Last Saturday morning, after a very pleasant breakfast in the Balnaves winery with a 120 of our closest friends, we did this year's Masterclass Tasting in the John Riddoch Room at Wynns. This year's tasting theme was about the influence of soil, in fact entitled "Forget sexy, let's get dirty - an exploration of the influence of soil". An ambitious topic perhaps, although the terra rossa is renowned, there must be a reason for it. Co-compared (and curated) by Brett Sharpe (winemaker from Lindemans, winner of the Provenance award at this year's Adelaide Show) and Pete Bissell (winemaker from Balnaves). About 45 punters, a few Coonawarra industry locals and other Coonawarra tragics like us.
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As usual a line up of ten wines, although this year we knew what we were tasting, cabernet or cabernet dominant blends, six from Coonawarra, a Bordeaux, a Kiwi, a Chilean and a Marg River.
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There was bit of discussion about the effect of soils and diverging views, e.g. minerals in rocks are not soluble, so how can they be taken up in the vines, compared with, well stuff in the soils which comes from rocks, gravels etc is soluble and can influence the wine. So, the focus was on seeing if we could characterise any influence of soils on wines from different areas ... plus of course have an enjoyable and high quality tasting
And that we did. Here are some brief notes, in order of tasting and in l-r order in the pic above. You will see that I don't get carried away with too many detailed descriptors ...
2009 Chateau La Mission Haut Brion (100pt wine apparently)
Attractive plum red, deep core, beautiful dense bouquet, dark fruits, cedar, cassis, served a little cold perhaps, balanced tannins, blackberries, plush (the merlot), balance, long finish
2010 Majella
purple blood red with a deep core, some mint, dark fruits, bright in the mouth, some acid, dark red fruit florals, perfume, tannins on the end finish
2012 Patrick Home Block
deep garnet plum, lovely dark fruit bouquet, slight mint, fruit a little short at first but developed elegance later, tannins on the end palate
2012 Balnaves The Tally
dense core, dark plum red, again some minty characters, some cedar, mouth coating chalky tannins, but pretty good balance now, some cigar box, dark fruits, a little closed perhaps. pete made the point that there was some ironstone in the limestone in the block for this fruit, I couldn't pick it
2013 Leconfield Sydney
dense red purple, restrained bouquet, some plum, mouth filling fruit, some blackberries as it opened up more, perhaps a sense of minerality, beautiful wine
2013 Te Mata Estate Coleraine
purple red, medium core, elegant fruit, not a splash as others, gravelly character?, blackberries, some cassis, not a long finish
2013 Wynns Harold
deep purple plum, lovely dark fruit bouquet, red black fruits, linear, not plush, fine grain tannins, perfume, cassis, purity of fruit.
2013 Concha y Toro Don Melchor
Black purple, dense, solemn feral character at first, plush mouthfeel, red berries and dark fruit, some chocolate
2013 Lindemans St George
purple plum with dense black core, slightly restrained bouquet, beautiful cassis, blackberries, beautiful mouthfeel, nice tannins, WOTT for me
2013 Deep Woods Estate Grand Reserve Wilyabrup
plum, medium deep core, cedar, black fruits, some plushness, with time, beautiful flavours, complexity, bit of bayleaf, elegance, more savoury rather than the perfume of the Coonawarra cabs
So, in terms of quality of wines, its was a great tasting. Still it should have been, many of the wines were premium labels and the La Mission was about $1700 apparently (you can get 50 Majellas for that). The discussion on soil was interesting. The Coonawarra wines did have a perfume about them, the Coleraine was leaner, was that an effect of the gravels? But the Don Melchor also comes from free draining gravels and was plush. The Deep Woods was meatier. All in all, a great couple of hours was spent with ten terrific wines, mixed with a lot of conversation. Perhaps didn't quite nail the objective of the tasting in terms of the influence of soil, but we did nail an hour and a half of good wine experiences. As noted above, the St George was my favourite of the tasting in that lot. Others liked the Leconfield, it was very good. The La Mission was also impressive, but it would want to be, partly different to the rest because of the blend. In reality, all of the wines were good and it was great to have the opportunity to see them on the bench together.
