The Auswine Forum

Evening all,

About to open that dusty bottle of wine from under the bed? Got a solitary bottle of Riesling and you're unsure whether to drink or cellar? Well look no further confused drinkers of the world, as the collective knowledge, and outright guesswork, of the forum is here to help. Just jot down your intended drinking bottle here and let the advice roll in.

To get things moving, I've got two bottles standing up ready for tomorrow night, but which one to guzzle and which one to keep?

Rockford Rod and Spur 2005
Rockford Cab Sauv 2005

Any advice and/or tasting notes would be gratefully received.

Many thanks, Travis.

I'd open them both! Jeremy Oliver has both of them past their optimal drinking window.

had a bottle of Le Dome 2004 last night, absolutely superb. Right bank 04's are drinking really well now, it is a sneaky vintage to enjoy whilst you wait (for what might be an eternity) for the 00's and 05 Bordeaux to mature. 04 and 01 are certainly the bargain Bordeaux vintages to drink at the moment.

Pulled the cork on the Rod and Spur. Fantastic. Still very primary but starting to soften. No way is this over hill... it hasn't even started to climb up it.

Cheers, Travis.

Have a 1996 Lakes Folly Cabernets double magnum to open up tonight.

Any information on how long to decanter would be greatly appreciated!

smithys wrote:Have a 1996 Lakes Folly Cabernets double magnum to open up tonight.

Any information on how long to decanter would be greatly appreciated!

Did you open it smithy? I would hazard a guess at about an hour... but taste it straight out of the bottle and go from there. I hope it's beautiful for you.

Cheers, Travis.

Travis,

I had wanted to comment on your question but didn't get around to it. My first thought was that both wines, from 2005, were still young. Any decent Cabernet, from anywhere in the world, can take a decade in the cellar with ease and so the Rockford Cabernet should be very youthful.

Meanwhile it comes as no surprise to me that you found the Rod and Spur still youthful. A good Shiraz/Cab, one of my favourite Aussie blends, are also very cellarworthy. If the Koonunga Hill can go for a decade or two then surely the same could be said for the Rockfords.

Okay, here goes with my drinking window question: what would be the drinking window on an '06 Yering Station Shiraz-Viognier? Would this blend be an earlier maturing style than a regular shiraz? I also note that Yering Station makes a reserve version of the same blend.

Mahmoud.

Travis, I guessed about the same.

Corkscrew went in, cork fell apart. Still had hope though! Then that smell that all wine lovers dread! CORKED!

3L of wine straight down the drain!

Opened a 1998 basket press instead which eased the pain a little though.

smithys wrote:Travis, I guessed about the same.

Corkscrew went in, cork fell apart. Still had hope though! Then that smell that all wine lovers dread! CORKED!

3L of wine straight down the drain!

Opened a 1998 basket press instead which eased the pain a little though.

Oh no! I feel a little ill reading this. And a DOUBLE magnum! Oh the horror...

Mahmoud Ali wrote:
Okay, here goes with my drinking window question: what would be the drinking window on an '06 Yering Station Shiraz-Viognier? Would this blend be an earlier maturing style than a regular shiraz? I also note that Yering Station makes a reserve version of the same blend.

Mahmoud.

Hi Mahmoud. I have experience with several vintages of Yering Station SV. 2006 is one of the better ones, but anything from 2003 - 2006 should be fine now and unlikely to get much better. I am holding my 2008s year or so more, but should resume drinking my 03s, 05s and 06s.

Cheers
Allan

smithys wrote:Travis, I guessed about the same.

Corkscrew went in, cork fell apart. Still had hope though! Then that smell that all wine lovers dread! CORKED!

3L of wine straight down the drain!

Opened a 1998 basket press instead which eased the pain a little though.

Why pour it down the sink? Send it back for replacement, I've never had any issues sending back corked wines to Lakes Folly. If they can't replace it they might have offered a 4-pack of bottles of current vintage.

by TravisW » Sun Sep 21, 2014 11:10 pm

smithys wrote:
Travis, I guessed about the same.

Corkscrew went in, cork fell apart. Still had hope though! Then that smell that all wine lovers dread! CORKED!

3L of wine straight down the drain!

Opened a 1998 basket press instead which eased the pain a little though.

Oh no! I feel a little ill reading this. And a DOUBLE magnum! Oh the horror...

Didn't we have a '99' of the Lakes Folly at China Plate that was also stuffed?

Quelle Horreur!

dave vino wrote:

smithys wrote:Travis, I guessed about the same.

Corkscrew went in, cork fell apart. Still had hope though! Then that smell that all wine lovers dread! CORKED!

3L of wine straight down the drain!

Opened a 1998 basket press instead which eased the pain a little though.

Why pour it down the sink? Send it back for replacement, I've never had any issues sending back corked wines to Lakes Folly. If they can't replace it they might have offered a 4-pack of bottles of current vintage.

That was my plan as well, but was having trouble finding a suitable cork replacement as the cork fell apart whilst opening.

I have kept the bottle and some of the cork though, what are my chances of still getting a replacement bottle or two?

UPDATE: Contacted Lakes Folly and informed them of the situation.

Rod from Lakes Folly was amazing and offered to replace the double magnum with 4 x 2011 Cabernet bottles as they didn't have any 1996 in their cellar.

I was suitably impressed at their willingness to go above and beyond any expectation I had with no fuss at all.

Top marks Lakes Folly!