The Auswine Forum

How is it looking?

I have an unopened 6 pack, and I am kinda tempted

TIA

had it over the Christmas period side-by-side with the 2012.
both were still too young, but the 2012 was clearly the better wine. Neither was startling, but St Henri does take a long time to come good.
I'd hang on to it for another five years at least.

Still an unopened six pack here

mjs wrote:Still an unopened six pack here

Ditto...see they're fetching close to $200 ea on the secondary market. Have the 08, 12 and 16. Wished I had brought far more 02 and 04... looking back now shit cheap... unfortunately all gone!
Cheers Craig

You're lucky to have a 6-pack, so not much harm in opening one to see what it is like, especially if you hadn't tasted it when younger. Otherwise my advice would be to wait. Jeremy Oliver routinely assigns a 20 year wait for the better vintages of St Henri. For my own part I had my fiirst St Henri far too young and when I knew little of it's pedigree and logevity. I was gifted a bottle of the 1986 (it was brought from Australia) and it was opened when only 7 years old. I recall it being a good wine but still closed and somewhat reticent. How I wish I hadn't opened it. What I do have now is a couple of '04s and an '06, with a 1995 that I think might need opening sometime soon, perhaps this year as it would be a nice even-numbered 25 years old, though I'm not sure since the '96 Koonunga Hill is still drinking well. The 1995 must have a higher proportion of Cabernet than usual because the label says Shiraz-Cabernet.

Out of curiosity has anyone had the 1995?

I’m 10 years away from opening one

The few I have are all under screwcap so probably 20+ years away?

Polymer wrote:The few I have are all under screwcap so probably 20+ years away?

Polymer, it is this situation that has me thinking I will drinking a sea of wine in my 70s based on the fear that screw-capped bottles of wine, considered to be both good quality and good cellaring propositions won't be ready for a long time yet.
Maybe a nice problem to have, but equally will there be the inevitable fatigue of so many wines, then offloading and so forth.
Lets hope some of them are crackers at 25+ years on.
Cheers Craig

phillisc wrote: Ditto...see they're fetching close to $200 ea on the secondary market.

Cripes, I have an unopened 6 as well, cost $70 ea from Dan's I think ... at $200 I might be tempted to recycle my capital !

had the 09 recently, was gobsmacked at how oaky it was
cant imagine it would have settled down with another 10 yrs, but never know
the fruit was nice and juicy, but seemed like the oak was already knocking it down.
There is no way that was 50yr old casks unless they added chips to it.

I have two under screw cap and one under cork. Will be waiting to compare the different closures in about 2030-35.

rens wrote:I have two under screw cap and one under cork. Will be waiting to compare the different closures in about 2030-35.

I think that'll be a great comparison!

Mahmoud Ali wrote:Out of curiosity has anyone had the 1995?

Mike Hawkins wrote:I’m 10 years away from opening one

Hi Mike,

You posted this right after mine but am I correct in assuming you meant the 2010 St Henri and not the 1995?

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

I had the 2013 recently- Wow some Port Lincoln fruit .

I was out at my cellar today and discovered I have two wooden 6-packs of the 2010.
How can I know if they are under SC or cork?
(doesn't matter to me, as I will never open them for personal consumption, my sons can do that in another 20 years if they want, but I was just curious)

Mahmoud Ali wrote:

Mahmoud Ali wrote:Out of curiosity has anyone had the 1995?

Mike Hawkins wrote:I’m 10 years away from opening one

Hi Mike,

You posted this right after mine but am I correct in assuming you meant the 2010 St Henri and not the 1995?

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

Yep, 2010. I thankfully skipped most 95s back in the day given I was waiting for 96s to be released.

Just checked CT. I've got 6 of the 2004 left. A bottle tasted late 2018 had me certain longer cellaring was needed to gain complexity, and with just enough structure to suggest that was feasible. Maybe crack another bottle on its 20th birthday?

I have a pair of the '04 St Henri so thanks for the heads up. Hopefully we'll all be around in 2024 to get an update.

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

I have some ‘04s & I’m in no rush to open one.
Frustratingly missed the ‘10s on release & the price has subsequently shot up.

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I'm willing to accept one of your bottles, open it, drink it and post notes on this august forum; that way we both get to know how it's travelling. Sounds fair to me.

Thanks everyone
I ended up drinking a 2004 Rockford BP instead

That was surprisingly disappointing. I really enjoyed the last one I had, this one not so

Craig(NZ) wrote:Thanks everyone
I ended up drinking a 2004 Rockford BP instead

That was surprisingly disappointing. I really enjoyed the last one I had, this one not so

I opened a bottle of BP ‘04 6 months & it was very disappointing. Two previous bottles had been tip-top.

I'm going ask a silly question, would it be silly to find one from the local these days? It's our anniversary, that's the only reason I could possibly use to justify an acquisition...

I've got 9 left out of a dozen. All so far have been way too young, though haven't had one since October 2018.

Redav wrote:I'm going ask a silly question, would it be silly to find one from the local these days? It's our anniversary, that's the only reason I could possibly use to justify an acquisition...

I happened to be glancing through a Dan Murphy offer just before seeing your post so I went back and checked. Apparently they have the 2010 St Henri, though it will cost all of A$225 per bottle, and if you're a member it drops down to A$190.

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

When I tried the 2010 St Henri on release, I thought it was an overrated, overripe pop-tart. That hasn't changed over the years.

If someone wants to shell out $200 a bottle for it, good luck to them.

Craig(NZ) wrote:Thanks everyone
I ended up drinking a 2004 Rockford BP instead

That was surprisingly disappointing. I really enjoyed the last one I had, this one not so

You should have opened up a 2004 St Henri instead... or maybe a 2012. Those two are the modern classics.

Mahmoud Ali wrote:and if you're a member it drops down to A$190.

Yes, and I can get a further 5% but that's still a lot of money and would be the most expensive bottle I'd have bought but a long way and I'm not convinced I would enjoy it over the Mt Edelstone of the same vintage that we still have.

n4sir wrote:If someone wants to shell out $200 a bottle for it, good luck to them.

And I completely understand that. I think I have cured the rash

Redav wrote:

Mahmoud Ali wrote:and if you're a member it drops down to A$190.

Yes, and I can get a further 5% but that's still a lot of money and would be the most expensive bottle I'd have bought but a long way and I'm not convinced I would enjoy it over the Mt Edelstone of the same vintage that we still have.

n4sir wrote:If someone wants to shell out $200 a bottle for it, good luck to them.

And I completely understand that. I think I have cured the rash

I get a sense now in my mid 50s, that this is all proportional in terms of what a wine cost, what it did cost, what one did earn and what one now earns....perhaps I am just a slow learner or needed to pick a career that paid much more
If I think about Mt Ed, brought lots of 84-94 as proportionally I could afford it, but with a 15 fold increase, vs. wages of about a 2-3 fold increase there is the problem. With St Henri, it was expensive to begin with, 02-04 $60+ but hasn't gone berserk (well the RRP might have, but if you know where to look ), I paid $74 for the '16, which will be about 1/3-1/4 what the '16 Mt Ed will be. If I can get the '18 St Henri under $100 it may be in play. The '18 Mt Ed will be closer to $300...hope those who are in that game enjoy the chase.

Cheers Craig