Top gun Aussie Shiraz - when to drink?

[deejay81]

I don't have the funds to buy 6+ of everything I like... Nor the storage, and wouldn't know what to do if I had a couple of thousand bottles.

Only ones I can justify buying loads of are cheapies that will age such as Mount Pleasant Elizabeth because I know I will actually drink them.

[Scotty vino]

I thought a lot about this thread on Friday evening and the discussion on the collecting thread about how many wines of individual producers do people collect. As Saturday was my birthday I decided to invite a few male friends down to Brown Sugar for red wine and red meat. It gave me an opportunity to crack open a few cases I have collected but not tried yet.As I thought all the wines were a young,I pulled the corks but did not decant at around 11 am in the morning.

First up was a Bouchard Clos de la Mousse 2005. Everyone has been saying its too early to open wines from this vintage and sadly this was true - far too young. Next up was a Clonakilla SV 2005. I had one of the 2003 last week which was just superb but sadly this wine which Walsh & Co rate 97 or so was far too young nothwithstanding having been had the cork pulled in the morning. From there we moved onto a Henschke Mt Edelstone 2004 but that was a solid tannic monster. Thankfully i have half a dozen and one day this wine will be fantastic but I doubt I will touch another for 10 years. The last Australian wine also fell into the opened too early category being a Wynns John Riddoch 1999. At least for this wine, JO recommends opening in 2029 which probably a fair call.

The only wine that was really open for business was the Domaine Du Pegu, Neuf du Pape 2005.. Compared to the top gun Aussie wines, this was superb and ready for business. Sadly however all the Aussie wines were at least 5-10 years too early.

Mark

Mine too!! Had lunch at Maxwells in Mac Vale. hmmm yeah,nah,maybe.
I like their ade hills chardonnay (grabbed a couple) but nothing really grabbed me in the reds department.
Solid wines but I'm still comparing to my recent Coonapalooza run where the wines were very good.
A mate and I finished later with 012 Rocky BP at the pub.Gave it a quick decant.
There was some obvious youthfulness to this but crikey its drinking good now.
The tobacco, cigar box, dusty earth nose was right there and a nice balance of fruit and oak to follow.
I've got a few of these put away and I'll be interested to see how they pan out over the next few years.

[Polymer]

I don't have the funds to buy 6+ of everything I like... Nor the storage, and wouldn't know what to do if I had a couple of thousand bottles..

Yeah..not just that but even if I boosted my budget by 6 or 12 times what I currently spend, it wouldn't be on buying more bottles of the same wines...It would be buying bottles of stuff I don't buy today....

There are probably a few things I'd buy more of..but you also have to consider, you can only go through so many bottles in each year...and if I had a much larger bank account, what wines would I want to spend my time drinking? Still some of the same stuff but a lot of stuff I just can't currently afford...

[rooman]

I don't have the funds to buy 6+ of everything I like... Nor the storage, and wouldn't know what to do if I had a couple of thousand bottles.

Only ones I can justify buying loads of are cheapies that will age such as Mount Pleasant Elizabeth because I know I will actually drink them.

It's strictly horses for courses. I have had the same two cars for nearly 20 years. Friends of mine lose $10-20K each year in depreciation on their cars. We paid off the newest car in 2004. Since then we drive for free. Other friends have boats or planes. Me, I like to buy wine.

I also figure I drink 2 riesling a week or around 100 riesling per year. Since i like my riesling with at least 10 years in the bottle, my aim has been to get up around 1000 in just riesling of all sorts since I don't particularly like young riesling.

mark

[brodie]

I also figure I drink 2 riesling a week or around 100 riesling per year. Since i like my riesling with at least 10 years in the bottle, my aim has been to get up around 1000 in just riesling of all sorts since I don't particularly like young riesling.

mark

Totally understand and agree this. My wife is Malaysian so spicy food is common in our house and aged Riesling is definitely the winner in the Malaysian food wine pairing as far as I am concerned (and even more importantly in her mind as well). I tend to buy German Rieslings mostly in the Kabinett department as this seems to work best. All Rieslings improve with age I reckon, even cheapies. Sadly I am behind your schedule on this matter and only have 500 bottles of Riesling in the cellar. Working on it!

Brodie

[rooman]

I also figure I drink 2 riesling a week or around 100 riesling per year. Since i like my riesling with at least 10 years in the bottle, my aim has been to get up around 1000 in just riesling of all sorts since I don't particularly like young riesling.

mark

Totally understand and agree this. My wife is Malaysian so spicy food is common in our house and aged Riesling is definitely the winner in the Malaysian food wine pairing as far as I am concerned (and even more importantly in her mind as well). I tend to buy German Rieslings mostly in the Kabinett department as this seems to work best. All Rieslings improve with age I reckon, even cheapies. Sadly I am behind your schedule on this matter and only have 500 bottles of Riesling in the cellar. Working on it!

Brodie

Brodie

We are actually sitting around the same levels of riesling and by the sounds of it, with similar producer profiles. Whilst I am aiming to get up to around 1000 bottles, I am still somewhere just north of 500-600. I also really enjoy the German style in addition to the Australian bone dry riesling with most of the German wines being in the Kabinett and Spatelese style. I have opened a couple of cracker 07 Kabinetts over the past month being the Gurunhauser Spatlese 2007 and the Reinhold Haart Grafenberg Kabinett 2007. It was fascinating sharing the later with friends recently who proclaimed loudly they don't like riesling only to watch them lick their lips and ask for more after trying the Kabinett.

Mark