NobleRottersSydney - Penfolds & Henschke - Top Shelf Shiraz

Even with the explosion in Australian shiraz over the last ten years, and the arrival of the Torbrecks, Greenock Creeks, Clarendon Hills and the rest, when the Rotters want a night of top shelf wines, we turn to the Old Guard: Penfolds and Henschke. Revisiting our comparison theme from August 1999, we make one change: it’s shiraz only, with the top three regular bottlings from each maker eligible: Grange, RWT, St Henri on one hand, Hill of Grace, Mt Edelstone and Tappa Pass on the other. Wines were drunk in pairs as best we could manage. With two absentees and a cold winter night, we settled in for a memorable night unblighted by guests, dry whites, or cork taint…

• NV Fox Creek Vixen

  Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale

  [14%, cork] {Glenn} Surprisingly subtle nose of liquorice and raspberries. A medium-bodied wine follows, only mildly fruity on the palate; surprisingly tannic and also very dry. There are dusty berry fruits but fruit isn’t what this is about – and somehow the medium-sized, quite creamy bubbles sit oddly with the rather chalky tannins that continue to build. Very much a food style of sparkling shiraz, as opposed to the slightly sweet, party-cocktail style that is more widely expected of this configuration. Perhaps this one has already been in bottle for some time?

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On the grounds the older wines might be a little frail – and hailing from unexceptional vintages – we broached them first.

• 1987 Henschke Shiraz Hill of Grace

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Eden Valley

  [13%, cork] {Stephen} Decanted from 3-6pm, rebottled and drunk at 8.15pm. A clearly aged nose; a touch musty initially, but then blooms with what seems like a touch of volatility into cinnamon-sweet, sandalwood and old red fruit aromas. The fully-developed palate yields decaying, composty flavours; all very wine-ish and ‘old-Henschke’ in character, with touches of mushroom. There still remain some soft, dusty tannins, and although the wine isn’t especially intense on the palate, it’s wonderfully even along the tongue. The acid is under control, and the wine sits squarely in the medium-bodied category. A medium-long gentle finish concludes the display; perhaps surprisingly the wine grew more intense and seductive in the glass for thirty minutes, but faded after another two hours. At – well, in all honesty just beyond – peak, but still a better wine than you might expect.

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• 1981 Penfolds Shiraz St. Henri Claret

  Australia, South Australia

  [12.5%, cork] {Kim} Opened and poured at table. Unbelievably dark; barely garnet. A far more expressive nose than the Henschke, being all coffee, bitumen, tar, and black fruits. Seems incredibly promising, but the palate can’t deliver. There’s the barest remain of leathery old fruit, and low-level powdery tannins; and structurally it’s sort-of held together, being neither volatile nor astringent, but the palate has just faded away and left just a memory of the wine that was. Sure, it’s drinkable, but there’s no length of flavour or real finish to speak of, to the point where it’s virtually a light-bodied wine; not the ambition of St Henri at all. Past its best.

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On to the big guns, paired together now by virtue of age. This flight confirmed what’s probably a widely-held view; that these two great names in shiraz taste distinctly different at their peaks, and the Henschkes definitely reach theirs much earlier than Penfolds.

• 1990 Henschke Shiraz Hill of Grace

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Eden Valley

  [13.5%, cork] {Gordon} Double-decanted 3 hours earlier. As with last year’s tasting, the nose pretty much has a whole world of cured meats and spices on offer, although there’s a just slightly faded accent to the nose that the last bottle avoided. The palate is in fine form, still-fresh acid highlighting the developed delicatessen meat and red berry fruit flavours. There are composty and earthy notes – not leafy at all – with a translucence of texture that avoids any heaviness at all. Medium-full bodied, tannins so fine you’ve got to hunt them down, and a long, even balanced finish. Not the best example of this vintage I’ve had, but still a very fine wine. At peak and holding.

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• 1991 Penfolds Grange

  Australia, South Australia

  [13.5%, cork] {Andrew} Decanted an hour prior to consumption. Deep garnet. The essence of Grange; it radiates deep-chested, barely-developing aromas of bitumen, liquorice, blackberries, dark meats and a dash of vanilla. The palate has moved away from primary fruits, but not far; with chocolate & vanilla tints, and ripe black shiraz fruit adding to the flavours foreshadowed by the nose. Polished texture, with medium-high level fine powdery tannins. Intense, medium-full bodied and with a long, even finish that caresses the tongue for its whole length. It’s a seriously classy wine whose overall balance between all the components – fruit, acid, tannin, alcohol – is well-nigh perfect. Absolutely drinkable now, but for the full glory better to wait another ten years and reassess; you wouldn’t listen to just the first movement of a Mahler symphony, would you?

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Two newer wines, and by virtue of their so-so vintages, the most modest offerings of the evening:

• 1999 Henschke Shiraz Mount Edelstone

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Eden Valley

  [14.4%, cork] {Ron} Opened and poured. Usually you’d seize on an Edelstone with both hands; tonight it was distinctly overshadowed. Developing, rather lightweight nose of fruity spices and red jams. The palate offers rather diffuse red fruits with spices, twigs and sticks; it’s quite developed and secondary although not without some interest, strong chalky tannins, medium acid and rather heavier weight than the nose promised all combining to present a just-not-compelling case. Length of finish isn’t great – a major handicap – all up it’s rather an odd mix of a wine, perhaps with a blend of under and over-ripe fruit as the starting point? Alcohol doesn’t stick out, but somehow the wine’s not really convincing. I still maintain that something went very wrong in the Henschke cellars from the 97-01 vintages; almost nothing of theirs in this period (except possibly the 98 Hill of Grace below) has been very convincing.

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• 1997 Penfolds Shiraz St. Henri

  Australia, South Australia

  [14%, cork] {David} Opened and poured. Developing but sprightly nose of mostly weedy tobacco concealing some spicy berry fruit beneath. On the palate this assumes a rather confected air, giving a rather one-dimensional aspect to the blackberry fruits and charcoal-chocolate flavours; moderate dusty tannins and some mid-palate weight can’t overcome a slight coarseness to the texture (admittedly exacerbated by some rather majestic comparative bottles tonight!). I reckon Duval’s winemaking team had to work pretty hard to get this where they did in 1997; the wine is unlikely to become any more interesting, but ought to hold for another 5 years happily enough, although don’t expect improvement.

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And a pairing to highlight the 1998 vintage. Among the duos served together tonight, these were the most similar in flavour and profile, although you’d hardly mistake one for the other.

• 1998 Henschke Shiraz Hill of Grace

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Eden Valley

  [13.7%, cork] {Bruce} Opened and poured. Lots of sediment was proof of that – you could start a compost garden with this lot. Still dark garnet in colour; the nose is very seductive with liqueured blueberries and rich dark spices, all very dense and velvet-smelling. The palate follows on; blueberries, dark chocolate, coffee notes, ground spices. Medium-full bodied, quite intense in its flavours, and nicely rich along the mid and back palate. On entry, the wine is luscious enough, but as the finish lingers there’s an element of brittleness to the texture – a certain hollowness I wasn’t expecting to find. It’s a fine wine which won’t quite reach the heights of the 1990 in my opinion. Still a privilege to drink, although there’s no question you pay for the name here...

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• 1998 Penfolds Shiraz RWT

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley

  [14.5%, cork] {Graeme} Double-decanted about 4 hours prior to consumption. Deep garnet red. Blueberry/blackberry fruits, chocolate aromas, cinnamon, cloves. Seductive in every way. Not in the first flush of youth, but only entering adolescence. This copped some critical flak in early years for being very oaky; if that was so, then it’s now been subsumed in the richness of the fruit. Speaking of which, the palate is luscious in every respect. Spiced blue fruits flavours are still youthful, there’s a satiny mouthfeel which is not compromised by the strong powdery tannins. And although it’s full-bodied, it’s not heavy or a ‘blockbuster’ in any sense. And despite the richness it’s rather tighter than the 98 Hill of Grace, but hardly inferior given you could buy four of these for the same money. Masses of time left too; although the oak and fruit components have integrated nicely, there’s a load of secondary development still to come. Of the first five vintages of RWT (97-01) this is probably the only one actually worth pursuing today.

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Accidentally opened by Gordon when we thought Bruce wasn’t going to make it tonight, as the youngest wine this was drunk solo at the end, and followed by the dessert wines.

• 2000 Penfolds Shiraz RWT

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley

  [14%, cork] {Gordon} Opened just prior to dinner. For all Penfolds vast Barossa resources, even they can’t escape the vagarities of vintage. Resolutely ruby in colour. The nose here is dominated by confected-smelling, stewed & sweet strawberry jam notes, with underlying cedary oak aromas. There is youthfully ripe fruit on the palate, although with a brittleness to it; there’s a vaguely green note that seems to run beneath the fruit flavours. Oak is more dominant on the palate than the nose, and as flavour rather than texture, even if the chalky tannins are nicely scaled. Otherwise the wine is generally medium in scale, and ought to keep for another 5-10 years; it’s hard to escape the conclusion that it will never really amount to very much. My advice is to drink up.

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• NV Stanton & Killeen Muscat Classic Rutherglen

  Australia, Victoria, North East, Rutherglen

  [500ml, 18%, cork] {Glenn} Mainstream muscat; lovely cold tea aromas, richly luscious caramel-infused palate, crisply fresh acid, although predictably lacking the depth and complexity of the ‘Grand’ and ‘Rare’ examples. This bottling just displays a touch of alcoholic warmth, but it’s within tolerance levels…

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• 2006 Nugan Estate Sémillon Botrytis Cookoothama

  Australia, New South Wales, Big Rivers, Riverina

  [375ml, 11%, cork] {Glenn} Not much to say about this, at the end of a long night! Mid gold, a typical example of the genre. Caramel, honeyed fruits, quite thickly textured with nearly enough acid, but not quite… Good drinking at this age, no need to keep longer.

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No new conclusions were drawn from the night really, just confirmation of the known greatness of these two makers, subject to vintage. Can’t take it for granted however, we mightn’t let eleven years pass before a repeat session.