NobleRottersSydney - Clare Valley

Here’s a Clare Valley theme, three years to the day, almost, since the last time. Eight Rotters gather to taste and argue. Nice to see Kim make a guest appearance.

• NV d'Arenberg Chambourcin The Peppermint Paddock

  Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale

  [14.5%, cork] {Bruce} Ruby/purple colour. Rather closed nose; a sweaty aroma, but nothing obviously fruity I could identify. The palate is similarly vague, with mild nutty flavours, and that’s about all. Only light-medium-bodied, despite the alcohol (which doesn’t show as heat on the palate); there are medium-sized bubbles, and most of the weight of the wine sits on the front palate. Not obviously sweet, but it must be right on the borderline of brut I reckon. Short finish. I was disappointed in this; chambourcin is usually a love-it-or-hate-it wine, but this seemed to lack much in the way of distinct qualities at all. Could have sworn this used to be a vintage wine; maybe the nv is the ‘dumbed-down’ version? Pass.

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• 2010 O'Leary Walker Riesling Watervale

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Watervale

  [12.5%, screwcap] {Gordon} Rather pungent, youthful nose of lemon, lime, and mostly detergent. The palate has quite low-level acidity, despite an initial zesty/pez-like impression, ultimately giving this a rather slippery texture. The palate tastes rather more developed than you expect for this age, as though the lemons are a bit soft and brown; it’s light-medium bodied and dry, but can’t avoid a kind of flabbiness. An OK wine, but emphatically not for cellaring.

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• 2005 Kilikanoon Riesling Mort's Reserve

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Watervale

  [12%, screwcap] {David - guest} There’s just a touch of kerosene character on the developing citrus nose. Smells good! It’s mouthfilling and even, with sweet lemon-butter flavours. It has weight and solid texture, but hasn’t lost a certain translucence either. The finish is long, dry, fresh and quite beguiling. Medium-high acid gives a medium-bodied weight. This is in fine form, in the first flushes of aging, and ought to sail through another 7-10 years easily. Top wine.

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• 1992 Leo Buring Riesling Leonay Clare Valley

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  [12.5%, cork] {Graeme} Deep yellow/gold. Aged bouquet of toast, brown leaves, and a burnished riesling quality. Not really petrolly, but it does scream old South Australian riesling. The palate has flavours verging on the honeyed; butterscotch and so forth, but it’s never anything other than dry; medium-bodied and still with a blanacing acidity. Still the finish is only barely medium length, despite the evenness with which the wine works its way along the palate. For twenty years old, you wouldn’t complain; I drank a suddenly leaking bottle of this six months ago which – apart from the recently occuring oxidation – was intrinsically fresher than this; such is the curse of corks. I’m sure if you opened a dozen well-stored bottles of this, you’d get one – just one – which would absolutely blow you away. Pity about the other eleven…

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• 1993 Taylors Cabernet Sauvignon Clare Valley

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  [13%, cork] {Geoffrey} Opened an hour prior, and decanted just before serving. Still in the garnet-coloured range, which was promising. The nose was ancient, verging on dessicated; simple wood/cedar aromas, garnished with coconut. A drying-out palae of herbs and old currants follows. It hasn’t evolved so much as just aged. Fading and gentle, short-finishing, now light-bodied apart from a passing astringency; remarkable for the price I guess (under $10 on release) but really ten years past its best.

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• 1999 Mitchell Shiraz McNicol

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  [14.5%, cork] {Kim} Still a fairly darkish garnet, although it’s not going to pass for a young wine. And not when you smell it either; it’s a fumey festival of vanillan American oak and pungent sweet earthy aromas, all lifted on an alcoholic zephyr. The palate is seriously aged; with decaying red fruits and leathery/earthy flavours morphing into riasin and prune flavours. There’s a burnt sort of coarseness to the texture; medium gritty tannins lift it to medium-full body, but it seems to be built on alcohol, rather than fruit depth; there’s grat presence in the mid-palate but not much either side. Finish warm but too short to be satisfying. Certainly a drink now wine; would probably have been better in french oak, picked earlier and certainly drunk earlier.

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• 2002 Grosset Gaia

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  [14%, screwcap] {Graeme} Cab-S, Cab-F, Merlot in the proportions 75/20/5 make up Grosset’s nod to Bordeaux. A suitable elegant nose of fine blackberry fruit follows. The palate is juicy, developing, and manages to emphasise a twiggy franc-like quality. It’s elegant (if falling a bit short of stately); what it lacks is some real nuance & complexity to its development. Has low-medium dusty tannins, medium body, and a fairly even palate. It’s good; worth keeping another 5 years, but it’s always going to be a subtle kind of wine. If I’d ever had a really great Gaia I’d be more sanguine.

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• 2008 Tim Adams Limited Release Reserve Cabernet Malbec

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  [14.5%, screwcap] {Glenn} Developing nose of raisins and alcoholic heat. From Tim Adams? There are dead grape flavours written all over the palate; it’s dessicated, rich and hollow all at the same time. Low acid gives it a somewhat syrupy texture but just emphasises the heat; that and the medium-full body all combine in a medium length finish, but it’s hardly a great advertisement for cabernet and malbec together; if anything the rustic nature of the malbec is emphasised. I’m rather critical; it’s pleasant enough to drink now (in an unthinking way), but it’s emphatically not a wine for cellaring, being fundamentally unbalanced.

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• 2006 Kilikanoon Shiraz Oracle

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  [15%, screwcap] {DavidC} Big, hot raisin/prune nose. Full-bodied, low acid wine; ultra-ripe – over-ripe but not dead! – grape flavours; prunes, liquorice, soy on the palate; medium gritty tannins, lots of presence on the front of the tongue, medium length finish. If this note reads as stilted, it’s because the wine has a blocky, coming and going quality to it; this is a modern, fashionable, legitimate style of wine, but I think it’s one that always shows better young; this wine is close to the end of that ideal window I reckon, so I sense I’m tasting the last of the best of it. Get into it before it blows itself apart and turns into a black hole…

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• NV De Bortoli Sémillon Black Noble

  Australia, New South Wales

  [500ml, 17.5%, screwcap] {Bruce} Brown, verging on ochre. Treacle, molasses, caramel, vanilla; does a pretty decent impersonation of a Rutherglen fortified. The palat eis pure black caramel – one for the crème brulee addicts. There’s some spicy acid here, but the wine feels all loosely assembled; it’s a care-free wine for drinking a bit shickered at the end of the night. Luscious (medium-dry on the sweetness scale) but still with a lightness about it – helped by the modest alcohol probably. Has bags of flavour; very satisfying, but not cerebral.

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You know, I was a little disappointed by the reds we had – probably not so much as these notes indicate! – but apart from Wendouree and Armagh, the Clare isn’t known quite that much for reds. The few whites were pretty good; the last Clare night was nearly all whites; here we’ve swung the other way. Half the fun is seeing what shows up on the night…