interested in others' impressions of this wine,

Beyond being warm, it was noticeably hot. I couldn't drink it.

Bugger. I have the set of 02 Arakoons, I'm going to leave them for a while. Could be a test of the big wines/not long keepers hypothesis.

AB

[Von Ridler]

How long was the 1986 Grange opened prior to serving, double decant?
I am planning to open a bottle soon.




Ron.

[n4sir]

Von Ridler,

The 1986 Grange was decanted for about three hours while we were tasting the other wines - they were tried in the order I listed. It wasn't double decanted.

There was also a port at the end of the line, but it didn't smell quite right so I didn't review it - I was also keen to get back to that Cullen! Sorry Guys.

Cheers
Ian

[markg]

Apologies for the belated notes from the other week.

Myself and wife attended a lovely dinner here in Adelaide at the Sauce with Gavin and Robyn, Chris and Gary, Ian, Steve and friends plus Ric (TORB) was travelling through town and had dinner with us all.

The food was again wonderful and the many of the conversations all revolved around wine (surprise, surprise) and food.

I started with all good intentions of taking notes but, as normal, I was talking too much and the notes suffered.


1979 Leo Buring Reisling DWI16
I grabbed about three of these going cheap at a local auction. The first one I opened was absolutely marvelous, honeied, kerosine, lanolin, citrus - Dreamy. However, this one did not live up to the first.

A golden color with a lovely petroleum jelly and honey nose. Whilst the palate was fresh it seemed to be lacking fruit and too overbearing with the acidity.


2002 Hazyblur Shiraz, Adelaide Plains
A dark crimson color. A nose of coffee and rasberry, medium body, quite oaky (but not unpleasantly oaked), cherries. Quite tight and bone dry, finishing a bit too short. Time improved it but it still seemed disjointed.

1991 Charles Melton Shiraz
Ruby colored, slight bricking around the edges. A leathery nose, tight fruits finishing dry and a little short.

1994 Henschke Mount Edelstone
Ruby red. A sweet blackberry nose and a smooth palate with a nice finish and length.


1991 Yalumba The Signature
On the nose a hint of menthol surrounded by coffee and oak. A medium palate of coffee and berries with a persistant finish.

1994 Leasingham Classic Clare Shiraz
An opaque dark purple. A dusty nose of blackcurrants and coffee. Deep rich and full bodied with a long persiostant finish. However, later it seemed to fall apart ???


1996 Bests Great Western Thompson Shiraz
A wonderful nose of coffee, plums and pepper with a tight knit palate of blackfruit finishing with white pepper.

1998 EY Estate Cab Sav
A lovely nose of licorice and tar with a nice lingering palate of violets, blackberry and leaf.

1998 Shingleback McLaren Shiraz
A nose of plums but without the follow through on the palate. Some fruuit but finishing quite dry and acidic.

1996 Penfolds Grange Bin 95 Shiraz
An earthy nose with a searing palate of intense chcolate, coffee and grainy tannins. Someone at the table said "it is so balanced that it is hard to distingush any one fruit flavour". Could have done with many more hours decanting

1999 Hanisch
A very dense, searingly intense palate of blackfruits and tar.

2002 Arakoon Clarendon Shiraz
A nose of melted licorice.

2001 Cullen Cab/Merlot Dianne Madeline
Jeez I think I must have been talking too much to take notes.

[n4sir]

Great to finally see your notes Mark!

1994 Leasingham Classic Clare Shiraz
An opaque dark purple. A dusty nose of blackcurrants and coffee. Deep rich and full bodied with a long persiostant finish. However, later it seemed to fall apart ???

Interesting you should mention this, as I got to finish the bottle while I was waiting for the taxi, and thought it was just really starting to hit its straps!

It was also at this time after everyone else had gone that I noticed the green and meaty characters of the Thompson Best Western Shiraz.

I wonder what happened to the rest of the bottles? - there were quite a few of the staff hanging around after it had closed, so I hope they had some fun with them!

Cheers
Ian