The Auswine Forum

Hi Good Peoples,

Although the headmaster has been away on a study trip, I hope you have all been doing your homework and have been drinking lots'a good plonk.

I had two bottles that showed less than expected recently. The first was the 1992 Classic Clare Cabernet and the fruit on this one looked like it was dropping off and the tannins were dominating.

The second was a 1994 Henschke Mount Edelstone and it seemed like the oak was dominant.

In some ways this is obviously concerning but both bottles had been recently shipped down to SA so travel shock may have been at play but has anyone else tried either of these lately and have any thoughts?

And for the most important question, what have you been drinking?

Away last week and took some plonk with me:

2002 Taylors Shiraz - most enjoyable. Great QPR.

1998 Mamre Brook C/S. This is drinking superbly and gets better every time I open one.

1997 Vat 1 - At first I thought the bottle was gone. Got a little better the first night but the following night it was back to excellent.

1974 De Bortoli Tawny Port. Paid about $6 at CD. This is a most enjoyable Port and has great flavour and still plenty of spirit, but not overpowering. Excellent QPR.

MM.

Quiet week on the plonk front, however a bottle of O'Leary Walker "02 Cab/Merlot was a pleasant suprise stand out.
This is a very good wine for the price, and just may be indicative of the talked up '02 vintage.

Rory

Rory wrote:Quiet week on the plonk front, however a bottle of O'Leary Walker "02 Cab/Merlot was a pleasant suprise stand out.
This is a very good wine for the price, and just may be indicative of the talked up '02 vintage.

Rory,

I tried it a couple of days ago and agree, its impressive for the price point.

TORB wrote:

Rory wrote:Quiet week on the plonk front, however a bottle of O'Leary Walker "02 Cab/Merlot was a pleasant suprise stand out.
This is a very good wine for the price, and just may be indicative of the talked up '02 vintage.

Rory,

I tried it a couple of days ago and agree, its impressive for the price point.

Also agree. Both the Clare/McLaren Vale Shiraz and the Cab/Merlot are great value for money drinking.

I even drank their Adelaide Hills Sauv Blanc (big call for a red B) and thought it excellent.

Graham

Greetings Torb

Re: 94 Mt Ed. Was it decanted?

My experience with the wine, 12 months or so ago, was it changed dramatically with air time.

Initial pruney, leathery fruit evolved into a grand example of Eden Valley shiraz- good fruit focus, with oak in the background aiding complexity.

Despite being stored in perfect cellaring conditions, my bottle had a cork which had near seeped to the the top, with noticable ullage. The rest of the six pack had similar ullage levels.

I thought the initial poor showing of the wine due the cork-with the vintage quality and air time showing through in the end.

Will try a few more 94 Mt Ed's next month.

Apart from the dinner with TORB evening (see separate post) this was the only wine I bothered to make any notes about this week:

1990 Penfolds Magill Estate Deep brick red colour. Slighty porty dark chocolate and tobacco characters appear on the nose on the first pour. Later on there’s a touch of varnish, and then brandy spirit and rasin characters that really dominate the wine. The mid/light weight palate is very developed, with old book leather and again that buttered brandy spirit, and at first very powdery tannins which settle down in time. Not unlike a port without the big alcohol, but at the very edge of its development with nothing in reserve.

Cheers
Ian

The week started pretty slowly, but everything picked up as the weekend approached.

<b>2002 Tamar Ridge Pinot Noir</b>: This was my first introduction to Tasmanian Pinot Noir and what an introduction it was. This was great value for money at $23. Great deep colour and sweet berries. GREAT VALUE.

<b>2001 De Bortoli Gulf Station Pinot Noir</b>: Not in the league of the Tamar Ridge, but very enjoyable with a roast pumpkin soup (home-made) entree.

<b>1993 Tollana TR222 Cabernet Sauvignon</b>: My last bottle . I just love this stuff. I didn't take any notes, I was enjoying company and Osso-bucco (again home-made).

<b>NV Tapestry Old Tawny Port</b>: We finished the meal with chocolate coated strawberries. This is was the best accompanyment I could have hoped for. Great sweet nutty flavours and just the prettiest of noses.

<b>2000 Wynns Coonawarra Shiraz</b>: Pulled this from the cellar to see how things are improving. Has began to change colour to a dark maroon from its usually reddish purple. There is still evidence of the oak, with flavours of pepper and blackberry. Not as peppery as the 1996.

Hard to believe it is 10 years old and supposed to be a poor year. Tightly wound, not extremely dense. Dark garnet colour with little sediment

Not phenomenally flavourful by itself, but went well with marinated steak. Very dry.

Pleasantly surprised.

Mount Adam “The Red” 1999

The wine took a while to open up and is a more elegant style with nice black cherry and an earthy nose and balanced with a cedary oak. The palate continues the forest fruit flavours with fine tannins which become “grippy” towards the end. More restrained than the 98 but you would expect that. Should cellar for a few more years but probably no more than five.


De Bortoli Yarra Valley Cabernet 2000

This wine was opened at the same time as the Mount Adam. Initial tastes put this wine ahead of “The Red” but they came together after about an hour. Dark red with aromas of chocolate and tobacco. Nice, full of flavour Yarra Valley cabernet with some spicy oak.


Majella Malleea 2000

The colour was a dark garnet but not a glass stainer. Lots of vanillin oak, chocolate and sweet fruit on the nose and smelt like a Majella. The palate was huge with good oak and sweet berry flavours. Excellent complexity and great length. Love to have the willpower and financial resources to cellar a case of this for a decade.

Grant Burge Holy Trinity 1999

This was a real treat. Probably has entered itÂ’s drinking window showing nice spicy berry aromas with an added earthiness on the palate. Tannins are fine grained and the spicy fruit flavours linger.


Leeuwin Art Series Cabernet 1997

There was an earthiness about the smell and taste of this wine. Rich red in colour and also some peppery spice on the palate. It was nicely balanced and had a long finish but was overshadowed by the youthful Malleea on the night. I will try another in two years.


Paul Jaboulet Aine Parallele 45 Grenache/Shiraz 2001

Tried this at a store tasting on Saturday morning and thought it great value at $15 and wonder why we canÂ’t make G/S as good as this at this price in Australia. Tried a bottle (blind) opened for 24 hours on Sunday night and it had undergone a transformation. I thought it was a Victorian Shiraz. Great value.

Graham

Finally drank some of the 'legendary' 2002 d'Arenberg Laughing Magpie Shiraz Viognier (McLaren Vale). It certainly has an exotic lifted spicy nose, the licourice/tarry notes being outshone by the wild perfume present in the aromas. The tannins are fine, and persistent, but the acid is indeed quite low. I can see why some love the wine and some hate it. It seems to carry the 14.5% quite well, at least initially, but subsequent glasses do pall a little. Still, it's not bad, although any more than $25 and it's really pushing the value-for-money envelope. Enjoyable, yes - a great BBQ wine, but not a long term ager, that's for sure.

cheers,
Graeme

deleted

Have been pretty busy with work events plus other stuff so been quite on the drink front. What I have had and likes was:

01 Wynns Cab: agree with others in that it is a vast improvement on the 01. Maybe southcorp has stopped robbing all the good fruit from wynns and left some for the black label.

02 framingham pinot: had this in a masked line-up against Dog Point and thought that this beat it hands down. Very good fruit, a classy wine.

00 Maurice O'shea Shiraz: halliday went crazy about this wine and whilst I enjoyed it. I wouldn't rate it as highly as the great man. Will be a good wine when it approaches it's drinking window in around 8-10 years but don't think it will ever be a so-called 'classic'.

cheers
anthony

GrahamB wrote:
Grant Burge Holy Trinity 1999

This was a real treat. Probably has entered itÂ’s drinking window showing nice spicy berry aromas with an added earthiness on the palate. Tannins are fine grained and the spicy fruit flavours linger.


Graham

Hi Graham,

Have you tried the 98? Assuming that it would be in its window like the 99.

cheers,
simm

Anthony wrote:01 Wynns Cab: agree with others in that it is a vast improvement on the 01. Maybe southcorp has stopped robbing all the good fruit from wynns and left some for the black label.

Anthony, assuming you mean it is an improvement on the 00, this is great news!

cheers,

Hi Simm,
yep big step up on the 2000.

cheers
anthony

From this last week away from the cellar:

2001 Chateau Barreyres - 0/5 value at $29

Having had some luck with an $8 2002 vintage 'vin de pays' from somewhere in the south east (a very friendly pizza quaffer it truly was), somebody had the brilliant idea of aiming up the scale a bit. Sadly, the shot missed and landed squarely in the $h1t heap. (P)ass

2001 Cassegrain Chambourcin 3/5 value at $17

This wasn't the Reserve edition, but still turned out well. Reasonably clear medium red with slight pink and orange hues. Straight from the bottle the nose was an awful highly potent and pungent mixture of brett, red berry and a big Lemon Ajax(tm) tornado. No, it's not a screwcap. After a good 6 or 7 round trips between bottle and decanter, the stink is all gone leaving just some spicy soft red fruits (think Pinot), with a slight citrus overtone. This is really very pleasant drinking, good mouth feel with only medium body, more soft red fruits (raspberry, stewed strawberry), lemony spice (cinnamon too?) and a soft finish of acceptable length. Tannins are not at all impacting. Not really my style, but good company with open sandwiches, and it is at least a little different, to make it interesting. The Reserve is another thing entirely, from memory

1995 Leasingham Show Reserve Shiraz - 4/5 value at $28

Very deep blackish red in the glass, this is not showing its age at all. Moderate cling. Highly impressive nose, complex with buttery cherry, licquorice, tar, vanilla, crushed blackberry, mint, loads of cassis aromas. Wow!!! ...Initially the palate has more of the same, though (damn it!) there seems to be a bit of a hole in the middle. Even then, there's good length here, a clean dry finish with noticable tannin. Take the 1999 Bin 61 with layers of added depth and complexity and you're half way there. If it wasn't for the hole in the power curve, I'd give this wine another 5-10 years, easy. Still, good value. I've not heard or read of it before, and I might be mistaken but I suspect some old vine material might be involved here. Can anybody shed some light on this one?

1999 Tim Adams The Aberfeldy Shiraz - 4.5/5 value at $41

Subtly big in that way that old vine Shiraz does so well. No real notes, too busy loving the wine. Power, finesse, excellent balance, and gobs of fruit. Subtly sexy, stylish, this will be a beauty in time. I'm yet to stumble on a less than great Aberfeldy, and the standard Shiraz is never bad either. Thanks Tim

2001 Grant Burge Filsell - ?/5 value at $24

The Filsell is usually a wine I can side with, but this night it had the unenviable task of following the Aberfeldy. Though enjoyable, it was left wanting, feeling short and lacking depth of flavour. Simply outclassed, and not a true indiciation, I believe.

(useless as TOAB, but anyway...) Impressions of a few others. The 2002 Annie's Lane Shiraz was good, 2001 Wolf Blass Brown Label as usual felt like it needed time for the oak and fruit to marry. 2003 Taylors Shiraz is a 15% bruiser but showing well, give it time and it'll maybe even edge out the 2002. 1999 Tollana TR16 was good but not great. 1999 Fox Creek Reserve Shiraz (750ml x 2) was a wonderful bargain at a mislabelled $32ea!! 2001 Wynns CSM was typical, not as tannic as the 1999 and I can't recall the 2000, so this was probably better. The Cabs have already been mentioned, and a bunch of other wines are forgotten and hopefully most so with good reason

Cheers

Jakob

...that'd be, duh, my post there above. Strange how the automatic login doesn't work when you're not on your usual PC?

The only two of note this week were the following:

[b]1998 Barolo - Nebbiolo - Excellent - 18.5

A fabulous dark and inpenetrable black/red color. Initially this wine was all spice, eucalypt and pepper on the nose. It was jumping out of the glass. After 2 hours in the decanter and it had changed dramatically. The nose matured into a soft, leathery, dark plum bouquet. Similarly, the taste early on was all spice and the fruit was locked away, but you could tell that a subtle and classy wine was evolving as it breathed. The wine became genuinely "smooth" as layer upon layer of flavor kept developing. Dusty tannins and persistent fruit / dark cherry / plum / vanilla and a meaty flavour emerged. An exeptionally long aftertaste.
For whatever reason, this is the first time I had tried the nebbiolo grape and found it to be a most interesting wine. I cannot recall what price I paid for this Barolo and I even think it may have been a gift many years ago.
Anyone have any idea what this wine costs?

1994 Rosemount Balmoral Shiraz - Highly Recommended 17.0

This wine took a long time to show its potential. I decantered it for about 3 1/5 hours before serving it with roast lamb that was basted in garlic, rosemary and cracked pepper with a home made "slightly slimming" gravy. The nose was average bordering on dull, even when the flavour had evolved. However, the taste was classic SA/MV shiraz.
The oak had integrated well and it displayed spice, plum and complex fruit. A little short on aftertaste, however, in the main an enjoyable wine.

simm wrote:

GrahamB wrote:
Grant Burge Holy Trinity 1999

This was a real treat. Probably has entered itÂ’s drinking window showing nice spicy berry aromas with an added earthiness on the palate. Tannins are fine grained and the spicy fruit flavours linger.


Graham

Hi Graham,

Have you tried the 98? Assuming that it would be in its window like the 99.

cheers,
simm

Anthony wrote:01 Wynns Cab: agree with others in that it is a vast improvement on the 01. Maybe southcorp has stopped robbing all the good fruit from wynns and left some for the black label.

Anthony, assuming you mean it is an improvement on the 00, this is great news!

cheers,

Simm

Been a while since I had a 98, but if you need someone to try one for you I can send my drinking address!!!

Graham

I have a six pack of 98's and have it listed to try soon, so stay tuned, I will pull it out of the cellar soon.

zanlation wrote:The week started pretty slowly, but everything picked up as the weekend approached.
<b>1993 Tollana TR222 Cabernet Sauvignon</b>: My last bottle . I just love this stuff. I didn't take any notes, I was enjoying company and Osso-bucco (again home-made).

Yeah I thought TR222 was pretty good , all over Red Rover

GrahamB wrote:

simm wrote:

GrahamB wrote:
Grant Burge Holy Trinity 1999

This was a real treat. Probably has entered itÂ’s drinking window showing nice spicy berry aromas with an added earthiness on the palate. Tannins are fine grained and the spicy fruit flavours linger.


Graham

Hi Graham,

Have you tried the 98? Assuming that it would be in its window like the 99.

cheers,
simm

Anthony wrote:01 Wynns Cab: agree with others in that it is a vast improvement on the 01. Maybe southcorp has stopped robbing all the good fruit from wynns and left some for the black label.

Anthony, assuming you mean it is an improvement on the 00, this is great news!

cheers,

Simm

Been a while since I had a 98, but if you need someone to try one for you I can send my drinking address!!!

Graham

The 96 was dream. ah, that fateful day when the last one was skittled Only ever had two of 98's!

Just a question on Wynns. I wonder if under the fruit that has traditionally gone into Black label (I mean the good stuff!!) is now diverted into other labels?
Wines like:
Rosemount Show Cabernet Sauvignon
Penfolds Bin 707
Penfolds Bin 389 (cabernet component)
Penfolds Bin 407 (in some years)

I would bet my a*se that it has. Under Peter Douglas, I knew he had a tight reign over where his fruit went and subsequently most of the good stuff stayed with Wynns. Now it seems the Wynns vineyards get pillaged and consequently the fruit going into Wynns is not as good.

Also where has the Rouge Homme Coonawarra fruit gone? Not into Rouge Homme that's for sure. Has this fruit gone into Wynns? One of the best QPR wines off all time was the Rouge Homme Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 1998. For $11-12 bucks unbeatable!!!

cheers
Anthony

Anthony,

My friend opened a bottle of 1998 Wynn Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon and it was an absolutely shocking wine! It had nothing in the wine. Hoping it would impriove with time but there were no sign of improvment.
With all honesty, I would not even pay $15 for it.
Wonder what other people thought are on this wine.

Cheers
David

Why don't those who have access to the Wynns 98 Cab try one this weekend? I will try one and report back on it on sunday.
I have a few doz and hope that it is still going strong!!!

cheers
anthony

TORB wrote:I have a six pack of 98's and have it listed to try soon, so stay tuned, I will pull it out of the cellar soon.

Ric

You could open it on your Queensland winery trip and invite a few GSM believers to help you arrive at a fair rating.

Graham

Anthony wrote:Why don't those who have access to the Wynns 98 Cab try one this weekend? I will try one and report back on it on sunday.
I have a few doz and hope that it is still going strong!!!

cheers
anthony

Good idea Anthony. I read the negative reports and decide to open a 98 Wynns to check and then something always comes up that puts the 98 away again.

Maybe this weekend.

Graham

GrahamB wrote:Ric

You could open it on your Queensland winery trip and invite a few GSM believers to help you arrive at a fair rating.

Graham,

I am a GSM believer and have more than a few in my cellar, its just not straight "G" that I am mad about. Its good blended.

Anthony & Graham.

Looking forward to seeing your tasting notes on Wynn 98 Cab.

Have a great weekend!
David
PS. I will open one of my colletion (haven't decided which one yet)
and will post my tasting note.

TORB wrote:

GrahamB wrote:Ric

You could open it on your Queensland winery trip and invite a few GSM believers to help you arrive at a fair rating.

Graham,

I am a GSM believer and have more than a few in my cellar, its just not straight "G" that I am mad about. Its good blended.

Ric

Straight Greenarche is not one of my favourites either and is something I tend to have as a food wine and not a wine I would drink and eat a piece of cheese with.

When in the Barosa I hope you had the opportunity to check out young Troy Kasseske and his 02 Grenache or his barrels of 2003 Grenache. The straight "G" from him is really sensational.

Good to see you are still taking good care of my avatar thanks.

Graham