Sparkling Red Wine Tasting 19/03/11

[cuttlefish]

Hi Everyone,

We had a little sparkling red tasting last Saturday as follows:

Bracket 1

2005 St Petrox Sparklin Chambourcin Merlot Shiraz
13% alc. A light hazy plum colour. Quite a savoury wine with a shadow of brett not detracting at all. Some delicate sweet fruit aroma, and almost heading into sous-bois territory, and an aroma of cow poo. Quite a delicate palate overall. Well balanced and light. The flavours match those delicate fruit aromas. 16/20 (I think I may have been the only one who liked this wine. It just did it for me. Must be the poo..)

2005 Majella Sparkling Shiraz
14% alc. Mid-dark plum colour here and a lovely rapberry aroma. No noticeable oak on the nose, but it shows on the palate wrapped around plummy raspberry fruit. A little short. Vanilla aroma emerges with time. 16/20

2004 Grampians Estate Rutherford Sparkling Shiraz
14.6% alc. A fraction darker in shade than the Majella. A very subdued nose with a whisp of aniseed/menthol. The palate on the other hand is quite superb; long, balanced, with fruit and tannin really well matched. 14/20 (As good as the palate was, the nose was so flat...so hence the low score)

2001 Houghton Museum Release Sparkling Shiraz
14% alc. Youthful colour with a nice glowing ruby edge. Aromas of clove, eucalyptus, liqueurious boysenberry. The palate is quite dry, and chocolately. Active at the front, then wavers a bit. 14/20

Bracket 2

2004 E & E Black Pepper Sparkling Shiraz
14% alc. Mid-dark plum colour with faint browning. Raw tobacco, vanilla, toasty oak, earth, and bitumen aromas. The palate is flavourful and very well balanced. Quite long. Lovely rum'n'raisin chocolate flavours and aromas. 17/20

2007 Release Seppelt Silverband Sparkling Shiraz
13% alc. Faintly clearer, but faintly darker than the E & E. Not really much in the way of aroma. Bitumen, and maybe a suggestion of vanilla. The palate is medium weight with some sweetness and some tannins. I am a regular purchaser of the Seppelts Original Sparkling Shiraz, and there's no doubting that that wine is great value for money. UNfortunately, I cannot say the same thing here. This Silverband seems pretty ordinary. It's all a bit ho-hum. 12/20

Domaine Chandon Sparkling Pinot Noir Shiraz NV
14% alc. Clear dark ruby colour with a pinky purple rim. Faint piss and mint/leaf aromas. The palate sweet fruited and quite weighty. Has length. 12/20

Bracket 3

2005 Teusner Sparkling SHiraz
14.5% alc. Mid-plum colour. Smells youthful. Red berry and vanilla aromas and then later a nice gun-flint aroma. The Palate seems short but it's a tasty wine. 14/20

Rumball SB12 Sparkling Shiraz Cuvee
12.5% alc. A proper deep dark amber colour. Brown right through it. Still some vaguely sweet aromatics, and forest floor aromas, tea-leaf. The palate has very mature flavours and looks like it's drying out a little. Still powerful, and does have length.

2004 Leasingham Classic Clare Sparkling Shiraz
14% alc. Dark purple/plum colour. A youthful, nervy, fruit-driven nose. Then some shaved cedar, berry jus, gamey, and roasting-tray aromas. A quite luxuriously fruited palate. 16/20.

After this we had a bunch of random wines with our BBQ:

Seppelt Show Reserve Sparkling Shiraz 1991 - nice and gamey. Really good wine, but does show a fair bit of brett.
Chapel Hill Shiraz 1998 - Looking good
Quattro Mano La Reto Tempranillo 2006 - Looking fabulous. (actually has 2% Grenache, and 2% Mourvedre in it)

[dlo]

I bought a lot of 2004 E&E. It and the 2004 Leasingham (which, BTW, I agree is not quite as good as the E&E) are the stand-outs of the bunch you tried. I've heard there are bottle variation problems with the Leasingham.

[bacchaebabe]

Suprised at your score and notes for the silverband. I'm not sure which vintage it was but the last one I bought of this (before Christmas) I really liked a lot. Would have put it around 16/20. Bottle variation perhaps?

[cuttlefish]

Suprised at your score and notes for the silverband. I'm not sure which vintage it was but the last one I bought of this (before Christmas) I really liked a lot. Would have put it around 16/20. Bottle variation perhaps?

Kris, I was honestly dissappointed when this wine was unveiled. It's under crown seal, too... I dunno, as coming from the Seppelts stable, I would have expected better. Could it be that this was not a representative bottle ?
This was the 2007 release. It doesn't say vintage, just 2007 release, so not sure if this is some kind of cuvee ??

[a_kean]

Hi guys, I also had the 2007 release recently and thought it was right in the groove, much better than the 2006 OSS I had at Christmas. It says on the back that the average age of the material was 6 years, so from around 2001, but not single vintage. I thought it was well balanced, with good intensity and a mix of primary fruit and secondary characters.

[Michael McNally]

Disappointing bunch of sparkling reds there Cuttles.

Must agree with Bacchaebabe and say I rated the most recent Silverband I had (Christmas lunch) quite highly. Might not have been a 2007, but I would have to check and can't be arsed

On the other hand I haven't rated the last couple of Originals. Not sure why, but they seem to have lost their X factor.

Long live the Splurgundy Revolution.

Cheers

Michael

[cuttlefish]

Disappointing bunch of sparkling reds there Cuttles.

Must agree with Bacchaebabe and say I rated the most recent Silverband I had (Christmas lunch) quite highly. Might not have been a 2007, but I would have to check and can't be arsed

On the other hand I haven't rated the last couple of Originals. Not sure why, but they seem to have lost their X factor.

Long live the Splurgundy Revolution.

Cheers

Michael

I really liked the 2006 Seppelts Original when I tried it on release. Seemed sweeter fruited than the 2005 and the 2002. I've been meaning to get some to cellar as I suspect it'll turn out OK with a few years on it.