TN: Blacktongues 8/6/05 - Cool Climate Reds

[n4sir]

For those of you not familiar with these events all the following wines were tried blind, and after about an hour all participants voted for their most preferred, two next preferred and their least preferred drops.

I’ve included my own impressions and rankings, the group votes, and a group ranking based on most preferred votes counting for double, second and third one vote, and least preferred minus one vote.

This group of wines were from cooler climate regions, and to be frank I didn’t enjoy many of them. This could possibly due difficult vintages, or a pursuit of lean fruit/heavy tannin styles marketed as “better with food” which maybe my S.A. weaned palate isn’t adjusted to yet – this topic is probably worth a separate thread in itself. Anyway, enough of the introduction and on to the notes:


2002 Yering Station Shiraz Viognier $20: Inky red/purple colour. A sweet, earthy nose with bright raspberry/blackberry fruit, and hints of dark chocolate and confectionery, and not a sign of any oak. The mid-weight palate has a spicy entry, with tomato characters, and a dry finish with slightly green tannins. This got the distinction of being labeled a “Chick’s drink” by the panel; it’s quite good drinking now, but personally I wouldn’t keep it any longer.

My ranking: 4th place
Panel ranking: 6th place

Votes: 2 most, 1 second & third, 0 least



2001 Bannockburn Shiraz $48: Inky red colour with a hint of purple. A very green nose at first with some chalk and beetroot characters, becoming rather stinky with funk/horse dung characters, and some graphite/pencil notes. The palate likewise opens with blackcurrant fruit, which is on the lean style compared to the massive, flinty tannin structure. I was guessing there was possibly a fair amount of Cabernet in this, and the panel was very surprised when its identity was revealed; possibly a bad bottle/bad vintage, the panelists who didn’t like this really hated it, resulting in it narrowly finishing outright last.

My ranking: 6th place
Panel ranking: 10th place

Votes: 0 most preferred, 0 second & third, 7 least



2003 Solyss La Corte Negromano Blend $27: Dark to inky red with a bare hint of purple. The nose was lifted and clean, with earth/briar, dried herbs, and some ozone and aniseed with breathing. The mid-weight palate is elegant but deceptively strong, with slightly green/herbal raspberry fruit, and finely knit black olive tannins providing good length with licorice on the aftertaste. I was really impressed by this wine made by Chris Ringland, seeing it as a savoury drink-now with food proposition.

My ranking: 3rd place
Panel ranking: 8th place

Votes: 0 most, 2 second & third, 2 least



2001 Houghton Frankland River Shiraz $25: Inky purple/red colour with a glowing purple hue. Obvious American oak dominates the nose, with vanilla/spice, formic acid (VA) and some chocolate/mint in the background. The mid-weight palate again reflects a major extraction of fruit matched to massive oak; a spicy entry followed by a crawl of sweet cherry/blackberry fruit and olive tannins with a touch too much VA and alcohol. I got the impression it looked like an effort to make Grange from the wrong type of fruit, and it’s pretty easy to see the argument that this wine was over-oaked/extracted. In our previous tastings I probably wouldn’t have rated this highly, but in this group there wasn’t much competition.

My ranking: 2nd place
Panel ranking: 5th place

Votes: 1 most, 5 second & third, 1 least



2002 Shaw & Smith Adelaide Hills Shiraz $40: Inky purple/red colour with a glowing hue. A spicy nose at first, with plums, pepper, ozone, blackberry and cloves. The mid-weight palate opens with vanilla, then a spicy mixture of red fruits and oak, furry/powdery tannins and with breathing some cherry and Band-Aid characters. For a change this time around instead of beginning my final taste-off with the weakest wine to that point I started with this one in the middle, which probably resulted a tougher ranking than probably deserved.

My ranking: =7th place
Panel ranking: 3rd place

Votes: 2 most, 6 second & third, 0 least



2003 Yering Station Reserve Shiraz Viognier $50: Inky purple colour with a glowing purple hue. The class wine of the group from the outset, with a beautiful perfumed nose of ripe plums, rhubarb shot with spice, then some lemon sherbet and beautiful spicy perfume. The palate opens with slick, syrupy/peppery blackberry fruit with great persistence and fine, slightly dry tannins. The Viognier is well and truly the supporting act to the classy, cool climate Shiraz and wonderful spicy French oak – not like the meaty, sweet apricot dominated rubbish that’s being peddled to death. WOTN by a big margin.

My ranking: 1st place
Panel ranking: 1st place

Votes: 6 most, 8 second and third, 0 least



2001 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Shiraz $37: Glowing dark to inky purple/red colour. A very earthy/spicy nose with more than a touch of charred oak and possibly some brett at first, becoming extremely ripe and spirity with porty/raisin characters. The palate opens subtlety, before a wave of spicy/peppery fruit and massive tannins take over, with a bare hint of chocolate somewhere in that mess. Despite some glowing reviews for this wine I wasn’t impressed with it earlier this year, and found it just as ordinary this time around.

My ranking: 9th place
Panel ranking: 7th place

Votes: 0 most, 2 second & third, 0 least



2003 Torzi Matthews Frost Dodger Eden Valley Shiraz $38: Glowing inky purple/red colour. This was the kind of cool-climate nose I was half expecting from this group, with wintergreens/mint, ozone/spice and a hint of vanilla. The palate features spicy/tangy fruit that at present to me was a little overwhelmed by the big black olive tannin structure. I’d give this one some cellaring time to see if it’s better integrated later on.

My ranking: =7th place
Panel ranking: 4th place

Votes: 1 most, 5 second & third, 0 least



2003 (Giaconda) McClay Road Beechworth Shiraz $32: Inky purple colour with an intimidating dark glow, the best of the group. The nose was dominated at first by stinky, heavily toasted oak with hints of earth, and went downhill from there with an ugly mix of BBQ salt and burnt rubber. The palate is even more revolting, with terrible burnt rubber characters and massive, coarse, green tannins that I struggled to swallow. All structure and badly charred oak with no discernible fruit, this was the worst wine I’ve tried this year – hopefully it’s a poor bottle or a one-off due to those terrible vintage conditions.

My ranking: 10th place
Panel ranking: 9th place

Votes: 0 most, 1 second & third, 7 least



2002 Katnook Estate Coonawarra Shiraz $40: Dark to inky red colour. A spicy nose at first, with some coffee oak, diesel fumes, burnt rubber and milk chocolate. The palate opens with tangy, raspberry fruit with a hint of chocolate, and a tannin structure that is already standing over the fruit. This was well liked by the panel voting it clear second, while I thought as in a previous tasting it’s an average, drink now proposition at best.

My ranking: 5th place
Panel ranking: 2nd place

Votes: 5 most, 4 second & third, 0 least




Cheers
Ian

[mphatic]

2003 (Giaconda) McClay Road Beechworth Shiraz $32:
... The nose was dominated at first by stinky, heavily toasted oak with hints of earth, ... BBQ salt and burnt rubber. ... with terrible burnt rubber characters ... badly charred oak with no discernible fruit, this was the worst wine I’ve tried this year – hopefully it’s a poor bottle or a one-off due to those terrible vintage conditions.

Ian,

Is it safe to say that these notes are the result of the smoke taint? I thought Kinzbrunner wasn't releasing 2003 wines bar the cabernet? Is this McClay Road a Giaconda label, or did they sell off all of their smoke affected juice to a smaller partner?

[Guest]

The 2003 McClay Road shiraz was produced and bottled and released by Giaconda, but it does not have Giaconda on the label. It is declassified Giaconda. McClay Road refers to the fact that Giaconda is on McClay Road, Beechworth. It is a wine with significant bottle variation, ranging from disgutingly putrid to rather nice, depending on which end of the spectrum you come across. It does have smoke taint , there is no getting around that, hence the fact that it was declassified into a "new", non-Giaconda label. The smoke taint is likely the cause of the bottle variation. I have had it by the glass in restaurants/wine bars and thought it drank really well; I have had it at home and thought it awful. Everyone's opinion on this wine, from good to terrible, is probably right. Being Giaconda, even declassified Giaconda, it sold out really quickly. I wouldn't buy it again.

The wine in your line-up that I am surprised at is the Bannockburn. Both Halliday and Oliver gave this wine 95/100. Not that their's, or anyone's, palates are infallible.

J2.

[n4sir]

The 2003 McClay Road shiraz was produced and bottled and released by Giaconda, but it does not have Giaconda on the label. It is declassified Giaconda. McClay Road refers to the fact that Giaconda is on McClay Road, Beechworth. It is a wine with significant bottle variation, ranging from disgutingly putrid to rather nice, depending on which end of the spectrum you come across. It does have smoke taint , there is no getting around that, hence the fact that it was declassified into a "new", non-Giaconda label. The smoke taint is likely the cause of the bottle variation. I have had it by the glass in restaurants/wine bars and thought it drank really well; I have had it at home and thought it awful. Everyone's opinion on this wine, from good to terrible, is probably right. Being Giaconda, even declassified Giaconda, it sold out really quickly. I wouldn't buy it again.

The wine in your line-up that I am surprised at is the Bannockburn. Both Halliday and Oliver gave this wine 95/100. Not that their's, or anyone's, palates are infallible.

J2.

I took a quick glace at the McClay Road front label and it did have Giaconda written on there somewhere (in small writing near the bottom). When the wine was revealed the prospect of smoke taint was the first thing I thought of.

Everyone was surprised at how stinky and green the Bannockburn was - Steve asked a few of the panel who were familiar with the wine whether it was typical, to which they replied a definite no. No sign of TCA, but it could well have been an abnormal bottle.

Cheers
Ian