The Auswine Forum

<1yo: Dark rose with copper and broze hints. Slightly syrupy viscosity in the glass. On the nose: spirits, confectionary, tea, raisins, cherries. Moderately intense and complex. Purfumed. In the mouth: warm alcohol, raisins, tea, rhubarb, rubber, cherry. Unintegrated alcohol. Mouth coatingly sweet, long warm syrupy finish.

3yo: Darker pink with a large amount of brown. Again, slighly syrupy in the glass. On the nose: raisins, grape, coffee, tea, rubber, caramel. Moderate intensity and complexity. In the mouth: Tea, musk, caramel, raisins, ginger, orange, and some rancio characters emerging. Long warm sweet orange and tea and raisin length. Full bodied, good complexity.

13yo: Dark brown with green and amber tinges. Syrupy look in the glass. On the nose: vegemite, coffee, tea, burnt rubber, raisins, citrus, molasses. Complex and intense. In the mouth: warm mouth coating syrup with tea, coffee, caramel, slight vegemite, citrus zest, figs, maple syrup, molasses. Rancio characters quite evident. Intense flavours, very complex. Long, sweet, warm, mouth coating finish.

25yo: Dark brown, nearly black centre with rust brown tinge. Very syrupy, with some floaties. Nose: Thick rancio, tea, raisins, coffee, citrus, molasses, maple, chocolate, mud. Intense and very complex. In the mouth: mouth coating and filling warmth. Raisins and molasses, maple syrup, tea, vegemite, burnt rubber, caramel, coffee. Orange zest, some musk, rancio characters. Chewy, intense, concentrated, finish that goes on and on for minutes.

Looking at the development of the same muscat over a quarter of a century was a pretty interesting and worthwhile exercise... it's a pity the environment was a bit average. I also tasted a bunch of different sherries and some tokay, but my notes are a little disorganized and incomplete.

What was the tasting? Were the wines from single vintages or blends average age x?

Sounds like a great opportunity. The next thing that would have been fun would have been to try blending them to get a great mix.

Cheers

David

The tasting was part of a class I'm taking at university - "fortified wines, spirits, and non grape beverages." Today we're working our way through a selection of beers.

I'm reasonably certain the wines were single vintages. They were presented as 2005, 2002, 1992, and 1980, but we weren't explicitly told they weren't blends with an average age of x years hiding under the dodgy handmade labels.

Blending would have been good, but we ran out of wine - especially the older two

Thanks for the notes, Steve.

These are top wines. I was in Rutherglen last week for the wine show and had opportunity to visit Morris and have a look at what they're doing. A good example of a small(ish) family company which is absolutely thriving within a much larger parent company (Orlando).

To Orlando's credit, it affords David Morris a lot of freedom in what he does. He decided that his 2003 shiraz and 2003 cabernet were lacking in elegance and refinement so he decided to pull the entire vintage. Big call. Orlando supported him to the hilt.

But back to the fortifieds... local word has it that Morris has the largest stocks of old fortified material in Australia - even larger than Seppelt, in fact. It wouldn't surprise me if this were true, given the quality of what they're pulling out.

The Morris fortifieds blitzed the wine show for another year. David was away for the presentation dinner so his Dad Mick Morris received the trophies. It was such a walkover that it was almost comic. By the end of the evening Mick had relinquished his chair in the middle of the room and parked himself at the front immediatly opposite the podium so he wouldn't have so far to walk to collect the trophies!

Cheers,
Tyson.