NobleRottersSydney - Blind Shiraz Options 1991 or prior
Darling Mills, Glebe
Tasted Monday, November 5, 2001 by graemeg with 604 views
Introduction
The Noble Rotters met for the last official dinner of 2001, the theme being “Shiraz – 1991 or prior” and special guest Ric, all the way from the Southern Highlands. It was an options night, but we never take the options too seriously, and you’ve really only got about 20 seconds to guess the wine before everyone wants to know what it is. There were a couple of wines picked right off, though, which is always impressive. Thirteen attended the table, but there seemed to be a few extra bottles as well.
1987 Rene Rostaing Côte-Rôtie La Landonne
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
Brick red. Some roasted nuts, cedar & pencil shavings on the nose. Quite attractive & sophisticated aromas – nearly everyone picked it for a Hunter! On the palate, sadly, was quite soft, flat & uninspiring. Not obviously oxidised, just a bit short and insipid – dried out really. I wasn’t expecting all that much from this wine (I brought it despite the vintage) and unfortunately I wasn’t disappointed!
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1991 Wynns Coonawarra Estate Shiraz Michael Hermitage
Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra
The table thought this was McLaren Vale or Barossa! A very dark deep red still, with a sweetish nose of iodine & fungal US oak. Ric was not happy with this (his) wine, ascribing its short finish and lack of fruit to poor storage in a past life, as evidenced by some yellowing of the label. Certainly the wine is unbalanced, yet the oak is present more as flavour than texture – you couldn’t call the tannins harsh – quite the opposite. Yet the decaying wood flavours are quite sweet – what I would imagine a damp rotting tree trunk would taste like. No-one around the table is buying Michael as a general rule any more, either. It’s just not a good enough wine for the money…
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1990 Huntington Estate Shiraz FB 34
Australia, New South Wales, Central Ranges, Mudgee
Mid red. Some leathery, furniture polish aromas. I found it a bit pharmaceutical, if that makes any sense. It was very front-palate, acid-dominated, with no real astringency. Sweetly aged, and certainly acceptable, but not really a complete wine.
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1988 Lindeman's Shiraz Steven Vineyard
Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
Glowing red with plenty of sediment. Once it was revealed to be Hunter, and described as “supposed to be a very good wine” I picked this straight off. I wouldn’t have thought I could recognise a wine I drank 2 years ago, but there you go. As a group we tasted this wine at the Hunter CD back in August 99, and this was identical. Some sweet stewed raspberry qualities, with chocolate overtones. Astringent, yet somehow hollow. Generally not very satisfying. I remember thinking 2 years ago it had nowhere to go, and its still going there!
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1991 St Hallett Shiraz Old Block
Australia, South Australia, Barossa
With the region & vintage revealed, this wine was picked by Ric! And quite polarising it was too. Some sweet aged, meaty, fruit cake aromas which promised much, but didn’t quite deliver on the palate. This one seemed to change in the glass, coming together and drifting apart alternately. Reasonably full on the palate, and in truth not too bad a wine, but somehow we felt the 91 vintage should have delivered more.
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1991 Grant Burge Shiraz Meshach
Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley
Deep red. A lovely nose of black/red fruits & chocolate. Very smooth & integrated on the palate, components in balance, even long finish. Very attractive all-round wine with no shortcomings. The best wine so far.
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1989 Mount Langi Ghiran Shiraz ARARAT
Australia, South Eastern
A solid red colour. But there is no aroma from this wine! It also has no flavour. Extraordinary. There is a little spritz as well, leading someone to joke about bringing a Lambrusco! Funny and sad. No-one could object to the flavours of this wine because there aren’t any!
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1989 Mount Langi Ghiran Shiraz Langi
Australia, Victoria
I’ve tasted this wine young, when it’s a festival of pepper, but I’m baffled by this wine. A gently fecal aroma precedes a weak, falling-apart palate. Bits of acid & astringency sticking out all over the place. What a disappointment!
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1991 Serenella Estate Shiraz
Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
Mid red. A nose of tobacco, cigar & spice. A fuzzy wine, both on the nose and palate. A little vanilla shows on the palate too, although the tannins are very soft. But the acid was really too weak, leaving the wine indistinct and lacking impact. A short finish follows.
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1991 Penfolds Shiraz St. Henri
Australia, South Australia
A limpid deep red, with a beautiful nose of liquorice and blackberries. Wonderful seamless wine, with a round rich full palate, a smearing of primary fruit and some developing complexity. The table pays homage to “St Henri at 10”. Really, it’s a great wine, and with years left ahead of it – I wouldn’t even say it’s at its peak yet. If you have the patience, St Henri is one of the great bargains in Australian wine.
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1990 Henschke Shiraz Hill of Grace
Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Eden Valley
Geoffrey’s opening options question was “So, what’s this wine?” Coupled with a beautiful nose of spice, blackcurrant, and a little meatiness, it left few choices. I reckoned it was 88 HoG, which turned out to be close. In retrospect, I don’t recall the 88, which I drank 3 times in 6 months in 99, being quite so fine. This wine is wonderfully tight and focussed, with magnificent balance. I find it quite impossible to pick out aspects of the wine to comment upon, it’s so “of a piece”. Subtle tannins, integrated utterly, woven with a fine acid cut and changing hues of currants, a hint of pepper, and a long even finish are the signs of a class act. Quite stunning in every respect. I think we’re slowly drinking our way through Geoffrey’s case of this wine. I’ll look forward to the rest!
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1994 Orlando Shiraz Lawsons
Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Padthaway
Deep red, as befitting a younger wine that was theoretically ‘against the rules’ tonight. More obvious primary fruit aromas of raspberry candy, spices and coconut. Large-scale on the palate, but not clumsy or gauche, this wine has everything. Magnificently drinkable, and plays 2nd fiddle only to the HoG tonight. A wonderful wine, and if there is an under-priced premium Australian red, this is it.
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1990 Orlando Shiraz Lawsons
Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Padthaway
Mid red. In many respects similar to the 94, but at a lower level of achievement. This is still very nice, but generally looser and less impressive overall. Lawsons seemed to miss the target in 90, compared to the 88 and 91 wines. Odd that should happen…
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1973 Lindeman's Bin 4810 Classic Release
Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
Hunter terroir at it’s most, er, characteristic. Brick red, the nose is horsey, fungal, farmyard, oh all right, shitty. Mega-earthy in fact. Yet they are wine-type aromas, not the small of decay. The wine is a soft, gentle, smeary, dusty mouthful, indescribably hard to pin down. But it’s still alive, and very drinkable, assuming you’re not averse to the style!
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1988 Hardys Shiraz Eileen Hardy
Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale
I have to say by this part of the evening it was getting hard to take coherent notes. All I have for this wine is to note some coconut & liquorice aromas, and a round attractive medium body that just falls short of being a great wine.
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1991 Wynns Coonawarra Estate Shiraz Michael Hermitage
Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra
This was my back-up bottle for the Rhone wine, and since the first Michael was a bit of a dud, we opened this for comparison. This was much fresher, still with distinct fruit notes of sour cherry. It was still oaky, even a bit tannic. I imagine it will grow further out of balance the older it gets. It was acceptable though – a nice $30 wine we thought! Maybe this is why there’s so much Michael sitting round on bottle shop shelves!
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1999 De Bortoli Noble One Botrytis Sémillon
Australia, New South Wales, Big Rivers, Riverina
Mid yellow. The strong botrytis and apricot nose fairly leaps out of the glass at you. The usual fruit accompaniments of this style are all present on the palate – maramlade, apricot, passionfruit; and although there’s enough acid there now to keep it from being cloying, I have my doubts about the ageability of recent Noble One – it seems to be made very much in a drink-now style these days. A half-ISO is quite sufficient!
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