The Auswine Forum

Two wines with Friday nightÂ’s dinner deserve to be TNÂ’ed separately.

<b>2000 Egon Müller ‘Scharzhof’ Riesling (1 01) (Saar)</b> A gleaming straw yellow, this offered an exquisite nose of slightly sweet apricots with a touch of light spice. On the palate, the wine screamed ‘drink me’; a hint of sweetness matched with beautifully cut acidity. Wonderfully refreshing, and hugely gluggable at 9% alcohol. This is Müller’s entry-level ‘estate’ Riesling I believe, and at only a few $ more than Grosset’s Polish Hill it’s well worth having. I tasted this same wine 12 months ago, when it was outclassed by it’s 2001 version – yet this wine tonight really lacked for nothing. A delicious aperitif as well as between-course cleanser. Most enjoyable.

<b>1983 Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon</b> Generally mid brick red, with some deep orange hues around the edge, this wine looked very healthy. (Level was at bottom of neck.) Decanted to a closed Zerutti ‘Turn’ half an hour before drinking, the nose offered a faint hint of blackberry, overlaid with wonderful cedary cigar-box aromas. This smelt uncannily like fine Bordeaux! The palate is now about silky textures, not fruit. There’s a velvety sheen to the wine, tannins fully resolved into the gentlest of astringencies – no volatility to speak of but still wonderfully fresh. A wine whose nose you could savour forever, but where the palate is not a disappointment. Medium–bodied in weight, but with exquisite length, this wine is just so beautifully balanced. Surely at the absolute peak of development, and my best wine of the year so far. And the big surprise? It weighs in at an extraordinary 11.2% alcohol. Makes me fear for the 14%+ wines of late…

cheers,
Graeme

Thanks Graeme, you've broken my heart. I opened my one and only 83 Bin 707 last week and it was corked ! Glad it turned out to be such a good wine for you.

Graeme,

remember that 1983 was the year of the big fires in SA.

As a result the wines were all atypical: the 83 Grange is excellent but quite different from the general trend.

I have not drunk an 83 bin 707 for some years but I remeber being surprised that it was a 707 (!) as it was not the obvious pennies house style. Very concentrated and deep at the time - and then consulting the alcohol level, shocked (at how low it appeared to be).

Of the 83s from SA in good nick, the one thing you can sya is that they will not be typical of their lineage!

fred

Yes, but what was so unusual about 83? Just hot, droughty and smoky? Or was there something else? I haven't checked the label for the grape sources, although it's normally not that specific. I presume, given the fate of the 83 Lindemans Coonawarra wines, that there wasn't much Coonawarra fruit at least. So it'd be mostly Barossa, with splashes of Padthaway(?) and Clare?

I've tasted the 83 Grange once or twice, and it's quite stunning, so I was hoping for great things from this bottle, given that Penfolds reckon they make the wiens the same way. I suspect this had been very well cellared before it came into my hands - if I can find more for a sensible price (this was <$100 at auction) I'll consider buying. Is the 83 Grange a low alcohol wine? I was very surprised to see only 11.2%, but the wine was no worse for it, that's for sure.

cheers,
Graeme

Graeme,

The "good" 83s show unusual concentration (the heat? & relatively low yields), but there is no widespread quality hype (as you point out with the Coonawarras - and in fact if you just picked even numbers in the 80's you would generally do far better at least in Coonawarra).

All I "know" is the observed phenomenon of the those 2 penfolds wines - and the 707 is (happily to my mind) out of kilter with other 707s.

I guess the other wine(s) which would be interesting to see at 20 from SA would be Wendouree and Henschke. I have tasted neither of those makers' 83s for many years, and have no recall of distinctive greatness or otehrwise.....so perhaps it is idle speculation. Of course, Penfolds wines generally are blends of regions so that may account for it.

fred