The Auswine Forum

Hi

Newbie here, and looking for some opinions on a few wines that have been recomended to me......

2002 Elderton Barossa Valley Shiraz

2002 Kabminye Barossa Valley Hubert Shiraz

They have been recomended as an affordable pair that are drinkable now yet still suitable for starting a (student) cellar....

Also

1997 Petersons Botrytis Semillon

As a nice sweet to drink now......

Like I said, I'm new here, so sorry if I've breached any ettiquette rules, and I look forward to your opinions on these wines.

Thanks

Speirsy11

Welcome to the forum.

Kabminye 2002 Hubert Shiraz SAFeb05 sells for $37.50 at cellar door. A sweet, floral nose with spicy nuances; it is subtle but shows class and elegance. Smooth, unobtrusive drying tannins and lively acid combine with delicate fruit to produce a lean-weight wine, with a supple consistency, very elegant structure, and well developed complexity. Savoury plum, blackberry, raspberry, milk chocolate, aniseed and mint flavours finish with good length and persistence. Drinking well now, it may improve in the short term and is rated as Highly Recommended with ** for value. This is a good quality wine, but why oh why, would you want a wine styled like this (lean) with Barossa fruit?

Elderton 2002 Shiraz SA2004 sells for $23.95 at CD. The wine was matured in 85% American oak for eleven months. Purple in colour, the hue is vivid and bright. The bouquet is youthful, fruit-driven, shows perfumed liquorice and it shines through on the palate as being pure and deep. Black cherry builds across the palate as it gains weight and finishes long with milk chocolate and mint. Slightly dusty, smooth, drying tannins combine with fresh acid and great fruit to produce a well-constructed, ample weight wine that is still tight but is showing a well-developed complexity. There is less oak than previous vintages and the wine is better for it. Rated as Highly Recommended with **** for value, it is drinking well now but will improve.

The Elderton is far better value and can be found for $20.

Welcome to the forum, please feel fre to join in and ask questions as often as you like. Where are you located?

There are a great number of contributors to this forum who can guide you through the wine maze. Of course people like myself and the Red Bigot brothers will guide you correctly on the path of full bodied reds and away from see through stuff like whites and peenows!

The Elderton and Kabminye are excellent wines well worth cellaring. Have you worked out yet how many wines you intend to cellar and how many bottles of each and in which price range?

On the sweet white I can't of course comment, such stuff rarey passes my lips

Thanks for the insight guys, greatly appreciated.

I'm in Sydney, and have just begun in the last year or so to collect. I'm a Canadian who is here finishing up some grad work, so my funds are limited, but I'm looking to get a decent collection of Australian wines to send home before I go in July 2006. I've recieved a few high end bottles as gifts (a 1993 Hill of Grace last year, and a 1998 Grange for my 30th birthday last week topping that list), but am looking for a few dozen more affordable bottles to keep around for when friends visit. I've been told that the Elderton is very good and worth grabbing. I'm going to start with a case of them tomorrow and see how I go now that I have the forum at my disposal ....

Thanks again for the help, and I hope nobody minds having me pick their brains while I'm here.

Speirsy11

Speirsy,

One that you shouldn't miss out on is the Mamre Brook Cab Sauv 2002, readily available at or around $20, a terrific bargain and easily the equal of the two wines you have listed here.

Of those two, I agree with Ric in his thoughts on the Elderton, havn't tried the Kabminye.

Cheers

Hello Speirsy,

Being the vast proportion of the white wine comment on this forum (well, in weight anyway), I better comment on the 1997 Petersons Botrytis Semillon. Although I have not tasted this particular vintage, I find that the majority of Peterson's wines are very, very well made (including the sweet wines that I have tried) but are nearly always overpriced in terms of money for quality, although their reds come into value consideration sometimes, dependant upon vintage.

Furthermore, as this is a Hunter winery, I would look elsewhere to get a better understanding of what Australia can do with sweet wines (fortified and unfortified) and at a cheaper price. However, if you are after the greatest packaging around a sweet wine, Peterson's might be a chance.

Look to a few of the Griffith wineries for some sweet wines: De Bortoli Noble One or Miranda for example, or get the standard Sharefarmers (Petaluma) sweet wine for a little more elegance (Coonawarra is better than Hunter for unfortified sweet wines).

But getting back to the Hunter (I find it hard to leave) and sweet wines, if you are interested in fortified wines, get your hands on some/any of the McWilliam's Mount Pleasant bottlings. Marvellous, even their fortified Verdelho!

Kind regards,
Adair

Grant wrote:Speirsy,

One that you shouldn't miss out on is the Mamre Brook Cab Sauv 2002, readily available at or around $20, a terrific bargain and easily the equal of the two wines you have listed here.

Of those two, I agree with Ric in his thoughts on the Elderton, havn't tried the Kabminye.

Cheers

Hey Grant,

Maybe this is the second wine we must try whenever we actually sit at the same table (along with a heap of better stuff), the first being that 2001 Rosemount Giants Creek Chardonnay. I had the 2002 Mamre Brook Cabernet Sauvignon, and although it was a wine of good depth and no faults, it did not really spark much interest. I realise I am in the minority though.

Kind regards,
Adair

P.S. I enjoy your comments on 2UE.

Adair,

Mate, looking forward to a drink with you sometime in the near future.

As for the Mamre Brook, I thought for $20 it was terrific value, as were a lot of Barossa cabernet's in the 2002 vintage. I don't think it is a profound, life changing wine, but you get more than what you pay for, IMO.

The Giants Creek.... well it would be a boring world if we all thought the same!!

Thanks for your kind words about 2UE too, much appreciated


All the best



GD