The Auswine Forum

You know the drill. We taste a lot of great wines, but what we buy is the greatest accolade.

12 x Penfolds Bin 389 1996 (again). Pure indulgence.

Nothing. Nappies are still coming first. Damn I hate being a skint wine lover

i love skipping the nappy aisle and the pet food aisle!

Ch. Mont Redon CDP 07
Dr Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese 07

Birth year wines for #2.

-- George Krashos

(3x) 1998 & (3x) 1999 Charles Melton Shiraz (Barossa)

1999 Mount Langhi Ghiran Shiraz (Grampians)

2007 Andrew Thomas Kiss Shiraz (Hunter)….walked into local wine shop for something cheap and cheerful (saving for a wedding) and was ambushed by a tasting, this wine cost $66, I thought no bloody way (e.g. twice as much as the Ghiran was at auction) but tasted it anyway and being a pathetic push over in a decent wine store I bought 2 by the time i put my glass down. It’s a very tasty drop but I need to learn not to walk into these places unless I can afford to. As i was at the counter my good lady walked in and stood beside me, just as he said the total spend....Busted

Cheers to repeated lack of discipline

2X Teusner Dog stranger Mataro 2008
1X Teusner Avatar 2006
2X Teusner Joshua 2009
1X Teusner Riebke Shiraz 2009
1X Glaetzer wallace 2008
1X Cigale 2008 GMS

Michael R wrote:

[b]2007 Andrew Thomas Kiss Shiraz (Hunter)….walked into local wine shop for something cheap and cheerful (saving for a wedding) and was ambushed by a tasting, this wine cost $66, I thought no bloody way (e.g. twice as much as the Ghiran was at auction) but tasted it anyway and being a pathetic push over in a decent wine store I bought 2 by the time i put my glass down. It’s a very tasty drop but I need to learn not to walk into these places unless I can afford to. As i was at the counter my good lady walked in and stood beside me, just as he said the total spend....Busted

Cheers to repeated lack of discipline

Great buy on the 07 Kiss. I too purchased 2 bottles early this year. Since I tasted it again last weekend, I think I should have bought ALOT more!

Cheers,

Monghead.

Put in an order for a mixed case of the 09 Tyrrell's Old Patch Shiraz and the 09 Tyrrell's 4 Acres Shiraz. Very much looking forward to receiving them!!!

1 x case of the '98 and '99 vintage port (refer vintage port thread) - thanks for the tip. ave price $5 delivered to my door - v happy.
6 x wynns coonawarra shiraz 2008 - great buy at $9.99 ea

Was supposed to be a quiet month but grabbed a case of the 98 & 99 VP, crazy not to at these prices.

Thanks for the reminder Ian - just what is needed on these cool winter nights

Nick

A long weekend in Adelaide and Barossa resulted in a few little purchases to support the cellar doors. Sure I could come back to Sydney to buy them, but the other half was in a rare buying mood and that's a good enough cue for me!!

Unfortunately we missed out on Teusner (rang Kym a bit too late on Sunday and turned out he did a tasting earlier that morning!). Really hope to catch up with you guys next time.

2006 Torbreck The Factor Shiraz
2006 Rolf Binder Heysen Shiraz
2008 Grant Burge 1890s Block Shiraz
2005 Peter Lehmann Eight Songs Shiraz
2007 Charles Melton Voices of Angels Shiraz
2005 Grant Burge Corryton Park Cabernet Sauvignon
2007 Charles Melton Cabernet Sauvignon
2006 Rockford Cabernet Shiraz
2008 Elderton Barossa Merlot
2008 Henschke Giles Lenswood Pinot Noir
2008 Henschke Louis Eden Valley Semillon
2005 Trevor Jones Reserve Riesling
2009 Elderton Eden Valley Riesling
2009 Henschke Joseph Hill Gewurztraminer
2008 Elderton Riverina Botrytis Semillon
Seppeltsfield Rutherglen Grand Tokay
Veritas Old Shed Tawny

Also a few little bottles after a Burgundy and Bordeaux tasting last month:

2002 Chateau Boutisse Saint-Emilion Grand Cru
2008 Domaine des Rouges-Queues Hautes-Cotes-de-Beaune
2009 Le Rose de Brondelle

and last but not least, not a purchase but was the very grateful lucky door prize winner of one 1500ml 1983 Chateau Haut Battailley...

Whew... I can hear the sound of the wallet creaking and slamming shut already!... Probably just as well...

From a local case lot auction for everyday drinking a dozen Daybreak Ridge 2004 Armargh Clare Cabernet. Never heard of the label and bought after tasting. Fully ripe grapes showing those blackcurrent flavours I do like in warmer climate cabernet. Everything integrated and drinking perfectly now and for the next 3 years.

Also from the same source a half case of Nepenthe 2007 Riesling that's not too shabby and a half case of a cleanskin Shiraz that''s also good drinking. All about $7.50 per bottle.

Chuck

2x 2004 Hobbs Gregor
3x 2006 Kilikanoon Oracle
2x 2005 Moss Wood Cab Sav
1x 2006 1x 2007 Torbreck Descendant

Mixed bag:

William Fevre Chablis 08 (Voulorent 1er, Valmur)
Dagueneau Pur Sang 07
Vieille Julienne CNdP 07
Vieux Donjon CNdP 07
Charvin CNdP 07
Domaine Le Barroche Cuvee Pure CNdP 07
Craggy Range Le Sol 07
Akarua Cadence Pinot Noir 07
Il Poggione Brunello di Montalcino 04
Salicutti Brunello di Montalcino 04
Caparzo La Casa Brunello di Montalcino 04
Rustenberg Peter Barlow Cab Sauv 06
Meerlust Merlot 06
Boekenhoutskloof Syrah 07
Thelema Chardonnay 08

Glaetzer Bishop Shiraz 2008
Grant Burge Filsell Shiraz 2008
Jacobs Creek St Hugo Cabernet Sauv 2005
Mr Riggs The Gaffer Shiraz 2008
2 x Teusner Riebke Shiraz 2008
Wirra Wirra Church Block 2008

Plus mostly for the wife
2 x Grant Burge Moscato

Minotaur wrote:Mixed bag:

Vieille Julienne CNdP 07
Vieux Donjon CNdP 07
Charvin CNdP 07

I have spent the weekend checking Charvin and thinking about picking up some 07 CNdP. Well done. Did you manage to try any of them before buying, if so I am interested to know what you though of both the Vieille Julienne and the Charvin. I am also curious to know if you got these in Sydney, assuming you are Aussie based. The South African stuff makes me think you are in the UK. I haven't seen much of these SA wines around. I had a great lunch once at Thelma though. They have a superb restaurant with views down the valley to the cape. We had the chardonnay with spingbok. As fro the reds, I find many SA reds suffer from really bad Brett.

3x 2008 MacForbes Coldstream Pinot Noir
3x 2008 Macforbes Dixon's Creek Pinot Noir

2005 Penfolds Cellar Selection Cabernet Sauvignon. This is one of the best Cab Sauvs I have ever tasted. I resisted it more than once at $99 but today i folded...supermarket special. That will be my wine buying for the month

rooman wrote:

Minotaur wrote:Mixed bag:

Vieille Julienne CNdP 07
Vieux Donjon CNdP 07
Charvin CNdP 07

I have spent the weekend checking Charvin and thinking about picking up some 07 CNdP. Well done. Did you manage to try any of them before buying, if so I am interested to know what you though of both the Vieille Julienne and the Charvin. I am also curious to know if you got these in Sydney, assuming you are Aussie based. The South African stuff makes me think you are in the UK. I haven't seen much of these SA wines around. I had a great lunch once at Thelma though. They have a superb restaurant with views down the valley to the cape. We had the chardonnay with spingbok. As fro the reds, I find many SA reds suffer from really bad Brett.

Roo,

Unfortunately, did not try any of the CNdPs. Buying only on reputation...
Got the Barroche in Sydney, others all over the place (eg. Brisbane, NZ, Melb).
The Saffa wines I got in South Africa. Haven't really tried many, but keen to see how some of the benchmark ones stack up.
I believe there is a shop in Lane Cove which sells Cape wines - hope to get a few more to try.

Couldn't resist to buy some more.....

1 x Wolf Blass Black Label 1996

1 x Hess Cabernet Sauvignon Hess Collection 1995

1 x Chateau Latour 1965
1 x Chateau Latour 1967
1 x Chateau Talbot 1974
1 x Chateau Latour Haut Brion 1979 (Magnum)
1 x Chateau Calon Segur 1983
1 x Chateau La Mission Haut Brion 1986
1 x Chateau Haut Brion 1986
1 x Chateau Haut Brion 1988
1 x Le Second Vin de Mouton Rothschild 1993
1 x Chateau Cheval Blanc 1993
1 x Chateau Cheval Blanc 1997
1 x Chateau Canon 1994
1 x Carruades de Lafite 2004
1 x Rene Rousseau Corton 1982
2 x Etienne Sauzet Puligny Montrachet Champs Gainet 1985
4 x J. M. Boillot Batard-Montrachet 2000
1 x Moet et Chandon Dom Perignon 1993

1 x Masi Amarone Mazzano 1981
2 x Cecchi Spargolo 1982
2 x Cecchi Spargolo 1983

1 x Vega Sicilia Unico 1990
3 x Taylor's Fladgate Quinta de Vargellas Vinha Velha Vintage Port 1995

Some tasting notes of recent highlights:

Reinhold Haart Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Spätlese 2003: We had a magnum of this magnificent wine. Perfect nose of white peach and tangerine, well balanced with great minerals and acidity. I almost drunk the whole bottle on my own while my colleagues were still drinking red wine.

Pio Cesare Barolo 1964: I had no big hope for this wine and when I opened the bottle, my expectations seemed to become true. The colour was not brown as one would expect for a wine of such age but it was rather like a rose wine but even brighter. So I thought that this wine is gone for good. But when I took a sip, there was a nice surprise. The wine still had quite some power and was definitely still drinkable. After about two hours, it was even a very good wine with nice silky texture and a good finish.

Chalk Hill Black Panther Shiraz 2004: A monument, dark and fat, with flavors of blackberries, peppery with mild tannins and balsamic fineness. A Great wine with many years to go.

Henschke Keyneton Estate Shiraz / Cabernet / Malbec 1985: W O W!!!!! One of the greatest if not the best wine I ever tasted so far (and I think I had now quite a number of perfect wines in my life). Also for this one, my expectations were not too high as the wine had already 25 years of age. But from the second I opened the bottle, I knew something great is right in front of me. A perfect flavour already when sniffing at the cork and the first little sip revealed a perfectly harmonious wine with a perfect length. We first had dinner with some other wines and after dinner we finally tasted the Henschke. It was a sensation, still dark colour, complex with sweet raspberry fruit, hints of blackcurrant and a very, very fine texture, super silky. The finish lasted for hours. Even when I went to bed that evening, I had this wonderful taste in my mouth. Definitely a wine every wine lover is waiting for. A dream!!

Cheers and happy drinking.

redwine wrote:
Henschke Keyneton Estate Shiraz / Cabernet / Malbec 1985: W O W!!!!! One of the greatest if not the best wine I ever tasted so far (and I think I had now quite a number of perfect wines in my life). Also for this one, my expectations were not too high as the wine had already 25 years of age. But from the second I opened the bottle, I knew something great is right in front of me. A perfect flavour already when sniffing at the cork and the first little sip revealed a perfectly harmonious wine with a perfect length. We first had dinner with some other wines and after dinner we finally tasted the Henschke. It was a sensation, still dark colour, complex with sweet raspberry fruit, hints of blackcurrant and a very, very fine texture, super silky. The finish lasted for hours. Even when I went to bed that evening, I had this wonderful taste in my mouth. Definitely a wine every wine lover is waiting for. A dream!!

Cheers and happy drinking.

redwine,

This is huge, given the class of wines you savour. One would have thought that the third tier Henschke from a weak vintage would be shot by now. However, I guess this stands as a testament of the strength of the Henschke label, and that with age, there are no such things as great wines, but great bottles.

monghead.

Minotaur wrote:

rooman wrote:
I haven't seen much of these SA wines around. I had a great lunch once at Thelma though. They have a superb restaurant with views down the valley to the cape. We had the chardonnay with spingbok. As fro the reds, I find many SA reds suffer from really bad Brett.

Roo,

Unfortunately, did not try any of the CNdPs. Buying only on reputation...
Got the Barroche in Sydney, others all over the place (eg. Brisbane, NZ, Melb).
The Saffa wines I got in South Africa. Haven't really tried many, but keen to see how some of the benchmark ones stack up.
I believe there is a shop in Lane Cove which sells Cape wines - hope to get a few more to try.

I will be interested to what you think of the SA reds. With a couple of notable exceptions (Sadie, Haskell) I find many of the SA wines I have tried over there really suffer from Brett. I am normally the last person to be concerned about Brett and think a touch adds a bit of character. However I was in Jo'burg a couple of years ago and had the opportunity to go to the big SA Wine expo. Bascially all the major brands were there. I kept wondering what the weird aroma was on most of the wines when it dawned on me it was Brett. So I got talking to one or two of the winemakers and they opened up it was a major problem in SA wineries. From their perspective thankfully as their wine market is very closed, most of the local consumers don't know the difference. On the other hand if you are over there and see any Sadie wines, grab as much as you can carry. This is awesome stuff.

Bit of an odd one on super red hot special at the local bottle-o so bought a couple to make sure it was sound(which it was) then went back to clean up.

6 x 02 Xanadu Margaret River Semillon

Love a Friday night wine bargain.

After my May comments about not buying anything more I'm going to claim these were bought in June because that's when they were delivered
12 2009 Pewsey Vale Riesling
12 2007 Richmond Grove Barossa Riesling
6 2006 Best's Great Western Sparkling Shiraz
4 2005 Chateau Rahoul
2 2004 Blue Pyrenees Sparkling Shiraz
With the deal around on the first 2 a great buy

Some 09 Bordeaux:
6 magnums 09 Barde Haut, on the back of Parkers review and the "reasonable" QPR
12 half bottles 09 Ramon-Lafon, on the back of Jancis's 19 point review

At auction:
3 bottles 98 Astralis - sold 6 when I divorced 6 years ago, so good to get some back
3 bottles 98 Burge FamilyDrycott Reserve Shiraz - once a 99 pointer from Parker. Going strong still with a recent 96 point score
3 bottles 98 Burge Family Olive Hill Shiraz - that came woth the Draycot
a 37 Muscat and an unkown 49 from the Massandra collection - very mudy bottles, with stunning Russian labels
6 bottles of a 66 Muscat, Murfatlar (Romanian) - Not the sort of thing you normally see, but a friend let me try a 66 Chardonnay from the same people, and it was brilliant in a Tokij style
1 bottle of a 64 Romanian Pinit Gris - Came with the above
12 bottles of 66 Demi-Sec Vouvray from Huet and Bredif
5 bottles of 59 Demi-sec Vouvray from Huet
2 bottles of 11 Vouvray from Bredif
6 bottles of 73 Tommasi Amarone - girlfriends birth year
6 bottle of 01 Pavie

Have orders in for a few more cases for 09 Bordeaux, but with the Euro falling and the interest abroad, I think they are going to be too expensive for us modest Europeans to buy...1 Euro was $1.42 Australian when I last looked, so maybe you'll have more luck than I will

4 x 2007 Forest Hill Block 5 Cabernet
2 x 2007 Forest Hill Block 9 Shiraz
4 x 2008 Forest Hill Block 1 Riesling
2 x 2007 Forest Hill Block 8 Chardonnay

redwine

After reading your tasting notes on the 1985 Henschke I got to thinking. I first tasted the 2004 vintage about 2-3yrs ago and was blown away by the wine. With this in mind I was trying to decide on what bottle of red to open last night and finally chose another 2004 Henschke Keyneton Estate Euphonium. Unbelievably seductive. Silky smooth and curvy. I found myself just sitting on the couch swirling it around in my big Riedel and smelling the wine. With each breath I found more depth to a wine that truly was amazing. The taste was out of this world. It embodied almost everything I ever imagined the perfect red wine would be. Full rich fruits with the softest tannin I can remember in recent times. This wine goes straight to my WOTY. My only regret is that it was my last bottle of the 2004 vintage. However I am now going to buy more in addition to sampling some more Henschke. I have had one Hill of Grace experience where I had the opportunity to share a bottle of 1992 with a best mate.

Chad

Chad wrote:redwine

After reading your tasting notes on the 1985 Henschke I got to thinking. I first tasted the 2004 vintage about 2-3yrs ago and was blown away by the wine. With this in mind I was trying to decide on what bottle of red to open last night and finally chose another 2004 Henschke Keyneton Estate Euphonium. Unbelievably seductive. Silky smooth and curvy. I found myself just sitting on the couch swirling it around in my big Riedel and smelling the wine. With each breath I found more depth to a wine that truly was amazing. The taste was out of this world. It embodied almost everything I ever imagined the perfect red wine would be. Full rich fruits with the softest tannin I can remember in recent times. This wine goes straight to my WOTY. My only regret is that it was my last bottle of the 2004 vintage. However I am now going to buy more in addition to sampling some more Henschke. I have had one Hill of Grace experience where I had the opportunity to share a bottle of 1992 with a best mate.

Chad

gee after reading that im not sure how long my final 2004 euphonium will last now...its on borrowed time i think!

I collected Henshke Keyneton for years until it started costing $50 a bottle. Drunk them all now 92-98. Some were excellent, some not worth the dosh asked now. The 94 of course was very very tiday as were all the henschke reds from that year