The Auswine Forum

Hi Good Peoples,

Hard to believe its not only Sunday again but we are into February already; before we know it it will be real red drinking temperature again.

A good week of wine for me but the surprise was the Tatachilla 1999 Foundation which was sent as replacement for a corked 98 so rather than having to put it into the cellar I decided to drink it instead.

In many ways typical of the previous vintages of Foundation with loads of rich fruit but the one major difference with the early wines is this vintage has a much better tannin structure and will age for longer. Its also seemed better than I last remembered it (last tasted 2 years ago) and easily earned an Excellent rating. (Its still available around the traps too.)

Now what have you guys been drinking?

Cracked a bottle of Penfolds 96 Kalimna Shiraz 1996 and what a great wine it is. From memory was around $15 and it has just entered it's drinking window. Plenty of ripe, rich fruit and very good length.

This is a better wine than the 98 Kalimna and as a year I think 96 may even age better than 98.

Also had a bottle of Deveaux Vintage 1990 that was very nice. Just starting to develop those real honey characteristic they aged champagne develop.

cheers
anthony

Not much to report of any note over the last few weeks apart from (too many Beck's beers) and the following:

Leo Buring 1998 Special Release Eden Valley Riesling - super stuff this and, if anything, this bottle the best yet - marvellous fresh, intense taut limey wine with umpteen other complexities to admire. Impeccable balance, great length, long future. Outstanding.

Majella 2001 Sparkling Shiraz. A really fine effort this. Beautifully made wine - refined, elegant, terrific fruit, creamy texture and one the best finishes you could imagine for this style. Easily Excellent.

Michel Lafarge Beaune Greves 1er Cru 1996 - Light cherry red in colour, quite transparent. Superb nose of plump strawberry, cherry and raspberry fruit intertwined with lovely sappy, meaty notes and subtle spicy oak. Unfortunately, high acid (a common trait of the '96 vintage) tends to dominate the silky, sappy red fruit on only a light to medium weight palate. There's some well-integrated soft, lacey tannins and a decent, moderate finish, but somehow I don't think the fruit's going to win the battle with the acid in the long run. I enjoyed this all the same for its' elegance and freshness, but don't intend to cellar my remaining few bottles for much longer. Highly Recommended.

Grosset 1999 Polish Hill Riesling - Vibrant, starbright colour leaning to a very light golden hue. First thing that hits you is the volume of toasty, petrol- and honeyed characters wafting from the glass. Underneath there's some lovely lime, minerale and musk with a hint of green apple. To me this represents something fully mature. As you take this wine into the mouth, the creamy, honeyed viscosity caresses every nook and cranny with textbook lime, honey and toast (no kero or petrol to be seen here). There's more freshness here than the nose promises and, moreover, the indelible acidity provides a seamless foil for the unctious mouthfilling fruit. The finish is of the highest order, lingering almost interminably. A wonderful wine but I will start knocking the remainder over in the next few years. Rated Excellent, with a little shave for being so developed at less than 5 years of age and FWII. Most of my Rieslings from this vintage have come on pretty fast in the last year or so. If you are cellaring some, it may be worthwhile monitoring them sooner than later.

A few this week:

Killerby Cabernet 1995 Good without being exceptional, true varietal cab fruit in the leaner style, hint of leafiness, nice tannins starting to soften, good balance, just entering it's peak drinking window I think. Pity Killerby can't make them like this more often.

Mount Ida Shiraz 1994 Last one, mellow, smooth, oak finally integrated, spicy fruit has survived. Not overly complex, just lovely silky palate. Drink now.

Tahbilk 1860 Vines Shiraz 1988 Also the last one and thankfully a lot better than the previous one I took to a wine dinner about 12 months or so ago. The previous on was reductive and lacking fruit (canned peas I think was Gary W's comment). This one had a touch of that character, but it seemed to breathe off quickly as the wine opened up to show mature but still sweet secondary fruit characters overlaid by leather and earth, fine tannic backbone and a long finish. Not in the same class as the amazing 86 though. Bought for $30 retail in 1996.

Grant Burge 2001 Barrosa Vines Semillon.
A good example of this district's semillon - fresh fruity and zingy. Similar in style to riesiling and at $8.00 a real honest bargain.

Rymill 1999 Shiraz - received as a gift and a real surprise with well intergrate fruit and oak drinking at its prime. 1999 continues to impress me with more forward drinking style but overshadowed by 1998.

2004 SA vintage quality looking promising with good weather in Spring/early summer followed by a cool January that reminds me of 2002. Some good heat and dry weather predicted augers well for good quality fruit.[/b]

Pipers Brook Riesling 2000 [Cork] Slightly dumb nose that needed some coaxing to reveal quite rich honey and white peach, rather than lime or lemons. Palate followed the nose but not broad and finishes with good acid. Obviously into its dumb phase but I don't think it will be a long keeper.

St Hallets EV Riesling 2002 [screwcap] Vast contrast to the PP. Light yellow-green with heaps of limes , lemons and citrus blossom. fresh and lively and quite complex. Midweight palate with excellent fruit and acid cut. Very crunchy and inviting. Has developed beautifully over the past year. Buy if you see it.

Tyrrell's 1991 Vat 1 Semillon [Cork] Absolutly superb aged hunter nose - all nuts and toasty and extremely complex. The palate however was a let down. Lacked fruit with a short finish - maybe slightly oxidised as the fill was down a bit in the bottle.

Wynns Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 1991 [Cork] Still dark red . Full solid and ripe bouquet with blackurrant , mulberry fruit and a touch of capsicum. Still a powerful rich wine but within a medium body Coonawarra structure. Maybe lacks a bit of complexity but makes up for it in its honesty and just good drinking. Will last another decade if well cellared.

Cheers

PaulV

Red Bigot wrote:Tahbilk 1860 Vines Shiraz 1988 Also the last one and thankfully a lot better than the previous one I took to a wine dinner about 12 months or so ago. The previous on was reductive and lacking fruit (canned peas I think was Gary W's comment). This one had a touch of that character, but it seemed to breathe off quickly as the wine opened up to show mature but still sweet secondary fruit characters overlaid by leather and earth, fine tannic backbone and a long finish. Not in the same class as the amazing 86 though. Bought for $30 retail in 1996.

I liked that wine a lot. I think I called it "shitty old Tahbilk" (Adair will remember!).
GW

1996 Pol Roger

Another fine example of french bubbly. Well balanced with fruit and acidity. very fine creamy bubbles just like a fine french bubbly always has. Excellent

Hmm...a fairly slow drinking week in our household.

1998 Cowra Estate Cool Classic Chardonnay - a $4 quaffer (at clearance prices from a CD) in a lovely blue bottle, this was (I think) the last of the dozen. They've all served us well, smelling and tasting like an aged chardonnay should. Recommended, and at least ***** for value at that price.

2001 Mitchelton Airstrip - Bone dry (so it's not to my tastes while it's still young) but it tasted like it had aging potential. Kind of like a spruced up marsanne with aromatic qualities. Highly Recommended, *** for value (at about $25).

I don't think I've had a drop of red wine this week. Aarrgh.

Kieran

Plantagenet 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon
Has always drunk beautifully since the beginning. Rich, round full bouquet of cedar, dark berries, currants and tobacco. Palate backed up with a satisfying firmness to give it a savoury dry structure but packed with some lush berry fruits making it a very balanced, complete drink. Should drink well for years. Excellent weight, mouthfeel and length. Thoroughly enjoyed. Highly Recommeded (almost bordering on excellent).
Although I have enjoyed the past few vintages of this cab but have found Plantagent seem to have altered their making towards to a more ripe style which lack the complexity, length and classy structure that the 1998 presents. From memory the 98 weighs in at 13.5% alc compared to the more recent (1999, 2001) at 14.5%.

Lindemans 1996 Pyrus Cab Blend
Mellowing nicely with the wine a nice shade of red, almost bricking. Nose is fully open at the more plum pudding end of the spectrum. Wine fills and coats the mouth nicely with a good balance of fruit and acid. The tannins are soft and supple making the wine fantastic for current drinking. Real crowd pleaser even if lacks any real complexity. Could drink it all night. Highly Recommended.

Planatgenet 2003 Eros
Unsure of the makeup of this wine. This is the rose from Plantagenet and I'd not seen it before. Made in a slightly darker, richer, weightier style than most of our aussie rose. Finishes dry making it a wine far to easy to drink plenty of, especially in our west oz heat. Recommeded. and at $16 makes for better drinking than the current Melton.

cheers
TA

Elderton Cabernet 2001 Drunk at way too high temp but it didn't seem to affect it too greatly. Not decanted, probably should have, to let breath.

Colour : Deep rich maroon to magenta hues, clean and bright at the edges, blackening to the centre.
Nose: There are good Cabernet characters just beginning to grow out of this one. Dry tobacco leaf bouquet coming up underneath plum and blackberry, with Vanilla core.
Palate: Weighty but still youthful (of course) through all of its elements. Like the nose is showing a potential to be a very satisfying drop. Starts with the blackberry, through to plum and vanilla, and ending with a clean red cherry lift. The oak hasn't been seriously overdone as I expected it to be but is still a big part of the flavour profile. Tannins were gentle and not really noticeable but this could be due to the high temp. it was consumed at (would have to have been around 20+).

For $18 I would buy this and the Shiraz any day, being vintage wary of course! The 2000 not being nearly as good.

Tried a bottle of Mount Pleasant Phillip 98 but won't post notes as there is one in last weeks report. Have to say I was surprised by the maturity and complexity the wine showed for something I normally would shy away from, and have to agree with GreameG's notes, only to add leather to the array. Sorry Ric, I have found the notebook but am having trouble finding the time to transpose those Burgundy notes. Will try late in the week or slot into next report.

Have a better one all,

A few interesting drops over the weekend:

02 Jim Barry Riesling: Florita Vineyard. Ths bottle is in fair shape, if heading into hibernation reight now. Still showing some lemon fruit, and some lanolin, the acid tingle is just that, a tingle: nothing searing or spritzy left now. A quality drink now wine for 11 bucks or so, with good length and OK structure, but I'm going to bet on other 02s for the long haul.

02 Coldstream Hills Reserve Pinot Noir: Darker Colour than the standard PN. Nose is constantly evolving, from perfumed red berries, some oak, a hint of stalk and a trace of an unusual overripe orange type of character. The palate follows similarly, nicely textured on the viscous side of silky, good length, closing with a fine tannic grip. Might show more in a couple of years?

Lovely wine although the overripe orange thing worries me. At $55 or so, this shows how good the standard version is for $20 odd.

01 Spinifex "Esprit" SCGM Spinifex is a new label to me, but the name behind it isn't: Peter Schell from Turkey Flat fame, and (name escapes me and the bottle is thrown out) are the wine makers.

S (66%), G (10%) and M (10%) you're no doubt familiar with but the 14% C? Well, thats Cinsault.

Anyway, the wine. This is a great, savoury food oriented style. Black berries, a fennel/aniseed character, and a nice dusting of white pepper and spice. Not overtly jammy despite the 14.5% Alcohol, some oaky char but not too much, and a touch of that pastry dough thing which I reckon is oak as well.

Yum indeed, a good example of the style, good value at $27ish, and I'll be looking for more

01 Yering Station Reserve Shiraz (with Viognier) Served blind, I loved this from the start.

Vibrant purple. A nose of spice and a lovely fragrant white pepper, which is that "viognier in just the right amount" aroma. the palate is taut and a little short right now, but the blackberry fruit is there. A bit of time will hopefully see this open up and also gain a bit of complexity. Nicely poised, looking forward to trying this again in a couple of years. Too expensive at $55 or so, but $35ish would be a good price.

cheers

Andrew

Wizz wrote:
01 Spinifex "Esprit" SCGM Spinifex is a new label to me, but the name behind it isn't: Peter Schell from Turkey Flat fame, and (name escapes me and the bottle is thrown out) are the wine makers.

S (66%), G (10%) and M (10%) you're no doubt familiar with but the 14% C? Well, thats Cinsault.

Anyway, the wine. This is a great, savoury food oriented style. Black berries, a fennel/aniseed character, and a nice dusting of white pepper and spice. Not overtly jammy despite the 14.5% Alcohol, some oaky char but not too much, and a touch of that pastry dough thing which I reckon is oak as well.

Yum indeed, a good example of the style, good value at $27ish, and I'll be looking for more

cheers

Andrew

Andrew

Interesting. I was visiting TF and chatting when I was introduced to him, and he gave me a sample bottle of this wine, the idea being I may stock it. (very simple beige brown label).

This was some little time back but I found the wine really hard/firm in tannins and a little un generous in the mid palate. I declined stocking it based on the fact that I thought it may not soften, and so may disappoint customers.

Just goes to show how good a judge I am about how young wines will age and develop ... eh.

Glad you enjoyed it, he was a very nice and enthusiastic young fella.

Gavin Trott wrote:
Andrew

Interesting. I was visiting TF and chatting when I was introduced to him, and he gave me a sample bottle of this wine, the idea being I may stock it. (very simple beige brown label).

This was some little time back but I found the wine really hard/firm in tannins and a little un generous in the mid palate. I declined stocking it based on the fact that I thought it may not soften, and so may disappoint customers.

Just goes to show how good a judge I am about how young wines will age and develop ... eh.

Glad you enjoyed it, he was a very nice and enthusiastic young fella.

Gavin, sounds like the tannins have softened quite a bit. Much more savoury than fruity I thought though, which may have been tightness earlier on. This bottle had a white label with a green logo and black text on it, fairly simple, but not a beige color.

Cheers

Andrew

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Red Bigot wrote:Killerby Cabernet 1995 Good without being exceptional, true varietal cab fruit in the leaner style, hint of leafiness, nice tannins starting to soften, good balance, just entering it's peak drinking window I think. Pity Killerby can't make them like this more often.

Brian,

Do you still buy this? I purchased a couple of bottles (can't remember the vintage, 1999 I think) directly and have been hounded ever since by their persistent tele-marketing team/outsourcer. I'm sure the only way I escaped in the long run was by moving to Melbourne (from Sydney).

I've only tried one of their wines and wasn't moved. Several posts here and discussions with other like minded individuals suggest that the more recent vintages aren't that great and will most likely not get any better.

As somebody who has tasted some back vintages what are your thoughts on the ageing potential of the current releases?

2001 Rosemount Traditional - I really enjoy this great fruit and silky mouth feel with lots of fine tannins. $30 at VC as a single bottle why do need to buy 12 to get the same price as you would from any good wine shop for a single bottle

2003 Pentuluma Reisling - soft round citrus flavours that suited the flathead we had. $20

2002 Pizzini Sangiovese - my third bottle of this....the first was fantastic, the second crap (perhaps sulphur affected as disccussed on the forum). This was somewhere in the middle as fruit was not as full on as the first bottle but still drank well and looked better when drunk with dinner. $22

2002 Amulet Sangiovese - odd colour mid- dirty red with some orange on the rim. Love the nose of sweet fruit (some sort of berry that I could id) floral, dust and leather. Much ligher in style than the Pizzini and more interesting. You had sweet fruit as the wine entered the mouth but this quickly changed to sour cherry and leather with a large dose of acid at the finish. I often find the acid much more noticable in the Sangiovese I have tried eventhough there can be quite a fair bit of tannin there we you look for it. Very food friendly wine but also good drinking by it self. $16.50

Mad Dog Shiraz 2002

Been a poor week for wine consumption. I found a bottle of the 02 Mad Dog Shiraz and after all the hoohaa of the 01, I was expecting something special. Nice colour and nose was good, fruity and chocolatey but the palate let it down big time. I thought it tasted hollow. Which reminds me that when I noted similar things about a MountAdam “The Red”, it was thought (by the winemaker) to be mildly corked. Didn’t think of that til now.

This week I am hoping to open a Petersons Back Block Shiraz 2000 to see how it is traveling. One for the Hunter Shiraz lovers. Also a chance to sample a 95 Meshach if i'm good.

Graham

Drunk with baked fish with asian herbs and a sweet soy glaze; and steamed yabbies.

The cork came out in pieces unfortunately, but had in no way interferred with the wine itself. Deep gold, and with a deep nose of honeyand golden syrup. The palate brought this through but with clear citrus note (orange citrus, not lime). The "dry/sweet" flavours were brilliant with the fish, less impressive with the yabbies. The wine is probably on the way down from here, but was lovely on Saturday night.

Most impressive for me was the price of the wine, purchased for $15 on Saturday from La Vigna in Mt Lawley. Stunning value.

GrahamB wrote:Mad Dog Shiraz 2002

Been a poor week for wine consumption. I found a bottle of the 02 Mad Dog Shiraz and after all the hoohaa of the 01, I was expecting something special. Nice colour and nose was good, fruity and chocolatey but the palate let it down big time. I thought it tasted hollow. Which reminds me that when I noted similar things about a MountAdam “The Red”, it was thought (by the winemaker) to be mildly corked. Didn’t think of that til now.

Graham

I tasted a bottle of this with Rolf Binder in January. Sadly our bottle was badly affected with brett and was a very dissapointing bottle of wine.

michaelw wrote:

Red Bigot wrote:Killerby Cabernet 1995 Good without being exceptional, true varietal cab fruit in the leaner style, hint of leafiness, nice tannins starting to soften, good balance, just entering it's peak drinking window I think. Pity Killerby can't make them like this more often.

Brian,

Do you still buy this? I purchased a couple of bottles (can't remember the vintage, 1999 I think) directly and have been hounded ever since by their persistent tele-marketing team/outsourcer. I'm sure the only way I escaped in the long run was by moving to Melbourne (from Sydney).

Michael,

I've ceased to buy from Killerby, sent the last case back (2001 Cab) and asked to be removed from the list. They make some very good wines at reasonable prices, in some vintages, but there is far too much variation in quality within (different wines inconsistent) and between vintages. The prices for the good vintages are reasonable, but it's just too much of a hassle dealing with the duds. They were most efficient in sending me a pre-paid consignment note/label to return the wine and I've not heard from them since.

In Dubai for the week and happy to try the following courtesy of Duty Free-

Mariner 2002 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc-classy wine with a big tropical nose and a similar rich palate. The palate has added weight with a lick of vanilla from a proportion of French Oak aging. Good wine. Not in the class of the only other NZ oak aged Sauvignon Blanc I have had-Cloudy Bay Te something?

2000 Possum's Vineyard McClaren Vale Shiraz- After a month of French finesse-focused fruit and subtleness of the many Cote Rotie and Hermitage-this was overtly rich, ripe and offensive? But a change as good as holiday and I enjoyed the wine initially.

A big ripe and forward shiraz, with a port like palate and jammy sweetness. Fell apart on the second night. This was all flavour with a lack of flesh. 2001 was a better structured wine and got into the 90's with Parker.