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The 1995 Tyrrell's Vat 47 Pinot Chardonnay is still alive and well. One taster declares it to be Burgundy! Pictures to follow.

Mahmoud Ali wrote:The 1995 Tyrrell's Vat 47 Pinot Chardonnay is still alive and well. One taster declares it to be Burgundy! Pictures to follow.

Hahaha nice....hopefully the wine isn't in a covid19 state

Let us know how it goes

I believe Tyrrell's was one of the first wineries in Australia to make a varietal chardonnay, sometime in the 70s if memory serve me right. I found a few of the 1995 Tyrrell's Vat 47 Pinot Chardonnay, Hunter Valley (13%) when they were already seven or eight years old. I tried one, felt it had potential and went back and bought the remaining two. I had been thinking of opening a 1996 Elizabeth Semillon but in digging around the cellar came across the Vat 47 and decided it might be time to open a bottle, after all it is now 25 years old.

Fearing a dry cork that might break I used a corkscrew to weaken the core and then used a prong. The cork was in good condition and it came out cleanly. In the glass it was yellow with a gold hue. As usuaul I served it blind and a friend sniffed it and without hesitation declared it to be a Burgundy. My other friend concurred, but then, pondering about the oak component, wondered whether it might be Australian, with South Africa an outside consideration. The nose was lovely, creamy, nutmeg, nutty, and fragrant. The palate was equally alluring, honeyed notes, broad but refined oak that spoke of quality, and plenty of complexity and length. This wine is doing very well and well stored bottles are not in danger of falling off any time soon.
Kudos to Tyrrell's ................... Mahmoud.

Always used to amaze me, how long this wine used to last......
Enjoy

Great note ...

I apparently have 20 bottles of the Vat 47, some of each year from 2011-2017. All under screw cap which should help, but I probably should dig out one of the 2011/2012s if I can ever get back to Adelaide.

I had a 1996 Vat 47 all the way back in 2004 and remember it being excellent, but not sure I would have suggested leaving it for a further 16 yrs!

Sam,

You are lucky to have so many Vat 47s, they are excellent wines.

Getting to Adelaide wouldcertainly be difficult in current circumstances since you are only allowed to be about two kilometers from home. I know this because my sister is in Paris, in the 6th Arrondisement.

Cheers ................ Mahmoud.

The Tyrrell's Private Bin scheme is, if you live in Oz and have a cellar, an absolute no brainer Mahmoud.

It was around $35-40 for the whites and $50-60 for the reds IIRC (so about half the ultimate retail price, but you buy them 3-5 years before release so basically have to cellar them yourself). I used to take 3x each of the Vat 1 and the Vat 47 and 6 of the reds (3x Vat 9 and 3 of something else depending what was made)

I would have kept going but it lapsed due to their bad administration and I decided I needed to cut back my Aussie wine buys since I am still overseas with no near-term intent to go back.