The Auswine Forum

To welcome a fellow forum member (KMP) to Adelaide (any excuse to drink some nice wines) who happened to be travelling through from the USA with members of his family, a number of us got together and organised dinner and drinks at the Sauce in Dulwich, a place we have frequented on a number of occassions in the past and have been more than happy with the food and their excellent service.

We arranged an early start because Mike and entourage were staying in Tanunda ('bout an hours drive away) and had to get up early the next day to take in some wineries around the Barossa. Many thanks to Steve (707) for organising the resteraunt and getting us room for 15 people at such late notice before Christmas (although I did have heaps of warning but I like to leave things for the last moment including booking busy resteraunts).

We all started drifting in around 6pm (those of us from further afield arriving on time and those of us living around the corner being fashionably late (not mentioning any names Ga.in),

We kicked off the evening with a gorgeous 1993 Charles Heidsieck champagne. A wonderful nose of candied honey, butter and cookies, with a rich, creamy-textured palate of honied white fruits, nuts and apples.

Next round the table came another sparkling, a St Hallets sparkling burgundy (NV), a very pleasant, warm nose of black cherry and plums and a lovely crisp, full bodied palate of flavoursome redcurrants and plums.

While I was busy chatting with Glen and Mike about Glenn's new US version of the essential wine tasting guide, a bottle of 2002 Lewis Cellars reserve chardonnay, Napa Valley, did the rounds. I made my way back to my seat to make sure I got a glass of the wine that Mike had nursed all the way from the States. It was the first Californian wine I had ever tasted .... It had a complex nose of bannana, some straw, nuances of apricot, fig and what seemed to be bacon fat. A very nice, full bodied palate of balanced fruits and toasty oak.

Then a series of reds started to go around the table, we tried to introduce them to everybody in vintage order starting from the earliest to the latest in the following order:

1990 Wynns Michael Shiraz
A nose of dusty small berries, milk chocolate and some nuances of mint. The palate was rich and intense with a good backbone of tannins surrounded by a "..sweet core of fruits", finishing long and persistant.

1990 Penfolds Bin 707 Cab Sav
A nose of pure blackfruit and smokey spices with hints of coffee weaving through the smoke. The palate is just superb, with powerful fruit sweetness, a touch of pepper and nuances of mint. Complex, mouth filling flavours, silky tannins and a long finish I really enjoyed this wine.

1992 Orlando Jacaranda Ridge Cab Sav
Somewhat more restrained than the 707 but still an excellent cabernet, a dark purple color with excellent palate weight and plush berry and chocolate flavours with a good finish and length.

1994 Veritas Hanisch Shiraz
Everyone took note when this one did the rounds.. certainly an eye opener and different to all the wines tasted to this point, the glycerin just clung to the glass and formed a thick, transparent coating with a consistency of treacle. The palate was full bodied with fruit rich flavours and various elements of licorice, spice, a hint of mint, some white pepper, leather, earth and coffee. Loads of tannins, fruit and with a long, persistent finish, this wine was impressive.

1999 McWilliams Maurice O'Shea Shiraz
Smuggled over the border into South Australia, this East coast, hunter valley wine was one of the favourites of the night. A rich, savoury nose wound together with deep, dark chocolate and juicy berries. It had an intense, savoury palate with a core of sweet, lush fruit, chocolate and hints of licorice. Fine, grainy tannins and superb length.

2000 Branson Shiraz, Couch House
Quite a rare wine and most around the table agreed that it was a little ordinary, although pleasant, exhibiting mainly grapey characteristics on the nose and palate. A somewhat ordinary vintage of this otherwise extraordianry wine.


1999 Greenock Creek Roennfeldt Road Shiraz
The latest release of this superb wine, delivered to my cellar door only a month ago, this was the wine of the night and a stunner. This is the second time I have had a Roennfeldt Road Shiraz and neither has dissapointed and each one has been special, something that stands out from the crowd and makes everyone take notice. The color was a deep purple, nearly black, leaving teeth and glass drenched with dark stains that would not rinse off for many hours. Although the nose is not yet as complex as the 1997, it was still concentrated and thick, steeped in rich layers of graphite, minerals, spice, musk, coffee and vanilla bean. I could have gone on sniffing for ages but eventually I succumbed and put glass to lips.. The palate was an extraordinarily, full bodied intensely concentrated powerhouse full of deep, distinct layers of mouthfilling fruits, with an incredibly long finish that lasted for minutes. Although I think the description has been used before with this wine, Steve exclaimed that "..its so concentrated its like essence of shiraz...", and yes, thats exactly what its like !

2002 Rusden Zinfandel
Deep crimson. Scented coffee,chocolate,rose hip and strawberry aromas. Rich, ripe, sweet fruited berry flavours with heaps of chocolatey richness, lovely looseknit tannins and superb length. A delicious wine.

2001 Russian Hill Syrah/Viogner, California
The nose was closed and I couldn't get alot from it. The palate was elegant with some fine grained chocolatey tannins but perhaps too much apricot for my tastes.

2003 Noon Reserve Shiraz
Personally I liked this one, finding it loaded with flavour, full bodied and rich with great length. Yes there is alot of alcohol but I think it is superbly balanced. Perhaps not as good as the 2002 it is still a monster with many, many years to go before it comes of age.

2002 Dornier Cab/Sav Merlot, South Africa
Medium crimson color. Complex smoke, graphite and aniseed aromas with pleasantly savoury, almost ginger, oak characters. A wonderfully structured palate of superb savoury flavours with fine, grainy tannins that finish long and persistent. A top notch wine.

2002 Glaymond Cab Sav
Yum, I really enjoyed this one and it turned out to be the second best wine of the night for a number of people. Apparently Chris Ringland is the consultant for this label, which means they are pretty hard to get hold of here in Oz, the majority being shipped to the USA, so thanks Steve for sharing it !
A deep, inky purple color. Intensely fruit driven with rich, mouth filling dark chocolate,red cherry and plum flavours, fine, soft tannins and plenty of length.

1998 Charles Melton Nine Popes Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre
An opaque purple. Heaps of apricot and fruitcake aromas. Medium palate of sweet fruits, pepper and spicey complexity. Nicely structured tannins that firm up on the finish.


Seppelts DP 63 Show Reserve Muscat
This was from a genuine half bottle and not a from 750ml labelled with Grand Muscat (see TORBS storyon the difference between the old show reserve and the current Grand).. By this stage I was getting a little seedy and from memory and my chicken skrawl notes this muscat impressed with complex, rich, lush flavours of raisin, butterscotch and hints of licorice, nuts and treacle with a finish that lingered in your mouth for ages.

Somehow I missed out when this wine came out but gave it a go now..

1996 Burge Family Draycott Reserve Shiraz
.... Gagggckj --- corked...... real unfortunate as it would have been a cracker !

We finished of the night with a bottle of 1976 Skillogalee vintage port, very nice, rich licorique and raisins flavours.

Thank you to Steve for organising the resteraunt at the last minute. As per normal for this place it was a great meal and wonderful service. If it was left up to me we would be dining at North Haven... hmmmm... now theres an idea, walking distance for some

I regret not getting more time to talk to Mike and family and hope they might come back again sometime in the future.

Some photos of the evening.....

Mark, nice notes, thanks. Sorry this was your first try of a Cal Chard. Lewis is quite a good name, but their Chardonnay sees a LOT of oak. Perhaps typical of the direction a number of wineries have taken, but IMO not a good representative of what Cal Chardonnay can do in the right winemaking hands. The Russian Hill is pretty ordinary stuff too, not anywhere near the top of the Syrah heap up here. Don't let these two wines sway you on California.

Cheers,
Alan

Hi Folks:

For some strange reason this internet cafe computer won't let me log on to the forum. Anyhow just wanted to quickly drop in and say many, many thanks from Miranda and myself (those pretty ordinary Californian wines!!!), my brother John (Rusden zin), and cousin Ngaire and her husband Chris (O'Shea Shiraz) for a night of great food, excellent company and some pretty fancy wines. Thanks to Mark for suggesting the dinner and the Steve for the organization.

We have just done 5 days in the Barossa which included tasting with John Angus (Hutton Vale), Wayne Dutschke (Dutschke), Troy Kalleske (Kalleske), Trevor March (Heathvale), and Matt Wenk (Smidge) as well as a bunch of cellar door tastings. I'll be back with more details on what we actually tasted once I can get some time to get it all out of notebooks and onto my eBlogs.

Mike (aka KMP)

Alan Rath wrote:Mark, nice notes, thanks. Sorry this was your first try of a Cal Chard. Lewis is quite a good name, but their Chardonnay sees a LOT of oak. Perhaps typical of the direction a number of wineries have taken, but IMO not a good representative of what Cal Chardonnay can do in the right winemaking hands.

Alan:
The reason to bring the Lewis was to provied an example of typical California chardonnay rather than something that scores highly but is not typical of the greater number of chardonnays that grace wine shelves in the USA.

Alan Rath wrote:The Russian Hill is pretty ordinary stuff too, not anywhere near the top of the Syrah heap up here. Don't let these two wines sway you on California.

Cheers,
Alan

As the winemaker is a personal friend I don't want to argue the pros and cons of RHEW wines versus the rest of the field in the USA. I don't drink a lot of Califorian syrah (virtually none, actually), and after the last five days I'll be drinking a whole lot less! But we do like the RHEW wines. Just for clarification, this was the Top Block vineyard wine. I think Steve Norman thought the Viogner overdone, and now having done the Torbreck line I would probably agree with him. But RHEW "pretty ordinary stuff", nah!

Mike (aka KMP)

Alan, I can say that the Russian Hill we had at the dinner was comparable to any number of Australian Shiraz Viognier in the $25-30 range.

I quite enjoyed it despite the Viognier being a bit too prominent. But then again I find that in alot of those blends here in Australia at present. Even the much lauded Yering Station 2002 I find a little overdone.

Mike, glad you enjoyed Torbreck, I think they are spectacular winemakers.

Looking forward to getting up there for a few days next week to check on some of my favourites again and hopefully crack a dawn hot air balloon flight too after a couple of earlier weather aborted attempts.

707 wrote:Alan, I can say that the Russian Hill we had at the dinner was comparable to any number of Australian Shiraz Viognier in the $25-30 range.

I quite enjoyed it despite the Viognier being a bit too prominent. But then again I find that in alot of those blends here in Australia at present. Even the much lauded Yering Station 2002 I find a little overdone.

Mike, glad you enjoyed Torbreck, I think they are spectacular winemakers.

Looking forward to getting up there for a few days next week to check on some of my favourites again and hopefully crack a dawn hot air balloon flight too after a couple of earlier weather aborted attempts.

Steve:

Wearing a Torbreck T-shirt right now, so I must have been impressed! I thought the Descendent the pick of the bunch (must be all that Viognier!), and one of the top 4-5 reds we had all week. The Run Rig was excellent, but I just couldn't get past the $225 price tag. For me the "Run Rig silence" was a matter of looking for the value in all those $$$$$s.

Mike (KMP)

Mike,

Interested to hear your views on the Smidge range, did you get a chance to try the new Viognier?

Mike,

The 01 Run Rig didn't do much for me, I was not tempted at all but the 02 was sexsational. I also loved the Decendants.

Hi Guest,
How was Mr.Angas latest release?
I'm a big fan of his Grn/Mataro.

markg wrote:1999 McWilliams Maurice O'Shea Shiraz
Smuggled over the border into South Australia, this East coast, hunter valley wine was one of the favourites of the night. A rich, savoury nose wound together with deep, dark chocolate and juicy berries. It had an intense, savoury palate with a core of sweet, lush fruit, chocolate and hints of licorice. Fine, grainy tannins and superb length.

Try the 2000 too.
GW

Mike,
Oops, wait a sec while I get this foot out of my mouth... I haven't tried the "Top Block," will have to keep an eye out. At a bit higher price range, try a Lagier-Meredith sometime for comparison.

Cheers,
Alan

camw wrote:Mike,

Interested to hear your views on the Smidge range, did you get a chance to try the new Viognier?

Chow Chow wrote:Hi Guest,
How was Mr.Angas latest release?
I'm a big fan of his Grn/Mataro.

It will take me a little while to put all the notes together and post on the different wineries. But briefly - I didn't take notes on the Smidge viognier (called Cellar Pod) 2004. From memory it was quite good without being overly exciting. However what we tasted of the zins from barrel was something else, and you'll have to wait to hear about that!

As far as Hutton Vale goes we tasted across their line including the 2001 and 2002 GM. The 2002 was the better wine, to me. More supple and elegant than the '01.

Mike