NobleRottersSydney - Eighty Bucks Plus

Just six Rotters and one guest dug into their pockets and cellars for a “Wine costing over $80 on release” theme. No bottles sent in lieu by missing Rotters, tsk, tsk. But no dud wines – which you’d expect at these prices!

• NV Egly-Ouriet Champagne Grand Cru VP

  France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru

  [12.5%, cork, A$60] {Gordon} Disgorged Apr-11, after 69 months on lees. A beautiful nose, hovering in the mystical zone between youthful and aging that all that time on lees brings; yeasty aromas mingle with a touch of lemon/citrus. Very attractive. The palate is creamily smooth, with finely-textured bubbles, biscuit & bread flavours and a vivid kind of freshness. A lick of strawberry confirms the majority pinot in the blend; it’s a medium-bodied wine, with a long dry finish that attends to every part of the tongue. Quite stunning, and really the wine of the night.

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• 2005 Louis Latour Meursault-Blagny 1er Cru Château de Blagny

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault-Blagny 1er Cru

  [13.5%, cork,] {DavidM} Mid-yellow; not too dark. Pleasantly aged nose of grilled cashews and figs; it’s not all oak, though – with a minerally touch. This is also apparent on the palate, where a steely quality cuts through generous but mainstream white-fruit-chardonnay flavours. It’s medium-full bodied; oak is not overt, although it has a rather slithery sort of texture on the palate, accentuated by surprisingly soft acidity. Pretty generous overall, with moderate complexity and a medium length finish. Probably close to peak but will hold a while yet.

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• 1999 Clos Rougeard (Foucault) Saumur-Champigny

  France, Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur, Saumur-Champigny

  [12.5% cork] {David – guest} This may be amongst the standard-bearers for the appelation, but I think thirteen years is rather pushing it. Not that you’d know from the nose to begin with; it’s beautifully pongy, intensely earthy and leathery with some aged spicy touches. Very good indeed. The palate; perhaps not so much. There’s some aged fruit still; tart cherries and cranberries, but the flavours are a bit simple. Might have been interesting to compare with a similarly-aged cab-franc from Bordeaux. It’s light-medium-bodied, dry, with quite soft acid, and a pretty low level of dusty tannins. Doesn’t have much to offer beyon the mid-palate, and the finish does fade away disappointingly fast. Still very drinkable – don’t get me wrong, but was surely better five years ago. Drink up now.

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• 1999 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin

  [13%, cork] {Graeme} Garnet red. An aged but quite restrained nose of meat and delicatessen aromas. Some sweetness is apparent later as it sits in the glass. It’s a pleasant nose but not outstanding. The palate yields gentle, aging red berry fruits – a bit soft and nicely blurry, with fairly soft dusty tannin. Medium-bodied wine, not hugely generous. Medium-length finish; it’s very competent, but not so exciting. I guess you pay for the Rouseau name, but then this is village wine, not cru. Still, I was expecting something a little more dynamic. Unlikely to improve, but ought to hold another 5 years at least.

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• 2000 Château Haut-Bages Libéral

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  [12.5%, cork] {Graeme} Since we seemed likely to run short of wine, I opened this back-up bottle. A generous developing nose of sweet currants and cedar; yes, it’s sort-of Bordeaux, but it’s also very lavish and fruity. The palate is notable for the rich blackberry and currant flavours, a slight glycerol note to the texture, and medium but fine chalky tannins. It’s medium-bodied, with a medium-length finish that does rather tail off past the mid-palate. Pretty soft acid helps the user-friendliness. I doubt this will ever be truly complex in a taste-and-marvel kind of way, but it should age another ten years happily, and is certainly ripe and enjoyable now; a long way from the sort of grainy, dessicated wines that sometime inhabit the lower end of the 1855 classification. Good wine.

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• 2007 Château La Nerthe Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  [14.5%, cork] {Bruce} From a much acclaimed vintage, this spent an hour in the decanter before pouring. It’s a good thing no-one smokes, or the fumes from this might have ignited. Spirity, bubble-gum nose. Grenache, sure, but McLaren Vale? Is it a d’Arenberg wearing a Rhone label? Certainly smells new-world. The palate has some distinct pepperiness about it too; the flavours here are all red and white, if you like, laced with spice. Medium/full-bodied, with medium, rather gritty tannins; a bit blast of warmth on the front palate leads to a medium-long finish which for all it’s size and impact, lacks a little for freshness. Low acid doesn’t really help that cause. All up, it’s pretty impressive, and built for a big stew, but aging? Were it new world with this flavour profile, I’d say drink soon. Don’t know about this one though…

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• 2006 d'Arenberg Shiraz The Dead Arm

  Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale

  [14.5%, screwcap] {Geoffrey) Six years old and tastes like a barrel sample. Huge and youthful nose of chocolate, liquorice, vanilla bean/oak, and a fumey warmth too. The palate is as big and ripe as you expect, but is much softer in texture than you’d expect; the hugely ripe fruit dominates everything, including medium dusty tannins and rather low acid, rendering the structure dangerously fragile. But there’s no doubting the full-body, and terrific presence on the mid-palate of the saturated blackberry fruit and chocolate flavours, which eventually resolve into a jkind of jam compote. Oak itself isn’t so noticeable; it’s really just a big fruitbomb. Not too sweet, just rich. Almost certainly best before its tenth anniversary, I’d say.

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• 2010 Glaetzer Shiraz Amon-Ra Barossa Valley

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley

  [15.1%, cork] {Glenn} Purple/ruby colour. Oddly developing nose ofmostly of vanilla bean. Not necessarily oak; it’s followed swiftly by raspberry jam aromas. The wine lands on the palate like a velvet sledgehammer; big, soft and warm, with medium powdery tannins, low-medium acidity, and lots of sweet red jammy fruit. For all the full-bodied size the finish is really only medium length, and does fade towards the back palate, but really, this is a giant comfy armchair of a wine for just flopping into. That alcohol is noticeable as distinct warmth too; this combined with the deferential nature of the tannin and acid towards the fruit says this really is a drink-young wine, before the flamboyance and richness of the fruit fades.

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• 1983 Château Rieussec

  France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

  [cork] {Gordon} This is a quite dark amber/brown colour. Although there’s a touch of oxidation on the nose, it’s mostly aged, caramalised honey and coconut. The palate is medium-bodied, with butterscotch and marmalade flavours, and medium acid. It’s interestingly complex, while at the same time clearly starting to fall apart, but in a fascinating Roman-ruin kind of way. Still quite luscious (medium-dry to medium-sweet, as the scale goes), but also showing some decay and oxidation on the palate. Good coverage of the tongue, and medium-long finish. Wonderful effort for 30-years-on; will obviously be a bottle-lottery to keep longer.

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It certainly was a varied selection of wines; eight separate wine regions, and eight distinct varietal compositions. No cork victims, and nothing dead. No complaints, then. Except for the paucity of diners…