Weekly drinking thread: w/c 1st July

[Mike Hawkins]

Nice one Gavin. How did you find the Pol? I had it when it first came out and thought it and the BdB were both excellent

[Gavin Trott]

Nice one Gavin. How did you find the Pol? I had it when it first came out and thought it and the BdB were both excellent

Kinda short notes Mike, but

Billiecart-Salmon Grand Cru Brut Blance de Blancs, Mareuil-Surray, France 12% alc - really good BdB, varietal (in Champagne terms) and delicious
Bollinger Special Cuvee, France, 12% alc - Bollinger (not my style, but rich and tasty)
Vve Fournay & Fils Premier Cru Grande Reserve, France, 12% alc Don't know it, pretty reasonable, albeit a touch forgettable
Louis Roederer Brut Premier, Reims France, 12% alc - pretty good, enjoyable
2002 Pol Roger Vintage Extra cuvee de reserve, Epernay France, 12.5% alc , very good, as per Billecart with a touch more 'elegance and a touch of extra class, really good
Henri Chauvet Cuvee Noire Brut de Noir Premier Cru, France 12.5% alc - stunning, real BdN style, very 'Pinot', very long, interesting and very classy. Loved it, and my Champagne of the night!

.

[Mike Hawkins]

Thanks Gavin. I've never had the Henri Chauvet - might be one to track down.

Cheers

Mike

[n4sir]

Some ordinary and utterly horrific wines tried at a committee meeting last week - all presented blind:

2006 McHenry Hohnen Vintners 3 Amigos Marsanne Chardonnay Roussanne, Margaret River (screwcap): 13.5% alc. Smells like a worked chardonnay at first, peach and melon with nutty/cashew oak, becoming more green/grassy with breathing. A flinty entry leads to a mid-palate with melon and French vanilla oak/pie crust, finishing with some bitterness but a toasty rebound. The committee loved this – I thought it was average.

2010 Coldstream Hills Cabernet Sauvignon, Yarra Valley (screwcap): 14% alc. Blueberries and cherries on the nose, backed by spicy oak, a touch smoky; the palate’s very dry and green, medium-weight with good sweetness but also a slightly rubbery/carbonic character, finishing green and bitter. Pretty ordinary stuff.

NV Dynasty Merlot, China (cork): 13.8% alc. Very volatile and stinky nose, varnish, tobacco and tar, shoe polish and diesel, red jellies, blue metal and white pepper; the palate’s medium-weight and just as smoky, short, weird, and downright nasty. China can keep this shit in its ridiculously heavy bottle – I seriously don’t want to try amateurish rubbish like this from them ever again.

2010 Longwood Audersley’s Vineyard The Blend Shiraz Cabernet, Tintinara SA (screwcap): 13.8% alc. Very stinky and rubbery, diesel fumes, struck metal and cherry cough syrup; the palate’s just as bad, medium-weight with weird smoky/carbonic characters and white pepper on the finish. Another shocking, badly made, amateurish wine that I never want to see again.

2011 Gibson The Dirtman Shiraz, Barossa Valley (screwcap): 14.9% alc. Medium to dark red with legs on the glass. Surprisingly herbal, perfumed and spicy but also medicinal and metallic; the palate’s sickly-sweet and syrupy, redskins, cloves and cherry cola, finishing metallic and minty. I have to wonder if it’s the wet vintage or dirty barrels that has affected this wine – it should never be like this, I’d argue it shouldn’t have been released or possibly even made.

1998 Xanadu Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River (cork): 13.5% alc. Medium brick. Very green and very bretty nose, bandaids, cloves, cherries, and dried herbs; the palate’s a little better with leafy and forest floor characters matching medium-weight currant fruit, finishing dry and chalky. Possibly a heat effected bottle, the cork was soaked most of the way through; the wine was decanted heavily prior to serving – it didn’t really help.

Cheers,
Ian

[sjw_11]

Some ordinary and utterly horrific wines tried at a committee meeting last week - all presented blind:

Cheers,
Ian

Its interesting Ian, I have always thought your notes are more often negative than most, and for curiosity I did a quick check...

Your run of more than 3,000 posts, while epic and a mainstay, are only around 3% of the total forum... however from a wine descriptor perspective you have made 33% of all references to "Metallic", 48% of all references to "Medicinal" and 34% of all references to "rubber".

I wonder if you are more sensitive to some of these faults, or if most people simply dont post a note when they have a bad wine?? I am curious as if the latter, perhaps we should fix this so as to provide a better warning system to people to help protect us all from wasting our livers on bad wine!

[TiggerK]

Looks like someone was having a root day. Respect, but it seems n4sir focuses on searching for the bad aspects of a wine, and if found, deems them inexcusable. But there's too much good wine around to excuse forgiving the average or poor stuff, so that's likely why he's the Enforcer!

We had the Dynasty Merlot NV on Saturday, and while it was definitely nowhere near being a good wine, it wasn't as bad for the $8.90 price as n4sir's note would have you believe. Plain, boring, short and amateurish, yes, but stinky and volatile? Not our bottle anyway, FWIW.

The committee loved this – I thought it was average.

How many other good palates on the committee I wonder?

[tarija]

Campbells Merchant Prince Rare Muscat - darker and thicker than motor oil, layers of flavour like a rollercoaster in the mouth, enough acidity there to cut through the sweetness/thickness. Nutty, rancio, raisins. Enormous length. Wonderful, world class fortified.

[phillisc]

Campbells Merchant Prince Rare Muscat - darker and thicker than motor oil, layers of flavour like a rollercoaster in the mouth, enough acidity there to cut through the sweetness/thickness. Nutty, rancio, raisins. Enormous length. Wonderful, world class fortified.

Beautiful Tarija, can just imagine it...great tasting note.

Cheers
Craig.

[griff]

Looks like someone was having a root day. Respect, but it seems n4sir focuses on searching for the bad aspects of a wine, and if found, deems them inexcusable. But there's too much good wine around to excuse forgiving the average or poor stuff, so that's likely why he's the Enforcer!

We had the Dynasty Merlot NV on Saturday, and while it was definitely nowhere near being a good wine, it wasn't as bad for the $8.90 price as n4sir's note would have you believe. Plain, boring, short and amateurish, yes, but stinky and volatile? Not our bottle anyway, FWIW.

The committee loved this – I thought it was average.

How many other good palates on the committee I wonder?

I had better not put up my notes then

Cheers

Carl

[TiggerK]

The Merchant Prince is truly fantastic stuff. It's also possibly the cheapest way to taste a proper world class wine, and a bottle lasts more than a night ! (Unless Grape Mates are around that is)

Maybe aged top Hunter Semillon gets that accolade, but it's a close run thing. Plus given their dodgy corks, you've often got to buy two or three bottles to get a good one!

P.S Bring on the 70 point reviews Carl! Know you hated every Merlot up until the Craggy Range and Redigaffi Half empty, half full etc, honesty is the best policy!

(Oh and n4sir's 'committee' loved the 3 Amigos M.C.R., not the Dynasty in case anyone is confused)

[n4sir]

Its interesting Ian, I have always thought your notes are more often negative than most, and for curiosity I did a quick check...

Your run of more than 3,000 posts, while epic and a mainstay, are only around 3% of the total forum... however from a wine descriptor perspective you have made 33% of all references to "Metallic", 48% of all references to "Medicinal" and 34% of all references to "rubber".

I wonder if you are more sensitive to some of these faults, or if most people simply dont post a note when they have a bad wine?? I am curious as if the latter, perhaps we should fix this so as to provide a better warning system to people to help protect us all from wasting our livers on bad wine!

One thing to keep in mind about my notes - they are written with one person in mind, being me. These are purely my own reference notes that have been cut and pasted here - yes they are ruthless, they don't pull punches, but they're written as something I can rely on.

That said, every palate is different, and I know there are a lot of people out there who will disagree with what I think - that's why I always say it's as important (if not even more so) for them to voice their own opinions in places like this. Always rely on your own palate before anyone else's - always.

Looks like someone was having a root day.

Nah, it wasn't a root day - there was actually one very good wine at this meeting which has been posted elsewhere in the forum (as it didn't deserve to be lumped in with this lot).

As for the Dynasty merlot, without trying to drag up too much dirty laundry from that meeting, the person taking it was taking the piss - he was getting fed up with the crappy standard of wines some other people were taking to these meetings. I guess he achieved one goal, everyone hated it - the bottle we had was very volatile and very stinky, I think someone at the time described it as being a bit like the worst Pinotage you could ever imagine, except not that good. I just can't imagine why a major grocer is bothering importing something as bad as this.

Cheers,
Ian

[rens]

I for one love your candor Ian. I don't at all see your notes as negative, just honest. I take great delight in reading all of your notes, especially the last of your sentences which tells me exactly what you think and what I want to know.