NobleRottersSydney - France v Aust

Darling Mills, Glebe
Tasted Monday, August 5, 2002 by graemeg with 534 views

Introduction

The aim of the August dinner was to compare & contrast some decent French wines with their Australian counterparts (in the broadest sense), and learn something from the experience! A number of circumstances combined to make this a less-than-successful enterprise, but it was still pretty satisfactory from a wine consumption point of view. Except for the cork problems, of course, which claimed two prize wines, and is probably the worst record I can remember at the First Monday club.

Flight 1 (15 Notes)

  • 1993 Gauthier Champagne Premier Cru Brut

    France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru

    Fresh cashew-biscuit nose – quite clean as well. Ultra-fine bead, with delicious apple-citrus flavours on the palate. Great length & finish. A super wine, quite unheralded, and selling for around A$50.

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  • 1989 Lanson Champagne Noble Cuvée de Lanson Brut

    France, Champagne

    Very smelly yeasty, “dirty” nose. The bead here is much coarser too. The wine is quite cheesy, with plenty of bottle development showing, but not really adding to complexity.

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  • 1997 Pipers Brook Vineyard Pirie

    Australia, Tasmania

    My, this is a new-world wine. Ultra clean nose after the champagnes. Almost smells of greens beans, it’s so fresh. It is a bit simple and coarse on the palate, with a rather clunky bead. Finish is a bit short too. Might impress on its own, but not really in the hunt here.

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  • 1996 Louis Carillon Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Perrières Flawed

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru

    It was with much anticipation I lifted my glass, and with equal speed I put it down, barely able to discern any aromas of wine under the overwhelming TCA infection. Not even tasteable. Bugger!

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  • 1985 Tyrrell's Chardonnay Vat 47

    Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley

    A golden yellow. Quite a suppressed restrained nose. A little fruit salad and gentle oak gradually emerges. On the palate there’s enough acid to carry the wine – it’s not dead by any means. To me it was a bit simple – there’s no real complexity here. Paradoxically, the total absence of oxidation in this wine only exaggerates the fading of the fruit. Somehow I expect old chardonnays to be either extraordinarily good or undrinkable – this was neither. Could easily be mistaken for a wine 10 years younger. Surprising that it’s survived so well, but disappointing that it’s not better!

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  • 1993 Joseph Drouhin Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Mouches Rouge

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Beaune 1er Cru

    A gentle earthy nose, but not faded. Some cherry-berry fruit on the palate, but the acids are soft, and the finish not that long. Suffered by being poured along with the following Burg (Rousseau Clos St Jacques], which overshadowed it completely…

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  • 1997 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru

    This wine fair blew us all away. Pale red, it exhibited light cherry, velvet, berry, light-truffle & faintly earthy aromas. Perfect balance on the palate, wonderful length. Totally enchanting wine. Easy to see how Burgundy becomes the holy grail for some folk. This wine was brought along by the Australian importer, who informs us that it retails for over A$200, which explains a great deal. WOTN.

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  • 2000 Old Kent River Pinot Noir

    Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Frankland River

    Incredibly dark wine. Smells rather like a shiraz in fact, which is really a strike against it! Meaty and peppery on the palate, with no real trace of what I consider to be Pinot characters. All tannin & acid on the finish – fruit qualities not particularly evident. Very odd.

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  • 2000 Rochford Pinot Noir Macedon Ranges

    Australia, Victoria, Port Phillip, Macedon Ranges

    This does display some gamey-earthy pinot qualities. However it’s very up-front with the fruit on the palate, and finishes quite astringent, yet short. A strange combination indeed, and no match for even the Drouhin wine.

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  • 2000 Dalwhinnie Pinot Noir

    Australia, Victoria, Western Victoria, Pyrenees

    Here’s a powerful nose of violets & peppermints. With food, all the fruit comes through, but it’s very young and I find it hard to get much from this wine. I think it needs some time – disjointed at present. Not familiar with Pinot from this part of Victoria, so I’m just casting in the wind, I feel.

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  • 1983 Château Lafite Rothschild Flawed

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

    Hmmm – Chateau Le Feet, as somebody remarked. Something is wrong here. This wine is very musty indeed. For a while I though our visiting expert was going to defend it (on the grounds of tannin structure, etc) but this must surely have been suffering TCA or oxidation or a combination of the two. It’s my first Lafite, and I can’t believe it’s built it’s reputation on wines like this. A musty nose & no palate – what a bummer.

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  • 1983 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

    Part of the reason I’m sure the Lafite was buggered was this wine. Singing gloriously, this wine has everything. Probably sold for a song when new, even in Australia, it costs a bucketful of Beethovens today. Deep red still, this displays classic Paulliac qualities – cassis, cedar, pencil shavings. Simply coats the palate with a glorious rich melange of developed fruit & structural qualities. Quite stunning.

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  • 1991 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 707

    Australia, South Australia

    If there’s a worthy Australian contender to match to the heavyweights of Paulliac, surely this wine would be a candidate? Well, maybe not at this age! This is absurdly young. Even allowing for the fruit-up-front nature of even expensive Oz wines, this is so completely different to the Bordeaux wines it hardly seems worth comparing. Still a dark purpley red, the nose is redolent of red berries, tar & coconut oak. There’s a sweetness on the front palate, which suggests to me that the fruit is still overly strong – I don’t think this has quite the magic balance of the 1990 Bin 707. This is either way too young, or shouldn’t be drunk with top Bordeaux! Another 10 years and it would be an interesting comparison, but the wines are really utterly different – I can’t imagine anyone mistaking the two.

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  • 1998 Henschke Shiraz Mount Edelstone

    Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Eden Valley

    This wine is really a bit left field at this dinner. We don’t have a French wine to match against a young shiraz! This is deep red, and surprisingly earthy for such a young wine. I can understand why it got some controversial reviews. It almost shows some spearmint/medicinal aromas. The palate is beautifully structured, with long, big but fine tannins, but the fruit is a bit unusual I agree. A wine to cellar for 10 years and hope for the best, or get rid of now!

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  • 1988 Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey

    France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

    Very pale yellow, with almost a hint of green. A lean nose of marzipan and almond. Botrytis influence is very subdued. The wine is a lot sweeter on the palate than the nose would indicate, and yet finishes dry. The little sleight-of-hand that is Sauternes! Still tastes very young (to me), and could easily serve as an aperitif wine Like to revisit in 10 years.

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Closing

It was an interesting experiment, this dinner. In retrospect, we might have selected the Australian wines more carefully, but then the joy of the First Monday Club is that no-one quite knows what the wines will be until we all arrive at the restaurant! It was bitterly disappointing to have two potentially star wines ruined by cork problems – but I’m having a bad run just now.

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