The Auswine Forum

I have had some amazing wines this week.
Early in the week it was the Melb East Offline (with a listing of wines already listed in that thread).

Also had the pleasure of a 90 Loius Roderer Cristal which was absolutely amazing and a 91 Chateau Lafite which was way too young.

Last night had my first bottle of 96 Pol Roger Vintage since xmas and confirmed what I already knew: 96 is one of the great Champagne Vintages and this is one great Champagne.

Had a 2001 Grant Burge Filsell Shiraz on Friday night. If you want to see how great fruit has been ruined by hideous oak, try this wine. Seems to be getting worse over the last few months as well.

cheers
anthony

Whilst in Sydney last week I shared a bottle of Killakanoon (sp?) 2001 Shiraz. A truely stunning wine however know nothing about this winery apart from in being in Clare Valley. Can anyone provide info on this?

Also had Brown's of Padthaway 1999 Ernest Shiraz last night. Drinking at its peak and quite good although tannins and acid were not not as good as they could be at ths tender age. Could have been slightly oxidised and variable in quality, a problem also notice in the 2001 model.

Chuck

Bloody hell Anth, we went in hiding, were were in a "meeting." Its started off last night and ended with a "breakfast secession" of bagels and smoked salmon with all the trimmings and a bottle of "Fish on Wheels".

We solved lots of the world problems and drank a drop or two of good red. Full story to follow.

Recently I had an Eden Springs 1999 Shiraz

I hadn't tried this since I bought it on release so it was time to see how it was going. The wine is mid weight with smooth tannins that have softened nicely and are integrating well. Clearly the fruit has been allowed to make its own statement which is always good. Its clean, well balance, well made and most enjoyable. Sweet red/blue berry spectrum fruit overlays a delightful savory base that has tinges of white pepper and noticeable plum which finishes to chocolate. Rated as Highly Recommended, why did I split the case with Brian?

As the wine opened up over a few hours it put on a bit of weight, the tannins seemed to fill out the palate and the finish improved. All this bodes well for its future.

1996 Lindemans Limestone Ridge Dark, inky garnet-red, with a touch of purple on the rim. The nose is deeply flavoured with tobacco spit, cassis, mint, and some licorice, herbs and tomato dust.

The palate has a soft, rich entry, weighty body, and fine interwoven tannins; concentrated raspberries, blackcurrant, some leather and concentrated tomato supported by quality oak. The weight of the palate really drops-off quickly to my surprise; there is persistent length in the aftertaste, but more of a faint echo after the rather loud bang preceding it.

A pleasant enough wine, but seems more advanced than I thought it would be. It should be noted that I got this bottle at a Woolies Liquor 20% off sale, after they recently got quite a lot of 1998 Penfolds bin reds and 1996 Lindemans Pyrus and Limestone Ridge in. They could have squeezed Southcorp for some museum stock, or had this in storage themselves which could mean anything. While the ullage level looked good, I am not discounting the possibility this is an advanced bottle.

2002 Kangarilla Road Zinfandel Inky Dark red with purple hues. The nose is very perfumed, and ever so slightly soapy on opening, but quickly settles into a rich mix of coffee, mocha-chocolate and mixed-spice, green leaf and violets. The American oak influence is obvious, but the fruit is poking its head through – heady stuff.

The palate has a very soft entry belying its 16% alcohol. The very spicy mid-palate again is flushed with that oak; coffee intermingles with the chocolate/blackberry fruit with hints of aniseed. The alcohol makes an appearance in the finish, with caramel and vanilla flavours lingering in the fine chalky tannins. With breathing the nose becomes slightly more savoury and brambly, and the palate slightly raisiny, but that sweet, spicy oak is never far behind. With further breathing the wine becomes sweeter, with almost Listerine minty characters on the nose, and cherry-cola on the palate; makes you wonder about how much residual sugar is in this.

This is a far more convincing effort than Cape Mentelle’s 16.8% monster. The wine is still hot on the finish, but at least it’s showing signs of rich fruit to match it. One for the Americans.

Cheers,
Ian

Just a few

Rockbare Shiraz 02: The first of a case. I can see why this has sold like hotcakes, but I can also see why some find it unexciting. No flaws, good fruit, but no excitement value. Might gain a little interest and complexity with time. Still excellent value.

Coldstream Hills Pinot Noir 02: A good wine, solid flavours, no flaws, some potential to age. Excellent value at around $20, but not spectacular.

Houghton Crofters SSB 02: Fresh and fruity. Great value for $12...drink up now.

Miranda Bush Vine Grenache 00: Good, not spectacular. A good match at the Nepalese restaurant.

Penfolds Bin 128 94: Amazing nose. Palate was merely good. Might last a little longer.

Arranmore Sauvignon Blanc 03: Ouch! It's hurting me. Might even want another year to soften. Despite the harsh acidity, it was a decent match for Indonesian food.

Willow Bridge SSB 02: (Just the barest tasting) Nice wine. Given the winemaker has just moved to Houghton, I hope that this is a sign of things to come.

Rosemount Diamond Chardonnay 03: (just the barest tasting). Surprisingly nice. Peaches and cream flavours. Probably counts as excellent value.

Alias Pinot Noir: A one-off release from an unnamed Adelaide Hills maker of pinot, which didn't match their usual style. (Perhaps Nepenthe or Chain-of-Ponds). A little bit thin, but what do you expect for $12? Probably a good food wine.

Kieran

2002 Temple Breuer Riesling , Langhorne Creek : I had not tried a Temple Breuer wine for a while as I was haunted by their 1998 Reserve Merlot - oh , the irony of carefully grown organic grapes absolutely drenched in OTT oak which rendered it , for me , close to undrinkable. However this Riesling is drinking beautifully right now. Lovely generous and full for a young riesling - I reckon at its peak now though would age OK too. I suppose a possible reason why Riesling is so reliable is that due to the way it is made it is less subject to winemakers " expressing themselves " all over it.

1994 Chateau Pontet-Canet Paulliac : A lovely dry red wine in its drinking window. Nice reliable Bordeaux secondary characters and a lovely clean finish. One of the most pleasant wines I've had this year and a good match with roast beef with red wine sauce.

Chandon Cuvee Riche : creamy and sweet in a Good way.

Wolf Blass Gold Label Riesling 1999 - lovely deep golden colour and really mature flavour. Still plenty of fruit and acid. Will last several more years but is so good now, why wait.

Wynns B/L Cab/Sav. 1998- Drinking very well. Still a deep red-purple. Bucket loads of fruit, tannins and enough oak to make the taste complete. Plenty of time yet to improve.

Tintara Shiraz 1996 - Still one of my favourites. Inside of bottle almost covered with sediment. Previous owner must have been a "bottle turner".
This is drinking superbly. Can not get any better but will last for several more years.
MM.

Nothing very exciting. Lindemans Cawarra Merlot 02 and Cab Merlot 02. For what it's worth, they've both picked up bronze medals at capital city wineshows. The Cab Merl a real bbq wine, confectioned fruit, inoffensive with a dry finish. The Merlot a bit more body though Halliday's 87 pts in his 2003 Top 100 is.....? But for 5 bucks a bottle, hard to beat at that level.

Other than those, Flying Fish Cove (Margaret River) Shiraz 02. Not a bad wine, has an interesting tarry character on the bouquet (bucket?) that's reflected on the palate, not quite full-bodied with savoury fruit. Oh, and supporting the bitumen, some chocolate. Finishes with background oak, ripe fruit tannins but a bit short. Good value @ $15. Drink now-5/6 years.

And Plantagenet Mount Barker Cab Sauv 01. This one's a bit more serious. The bucket is muted though with obvious good quality oak and subdued dark berry fruits. The palate has some cassis with ripe mulberry and black cherries at the front that expands on the middle where the oak starts to become noticeable without being overpowering, leading to a medium-length finish supported by fine fruit and oak tannins with soft acid. I like this wine. Quality - Highly Recommended Value - @ $24 Excellent/****1/2. Peak drinking 6-8 years.

Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend!

Cheers

daz

Greetings All.

Up to the armpits in study material. Only managed a couple this week.

Richmond Grove Limited Release Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 1999 - Ticks in all the right places. Varietal definition, berry fruit, some vanillan oak, mid-weighted with flavour persistance-dark berries-and a dry finish.

The biggest tick was the bottle was free. Courtesy of Qantas. Wife flew up from Adelaide to visit and the crew looked after a former Ansett colleague.

Katnook Estate Coonawarra Shiraz 2001 - Nice way to finish the week. The wine is alluring in it's shiraz youthfulness. Some time in the glass needed to bring out the slightly dominant oak nose ( at this stage ) - but plenty of underlying brooding black fruit and spice. The flavours are rich, without the muscle of the it's cabernet sauvignon sibling; plenty of berry fruit, spice, pepper on a velvety palate with backpalate dark fruit and oak char. Plenty of flavour persistance, subtle tannins with the oak just a touch dominant at this stage.

As an expat a big supporter of Katnook- reliable, available in most civilised countries and good QPR ( pay about the same in London or HK as you would in Adelaide ).

Daryl Douglas wrote:The bucket is muted though
daz

Daz,

Question - Feeling "better"
Answer - Nope, better bring a bucket

2000 Hugel Gewurztraminer (Alsace)
With Thai take-away on Saturday night. Lovely varietally-correct nose, not too spirity. Full, dry palate. No appreciable secondary development yet. Well balanced palate - all of the tongue nicely coated with ripe fruit. 13.0% and doesn't need to be higher. Very good.

cheers,
Graeme

Hi All,

I tried a shiraz cleanskin from the Clare Valley which is selling through a well known retailer. The wine is called "At Odd's" and is extraordinary value at $6pb.
I will be buying a case or two of this as my quaffer for the winter.
Cheers
Popov

My partner's Sydney colleague came around for dinner and was keen to explore pinot noir. His eyes glazed over when I suggested that pinot noir 101 and 201 is a minefield. But at least I gave him something to look forward to in pinot noir studies 301.

1997 Coldstream Hills Reserve Pinot Noir
A brooding deep and dank wine; pinot for shiraz drinkers. Lacked deftness delicacy and charm. But it did have a dried fruit richness. I can't see it improving, indeed it was better when its explosive puppy fruit had potential. It never reached its youthful promise.

1993 Mount Mary pinot noir
Pale onion skin colour. Sweet fruit that wrapped and swirled around the palate and finished with good length. A good example of french influenced aussie pinot noir from an undistinguished vintage. It was on the slight downward turn of its drinking window, but will confidently hold.

1994 Bass Phillip pinot noir
Very similar to the MM, but with greater nuance, complexity and funky charm. Charming, if somewhat pale and and demure like an english rose. Probably past its peak, but what is lacking in its power is a fully developed array of floral and forest notes. I liked it.

2002 Mitchell Riesling
Really lovely. Uncomplicated, but substantive.

Also had a look at the 2003 Knight's releases and all the hype of the shiraz and riesling delivers in substance. The riesling had zing, zest and length. Excellent structure.
The shiraz had pristine spicy fruit. Gorgeous. A precursor to opening..

1998 Craiglee Shiraz
I thought I would have a sneeky look at how it was travelling. I like this style of wine of which the Knight's is another example: leanly structured soft fruit driven satisfying spicy wine. Has years ahead of it. A larger more masculine style of Craiglee.[/b]

Friday afternoon saw celebratory drinks at The Loft on King Street Wharf. It was a warm afternoon and we had already had a bottle of 1998 [b]Taylors St Andrews cabernet [/b]over lunch (a lovely drop, but not as rich and long as I remember it last time around).

The wine list had [b]1991 Seppelt Show sparkles [/b]at about $90. Not cheap, but hardly highway robbery for that wine and that vintage. And what a beautiful wine it is. Everything about this wine was tremendous. It was still a vivid red, the nose was a perfect mix of berries and good quality oak. The wine had that lovely chewy mouth feel that Seppelt do so well and the length was firm and lingering. The bubbles did their thing right to the last mouthful. This will be very long lived wine. To put it perspective, I enjoyed this wine much more than the 1993 Dom Perignon I enjoyed over dinner last weekend. Actually we enjoyed it so much, that a second bottle disappeared without much effort too !

Taittinger NV Lovely fresh champagne - aperitif in style, lots of white peach. Good mid weight palate but a touch simple - maybe a recent shipment. Nice longish palate. excellent in its style, just prefer the sexier, briochy Roederer NV

A tale of 2 Oz Pinots. The first a sad reflection of the typical commercial style pinot, the second a well-crafted small maker pinot.

2002 Lilydale Pinot Noir [Yarra Valley] Light to mid red colour (don't mind that). Light strawberry fruit nose with lots of spicy french oak. Palate is thin, soft and fruitless. Put half in a half bottle. Next day just an oak soup - whatever fruit there was had gone. Seemed to be clearly from over-irrigated or high yield grpaes. A disappointment.

1999 Winstead Pinot Noir [Bagdad, Tasmania] Mid red with some orange. Strong dark cherry and earthy and spicy tones. Mid weight but feel the width. More soft but deep black fruit with beutifully resolved tanins and longish finish. Lacks the structure and palate cut of a good french burgundy but still very nice for a midweight year. Excellent.

1998 Leo Buring Eden Valley Riesling Special release. Still lots of limes and lemons but with a minerally cut. Lovely depth to the palate and really I think its drinking as well as it ever will. Will keep for 5 years at least . Excellent.

Cheers

Paul