The Auswine Forum

TN: 2003 Petaluma Riesling Hanlin Hill, Clare Valley Aus.

There are always various references on wine forums regarding Australian Rieslings and Petaluma is usually right up there. This was my last bottle of the `03 vintage and the least successful, having heard that there was still a future for this particular wine. I think a sign of a leaking cork did not help here? I see that some bottles were SC (cellar tracker).

Color was verging on a deep gold which was not a good sign as previous bottle was only mid yellow if that.
Nose was slightly oxidised, no gasolein, some apricot with citrus tones.
Palate entry was dry, starting to fade, backbone of citrus. Nothing to excite really, apricot shows up, lengthy finish but expected more. Serving staff at the Grill were not overly impressed.
Pity as all other bottles were top notch.

Yep, just bad luck, I suspect. The 03 should still be going strong.

I've got a magnum of the 06 HH which is under stelvin... Not entirely sure when I should be popping this one - any suggestions?

Bad luck there Bob. A leaky cork in a wine so young is indeed a bad sign, and deep gold isn't good either.

I opened a bottle of 2005 La Chablisienne Fourchame a couple of weeks ago and as soon as I saw the deep gold colour I knew there was something wrong.

Mahmoud

Out of interest, this vintage was available under screw cap and cork. I bought both.

The idea was to conduct a controlled comparison. Unfortunately, this isn't what happened at all .

All bottles have been fine.