TN: Blacktongues - 1996 Cabernets & Blends 28/7/04

[n4sir]

As usual, all wines were tasted blind and served in the order listed. All participants then scored the wines, and voted for their two most preferred and their least preferred drops.


1996 Lake Breeze Cabernet Sauvignon: Inky red colour. Slightly closed but perfumed nose; chocolate and slightly savoury with some raisin, dust and sweat characters. The palate has a very soft entry, with some savoury/meaty characters, and a very elegant finish flushed with chocolate. I rated this rated highly all night and it got better with breathing.

My ranking: 2nd place.
Votes: 1 most, 5 second & third, 0 least preferred


1996 Normans Peacock Cabernet Sauvignon: Deep inky red with a hint of purple. Very clean nose in comparison with the first wine. The palate is medium in weight and very persistent with no noticeable hole. While the wine has good structure, it isn’t very complex at this stage; while I was thinking extra time might do the trick, it seemed just to grow slightly in scale with some ripe raisin characters.

My ranking: 5th place
Votes: 1 most, 0 second & third, 0 least preferred


1996 Turkey Flat Cabernet Sauvignon: Dark, inky red colour. A slightly stinky and earthy nose at first, then developing some rich ground coffee characters at the end of the tasting. The mid-weight palate floods the mouth with rich fruit at first, before a very obvious hole appears; the finish is very chalky and grippy, leaving a warm and pleasant chocolate/earthy aftertaste. This was one of those wines that needed a lot more time than we had to show its best, but was impressive all the same.

My ranking: 4th place
Votes: 0 most, 0 second & third, 0 least preferred


1996 Leconfield Cabernets: Deep red colour, but the lightest of the tasting. The nose gave away the wine to most people on the panel; a huge green and vegetal nose, with beetroot and some tea characters. The palate is just as green and stalky with some chocolate, and was surprisingly lightweight in this field, finishing chalky and green. This wasn’t my worst wine of the night, but about half the panel voted it as such.

My ranking: 7th place
Votes: 0 most, 0 second & third, 7 least preferred


1996 Mt Benson Cabernet Sauvignon: Dark red colour. A bit of a continuation from the Leconfield; the nose was at first slightly stinky, stalky and lean, then closed up completely, then released especially green asparagus and meaty characters not to my liking. The palate has slightly medicinal characters, a big mid-palate, and finishes stalky and green. This got worse as the night rolled on, and wound up with my lowest score.

My ranking: 9th place
Votes: 1 most, 3 second & third, 2 least preferred


1996 Knappstein Enterprise Cabernet Sauvignon: Deep inky purple colour, the best of the line-up by far. Slightly closed and elegant nose that was evolving all night, with mint, tea, chocolate and underlying chalk at times. The huge palate was an another scale to all the other wines, featuring a massive structure with no hole, a flood of rich cassis fruit entwined with chalky tannins, finishing long with a chalky aftertaste. This was the first time I had attended a Black Tongues where a clear favourite stood out, and some were surprised to find out it was from Clare. It almost seems a bit of a coincidence that the 2000 just took out trophies for best Cabernet and best red wine this week at the London International Wine Show. This was simply magnificent, and everything I’d expect from a top vintage from Wynns or Mitchell.

My ranking: 1st place
Votes: 8 most, 5 second & third, 1 least preferred


1996 Edwards & Chaffey Section 353 Cabernet Sauvignon: Dark, red colour. A elegant and sweet nose featuring mint, some beetroot and even some cheesy characters. The palate has a lush, soft entry, a big build up leading to a gum-sucking mid-palate, but drops off slightly on the finish. With air the wine gets richer, but also slightly hotter, hence I wasn’t surprised when the wine’s identity (and region) was revealed. This wine received the majority of the panel’s second most preferred wine votes.

My ranking: 3rd place
Votes: 1 most, 9 second & third, 0 least preferred


1996 Glaetzer Malbec Cabernet: Glowing dark red/purple colour. The nose seemed to display a lot of oak, and probably the Malbec component of the blend; there was some lanolin, chalk and barnyard that put a lot of people off. The palate was very chalky, slightly jammy and vegetal, mid-weight in structure, with some bitter tea, lanolin and geranium characters, finishing with bitter tannins. The other half of the panel voted this the worst wine of the night, and I was close to joining them.

My ranking: 8th place
Votes: 2 most, 1 second & third, 6 least preferred


1996 Balnaves Cabernet Sauvignon: Dark, inky red colour. A dusty and elegant nose featuring mint and tea which flow on to the palate. It’s bigger in scale than the previous wine, finishing with a pleasant currant aftertaste on the finish. I feel this was another wine that got short-changed because of lack of time, and I’ve probably under-scored it; it also received a lot of second best votes from the panel.

My ranking: 6th place
Votes: 3 most, 7 second & third, 1 least preferred


Again my thanks to Steve and Co. for putting together another great evening.

Cheers
Ian