TN: Tim Adams Wines @ the API Wine Club 18/3/11
Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 8:24 am
Last Friday night the API wine club hosted a tasting of Tim Adams Wines, presented by Phil Manser of an online distribution and sales company that I obviously won’t name here. A number of back-vintages were selected to show to the group, a clever move since Tim Adams presented his new releases at an independent wine store closely associated with the club not long ago:
2006 Tim Adams Clare Valley Riesling (screwcap): Bright straw with a hint of green, and some spritz on the glass. Toasty and pithy, brown limes, talc and a bare hint of bacon, but no kerosene notes yet; the palate’s just as toasty and nutty, bright acid and toast mid-palate with sweet hints of lanolin and vanilla, finishing slatey and dry. It’s in-between phases at the moment, possibly in a hole, it’s lost it’s primary blossoms but there’s no kerosene notes, and yet it’s beginning to dry out on the very end. It's hard to see where this one is going.
2009 Tim Adams Clare Valley Semillon (screwcap): Bright straw/green. Very sweet, fruity and soapy, full of sweet lemons, bathroom scents and spices; a bright entry leads to a lean, elegant palate with clean scrubbed lemons and crisp acidity, a little grass, and a tight, mineraly finish. A very pretty wine that’s drinking well right now, or will become more toasty with a few years in the cellar, but it will always be leaner that a top Hunter semillon.
2002 Tim Adams Clare Valley Semillon (screwcap): Bright gold. Very toasty and attractive, the nose is full of lemon, sandy oyster shells and just a little acidic lift; a soft entry leads to an equally attractive palate that’s full of lemon, lanolin and toasty/nutty characters mid-palate, finishing grippy and long with no sign of drying out. For a lighter-weight semillon this has aged remarkably well, but it shouldn’t be a surprise since 2002 has produced many stunning and long-lived Clare whites.
2005 Tim Adams The Fergus, Clare Valley (screwcap): 63% grenache, 18% cabernet franc, 10% cabernet sauvignon, 5% merlot and 4% malbec this vintage. Medium to almost dark garnet. Sweet nose with a little funk, red berries and earth, boiled lollies and a touch of the stoker’s apron, becoming vegetal with breathing; the palate’s minty, leathery and very dry, light to medium-weight with a noticeably hot, peppery, mouthwash-like finish. This has seen much better days.
2005 Tim Adams Clare Valley Cabernet Merlot (screwcap): I hadn’t seen this blend before, and apparently it was tailored for the US for export (obviously before the movie Sideways turned merlot into a dirty word). Medium to almost dark garnet. A lovely, complex nose that’s very herbal, full of blackcurrant, green olives and earth backed by fine cedar oak, a little soy appearing with breathing. The palate’s just as good, only medium-weight but the merlot does a great job of filling out the mid-palate, while those blackcurrant, menthol and cedar characters match the velvety tannins through to the end of the long, lacy finish.
2006 Tim Adams Clare Valley Shiraz (screwcap): Medium to dark red/purple. Very perfumed and spicy, violets and plums and a hint of black olive, the cedar oak well in the background; the palate’s just as good, medium-weight with plums and black cherries and sweet oak on the solid finish. A very good wine that displays all the virtues of Clare shiraz without over extraction or too much oak.
2006 Tim Adams The Aberfeldy Shiraz, Clare Valley (Stelvin Lux screwcap): Medium to dark purple/red. This didn’t get any breathing time, and sure enough it opened up with obvious but very high quality oak on the nose, then cola and black cherries, a little black tea. The palate’s a major step up on the standard shiraz, crammed full of saturated plums and cedar, tar and blackberries, a little minty but perfectly balanced, finishing dry and very long. Even without anywhere near enough breathing its obvious class showed.
During the evening Phil produced a masked wine and asked the group to try it during the night, and asked one question at the end – did we think it was a $15 wine, a $25 wine, or a $50 wine? From a show of hands, about two thirds thought it was a $15 wine, and the remainder thought it was a $25 wine – nobody thought it was worth $50+:
2007 Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz, South Australia (screwcap): Medium to very dark red/purple. The nose appears to be cool climate origins with noticeable lift and some heat, black cherries and plums, some eucalypt and black olive; the palate’s porty/jammy and very tarry, and really lacks weight and length for the extract, although there is an unusual meaty/nectarine character too. I wasn’t impressed with this wine when it was released, and nothing’s changed in the last year – it has consistently been the worst vintage of Bin 389 I have tried.
Cheers,
Ian
2006 Tim Adams Clare Valley Riesling (screwcap): Bright straw with a hint of green, and some spritz on the glass. Toasty and pithy, brown limes, talc and a bare hint of bacon, but no kerosene notes yet; the palate’s just as toasty and nutty, bright acid and toast mid-palate with sweet hints of lanolin and vanilla, finishing slatey and dry. It’s in-between phases at the moment, possibly in a hole, it’s lost it’s primary blossoms but there’s no kerosene notes, and yet it’s beginning to dry out on the very end. It's hard to see where this one is going.
2009 Tim Adams Clare Valley Semillon (screwcap): Bright straw/green. Very sweet, fruity and soapy, full of sweet lemons, bathroom scents and spices; a bright entry leads to a lean, elegant palate with clean scrubbed lemons and crisp acidity, a little grass, and a tight, mineraly finish. A very pretty wine that’s drinking well right now, or will become more toasty with a few years in the cellar, but it will always be leaner that a top Hunter semillon.
2002 Tim Adams Clare Valley Semillon (screwcap): Bright gold. Very toasty and attractive, the nose is full of lemon, sandy oyster shells and just a little acidic lift; a soft entry leads to an equally attractive palate that’s full of lemon, lanolin and toasty/nutty characters mid-palate, finishing grippy and long with no sign of drying out. For a lighter-weight semillon this has aged remarkably well, but it shouldn’t be a surprise since 2002 has produced many stunning and long-lived Clare whites.
2005 Tim Adams The Fergus, Clare Valley (screwcap): 63% grenache, 18% cabernet franc, 10% cabernet sauvignon, 5% merlot and 4% malbec this vintage. Medium to almost dark garnet. Sweet nose with a little funk, red berries and earth, boiled lollies and a touch of the stoker’s apron, becoming vegetal with breathing; the palate’s minty, leathery and very dry, light to medium-weight with a noticeably hot, peppery, mouthwash-like finish. This has seen much better days.
2005 Tim Adams Clare Valley Cabernet Merlot (screwcap): I hadn’t seen this blend before, and apparently it was tailored for the US for export (obviously before the movie Sideways turned merlot into a dirty word). Medium to almost dark garnet. A lovely, complex nose that’s very herbal, full of blackcurrant, green olives and earth backed by fine cedar oak, a little soy appearing with breathing. The palate’s just as good, only medium-weight but the merlot does a great job of filling out the mid-palate, while those blackcurrant, menthol and cedar characters match the velvety tannins through to the end of the long, lacy finish.
2006 Tim Adams Clare Valley Shiraz (screwcap): Medium to dark red/purple. Very perfumed and spicy, violets and plums and a hint of black olive, the cedar oak well in the background; the palate’s just as good, medium-weight with plums and black cherries and sweet oak on the solid finish. A very good wine that displays all the virtues of Clare shiraz without over extraction or too much oak.
2006 Tim Adams The Aberfeldy Shiraz, Clare Valley (Stelvin Lux screwcap): Medium to dark purple/red. This didn’t get any breathing time, and sure enough it opened up with obvious but very high quality oak on the nose, then cola and black cherries, a little black tea. The palate’s a major step up on the standard shiraz, crammed full of saturated plums and cedar, tar and blackberries, a little minty but perfectly balanced, finishing dry and very long. Even without anywhere near enough breathing its obvious class showed.
During the evening Phil produced a masked wine and asked the group to try it during the night, and asked one question at the end – did we think it was a $15 wine, a $25 wine, or a $50 wine? From a show of hands, about two thirds thought it was a $15 wine, and the remainder thought it was a $25 wine – nobody thought it was worth $50+:
2007 Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz, South Australia (screwcap): Medium to very dark red/purple. The nose appears to be cool climate origins with noticeable lift and some heat, black cherries and plums, some eucalypt and black olive; the palate’s porty/jammy and very tarry, and really lacks weight and length for the extract, although there is an unusual meaty/nectarine character too. I wasn’t impressed with this wine when it was released, and nothing’s changed in the last year – it has consistently been the worst vintage of Bin 389 I have tried.
Cheers,
Ian