The Auswine Forum

Hi All

Just picked up my dozen from Kays (under screw cap too I might add).

Have bought a rack of lamb and some moroccan spice lamb sausages from the McLaren Vale butcher in order to christen a bottle mid-afternoon today

Will post notes later

Block 6 sold out prior to bottling. Hillside 100 cases left.

Hillside offers extraordinary McClaren Vale value IMHO.


Looking forward to your notes Glen.

Was the entire production of the 2002 Block 6 under screwcap closure? I certainly hope so. This is a step in the right direction.

Kevin Gibbs wrote:Was the entire production of the 2002 Block 6 under screwcap closure? I certainly hope so. This is a step in the right direction.

Kevin

For 2002 vintage and beyond, all Kays wines are under screw cap, Block 6 and Hillside included.

They deserve our support for that (not to mention the great wine they make!).

Glen wrote:Hi All

Just picked up my dozen from Kays (under screw cap too I might add).

Have bought a rack of lamb and some moroccan spice lamb sausages from the McLaren Vale butcher in order to christen a bottle mid-afternoon today

Will post notes later

Glen

Surely you're going to bring the bottle to my place for trial purposes!! Scientific testing and all that!

I'll cook!

Gavin,

Sounding great until...

I'll cook!

As for the Block 6:-

Upon opening at 3:17pm Wednesday afternoon

Colour - clear and medium-deep purple (not exuberant liveliness)

Nose - initially pure fruit aromas followed by a very floral nose of violets, with a touch of black olive. The oak seems to be playing hide and seek, popping up now and again with hints of toasted vanillin oak, and then subtle wafts of raw green oak.

Palate - a reasonably intense wine with good nose to palate integrity. The phenolics are disjointed at this stage, with some green oak astringency that I am not sure will fully harmonise with the wine in time.

As for the BBQ, it was sublime.

Tasted from the same bottle again at 7pm Thursday night - one glass left in bottle overnight

Colour - no change

Nose - more black olive this time around, with the florals and fruit taking back seat. Green oak noticeable.

Palate - you will notice the astringent tannins this time around if you didn't the first time because the rest of the wine has softened. However these are at odds with the vanillin oak which suggests a lack of complete integration.

Overall comment - this is a nice wine depsite what my notes may impress upon you. It is certainly within the Block 6 mold, however it is just the green oak character which has made me have some reservations about this wine.

Score: 17.5 / 20.0

I think there was a discussion here some time ago about the use of Eastern European oak in this wine. I have a feeling that the length of seasoning may not have been as good as it could for this batch of wood. I have used Hungarian oak before and was very pleased with its harmony and contribution to the Cab Sauv with which I used it.

One last point also worth considering is that Colin Rayment didn't mention when the wine was bottled so perhaps a little bottle shock going on there.
However, Colin did mention after handing me a taste of the Hillside that this wine was only bottled a week ago, and it was stunning (although hard to make a true comparison between a mouthful of Hillside compared to a few glasses of B-6).

Cheers

Glen,

It is my understanding they were bottled one after the other.

Could be bottle shock.

Hope you're right TORB as I have an order in for both.
MM.

Muscat Mike wrote:Hope you're right TORB as I have an order in for both.
MM.

So do I Mike, cause I have them on order too. FWIW, I tried some samples of the wine in Balkan oak from 3 vintages and did not detect any green tannins in any of them. But that was only 3 out of a whole lot.