The Auswine Forum

Folks

With the sad news that the forum may be going, it could be that next Saturdays Auswine Offline will be the last Melbourne event. The theme is Aus Chardonnay and Cabernet and the agreed running order is

Aperitif
Bubbles
Curio 1
Curio 2

Chardonnay Bracket 1
young chardonnay 1
young chardonnay 2

Chardonnay Bracket 2
young chardonnay 3
young chardonnay 4

Chardonnay Bracket 3
mature chardonnay 1
mature chardonnay 2

Cabernet Sauvignon Bracket 1
mature cabernet 1
mature cabernet 2

Cabernet Sauvignon Bracket 2
mature cabernet 3
mature cabernet 4

Cabernet Sauvignon Bracket 3
mature cabernet 5
mature cabernet 6

Cabernet Sauvignon Bracket 4
mature cabernet 7
mature cabernet 8

Dessert
Wine 1
Wine 2

All are going to be served blind and who knows how many ringers there will be. Full tasting notes and hopefully some pictures to follow.

Notes to come, but it’s been a great afternoon.

Looking forward to the notes mychurch ...................... Mahmoud.

mychurch wrote:

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Notes to come, but it’s been a great afternoon.

A great afternoon indeed @mychurch. Looking forward to reading your thoughts on the fantastic bunch of wines we tasted yesterday.

Well that was fun. A few of us had never been to Sunbury, but if this is the average afternoon there, then I think i'll have to move.

Yes we overdid it - the picture I posted is actually missing 2 wines and 21 Wines over an after noon between 9 is too much to actually drink. Obviously we had all suffered during lockdown and had wine at hand that we wanted to try, so I think it was a perfectly understandable blow out.

Thanks firstly to Cuttlefish and his incredibly hard working wife for the effort that went into the afternoon. I'm not one for skimping on the catering, but even for me there was an abundance of bread, cheese, meat, dips and arancini balls. Yum. No need for dinner when I got home

The wines were of a high standard and the great thing was that even with a few oldies, none were shot and none were showing obvious faults. Given the numbers I'll run through the flights rather than giving detailed tasting note. All the wines were served blind

Flight 1. The Aperitif
Pier Peters NV Cuvee de Reserve Blanc de Blancs Brut 3.5*
Arrels del Priorat Vi De Mare 30 Anys, 4*
2010 Pinot Gris, Café de Beblenheim 2.5*
2018 Puri, Roberto Sarotto 3.5*

So what an oddball start. The Champers was lovely, with plenty of bread, lemon oil, acidity and well, class. Yum. The “white” Priorat was cloudy (even after 2 weeks standing) and really was in the Sherry spectrum. Ranchio, super high acidity, creaminess, lots of sherry flavours. Off the charts for complexity. Needs some nuts and time to contemplate. Another Yum. Alsace PG is one of my least favourite wine styles, but this was ok – there was none of the soap I was expecting. It was fairly tropical in the mid palate, but for me it was losing the acidity to support the fruit. Others liked it more. Despite having 3 flights of Chardonnay to come, we also had an Italian version here. The bottle gave a big hint, but nobody put their hand up to say Italy. That was due to the conundrum: the smokey, slightly oaky nose had a bit of Jura style funk, but the buttery, creamy, fennel taste indicated some sunshine. Lovely wine and probably my favourite white of the day

Flight 2
2016 Art Series Chardonnay, Leeuwin Estate 3.5*
2019 Old Port Righ Vineyard Chardonnay, Josh Cooper 3 *
I drank a lot of Aus chardonnay in the 90’s and early noughties, but got bored and went 10 plus years without drinking any. Somewhere during that period somebody at Leeuwin decided that they had had enough with the big popular wines they were selling out every year and decided to bring in more finesse. This had it in spades and I initially had it down as Kumue River, another classy wine maker. It has structure, balance and a good use of oak and will no doubt blossom in time. A bit boring today though. That cant be said for the Cooper Wine, which had the weight and flavour of fruit I would have expected from the Leeuwin. First time I have tried his wines and I can see that it will be popular with a certain section, as the nose had that Lambic yeastiness that you get in a lot of the Natural producers. I really liked this to begin with, but when I went back later, that yeast/reduced taste started to dominate.

Flight 3 and 4
2019 Sorrenberg Chardonnay 3*
2018 Chablis, Christian Moreau 2*
2014 Williams Crossing, Curley Flat 2.5*
2008 Chardonnay, Restif 3.5*
Serving blind, you just have to hope that the wine pairings match. This we got wrong and the Sorrenberg should have been with the Restif. For me the Sorrenberg was all over the place. It looked older than the previous 2 wines and for me was dominated by wood, with a taste of cream, melon, chamomile tea, talc and almond paste. A lot going on, but it was not fun and 1 glass was more than enough. The Restif was in a much better place and stylistically I could imagine the Sorrenberg changing into this. Again there was cream and talc, but the yellow stone fruit was more apparent along with some popcorn. 2nd vintage of this wine I have tried and it’s a good, if unknown house. The Williams Crossing was the 2nd label at Curley Flat and was very different. It was tropical and I got a Riesling like smell on the nose. Pineapple, butter and more tropical tastes made we wonder if this was maybe an unoaked Chardonnay Blend. The Chablis was the only French wine in the tasting and it comes from an ok producer. There was plenty of fruit in this, but to me it was in the green veggie soup sphere and I did wonder if someone had thrown in an old Cotat Sancerre. This was liked by a lot, but I don’t like aged Sancerre and so I didn’t really like this.

Fight 4 and 5
2002 Cabernet, Studley Park 4*
2007 Elspeth Cabernet, Mills Reef 3*
2009 First Growth, Parker Estate 3.5*
2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, Bowen Estate 3.5*
Onto the reds, and well, these were a rather good start. Wine of the Day was Melbourne's own Studley Park, which is in walking distance from the Victoria Park Metro Stop. I was sitting next to Con, who hosted a great Wynns Black Label Vertical a couple of years ago, and while this was not the same, it had all the attributes of a perfectly aged Coonawarra Cabernet. It had to be. Nope. The 2 real Coonawarra wines were very different to each other. The First Growth was class personified, with all the boxes ticked that a top shelf Cabernet would want: loads of cassis, depth of fruit and flavour, intensity. Its best years are ahead of it, but as it’s a screw cap, who knows how long you’ll have to wait. The Bowen, sealed with a cork, was open for business though. I was sure someone had supplied an Italian red as a ringer as there were layers of dried fruit. Nose was sweaty, with some cabbage, but that just gave a bit of character. Character was of course the downfall of the Mills Reef. Nothing at all wrong with the wine, again with a screw cap, but it came over as a bit closed and muted even though there was plenty of Cassis in the mid palate. This would be fine over dinner alone, but it did not do well in company

Flight 6 and 7
1990 Cabernet Mount Avoca 3*
2003 Diana Madeline Cabernet, Cullen 3.5*
1995 Cabernet Cullen 4*
1995 Cabernet, Moss Wood 4*
It was a toss up at the end of the day as to which was the best actual red. Both of the 95s were stupendous in their own way. The Cullen was probably at its peak, with plenty of red fruit, mint and bell pepper. Classy and refined it showed just how well MR Cabs can evolve. Yum. The Moss Wood is better though, but only in the sense that it is still on a journey. Ioidine, cassis, black olive were noted (although palate fatigue was setting in) but it was just so smooth and controlled and having had an 80 from the same cellar, this still has a long way to go. Yum. The 03 Diana was another wine still on a journey. You can see that it comes from the same source as the 95, but I think its going to take a lot longer to get to the same end point. Yum, but even with a 4 hour decant, this was still not as open as the 95. The Avoca was the only really old wine of the main tasting. While we may wonder at how well certain wines age, I think that is just linked to our own frailties: if wine stays young for ever, then maybe we can as well. In Human terms, the Avoca was in its early 70’s. There were lots of secondary flavours, a dusty nose, cherry and some cigar box. There was still fruit there, but it’ was a gentle wine that needed food to bring out its best. Yum.

Flight 8 Desert and Afters
1979 Koombahla Cabernet, Brown Brothers 2.5*
1957/61 Bin RMUI Muscat, Sepplt 3.5*
1985 Noble Riesling, Brown Brothers 3*
So another old Cab was brought out, that while old, this was definitely not decaying. The mid palate still had a sweetness and having tried a few Aus wines of this age recently, they really do go well with food – Shropshire Blue in my case, but would have been better with beef. The Muscat was exactly as you would hope for, with bags of power, coffee, some caramel and a silky texture. No sweetness though, and the sugar came in the form of the Browns. I thought it was a Riesling, but was talked out of it due partially to the Bdx bottle shape. Should have stuck to my guns, but I can see why a lot of people went for Semillon as it did have and old Rhine Riesling feel. Dark colour, high in acidity this was similar to something from Tokaji. Refreshing and I would have loved to have drunk more of this, but the alcohol was taking its toll.

Summary
There were no votes for wine of the day and had there been then I think it would have been quite mixed. I would have taken the Italian white and the Studley Park to dinner, but I’m sure others would have chosen something quite different.

Idea for the next tasting is Sparkling and Pinot and we will be taking thinking easier – cutting down 2 bottles from each of the sections would have still made for a great day today.

Have a great Xmas everyone and see you in the New Year.

Great notes mychurch. Thank you.

Awesome writeup mychurch!

Pleased you didn't strike any duds and it sound like a wonderfully excessive release after a shitty time!

Cheers

Michael