The Auswine Forum

Hi Good Peoples,

Sorry about the lateness of this post going up. All sorts of things happening today and amongst the hustle and bustle, I did not get a chance to post the weekly what have we been drinking thread.

You know the drill; let us know all about those lovely Easter celebration wines you have been drinking.

A bottle of the 2005 Samuel's Gorge tempranillo (McLaren Vale) last night went very well with zucchini and basil soup, roast beetroot and bbq peppered kangaroo fillet. The label has a stunning tiled effect on it, which is quite striking. The alcohol is down in the 13s, which works well. The acid sticks out a notch early on, while the fruit has not filled out with breathing. The fruit starts out quite tadpole-shaped, very broad through the midpalate then disappears completely, but the last couple of glasses had better length. A tempranillo to keep an eye on.

I've had some great experiences with more recent vintages, so when I found bottles of the 94 at a trusted retailer I figured I'd give it a bash.

Gave the wine three hours to breathe before looking at it. This smells and tastes like black olives. Now I love olives, and I really like a hint of olive in my wine, but this tasted *like* olives. Trying really hard I could find a savoury rancio flavour - again a flavour I like in its place, but this all left me cold since the wine (or at least this bottle) has shed it's fruit and has left behind structure and development, but without enjoyment.

An interesting wine as an intellectual excercise, but not one I'll look for again when I want to kick back and enjoy a couple of glasses with friends and some Iron Chef.

DaveL wrote:I've had some great experiences with more recent vintages, so when I found bottles of the 94 at a trusted retailer I figured I'd give it a bash.

Gave the wine three hours to breathe before looking at it. This smells and tastes like black olives. Now I love olives, and I really like a hint of olive in my wine, but this tasted *like* olives. Trying really hard I could find a savoury rancio flavour - again a flavour I like in its place, but this all left me cold since the wine (or at least this bottle) has shed it's fruit and has left behind structure and development, but without enjoyment.

An interesting wine as an intellectual excercise, but not one I'll look for again when I want to kick back and enjoy a couple of glasses with friends and some Iron Chef.

But what was the wine??

DaveL wrote:I've had some great experiences with more recent vintages, so when I found bottles of the 94 at a trusted retailer I figured I'd give it a bash.

Gave the wine three hours to breathe before looking at it. This smells and tastes like black olives. Now I love olives, and I really like a hint of olive in my wine, but this tasted *like* olives. Trying really hard I could find a savoury rancio flavour - again a flavour I like in its place, but this all left me cold since the wine (or at least this bottle) has shed it's fruit and has left behind structure and development, but without enjoyment.

An interesting wine as an intellectual excercise, but not one I'll look for again when I want to kick back and enjoy a couple of glasses with friends and some Iron Chef.

Dave, I saw your post on *Forum on this, the Morris Durif 1994. I have a few of these left in my cellar, so I picked one out to try tonight. Either your retailer isn't as trustworthy as you think, or the vagaries of cork have intervened or you decanted it for too long, my bottle is showing much fresher than you describe.

Straight out of the bottle into the Riedel clones, it is quickly showing some dusty black cherry fruit with a hint of tar and (yes) olives and fresh mushrooms. There is plenty of sweet fruit on the palate, black cherries with a slightly sour edge to the finish, but still clean and pleasantly lingering.

I've had vintages from the 80's at 12-15 years of age and good vintages of this line can be surprisingly good at that age. There are not many Aus. wines over 10 yo that I would decant for three hours prior and this wouldn't be one of them.

I'll update this in an hour or two after dinner to report how it develops over that time.

After 2.5 hours it's fading just a little, the fruit still there but a little subdued and the acid poking out a bit more, there's not enough left to see how it goes with more air time.

Prawns on Friday so it was a 2006 Mr Riggs Riesling.

Always my pick with prawns. The little bit of residual sugar is just right.

1999 Grant Burge Holy Trinity. A new Thai restaurant has opened locally so we had to try it out and grenache and blends do well. That makes four Thai restaurants within a couple of Kms.
The wine was opened before we left home to check for fault and then recorked. The GSM seems to be right in it's drinking window. Beautiful balance with lots of flavour. Not a lot showing on the nose.
(Wizz, the Penang was below par and the tempura was very messy. Softshell crabs were interesting but lacked something. Prawns were a little oily and all in all my pick still goes to Forever)

Tonight will be a 2002 Tyrrells Rufus Stone Heathcote Shiraz. Opened clean with no hint of TCA of other faults. Great nose of fresh fruit. Nice fine/soft tannin and medium length. Some earthiness with nice berries flavours. This should drink well.

Graham

Hi Brian, nothing would make me happier than to learn that better bottles of the 94 Durif are floating around. Michael at La Vigna is usually very reliable, so for once I'm hoping for a cork related drama.
The way you've described yours is pretty much what I'd been hoping for, though without the benefit of much experience with aged Durif I didn't have much of a yard stick. Interestingly today the wine's opened up more and is showing some sweeter (quite possibly black cherry) notes. Was far better still with a bacon and egg sarnie for lunch.
I'll definitely exercise more caution with the decanting next time, though the wine's improvement overnight suggests that some other vinous alchemy was also going on...

I'm really in the mood for something at lest half decent tonight, so while I'm going to give a 95 d'Arrenberg Custodian a bash, I think I'll have an 02 Teusner Avatar on stand by to go with my "from scratch" Chermoula Chicken.

Noticed a lot of Rugby people in Adelaide this weekend on my bike rides. I think something called 7's has been on. Seems an interesting game - not that I understand it.

2006 Zonte's Footsteps Dry Rose Cabernet Petit Verdot Langhornes Creek ( $14 ) : sort of fruity and sort of dry rose. Not bad. The only Zonte's wine I've liked.

2005 Loosen Bros. Riesling " DR L " Mosel Saar Ruwer ( $20 ) : in stelvin thank the Good Lord ( happy easter ) as the last more expensive Loosen wine I had last year was cork tainted. This is a fair priced simple fruity Riesling but with a nice tingly aspect that makes it a modest pleasure to drink.

2004 Penfold's Bin 28 Shiraz South Australia ( $20 ) : I enjoyed the other forumites opinions on the recent Penfold's releases BUT for me this bored me shitless. Admirably stelvin capped , clean etc , but for me , where my head is at , this seemed a bland corporate wine. I'd be interested to try in 10 or 20 years , I'm sure it will keep , but will it improve - I dunno.

2004 Teusner Avatar Barossa Valley Grenache Mataro Shiraz ( $27 ) : Now here's a real Barossa Red with heart and soul - a lovely contrast to the Bin 28 " South Australia " Kalimna. Medicinal but with so much more as well. Improved on polishing off the last bit the next day as well. The current 2005 Riebke Shiraz is a ripper as well at around $20.

2003 BREZZA Dolcetto d'Alba ( $24 ): I love this wine and this was a great bottle. Has a certain poise and calmness that is hard to describe. Drank it out of the big Riedel Burgundy glasses which suited such a modest wine surprisingly well. Clear as a bell but with character - I love this wines " understatedness " . Looking forward later this year to some more higher end BREZZA wines I have cellared.

GrahamB wrote:(Wizz, the Penang was below par and the tempura was very messy. Softshell crabs were interesting but lacked something. Prawns were a little oily and all in all my pick still goes to Forever)

Graham

Sweet - thanks Graham. They need to be good, 3 others almost within walking distance.

And while I'm here, the weekends drinking so far:

Orlando Carrington Brut: Brought by a guest, and was duly opened. There are of course hundreds of sparklers I'd prefer to this, but if this is well under $10, its not bad for the money. Tastes a litle oxidative and aldehydic, but drink, donth think here.


05 Stonecroft Gewurztraminer: White flower petals, turkish delight and lychees. This bottle was somehow a little fatter and hotter than previous ones, and its still a 1 or 2 glass wine.

06 Clonakilla Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc: Simple, fresh fruity crowd pleaser style, my least favorite in the Clonakilla range.

02 Pikes Riesling: Hey, heres a surprise! Glowing gold colour. Lemon lime white flower nose, maybe some jasmine, quite light and refreshing to smell.. The palate is lightly honeyed, lemon curd, lime orange, a touch of toast. Nice primary acid still there through the honey toast finish, and no RS to speak of. Very pleasant drink that will go a while longer in bottle, but its pretty nice right now.

03 Seppelt Drumborg Riesling: This bottle just showing traces of honied development, but its really still a bony, steely, pure mouthful of lime cordial. Leave alone for a long while still. This will become a classic.

01 Alvaro Palacios Finca Dofi: A Garnacha dominant blend from Priorat in Spain. dark and dense red colour. This took an hour in decanter and two hours of sipping to reveal itself. It started out quite unyielding, with not much nose to speak of apart from some undergrowthy, savoury tones, perhaps some leather. The palate only gave away redcurrant and raspberries at first, with dusty leather and earth. More time saw some grenache like blackberry emerge and an earthiness you'd usually see with monastrell and an almost floral, rosepetal tone in the nose. Silty, muddy tannins, and full bodied without going over the top on ripeness - it doesn’t show a drop of 14% alcohol. In a word: BALANCE. Ideal with fillet steak and sauteed swiss brown mushrooms. Tip top wine, and balanced to age for some time.

Cheers

Andrew

GrahamB wrote:1999 Grant Burge Holy Trinity. A new Thai restaurant has opened locally so we had to try it out and grenache and blends do well. That makes four Thai restaurants within a couple of Kms.
The wine was opened before we left home to check for fault and then recorked. The GSM seems to be right in it's drinking window. Beautiful balance with lots of flavour. Not a lot showing on the nose.
(Wizz, the Penang was below par and the tempura was very messy. Softshell crabs were interesting but lacked something. Prawns were a little oily and all in all my pick still goes to Forever)

Good to see people drinking red with Thai food, though the food doesn't sound great. We have a few standard dishes to test any new Thai restaurant we visit, one is Larb (chicken or pork), others are red duck curry, jungle curry (kaeng par / gang par and other english spellings) and chicken, chilli and basil. We always ask for "authentic, spicy", if the larb isn't as good as I can make we seldom return.

GrahamB wrote:
Tonight will be a 2002 Tyrrells Rufus Stone Heathcote Shiraz. Opened clean with no hint of TCA of other faults. Great nose of fresh fruit. Nice fine/soft tannin and medium length. Some earthiness with nice berries flavours. This should drink well.

Graham

Doing a bit of a stock-take / re-arrangement of the cellar over Easter I finally found 6 of these I'd been looking for for quite some time, time to see how they are going.

Wizz wrote :
Orlando Carrington Brut: Brought by a guest, and was duly opened. There are of course hundreds of sparklers I'd prefer to this, but if this is well under $10, its not bad for the money. Tastes a litle oxidative and aldehydic, but drink, donth think here.


I love this sort of comment as it is not snobbish at all but goes to show the " truth " of why it is worth spending more on good wine. In the last week or so I've had the " honour " of being given cask red out of the fridge that has been there for months , a heavy cleanskin Clare Valley Red that must have been 17% alc , and a very very nondescript 2006 Taylors Pinot Noir ( more time in the vineyard and less on the golf course needed by management there I'd suggest ! ) . Did I complain and make a fuss ? ( besides here amongst those who care ) Of course NO. I should get around to asking my folks to open up the Matthew Lang NV circa 1985 that has been sleeping in and is a deep brown colour in the good china cupboard next time I'm there !

91 St Henri - Leather, raspberry, licorice, walnuts. Medium to full bodied. Sweet and savoury flavours - leather and red fruits. This bottle looked a little prematurely developed but otherwise a lovely wine. Opened up after about half an hour. I often think that St Henri has more in common with the Hunter Valley than typical SA shiraz....beautiful style.

GW

Red Bigot wrote:Good to see people drinking red with Thai food, though the food doesn't sound great. We have a few standard dishes to test any new Thai restaurant we visit, one is Larb (chicken or pork), others are red duck curry, jungle curry (kaeng par / gang par and other english spellings) and chicken, chilli and basil. We always ask for "authentic, spicy", if the larb isn't as good as I can make we seldom return.

Brian
We have red with Thai far more often than white. One of my favourites is Moppa Springs.

Grahamb wrote:Tonight will be a 2002 Tyrrells Rufus Stone Heathcote Shiraz. Opened clean with no hint of TCA of other faults. Great nose of fresh fruit. Nice fine/soft tannin and medium length. Some earthiness with nice berries flavours. This should drink well.

Doing a bit of a stock-take / re-arrangement of the cellar over Easter I finally found 6 of these I'd been looking for for quite some time, time to see how they are going.

Brian the Heathcote were better than the McLaren Vale for this vintage of Rufus Stone.

A huge surprise. Honestly this bottle would have stood among the worlds greats and would have been at home. What an awesome, awesome wine. One that I have had many times before, but on this occassion it soared with the angels. Probably the greatest aged Hawkes Bay ive ever tried behind the 91 Coleraine.

1995 Te Mata Awatea Cabernet Merlot. The last bottle from the cellar is the best. Don’t you hate that! This is the reason you cellar wine. Absolute benchmark Hawkes Bay Cabernet Merlot of the utmost highest quality. Ruby red, just starting to brick. Super refined and complex nose of red currant, glace cherries and Christmas fruit cake mix. The palate is just glorious. Seductive, soft, dusty, warm tannins give the palate super focus. The fruit shows tremendous depth and texture, multi dimensional, long, resolved and super fine. Red currant fruit is still in excellent shape, cascading through the palate. Based on recent tastings, this vintage of Awatea is as good as its big sister Coleraine. This is one of the absolute best aged NZ reds I have ever had the pleasure to drink. It is pure genius, boxing well above its weight. Bottle was from an ambient cellar, and based upon this occasion it is at its lofty peak now, yet should hold another couple of years. Te Mata has a reputation because of wines like this. 103/109

Gary W wrote:91 St Henri - Leather, raspberry, licorice, walnuts. Medium to full bodied. Sweet and savoury flavours - leather and red fruits. This bottle looked a little prematurely developed but otherwise a lovely wine. Opened up after about half an hour. I often think that St Henri has more in common with the Hunter Valley than typical SA shiraz....beautiful style.

GW

Gary I always thought this about St Henri. Maybe it is the use of old big barrells that winemakers of several decades ago used.

This Rufus Stone Heathcote Shiraz is drinking beautifully now. Lovely integration of fruit oak and tannin. Last one sadly.

However I was checking on the drinking windows of some wines I bought recently and the suggested drinking time will make me 85 years old. just have to use them in a stew or marinade.

Graham

Brian
I can't find Larb mentioned on any of the menus I have collected from my local Thai restaurants.

Graham

GrahamB wrote:

Gary W wrote:91 St Henri - Leather, raspberry, licorice, walnuts. Medium to full bodied. Sweet and savoury flavours - leather and red fruits. This bottle looked a little prematurely developed but otherwise a lovely wine. Opened up after about half an hour. I often think that St Henri has more in common with the Hunter Valley than typical SA shiraz....beautiful style.

GW

Gary I always thought this about St Henri. Maybe it is the use of old big barrells that winemakers of several decades ago used.

Certainly a big part of it. I wish more Australian shiraz was made in this style. Problem is big oak is very expensive. Doing the 2007 vintage of my Hunter shiraz in 500L puncheons which are expensive.....larger formats even more..
1000L about $7,700
1500L about $11,000
the huge new 2250L French oak vats Tyrrells use are around 30K from memory...

GW

GrahamB wrote:Brian
I can't find Larb mentioned on any of the menus I have collected from my local Thai restaurants.

Graham

I don't eat at a Thai restaurant that doesn't have larb on the menu!

I don't think there is any other name for it, unless it's just called Spicy Minced Chicken salad or something.

http://www.fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/re ... 259331&y=1

The Khao Koor (toasted sticky rice powder) is an essential textural and flavour ingredient that even some local Thai restaurants leave out.

http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/recipe ... 145941&y=4

We went on a picnic on Good Friday with a bunch of people including about a dozen Thai (with 1-2 Lao or Filipino partners) people associated with the owners of Sukothai restaurant. The owner/backup chef brought a big batch of lovely larb moo, made in the northern Thai style with slivers of fried sliced liver and pork skin included, the restaurant version in Australia usually doesn't have the liver.

A subset of my Monday tasting group nearly always adjourn to Sukotahi after the tasting and larb moo/gai is almost always one of the dishes ordered, although we've tried just about everything on the menu now and quite a few dishes that aren't.

We've had this dish in many areas of Thailand and as ever the regional variations keep it always interesting.

Found the Larb.

Traditional steamed chicken breast mince salad delicately blended with onion, chilli, ginger, coriander, mint, fresh lime juiceand topped with ground rice powder.

GrahamB wrote:Found the Larb.

Traditional steamed chicken breast mince salad delicately blended with onion, chilli, ginger, coriander, mint, fresh lime juice and topped with ground rice powder.

That's the one. Done properly it has a perfect balance of hot/spicy, sweet, sour and salt (fish sauce). A bad one is too sweet and not enough hot/spicy/sour and a really bad one is all of that and missing the texture/aroma/flavour of the ground toasted sticky rice. Done well it's addictive. I usually stir-fry the minced chicken rather than boil/steam, I like the aroma of that version more.

05 Tahbilk Merlot
Went down a treat whilst cooking Scotch fillet on the BBQ. Not complicated but well balanced mid weight young wine

02 Reschke "Bos" Cabernet
Ripe berries, and complex in mouth. No noticable acid imbalance (someone commented on an earlier post) but I am a big fan of Yarra Valley Cabernet so my concept of normal might be a bit skewed. Washed the steak down beautifully. I think this is one of my favourites. Stopped my beer swilling brother in his tracks. I think he might have changed for good.

03 Killakinoon Killerman's Run Shiraz
The steak has all gone but this was a fine follow up. Everything that's good about Clare Shiraz at a great price.

'76 Buller Vintage Port
Perfect cork. Still looking very good. Alcohol not overpowering. Raisiney fruit bread but the original ripeness not dead yet. Small amount of sediment. Nice wine.

Been having remnants from Saturday visitations through the Barossa

Massena 2005 Eleventh Hour
Blood crimson hue, earthy raspberry notes..
Silky texture, generous broadsweeping flavours, residual roasty chocolate flavour? but not overly bitter.. made me salivate..

Glaymond 2005 Distinction
Dark dense purple colour with a clearer red edge, subtle mesh of spicey roasted chocolate notes. Sily tannins leave the mouth bursting with flavour concentrating on the front/mid pallet with an aftertaste lasting for 20secs. Great elegent stuff with a touch of oomph!

Longhop 2005 Old Vine reserve
dark purple colour with murky edge, overt herby nose characteristic of cab sauv, with deep dark fruits. A waft of alcohol which was a touch too strong for my liking. Sily texture with a generous mouth. medium-full bodied wine with warm aftertastes in the mid pallet that dissipates quickly. (I had quite a few lighter styled wines prior to this so I'm not sure if those impacted on my sway away from this wine today)

Pelican wrote:In the last week or so I've had the " honour " of being given cask red out of the fridge that has been there for months , a heavy cleanskin Clare Valley Red that must have been 17% alc , and a very very nondescript 2006 Taylors Pinot Noir ( more time in the vineyard and less on the golf course needed by management there I'd suggest ! ) .

In circumstances like that, I quickly decide that I am on the wagon for a little while and drink water.

GrahamB wrote:Tonight will be a 2002 Tyrrells Rufus Stone Heathcote Shiraz. Opened clean with no hint of TCA of other faults. Great nose of fresh fruit. Nice fine/soft tannin and medium length. Some earthiness with nice berries flavours. This should drink well.

Graham

Graham,
opened the '98 about a week ago and it is drinking absolutely beautifully. Still plenty of time to go. Have not cracked my '02s yet. Might have to give one a go.
Mike.
PS - Might have to do an RB type search and find my '98 Mclarens Vales.

05 Taylors Riesling
House white of the moment good stuff

01 Kirrawarra Reserve Shiraz
After Brian's comments about this wine on his website I thought I should take a second look. I'd bought 4 more after an initial bottle to try. I can see where Brian is coming from - certainly a touch bretty when first openned BUT as a food wine I think it is really good. With food rich fruit great length. I probably won't keep as long as I might have but certainly not a write off.

02 Peter Lehmann C/S
Thought I'd see how the 02 was travelling having seen a special for current vintage (turned out to be 03 not 04 so left it alone). The Lehmann C/S and Shiraz are good value of special and this is travelling well.

94 Hardys Thomas Hardy Coonawarra Cab Sauv
A good example of an aged Coonawarra Cab Sauv but no better than a good vintage of Wynns Black Label.

N.V. Mad Fish

(Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Margaret River)
White - Sparkling
Chardonnay Blend

Light straw in colour, bubbles moderately lasting, yeasty nose, apple and lemon flavours. Nice Sparkling.

88/100

2002 Sir James Pinot Noir

(Australia, South Australia)
White - Sparkling
Pinot Noir

A very enjoyable sparkling wine. Fruity nose and sea shore tones. Apple and lime. Well balanced and in general very nice.

90/100

1996 Devil's Lair Chardonnay

(Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Margaret River)

Cork, 14% alc/vol. Nose of asperegas, straw and slight honey flavours after time in glass. Dark straw colour and nicely matured. Stone fruit, apple, lime and lemon flavours.

89/100


2002 Domaine Laroche Petit Chablis

(France, Burgundy, Chablis, Petit Chablis)

This was a fresh chablis, enjoyable with Easter lunch. Citrus flavours, apple, lime and peach. Pale colour.

88/100


1999 Orlando Cabernet Sauvignon St. Hugo

(Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra)

13.5% alc/vol, cork and decanted. Nose started earthy and meaty, developed into fresh blueberry and hints of pepper. Full bodied, dark red with purple haze appearance. Blueberry, cassis. Moderate length, medium textured tannins coating the mouth well.

89/100

2003 Tatiarra Shiraz Pressings-an absolutely superb showing. Dark black purple. Wonderful aromatics of plum pudding, blackberry, chocolate and vanilla. Similar flavors in a complex, mouthfilling style. The finish lasted at least a minute. Excellent.

I tried the Serafino range at an instore Saturday.

The 2004 Sharktooth Shiraz stood out again - the best body and length by a country mile, with lots of smoky/grainy tannins in tow. I got to the end of a bottle and the oak had really dissipated on the nose, revealing quite a lot of eucalyptus this time.

The rest of the Serafino wines looked pretty smart too, and as usual are great value. The 2004 Merlot was a little on the oaky side but still quite good, and the 2005 Shiraz had lots of up-front plummy fruit. There was an interesting contrast between the 2004 & 2005 Cabernets, the former classy with dominant blackcurrant fruit and tannin and the latter riper with chocolate/earth and more obvious oak - neither are as good as the 2002 though.

Of the other limited releases, the 2006 Grenache Tempranillo Shiraz was very spicy & interesting, while I thought the 2005 Grenache was ferrous and too simple and jammy for my liking. I wasn't really impressed by the 2005 Fortified Shiraz either; it was picked extremely ripe and is just too simple and spirity for it's own good.

Cheers,
Ian