The Auswine Forum

After last weeks Blacktongues 2002 Barossa Cabernet tasting, I thought I'd retry the Rockford which was only moderate at the tasting but a wine I rated highly previously.

I decanted the botle about an hour before I started drinking and consumed the bottle over about three hours, the extra airing certainly assists this wine.

On the nose there's ripe plums, blackberry and a touch of spice. The palate follows through with some dark chocolate added into the blackbery/plum fruit, quite rich in the mouth and maybe a touch of capsicum on the finish with nice tannin structure.

I think we had a slightly off bottle at Blacktongues, one of those vaguaries you get with tree bark stuck in the bottle neck. This one was as good as the previous five or six I've had.

Quite a few of us thought the bottle at Blacktongues wasn't representative of the wine from previous experiences. Good to see this one was on form.

During the tasting I thought what turned out to be the Glaymond could have been either the Rifle Range or the Kabminye - it was a bloody good wine to finish fifth with my scores! That's part of the fun of these blind gigs, and this line-up delivered to our expectations; as I said in my opening remarks, I don't think anyone really questioned how good the wines were, just how different they were, and the votes were slanted towards the particular style they preferred. I'm more tolerant of oak (if it's in some sort of context), and less tolerant of alcohol heat for example.

Cheers
Ian