The Auswine Forum

.... and its here again so its time for your weekly drinking reports please.

Last night I had my last bottle of St Halletts Black Sparkling Shiraz. Unfortunately it was not as good as the previous bottles; not detectable fault, it was just a bit "ordinary" and I had no temptation to drink more than half a bottle. The Seppelt 2002 Original is a better drop (than this bottle) at about 1/3 of the price.

The only other wine of any note was the 2000 Majella Cab I opened a couple of nights previously but the comments on that wine have already been covered in another post. So what have you guys and girls been drinking?

2004 Jackson Estate Sauvignon Blanc. In my opinion probably the best NZ SB of the vintage, its now just showing signs of beginning to tire. Still a lovely clean cut weighty and solidly structured wine with piles of flavour and length, but beginning to take on secondary characters that could detract from what was a stunning wine. If you have any id drink em up, if you are thinking of buying any, id advise skip to the 2005.

2002 Martinborough Vineyard Jackson Block Riesling
Still very young straw colour, but bags of flavour. Cost £10 from Noel Young and rates a decent QPR at that price. Plenty of years left in this if others have some.

Other than the 2000 Majella Cabernet and the 2002 Tyrrell's Rufus Stone Shiraz covered in other treads, the only other wine we had of any significance was a 2000 Katnook Cabernet. Continuing along the 2000 Coonawarra cabernet theme, this wine was medium to deep red in colour and immediately had a wonderful nose of black fruit (blackberry, plums), dark chocolate, coffee and a touch of mint. The palate continued along this same road with rich flavours of blackberries, plums, mocha, chocolate and some well used oak in the backgorund. This is a big but beautifully balanced/complex wine which finishes with soft/silky tannins and plenty of length. Very Coonawarra and very, very nice .... a great example of the vintage IMO. Not sure where JO's score of 86 comes from and his drinking window (2002-05), but I'm with JH and Campbell on this one who both scored it 93+. Easily has another 5 years in it as well.

Hi,

It's been a while! Just impressions from memory, since I've been slack and haven't taken any proper notes...

03 Torzi Matthews Frost Dodger Shiraz: Pretty good. Lovely array of flavours. Need to buy more.
02 Grosset Gaia: Very, very difficult to keep any of this in the cellar. Best Gaia I've had for a while.
03 (I think) Rockford Rod & Spur: Not bad. Had it on the same night as the Frost Dodger, so inevitably compared the two very different styles. Should try it again by itself to get a firm opinion.
99 Greenock Creek Cornerstone Grenache: Confirmed my dislike of nearly all single varietal grenache made in Australia. Haven't tried many because those I have tried... I haven't enjoyed at all. No exception here.
04 Hewitson Miss Harry: Much better! Went back and bought a few more bottles to whack in the cellar for a while, if I can keep my hands off them...
02 Knappstein Single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon: Beautiful. My supply is getting consumed at a very rapid rate. Loads of mint, chocolate, dark berries, and liquorice, and lasted forever.

02 Tim Adams Riesling: Coming along nicely. Loads of acid and fruit, and a bunch of typical maturing riesling characters in there too.
05 Houghton White Burgundy: Quite a surprise. Not the stuff I'd buy or drink myself, but the intensity of fruit and the backbone of acid was a nice surprise. Simple, but not a bad quaffer. Slightly sweet - matched the food very nicely.
05 Primo "Joseph" Pinot Grigio: Not overly complex but still holding up well.

I haven't tried much of note because of the extremely hot and/or humid weather over the last two weeks - mainly cleanskins, Coopers pale ale, Scotch & Coke on the rocks (very refreshing).

I was supposed to attend the Blacktongues Riesling tasting, but witnessed a robbery a few hours before I was due to go and had to spend the time giving statements to the Police instead. I was really looking forward to trying those Rieslings blind after missing last year's opener too, so you can gather I'm still a little filfthy.

Australia Day was another scorcher (41 degrees) and the folks didn't want an outdoor BBQ, so we ended up having chicken breasts in a white wine/lemon thyme sauce matched to this recent favourite:

2005 Mitchell Watervale Riesling: This was quite different (perhaps because of the heat although it was chilled), sweeter with a delightful mixture of passionfruit and a hint of apple, later on drier and structured with lemon pith and mineral, but no steel or herb characters this time. Maybe because of the heat or the extra few months in the bottle this was now more like the 2002 and 2003 vintages. A remarkable wine - I wonder what will it do next?

Cheers,
Ian

Henschke "Cyril" 1995- Balanced and poised; a great effort for the vintage. Drink your 95's, long term cellar your 94's.

Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier 2001- When you get a good bottle of this vintage, it is nothing short of outstanding.

Both wines served to Belge friends, who have been weaned on Rhone & Bordeaux. Both wines very well received.

Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna 2002...Much better than the couple of bottles I had just after release due to the acidity settling down now. I am now convinced this will be a very good wine for the price with more age.

96 Glaetzer “Bishop” Shiraz

Cork soaked two thirds of the way through but came out easily with my screwpull, opened 2 hours before drinking over the next 2.

Medium purple/red and just a hint of terracotta at the rim.

On the nose I found predominantly mocha dark chocolate notes, something which proved to be a theme through this wine. A really decent swirl and a bit of creative thinking brought out spice and plums, more on the Christmas Cake end of the spectrum.

The past decade has been kind to this wine, while I can imagine it being a mooreish seductive drink early on I loved the integration of flavours. That mocha note ran the length of the palate, from the initial sip right through to the finish supported by very fine grained tannins. ThereÂ’s a richness and depth here that I very much enjoyed, but you can have too much of a good thing I was glad to be sharing the bottle with a couple of others.

We drank this with a whole roast duck from our favourite Northbridge roasting house, the wine definitely worked with the rich glazed flavours and had just enough acid to hold everything together and ensure that you were ready for the next sip, rather than dreaming about a cleansing G&T – a common symptom for me when drinking this sort of wine.

Not the most complex or cerebral wine IÂ’ve ever drunk, and I thought very much in the mould of the Peter Lehman Stonewell from the same year. At $31 a bottle IÂ’ll probably buy up the rest of these in anticipation of a couple of aromatic Vietnamese beef stews this Winter.

TN: 1998 Daniel Schuster Omihi Hills "Barrel 139" Pinot Noir

Danny walked the barrel room in the later months of 1998 and stopped beside one. The fruit for this particular barrel, and resulting wine, was different to all of the other barrels. It was much better. So he set about bottling that particular barrel separately, keeping half for himself and sending the remainder out through various retail distribution channels. For those unfamiliar with barrel volumes and logistics, this equates to less than 150 bottles in circulation.

Colour was a dark crimson red with a faint dark purple hue. Amazing colour, given the variety and age of the wine. This wine is not filtered, fined, or preserved. As a result, a decant is recommended. I wanted to love this wine, but it just didn't impress like I was hoping. The nose was volatile at first, partly due to acid and partly due to some bottle stink. It is indeed very complex, the nose evolving over time and still constantly changing. One swirl would produce a flowery aroma full of musk, the next would deliver black cherries, cocoa and gamey characteristics. I sat on this wine for half an hour before taking a sip. And it's the palate that really pulls the wine down. Unfortunately, the fruit is MIA, the lean Danny Schuster Burgundian style just void of the necessary fruit to make this a truly special pinot. The finish was also marred by overly excessive tannins for a pinot.

I'll call Danny and have a chat to him about the wine. With any luck, he's bottled similar barrel wines in later years that I'll have the opportunity to taste at some point. Thank you to Paddy Holder (happy 40th ya old bugger!) for generously opening this wine.

Cheers,

I have had a few sparkling reds over the last month since xmas. All were different as would be expected.

05 Disgourge Rockford - not as good as 04 disgourge
04 Majella Sparkling shiraz - loved it
99 Thorn Clarke Cabernet - really nice
Yalumba D - v good
Debortoli Emeri Sparkling Durif - great VFM
02 Seppelt Sparkling Shiraz - disappointing and it is this one that I have recommended to customers for many years. Is it just me or have others found the 02 a bit flat (not in terms of bubbles)

Graham

Quite a big week...

Double blind tasting of 60 wines standouts.....Kaesler Old Bastard 2002....lovely wine, Grosset Watervale Riesling 2005, Mount Horrocks Riesling 2004, Mitolo G.A.M. 2004.

Lot's of stuff that didn't show well....Grosset Gaia 2003....super reductive characters under ROTE, dis-jointed, Sallys Paddock 2003.....a bit of brett and full of DMS and mercaptan, the Noon '04 range seemed overly sweet and cloying for my tastes and the Mitolo 2003 range seemed pruney.

A cricket day today between two wine retailers in Sydney....Dean Hewitson looking good with the bat made a quick 50 and retired to be a bit closer to the esky....some nice wines consumed.

The new Torbreck Rose.....made from mataro and very good...quite rich, Bindi Pinot Rose was excellent, Joseph Pinot Grigio 2005 was a bit simple and showed quite hi res and a bit of acid pinch, Nigl Senftenberger Riesling 2004.....brilliant stuff from Austria, Egon Muller Scharzof Riesling 2004.....pure and delicious....find some of this, it's a super wine, Dr. Burken Wolf 2004 Riesling....very good.
Some Petaluma Riesling 2005 which was a bit reductive and phenolic.

Earlier during the week a Catalina Sounds Sauvignon Blanc 2005 from ex-Isabel Estate winemaker Ant Moore.....good stuff. Also a very smart looking Longhop Old Vine Reserve 2004....Adelaide Plains fruit and a fine effort from Domenic Torzi.

Thats it I think.....

Dave

GrahamB wrote:I have had a few sparkling reds over the last month since xmas. All were different as would be expected.

05 Debortoli Emeri Sparkling Durif - great VFM


Graham

Agree on this Graham. I cannot beleive how cheap it is for the quility. It leaves an impression with me that we should be doing more sparkling Durifs. I thought it was a cellar door only job?

2003 Fromm La Strada Dry Riesling. Quite an unsual style, delicate with shurburt, lime and sweet lemons. Lovely wine for a hot afternoon, but I still prefer their spaltlese style bottling. The dry dips out in the qpr stakes. Still there is no way you could class this as supermarket plonk.

2004 Dry River Gewurztraminer (Dry River Estate bottling). This really impressed and we actually drank it with chunks of turkish delight. Although everyone associates turkish delight with gw, I had never actually tried it as a match. It was sensational. Anyway the wine (once it had warmed up a bit dont serve it cold) was very generous displaying notes of ginger, rose petals and funnly enough turkish delight. One of my dodgy mates said on the finish it had hints of cannibas, I will have to take his word on that. Not a stellar Dry River vintage, but still very good...maybe a 4/5 vintage for them. Stighly more austere than there lovat label (all these different bottlings from Dry River now can confuse even the devout)

2001 Weingut Paulinshof Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese. Ok so the name of the wine may be longer than the tasting note Lovely german auslese riesling just showing a depth, richness and integration you dont find in Aussie or Kiwi Riesling, it just seemed to be seamless and complete. The flavour profile wasnt too far off say a Fromm La Strada Auslese, with hints of honey, mandarin, sweet limes and lemons. Just the volume knob was up a shade. Note to self, buy a few more alsacian and german rielsings. Could be well worth further experimentation

1995 Charles Melton Nine Popes. My last bottle, I bought piles of these. Exotic red fruits pervade the nose and palate, poedry tannins and piles of interest and complexity. One of the heavyweight vintages. The concentration on release was almost unbearable, now the wine has softened out, broad, mouthfilling, rich and exotic. Went down a treat with some sensational lamb. For those with it still in the cellar, it is drinking now but no rush, I think it will travel another 4-5 years before decline

C

2000 Rosemount Orange Shiraz
Bought this one out of curiosity, deep red with red rim, loads of pepper and spice on the nose with hints of black fruit. Palate is the same very spicey. Starts to open after a little while in the glass and then falls apart completely after a couple of hours, all porty and pretty hard to drink. Guess Orange is still some way off being and shiraz district

2002 SanPietro Sangiovese Cabernet (T'Gallant) Mildura
This came in a mixed tasting case a while back, the label tries to disguise the wine as old world but the fine print says T'Gallant and Mildura fruit. Pepper and spice and some red berrys in the background emerging with a good swirl in the glass. Light to medium body wine that glides down fairly easily. Nothing really special here but it went well with the pasta and italian sausage sauce.

1998 Robertsons Well Cab Sav
Red with some bricking around the edge. Leather, cedar dominate the nose with some leafy characters in the background. Lovely palate with the aged characters starting to dominate. Fairly advanced for its age but a lovely wine at this stage, wish I had some more

Glen

I had a great weekend, especially Saturday night where we combined great wine and great people with AC/DC.

Here is a shot at the end of the evening. I think you will be able to pick a few of the wines. I am sure Baby Chickpea will give a few thoughts on the wines soon.



Kind regards,
Adair

platinum wrote:

GrahamB wrote:I have had a few sparkling reds over the last month since xmas. All were different as would be expected.

05 Debortoli Emeri Sparkling Durif - great VFM


Graham

Agree on this Graham. I cannot beleive how cheap it is for the quility. It leaves an impression with me that we should be doing more sparkling Durifs. I thought it was a cellar door only job?

Available in retail. I sell about a case a week of it in the store where I work. $10 a bottle.

Graham

1997 Mount Mary Triolet Beautiful yellow-golden colour. Lovely zesty aroma full of passionfruit, tropical fruits and a little butter. Great mouthfeel. Pristine and long. These triolets age beautifully and must surely be grossly underrated here in Oz.

2001 Moss Wood Pinot Noir Rather simple, lollyish nose. But a nice, smooth palate. Lovely to drink. Just nice.

2003 Thomas Kiss Shiraz Wow. What a fruit bomb this baby is. Loads of licorice and blackcurrant, everywhere. Very full. Long. Nothing out of place. Will only get better, and a real surprise from the Hunter. Will only get better.

TN: 1998 Daniel Schuster Omihi Hills "Barrel 139" Pinot Noir

Max, could be a simple case of on the downward slide?? Coulda been better 4 years ago??

C

Max wrote:TN: 1998 Daniel Schuster Omihi Hills "Barrel 139" Pinot Noir

Craig(NZ) wrote:Max, could be a simple case of on the downward slide?? Coulda been better 4 years ago??

C

Craig,

Very true. Those tannins may still have been a little bit too full on, but with the palate fruit in abundance I'm sure it would have been a better wine. From the barrel samples and wines of Danny's that I've tried, I think they have a lot of potential with more cellar time as opposed to on release. Will PM once I've spoken with Danny.

PS. The lack of preservative surprised me - I didn't realise wines could even age correctly unless 220'd.

2002 Heritage Barossa Shiraz

A lovely wine that got smoother the longer it sat in the glass, which was a challenge. Almost to the top of the cork so if anyone has any I'd be looking at drinking them.