The Auswine Forum

Ok I will wade in with my opinion

To me the 02 Bin wines showed a lot of concentration and fruit purity but they were boring, commercial, characterless wines. They were impressive in many respects but hardly did they seduce. They lacked the depth of flavour which say was present with the lovely 96 releases (well 28 and 389 anyway)

The 01 St Henri is the first Penfolds wine over the over $20 variety that I have dished out $$ for since the 98 bin wines were released. 98 707 was a nice wine but cant afford that sort of $$ too often!

I found the 01 st henri has very fine compact and rounded tannins, excellent concentration of fruit (which is what I look for in an age worthy wine. It had complexity to burn already and an elegance that most big aussie shiraz lacks. I think it is a real wine drinkers shiraz and will appeal to those who are sick of the one dimensional jammy rich aussie fruit bombs, it will appeal to those with perhaps a more old world palate (not saying it is old world though)

I would be confident to cellar this wine for a long time - I reckon it will do 20 years with ease and really what the hell would you want to wait any longer for a wine anyway.

Craig,

I disagree with much of waht you wrote and wonder how much of it was based on preconcieved ideas rather than what was in the glass.

From what I tasted, they certainly did not lack depth of flavour.

FWIW, I completely disagree with your analysis of the 01 St Henri. To my taste, the fruit was a bit pruney, was not as fresh as it could be and think it will be more like a 10-12 year wine than a 20 year job.

You are not alone in your liking for the 01 St Henri, Campbell said similar things to you but then Oliver said similar to to me. Time will tell who is right and who is wrong.

Hmm not sure how I started this as a new thread but anyway....

Guest (obviously a dim witted buyer of a case of 02 389 on the recomendation of a retailer)- Clear nonsense my ass. Try putting a REASON for your disagreement or judgement, which at least most people do around here, and try stringing a sentance together and also try using your intelligence to solve the mystery of registering, its not that hard. kiss my ass

Now on to someone I respect even though I dont always agree with, who is never a fly by and always gives good reasoning to his disagreement - - TORB

TORB, Firstly I wont wait 20 years anyway, mine will be gone well before that, I only bought a couple. tried it next to the 00 Balmoral and given the fact it is a crap balmoral vintage, it still illustrated to me the depth and complexity that I found in the st henri. if there is a pruney element then it obviously doesnt bother me.

Anyway each to his own and no one has to buy every vintage of every shiraz in the world. You are free to pass on this one and stock up on some tasty sauvignon blanc, i sure pass on plenty.

Anyone catch who won the super 12?

Craig(NZ) wrote:Anyone catch who won the super 12?

Thats a wine competition I am not familiar with Craig!

As for your comparison of the 00 Balmoral to the 01 St Henri, no wonder the latter looked good.

As for the Sauv Blanc, with three cats in the house....

Yeah the 00 Balmoral didnt even stand up next to the 01 Show Reserve. It was one dimensional, jammy and just a plain rip off

was also thinking about yr comments re the st henri and something i have found - temperature when tasting - i would hazard a guess that you tasted warmer than i did. often those riper characters prunes, chocolate, and alcohol come to the fore more when the wine is warmer.

its a factor i have learnt more to analyse and experiment with especially with pinot but also with other wines.

perhaps thinking about it, it also appealed as it was 'different'. I still have massive stocks of blockbuster shiraz from when i went crazy buying them from the 94, 96 vintage. As such I just dont buy that style anymore as I have plenty of them already. St Henri is a more restrained and complex wine which suits where my cellar sits

its sorta the same wih you I guess - constantly buying white wines cos u dont have any