The Auswine Forum

Oohhh I have a headache. And I was called for being a lightweight and not keeping up! I have never seen so many bottles pass across in front of me all at once.

Amazing night of food wine and good company (as always!). Really enjoyed having so many people to mingle and chat with, meeting a few forumites for the first time, and as the night went on, the sharing across the two tables increased and I think it was a really successful format. Loved the private room at Rocket too, perfect place for a BYO tasting group.

Wow, so many great wines, I look forward to some photos from Dave to remind me exactly what they all were..... Pulled up with only a small headache, and just as well as it's a Bordeaux vs Mt Mary tasting event tonight!

Special thanks to all those who went above and beyond with their generosity, of course special mention to monghead with the addition of two superb bottles of 2004 Bouchard Inflorescence Blanc de Noirs champagne to start each table off in style. Thanks!

Next one in November perhaps? Euro theme?

It was great meeting everyone last night. Excellent food and wine and great company. Looking forward to the mount Mary and Bordeaux dinner tonight.

Quick write-up on the Old World vs. New World Pinot night we had on Friday.

Final line-up from memory was (let me know if any changes need to be made)

2011 Giaconda Estate Chardonnay
2006 Bouchard Meursault-Genevieres Premier Cru
2008 Lethbridge Allegra Chardonnay
2007 Domaine Ramonet Les Ruchottes Chassagne Montrachet
2006 Bannockburn SRH Chardonnay

2011 Kaiora Bay Reserve Pinot Noir
1995 Domain Bart Chambertin Clos de Beze Grand Cru
2005 Bouchard Beaune Marconnets Premier Cru
2001 Bass Philip Premium
2002 Bouchard L'enfant Jesus Premier Cru
2010 Armand Rousseau Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru
2007 Felton Rd Calvert Pinot Noir
2011 SRH De La Terre Pinot Noir
2010 Mt Mary Pinot Noir
2010 Hillcrest Premium Pinot Noir
2001 Hillcrest Pinot Noir
20?? Curly Flat Pinot Noir
20?? Mornington Estate Pinot Noir

1980 Lindemans Bin 5910 Hunter River Burgundy (corked)
1992 Greenock Creek Cabernet Sauvignon
1991 Limestone Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon

We had the private room area of Rocket to ourselves with 2 tables of 8 and 10. Very good facility for offlines, away from other customers so we can be a bit more boisterous. Service was really good, constantly asking if everything was ok and if there was anything they could do to help us (opening bottles, getting things decanted, making sure we had enough glassware) So kudos to the wait staff at Rocket. The food was very good, we ended up going with 2 entrée and a main + dessert due to the number of bottles we had and it turned out to be just the right amount of food over the 6+ hours we were there. Could become a quasi Club House due to its great location, proximity to trains etc. Good to see some new faces and a bevy of regulars.

Didn’t take notes so am going from memory, by the end of the night it was a bit of a blur, with bottle swapping happening between the 2 tables, a real swingers wine tasting

Started off with a Giaconda Chardonnay (as you do) was showing prominent oak and some steely/flintlock on the nose, I think it might be in a bit of a hole at the moment. I left it sitting for a while and it started to show some life with nice lemon characteristics coming through, and softened on the palate. Don’t touch for at least 5 years. Will be very good.

The Bouchard Meursault had a very vibrant nose, lots of interest. Banana/tropical fruit and a nice texture.

The Lethbridge had more acid than the front row of a Sgt Peppers Beatles concert, grapefruit, tart lemon but proved to be a good foil to the Ch-Montrachet. This to me exemplified the different Cru’s of Burgundy. Having a GC Batard-Montrachet a couple of weeks I could compare the two (fwiw) the Ch-M would hit you on the front of the palate with gobs of flavour and then peter out in the mid-palate and resurface at the back. Whereas the B-M was just a consistent wave of intensity of flavour and fruit and an overall more rounded texture. In isolation the Ch-M is a wonderful drink, with great purity of fruit and intensity with a wonderful balance and acid structure. Would love to put it up against an older Giaconda. (hint, hint Mick )

Tim then produced an options wine, which turned out to be a Bannockburn SRH, one of my favourite Chardonnays, my humbleness precludes me from mentioning that I managed to pick this correctly early in the proceedings, so I won’t *cough*

On to the Reds, we started off with a Kaiora Bay which was served blind, I had it as a 2011 Aussie due to the fruit being somewhat green and anaemic. Bit too lightweight on the palate for me.

The 95 Chambertin CdB was showing well, real meaty, truffles, gamey on the nose, a touch oxidative I noticed with some soy notes/bbq sauce (bizarre I know). Nice weight on the palate, great length, nice red fruits (cherry/strawberry) with coffee beans and smokiness coming through the longer it was in the glass and some nice leathery characteristics.

The 05 Marconnets had a good nose of Dr Pepper Cola, cherry, almond with a bit of white pepper. Refreshing to drink with an almost Cru Beaujolais style to it.

The Bass Phillip was/is probably Australia’s closest Pinot to Burgundy in style. He has really gone all out with this in producing a wine that blind you’d be picking it as a good Premier Cru Burg every time. Very meaty on the nose, lots of dark fruits, (cherries/plums/blackberry) great balance still lots of life in it, although it was integrated very nicely and makes for great drinking now.

The 02 Baby Jesus, was all sour cherry, spice, sulphur on the nose, with a lip smacking sappiness to it. Had a bit of singe on the nose when I took a big sniff. This settled down as I left it in the glass and it gained weight becoming more rounded on the palate, losing the volatility. Not sure if it was decanted prior. If not, probably could have done with a couple of hours.

The 2010 Rousseau Ch-Cham was a revelation. It stood heads and shoulders above the others in my opinion. The purity of the fruit, to the luscious mouth feel and length that just went on and on. Meaty nose, with strawberries and cream interwoven around it. Very approachable even now, with the tannins providing a silky backdrop to its structure and balance. Damn this is good, unless I win the Lotto or something I won’t be drinking too much of it.

The Felton Rd was most un-NZ like. Usually you are hit with a massive nose coming out of the glass, the Calvert was very refined, earthy, dare I say very Burgundy like. The Bannockburn DLT was way too green and stalky for my tastes. 2011 was not a good year for a lot of places in Oz.

The 2010 Mt Mary was interesting in light of the Quintets vertical tasting I was at last night. Stylistically the Quintets are going in one direction and the Pinots are going in the other direction. Quintets to a more heavier, fruit forward style whereas the Pinot is seemingly going more lighter, more elegant style with good mouthfeel, and bright fruit (it still has a good backbone of tannins to carry this fruit) I think someone even said almost Gamay/Booj in style. I enjoyed in it the context of the tasting giving respite from all the heavy hitter styles.

A bit of a background on the 2010 Hillcrest Premium, I told Tanya about the tasting and that I was putting it up against the 2010 Mt Mary, so she suggested to put it up against their 2010 Premium which she would dig out for me. Week goes by and I’m organising accommodation and making sure wines are all out of the cellar and ready and it dawns on me I’d forgotten to order the Hillcrest. So a rushed Email to Hillcrest and Tanya organised it to be sent via Express for me to arrive in time. And even put in a 2001 version of the wine as she thought it would be interesting for us to compare them. Massive thanks for this, if this is how you treat randoms like me I can’t imagine how great the service is for a good customer So on to the wines… compared to the Mt Mary it was like chalk and cheese. The Hillcrest is a big hulking Pinot, lots of fruit extraction, great structure, dark cherry, fills your mouth with its presence and texture. It’s almost saying to you, sit down, shut up, belt up and hang on for the ride. I’d happily sup this with beef cheeks or other Provencal fare. Support these guys they are doing some great wines!!

2001 Hillcrest Pinot Noir was another interesting one with an anecdote from Adair who told us that Phillip Jones of Bass Phillip fame was making the wines at Hillcrest for the first few years. It was like a bolt of lightning when he said that, as I was tasting it and I’m like this is soooo Bass Phillip in style. It was like the Calvert vineyard in NZ with 3 different winemakers using the same fruit and how they can influence the style of the wine. It was meaty, gamey, more laid back in style. Very nicely done and aging really well, drink up.

We also had a Curly Flat which was drinking well from memory (very blurred memory by now) and a Mornington Estate Pinot to round up proceedings.

We then moved on to the backups/options/other tables wines...

The 92 Greenock Creek was really interesting, in the pre-Parkerized days it was a lot more elegant, with a bit of funk. It kind of reminded me of a 92 Mt Edelstone I had a while back. Everyone was really surprised when I unveiled this. Go back to this style!! Not the 16.5% monsters.

The Lindemans was in a perfect place with the tannins fully resolved and great fruit and suppleness on the palate. Drink this now, as I can’t possibly see how it could get any better than this. Perfecto.

Great night all round, great company as always. Looking forward to the next one. (so much for the ‘quick write-up’).

Apologies for the food photos, I tried to Cam Wheeler them up and failed miserably, one day...I'll keep on plugging away at it.
Smoked Ham Hock Terrine w/ Sweet & Sour Pickled Pumpkin, Mache


Char Grilled Squid w/ Chorizo, Corn, Pastichio


Char Grilled Eye Fillet w/ Mushroom Gratin, Broad Beans, Porcini Jus


Corella Pear & Honey Tart w/ Chocolate Ice Cream

Thank you all for a wonderful night, and particularly to Hacker for his organising work and monghead for his thoughtfulness with a bottle of Cedric Bouchard for each table. Also thank you dave vino for the above write-up. I concurred with your comments.

For whatever it is worth, apologies for any boredom caused by a little too much political/theological discussion at my end of the table (TiggerK ), but fundamentally this was a result of the comfort created by the great wines and great company.

I didn’t take any notes but I thought it worth recording the “Gold Medal” wines that greatly impressed me, in loose order of awesomeness from 96+ to 94:

• 2010 Rousseau Charmes-Chambertin
• 2011 Giaconda Chardonnay
• 2006 Bannockburn S.R.H Chardonnay
• 2001 Bass Phillip Premium Pinot Noir
• NV (2004 monghead mentioned) Cedric Bouchard Inflorescence La Parcelle Blanc de Noirs
• 2010 Hillcrest Premium Pinot Noir
• 2010 Curly Flat The Curly Pinot Noir
• 2001 Hillcrest Pinot Noir
• Tasmanian Ice Wine on the other table… forgot the wine’s producer but not its structure! (anyone?)
• 2007 Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Ruchottes
• 2010 Mount Mary Pinot Noir

Impressively, all wines were consumed by the end of the night, so no doubt there were more than 1 or 2 sore heads on Saturday morning.

Kind regards and thanks all again for a memorable evening,
Adair

Hey all good Adair, was great to meet you, and I hope the pained look on my face wasn't too obvious as wave after wave of two out of my three evils of conversation (politics and religion) crashed upon the shores of my hitherto attained ocean of Burgundy Nirvana. (well young Burg anyway, Shannon's RareWineDinner assortment of 1919, 1929 etc still resonates in my mind). It was a fine group of people, really enjoyed the opinions of some greater and more experienced palates around the table. And when Dave quietly muttered next to me in round one of my Chardonnay options "reminds me of Bannockburn... SRH or something?', I knew I still had a lot to learn grasshopper.

I also generally concur with Dave and Adair, with only a minor shift in preferences. The Giaconda to me was quality, but a bit 'round', needing either time or less of my recall of their amazing 2008 in comparison. I loved the Ramonet 2007, wonderful lemon/lime and mint notes amongst all that restrained yet decadent white burg goodness. Was happy with the Lethbridge, many found it confronting, but I'm an acid freak, so happy days there, cheers Polymer. Loved the BP-P 2001 too, nice aged red burgundy anyone? The Felton was my wine (ooh surprise ), fascinating how it seems to have changed since last tasting in Dec 2011. Still new world with that sweeter fruit style, yet seems much more confident and structured now, albeit at the expense of some softer fruity savoury characters, which I missed this time around. Not sure what to do with my last one now! No harm in leaving another year or two I think. And as for the Rousseau.... well just such a pleasure to drink. Imagine this in 10/15 years? Very Special.

• 2010 Rousseau Charmes-Chambertin 96
• 2007 Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Ruchottes 95
• 2001 Bass Phillip Premium Pinot Noir 94
• 2006 Bannockburn S.R.H Chardonnay 94
• NV (2004 monghead mentioned) Cedric Bouchard Inflorescence La Parcelle Blanc de Noirs 93+
• 2001 Hillcrest Pinot Noir 92
• 2007 Felton Road Calvert 92
• 2008 Lethbridge Allegra 91+
• 2011 Giaconda Chardonnay 91+
• 2010 Hillcrest Premium Pinot Noir 91
• 2010 Curly Flat The Curly Pinot Noir 91
• 2010 Mount Mary Pinot Noir 91

(Now on the CamW Points Scale, so hard marking!) BTW, Dave, nice food photos, I'm 94 CamW photo points on those.

Cheers and look forward to seeing this group again, good times indeed.
Tim

Great night and special thanks to all that brought extras (and there were quite a few).

The two standouts for me were the

2010 Rousseau Chames Chambertin....by a lot...Most GC I've had this young have not come across as that approachable to me... with but this was utterly fantastic..you could see all the structure but with sooo much finesse it was amazing....Haha...I have to seriously re-think my Burgundy buying because Danny seemed to think this was completely normal....It is probably the difference between buying great Burgundy (what he buys) and just buying Burgundy (What I'm used to buying)...
2007 Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachat Les Ruchottes - I really liked this a lot...really good acidity but with all the depth and mouthfeel of a full on Chardonnay....I'm already trying to figure out how to get some in the US.

I'm probably not as big a fan of Giaconda Chardonnay as most but the 2011 was really really good as well...I normally find them a bit too oaky and fat but this one had really good acidity along w/ the great depth you see from Giaconda..

To me the Bannockburn De La Terre was really funny....I was really expecting half the table to go UGH...WTF..and they did.....Unique style, very divisive....Maybe something they need to think about toning down a bit...I find them really interesting but I definitely see this as turning a lot of people off...It is not because of the vintage or the vineyard....basically their entire lineup of reds are like this....maybe the Stuart being the least stalky/vegetal of their reds....Sorry for those that found it just too extreme....I just had to see how people reacted . Haha..I'll stop w/ the funny stuff .

Excellent notes Dave, thanks mate.
Such an enjoyable evening...thanks to Hacker for arranging.
I was having too much banter with Mivvy and Tigger to give the wines heavy focus.

I thought the whites stole the show...., the mersault, chassagne and Gia all showing great.
Rousseau & Bass Philip leading the reds.
Of the non pinot wines.....Special mention to the lindemans which might have taken my wotn had we voted.

First of all I would like to thank everyone for making me feel so welcome for my first dinner. It was a great night, with a great deal of fantastic food, wine and chat.

I enjoyed the whites - the Bouchard and Ramonet were still opening up by the time I had finished them. Also thought the SRH was very good. On the reds the Rousseau and Bass Phillip were my pick.

Looking forward to the next one!!!