TN: Yummy Aussie Sparkling Reds

Baby Chickpea · Post by **Baby Chickpea** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 9:11 am

1985 Seppelt Great Western Sparkling Burgundy
Light to medium red with brown edges. Nose is complexity personified - mushrooms, nuts, liquorice, berries and salami. Amazing stuff! Palate is long and complex and quite dry and spicy vs. the other wines. Lovely length and harmony with everything in integration. Bubbles started to fade after 20 minutes but this is a wonderful wine and hard to believe it is nearly 20 years old.
Excellent 18.5 / 20

NV Rockford Sparkling Black Shiraz [Disgorged September 1997]
Beautiful medium red colour. Bouquet hints of sweetness and liqueuring even. Lovely creamy oak with ripe berries. Very soft and not in any way harsh or "solid". Palate is simply delicious. Lovely balance and seamless. Good weight but not full-bodied. No astringency or hard tannins. So easy to drink. I expected to wine to gain some weight and concentration given its age. A criticism would be not very concentrated (compared to the awesome 85 Seppelt) and equally lacking its complexity.
Very Good 17.5 / 20

NV Rockford Sparkling Black Shiraz [Disgorged September 1999]
Nice darker red colour. Bouquet is a rich cornucopia of ripe blackberries with subtle spectrum of sweetness. The palate is lovely - excellent length and much richer than the 97. Also more concentration. The best Rockford Black Shiraz I have ever had from the 94-02 disgorgements. This is top stuff!
Excellent 18.0 / 20

NV Primo Estate Joseph Sparkling Red [Disgorged June 1999]
Medium red. Intense nose with obvious vintage port flavours and ripe sweet berries. Palate is very good with fine length. A much sweeter wine than the aforementioned but no less a wine. Very good to be sure, but today perhaps the weakest in this line up.
Very Good 17.5 / 20

Guest_Anders · Post by **Guest_Anders** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 5:28 pm

Lucky you!

SParkling Red was (and still is) my absolute favourite Australian wine. There's just nothing like it, and together with the Christmas Turkey - YUM-OOOOO!

Again, lucky you.

Anders