The Auswine Forum

Tasting Note No.33

I am very fond of this wine. Grapes harvested from 28 hectares, the vines were planted in 1896 by Captain Stentiford. At this vintage, the vines were 103 years old. In 1999 Coonawarra produced small berries with excellent concentration, this wine spent 20 months in French oak. The Stentiford is one of my favourite old vine shiraz's from S.A.

Colour dark cherry red. Complex and fragrant nose of red berries, plum and vanilla spice from the oak. Cinnamon and exotic spices. Very inviting and for some reason, Bordeaux like. The palate is simply awesome, packed with rich and velvety fruit. Ripe and sweet plum mixing with silky vanilla and dark chocolate. Smooth, harmonious and balanced. Superb tannins and excellent length. It is all class. Very delicious now, will peak in 6 years time. It can be considered expensive at AU $55+ but it does worth it. This wine is very similar to the GREAT 1996 that I've drunk on two occassions and still recall every drop of it.
Interestingly the 1998 tasted together with the 1999 is a completely different wine. It's less polished and more oaky with full black cherry taste and POWER. The 1998 needs time in the bottle and will cellar for 15-18 years more. Some of you may prefer it to the 1999 but I found the deep, velvety and tasty old vine characteristics more evident in the 1999.
Both wines are excellent but for me the 1999 is simply outstanding.

Tasted:January 2004

Thanks Attila,

As always a thoughtful TN. I tried the 98 and didn't think it was very well balanced, and the power a bit on the showoff side. I don't have any personally, which is a shame because I would like to try it again in about 5yrs to see how it shapes up. Your notes have very much tempted me to give the 99 a look-see.

regards,

Thanks Attila, I've been pleasantly surprised how well the 95 vintage of this has matured, drinking well now, very complex and nicely balanced, great result for a pretty difficult vintage. Bought for $18 in 1999 from Wine Planet (remember them?) when they posted a mistaken price and arrogantly told me it was correct (they were just very competitive) when I checked, so I bought some. No wonder they went bust.

I much preferred the 99 Stentifords to the Patrons of the same vintage at a tasting last year, the Patrons is just too oaky and disjointed, don't know whether it will ever really come together. I have a few 96 also, haven't tried them since I bought, must be about time to open one and see if I agree with you on it's greatness

FWIW the 99 Stentifords scored a bronze at the NWS last year, whereas the 2000 (and many other 2000 shiraz) failed to score a medal in the same class.

Brian,

When I was in Coonawarra Brands were between vintages of the Steinford and had a back release of the 95 available. Here is my TN

Brands 1995 Stentifords Reserve SA2003 was also on sale and available for tasting and no wonder itÂ’s still available. After eight years the standout dominant feature of this wine is the chary oak. The good delicate fruit under the oak has been wrecked by the lack of balance.

The Meat Pie King of SA was of the same opinion so me may have had a non representative bottle.

Ric, maybe my bottles are a bit more advanced, I've tasted 4 bottles since start December last year, two at a wine group dinner (it was well-received) one recently, none of them were showing unbalanced charry oak. This is my brief note from the December dinner report elsewhere on this forum:

Brands Stentiford Shiraz 95 - Two consistent bottles, pretty good effort from a bad year, I'd tried one the week before and decided it was a good match for the first course dishes on offer, soft mellow Coonawarra shiraz, not heavily oaked like some later versions.

Another of life's little wine mysteries. I've one left, watch out at the next masked tasting