The Auswine Forum

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Thai fish cakes on the menu last night, made with some fresh Australian Salmon we caught down off Browns Beach, Riesling was an appropriate match.
2 different vintages, 2 different regions, 2 different styles, both under $20 and both have excellent drinking appeal. The acid structures really differentiate the wines.

2019 Hill River Polish Hill Riesling. Hill River have large holding down in the Polish Hill River area, the wine is made by one the best Riesling winemakers in the Valley. The wine is representative of the vintage – great back bone of acidity – mouth puckering and watering. More on the lime scale of citrus flavours with wet stone and floral notes. Perhaps picked on the riper side with a tropical note. That acid structure will see it live on for many years. $18 – bargain

2020 Jim Barry Watervale Riesling. The earliest Riesling they have produced and released. This release seems a lot softer on the palate with the acid quite subtle, adding a slight zing. The fruit is more lemon, lemon blossom, white flowers and a touch of talc. I think this is an earlier drinker, even not long out of bottle, has very good drinkability and will be in the zone by Summer 2020. This is a consistent wine year in and out.

Matt@5453 wrote:

phillisc wrote:

Mike Hawkins wrote:Matt, Craig or anyone else... on the subject of Clare, has anyone tasted 2019 The Merle or Florita? If so, thoughts ? Cheers, Mike

Hi Mike, did try the Merle before sending a sixer down the hole...very floral and perfumed delicate texture, very good. If I am to be critical the 19 didn't match the laser like acidity of the 12 but still a good wine
I am ordering some of the Florita and the other one l will get is Clos Clare, Sam and Tom Barry's wine...it's very very good.
Cheers Craig

Have not tried either yet. Generally speaking 19 should be a good year, there was plenty of natural acidity. Did not go to the wine show tasting last year, hence missed trying a large sample.
20 is shaping up very well, Riesling looking strong across most sub-regions from what I am hearing. Volumes will be well down though.

Thanks Gents... looks like I’m spending more money!

2010 Clarendon Hills Moritz Syrah.
The thing I liked about this wine,was that it was surprisingly not over the top.
Yes, dark,dark colours, slightly porty on the nose,. but a restrained (for this Producer) middle palate. Lovely chewy tannins on a relatively long palate.

Grant Burge 2005 Shadrach Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon. A rare cork closure for me. Cork was stained for just 1mm and came out in one piece. Who says Barossa doesn't make good cabernet. I have always had a soft spot for this wine. Made from fruit from the Corryton vineyard in one of the (relatively) highest points in the Barossa region. Near Mt Crawford in Eden Valley (which is near Birdwood so very close to Adelaide Hills) so there must be some elevation and hence coolness but enough warmth to develop those black fruits. Generous blackcurrant flavours with some good new french oak (perhaps a bit too much, but only a bit) the wine doesn't hold back in a good way. Much more giving than say Coonawarra. A cuddly wine for a cold night. Lovely tannins that are close to integrated. Similar in flavours to McLaren Vale cabs that I do love. There was a little waft of something like burnt rubber but again it did not distract from the enjoyment. Just being picky. JH's site says drink by 2020 but I reckon is can go at least another 5 years but why wait. Went well with crumbed lamb cutlets, mash and beans to make a perfect Saturday night dinner.

Something a little unexpected that a mate brought back from o/s for me ..

2012 Grace Kayagatake Rouge
A Japanese table wine, a blend of Cabernet, Merlot and a locally developed hybrid Muscat Bailey A, from the Yamanashi Prefecture. Grace was started in 1923, so they have been around a while
mid red, not much deeper than your average pinot, some spice blueberries, some slightly weird flavours, reasonable balance and structure but barely medium weight, interesting

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Graveyard 2000 was a magnificent wine with its own personality though a complexity equivalence to the best of the Northern Rhone.

BP 2002 needed air to draw out masses of ripe fruit fitting enough for the structure. It was monstered by the Graveyard in the interest department.

2010 Rockford Basket Press Shiraz

Decanted 2 hours. Pretty much Medium bodied. Very good/balanced ripeness of fruit, detecting a slight savoury note to the wine also, with black berry, plum, dark cherries, a touch of vanilla, and what I call the signature Rockford 'charry' oak in the back ground. The acidity is providing some youthful freshness to the wine. Just a touch of drying tannin on the end of a nice long finish. A very good wine. No doubt will continue to develop over the next 5-10 years, longer for well stored bottles.

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Sean wrote:

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Balnaves The Blend 17 - A vivid purple colour and perfumed. Just too easy to like this. Wondered about that. The reason is it’s merlot dominant, ie. 68% merlot, 30% cab and 2% petit verdot. Got some new oak and 12 months in the barrels. Plum, dark berries, cedar, lots of mint and earth. Moderate dry tannin that feels right for this.

Represents incredible value imo

Chapel Hill 'The Devil' 15 yr old tawny.
Great Winter warmer with all that fruit cake jamminess. Superb mouth feel.
The perfect little tipple to accompany the Blues dismantling of the bulldogs.

Scotty vino wrote:Chapel Hill 'The Devil' 15 yr old tawny.
Great Winter warmer with all that fruit cake jamminess. Superb mouth feel.
The perfect little tipple to accompany the Blues dismantling of the bulldogs.

Must have been on the same page found an absolute treat, an old white label Lindemans 1625 reserve muscat. I brought buckets of these 25 years ago along with the the WH2 Tokay...some of the best ever Rutherglen examples for mine. They were a miserly $12 at the time!!

Now if we can repeat the dose this week against the Pear, Adelaide will be a very quiet town, as the mob from West Lakes haven't made any noise for a while. That old gag that I have been on the end of for years is finally turning
Knock knock, who's there, Owen, Owen who, Owen six
Good to get a win over Jamie's mob, been a bloody long time since we have crushed the dogs
Cheers Craig

Scotty vino wrote:Chapel Hill 'The Devil' 15 yr old tawny.
Great Winter warmer with all that fruit cake jamminess. Superb mouth feel.
The perfect little tipple to accompany the Blues dismantling of the bulldogs.

Bought a 750ml bottle of 2002 Peter Lehmann 'The King' Vintage Port ..... $20.90
Will serve as great top up material to my barrel.

An 18 year old vintage port being effectively 'thrown out'

Really ? Why are we taking about footy on a wine forum ?

Some will be offended - especially me! Bulldogs forwards remind me of my own COVID predicament - sitting around doing nothing getting paid good bucks .

500ml of Nebbiolo calmed my fury at this game

Rossco wrote:Bought a 750ml bottle of 2002 Peter Lehmann 'The King' Vintage Port ..... $20.90
Will serve as great top up material to my barrel.

An 18 year old vintage port being effectively 'thrown out'

That's a pretty good price, it's a little less than what I paid for my 1996 'The King', which I think was described as AD 2017. Your 2002 likely says AD 2023, the year you should be drinking it.

I'm not sure what you mean by "great top up material to my barrel" (though I can guess) but I surely hope you are not blending it into other things.

Mahmoud.

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Nice match with Yunnan cuisine - though young preferred it to a number of white burgs our of the picture.


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Mahmoud Ali wrote:

Rossco wrote:Bought a 750ml bottle of 2002 Peter Lehmann 'The King' Vintage Port ..... $20.90
Will serve as great top up material to my barrel.

An 18 year old vintage port being effectively 'thrown out'

That's a pretty good price, it's a little less than what I paid for my 1996 'The King', which I think was described as AD 2017. Your 2002 likely says AD 2023, the year you should be drinking it.

I'm not sure what you mean by "great top up material to my barrel" (though I can guess) but I surely hope you are not blending it into other things.

Mahmoud.

Spot on with the 2023 AD on the bottle! Perhaps I was a little premature in saying it will be added to the barrel. Let's crack it and see what it's like first, then make the decision.

JamieBahrain wrote:[url=https://postimg.cc/Q9hVrxVD][img]https://i.postimg.cc/qRCKyNTN/798212-A0-CC62 ... 9-C411.jpg[/img][/url]

Nice match with Yunnan cuisine - though young preferred it to a number of white burgs our of the picture.


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Beautiful looking food there Jamie. Dare I ask where that restaurant (assuming not home?) Is called? Also out of curiosity what were the white burgs? I'm increasingly shifting my view to the Sorrenberg being the finest Aussie Chardonnay, over Giaconda and LEAS (in that order) though I'm yet to try the Cullen Kevin John. I'd be curious to know how you rank things too

Ah they were Chassagne-Montrachet 13’s with one from Ramonet ( les Ruchottes )


Probably the food that either worked for or against the wines .

Kin’s Kitchen in Wanchai. Local friends get looked after and I tend to ride their coat-tails of great Chinese

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JamieBahrain wrote:Ah they were Chassagne-Montrachet 13’s with one from Ramonet ( les Ruchottes )


Probably the food that either worked for or against the wines .

Kin’s Kitchen in Wanchai. Local friends get looked after and I tend to ride their coat-tails of great Chinese

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Amazing prices for that menu. Sounds like a great dinner. If the world ever returns to normality I'll have to swing by and try thanks for the tip!

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+1 Sean, rate this wine very highly, and one of the best Coonawarra cabs I have had this year.
Think mjs feels same. At $20 something that I paid for it, VFM ++
Cheers Craig

Dragzworthy wrote:Amazing prices for that menu. Sounds like a great dinner. If the world ever returns to normality I'll have to swing by and try thanks for the tip!

Free BYO too. Can you imagine that?

So with HKG zero wine duty wine prices cheaper than at the source.

Yes, the Chinese cuisine here is something special and I have not seen it replicated in Australia. You'd think we would have advantage? With our amazing fresh produce. Importing the culinary expertise would be doable, perhaps there just isn't the demand?

fresh produce doesn't equate to being able to replicate the great cuisines of China.
for example, a lot of the produce for Si-chuan dishes are cultivated at 3000m+, kinda hard in Aussie!!!
similarly, the greatest ducks in China come from Hubei and Hebei province, where the winter temperatures get to around -10C.
climate, soils, cultures all make up the terroir of food, so it'll never be the same.

I always have a chuckle when I go with friends to a Chinese restaurant in Melbourne, where they rave about the "Peking" duck, when the actual dish in the mainland (not westernised-HK) bears little resemblance. It's still delicious, and great food, but, on the whole, Chinese food in Melbourne tastes nothing like Chinese food in China

I could never take advantage of pursuing what you'd label pure expressions of Chinese cuisine. It was too hard to stomach. I spent three nights a month every month for the last 20 years in Sichuan and that can be extreme cuisine at the source. I tended to go where the wealthy locals ended up going but who knows how genuine?

Wow. Those ducks come from very polluted provences. I'd take an Aussie duck any day.

Sort of what I mean.

One of my colleagues whose a Sichuan lass organised a chef in Chengdu to cook this storm up for me. How genuine? Sichaun is a long way from the sea and their I am with abalone from Pt Lincoln and WA crayfish.

Pics coming

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JamieBahrain wrote:I could never take advantage of pursuing what you'd label pure expressions of Chinese cuisine. It was too hard to stomach. I spent three nights a month every month for the last 20 years in Sichuan and that can be extreme cuisine at the source. I tended to go where the wealthy locals ended up going but who knows how genuine?

Wow. Those ducks come from very polluted provences. I'd take an Aussie duck any day.

haha, so true!!! The air is polluted, the soil polluted, the water-ways polluted. That is why it tastes "different" to Australia. As I said, Aussie Chinese food is still great (generally) but the difference between it and the mainland is stark.

yep, quite a few places in HK fly in their own produce from Chengdu, there is a famous kitchen that did so, can't remember the name, but I heard it stopped doing it because of the expense.

and you are right, Chengdu food is highly variable..... at it's best, amongst the greatest in the World (Anthony Bourdain always said THE greatest), but often inedible to outsiders (like me) because it is just too damn spicy hot!!!