The Auswine Forum

As usual, all wines were tasted blind and served in the order listed, and after about an hour all participants voted for their most preferred, two next preferred and their least preferred drops. As with the last Black Tongues I attended, I thought there were four classy wines with little between them, and the rest significantly behind. The panel were fairly evenly spread with their most preferred wines, but there was a clear winner of least preferred.


2002 Serafino McLaren Vale Shiraz $20: Inky purple/red colour. Classy Barossa-style nose to start off the night, with coffee, chocolate, plum and rich blackberry fruit. The palate was very spicy and slightly sharp at first, with peppery blackberry fruit, furry tannins, and finishing with coffee on the aftertaste. In a very close race for my most preferred, it just missed out because I thought it was a fraction hot and had less weight than the winner.

My ranking: =2nd place
Votes: 1 most, 3 second, 1 least


2002 Saltram Mamre Brook Barossa Shiraz $20: Impressive inky purple/red with a glowing purple hue. Earthy & dusty nose at first with some toasty oak, then closing up completely. With air & some vigorous coaxing, the wine eventually let rip with gorgeous plum, chocolate, coffee and toffee aromas. The mid-weight palate is bigger in scale than the Serafino featuring powerful blackberry fruit with good length, a hint of prune this time, and a sweet plum rebound. In a show of consistency this again topped my scoresheet by half a mark, and polled most second preferred votes by the panel.

My ranking: 1st place
Votes: 1 most, 9 second, 0 least


2001 Barossa Ridge Old Creek Shiraz $30: Dark purple/red colour. A slightly stinky nose with mint, tea, chalk and some barnyard. The palate had great structure but the fruit seems to lag behind, with chalky cassis, and again some barnyard. This was really hard to pick as a Barossa Shiraz, but it wasn’t the worst wine of the night either.

My ranking: 5th place
Votes: 1 most, 2 second, 2 least


2001 Paxton Shiraz $30: Dark red/purple colour that looked thin compared to the rest of the line up. A generally closed nose that was slightly stinky and toasty. The palate was quite jammy with liquorice, good length, and finished with toasty oak dominating the finish. I could have awarded last place to another wine, but this got the nod because of the comparatively weak colour. Steve mentioned after the tasting he thought it was a bad bottle.

My ranking: 9th place
Votes: 0 most, 1 second, 1 least


2002 Chateau Tanunda Grand Barossa Limited Release Shiraz $38: Inky purple/red colour. Very closed nose at first, with some earth, oak and spirit characters. The palate had an impressive slow build-up at first featuring spicy fruit and big tannins, but finished short and ridiculously hot (14.5%). I tried the remnants of the bottle at home and it was fractionally better, with some sweet, dark chocolate on the nose, and ripe, porty toffee on the palate, but again that hot alcohol made it fortified-like territory.

My ranking: =6th place
Votes: 2 most, 2 second, 2 least


2002 Fern Field Pridmore Eden Valley Shiraz $35: Inky black/purple colour, the best of a very strong group. Very fruity nose, with sweet plum and rich blackberry, with a hint of apricot and sweat making me suspect there’s just a touch of Viognier in this. The palate like the nose and colour suggests it’s not straight Shiraz; rich plum, blackberry, sweet liquorice and jellies, with very fine integrated tannins, finishing long and just a touch bitter. This was a very classy wine up there with the best of the night, although I do feel it’s overpriced as I don’t think it has the cellaring potential of the other wines.

My ranking: 4th place
Votes: 3 most, 2 second, 0 least


2002 Stone Coast Limestone Coast Shiraz $20: Inky purple/red colour. The perfumed nose opens up to an impressive mix of classy oak handling & underlying fruit, with sweet coffee/mocha accents and rich blackberries, and floral rose petal/violets too. The palate features lashings of oak, sweet blackberry fruit, and big gum-draining tannins, all in proportion. While this just missed out on top spot, it has massive cellaring potential, and it’s keenly priced too.

My ranking: =2nd place
Votes: 2 most, 2 second, 0 least


2002 Turkey Flat Barossa Shiraz $38: Glowing, intimidating inky purple colour. I found the nose completely closed at first, eventually releasing some soapy characters, burnt toast/oak, and finally overwhelming spirity Tequila characters. The palate while having good depth and structure was dominated by the toasted oak. I was shocked when the identity of the wine was revealed, as this was nothing like what I tried before; maybe it was affected by the surrounding wines, or by being tasted blind. It was still highly marked by one end of the table though.

My ranking: =6th place
Votes: 4 most, 4 second, 0 least


2002 Rosenvale Barossa Shiraz: Inky purple/red colour. Disgusting nose of heavily charred oak, resulting in overblown toasty/vegemite characters that didn’t budge. That revolting oak again features on the palate, with tarry/prune fruit struggling to break the surface. It would have been easy to award this least preferred, and most of the panel did; I’m curious as to if there’s some fruit to shake off that oak in a few years time.

My ranking: 8th place
Votes: 0 most, 2 second, 8 least


Again my thanks to the Black Tongues for putting together another great evening.

Cheers
Ian

Good notes Ian, thanks for sharing them with us. FWIW, I would not be surprised if you had two off bottles. I know you can only report what is in the glass in front of you but two of those wines sound nothing like the wines I tried. FWIW, here are my tasting notes on the two wines.

Paxton 2001 Shiraz The wine spent 18 months in oak, a combination of French (55%) and American; total new component was 50%. The vines are 40 years old and cropped at two tonnes per acre.

More floral notes than the 2000 but still shows blackberry, chocolate, liquorice and leafy minty characters. On the palate the flavour profile is interestingly complex with great tasting savoury chocolate, cherry and blackberry, it’s a pretty ‘slick’ palate. The smooth but dusty tannins, pure deep persistent fruit of ample weight provides a solid structure and foundation that is almost seamless. Complexity is harmonious, well developed and refined. Rated as Excellent with *** for value it should peak about 2006. Now of this should come as a surprise to anyone who has been to McLaren Vale and has seen how much vineyard acreage that the Paxton’s own.

Turkey Flat 2002 Shiraz SA2004 Dark, vivid purple in colour, the hue is bright. The bouquet is lifted by slight VA and the rich fruit, seductive. One of the best wines for the price tasted on this trip, so what makes it so? Two things: great mouth-feel, but more importantly a seriously grand structure, both of which have their genesis in the tannins. Smooth and ultra-fine, they crawl across the palate at the speed of turtle on a leisurely, lengthy, long-service holiday. The pure, distinct fruit which is buried by the tannins at present, progresses from red into blue and them black spectrum fruit flavours and milk chocolate. An ample weight wine, the complexity is refined and the consistency firm but supple. Rated as Excellent with ***** for value, the rating should increase in 2010+ when the wine peaks.

This wine was given a second run just to confirm it was a good as we thought a few weeks back. I can only agree on the sheer quality and value of the 2002 Mamre Shiraz, one of this years must buys.

I'm drinking my 1996 Mamre Shiraz at present and they are just superb examples of quality Barossa Shiraz but at a very small price.

I understand the 2002 Mamre Cabernet is a ripper as well, to be released this week.

707

Good notes Ian, thanks for sharing them with us. FWIW, I would not be surprised if you had two off bottles

I can't comment on the Paxton, but the Turkey Flat was nothing like what I tried earlier. Given that 8 of the panel included it in their top three wines I thought I may have had a contaminated glass, but then I think another panelist agreed with the spirity characters I observed. Maybe it just doesn't look good in a blind line up, or needed more time.

My previous note from just over a month ago:

2002 Turkey Flat Shiraz: Deep, inky purple colour. Rich blackberry, chocolate and a hint of boot polish on the magnificent nose. The palate is just as impressive, with the rich chocolate/blackberry fruit completely soaking up the oak at first, finishing with smoky black olives and some malty oak on the aftertaste. The massive structure reminded me of the 2002 Tin Shed Single Wire in terms of scale; it seems to be a little more compressed, and at first seemed to give an impression it could be a little hot (14.5%), but the rich fruit washed that away quickly. This is another top Barossa 2002 Shiraz that’s living up to the growing reputation.

Cheers
Ian