[screwcap, 13.4%] {Guest - Kevin} Youthful and quite gentle nose of nuts, yeast, and sweetened grapefruit. The palate is dry, with mild white flesh fruit flavours, and prickly, rather artificial-tasting acidity. It’s light-medium bodied; rather like an older style chardonnay with the oak turned right down (as opposed to the flinty, minerally, fruit-reduced style which is the current fashion). A little bit anonymous, and the finish is fairly short too. Decent commercial chardy.

[cork, 13.5%, A$30] {Glenn} Actually cabernet franc rather than sauvignon. Big, intense, youful nose of smoke and charcoal. These foreshadow twiggy and plum flavours on the palate; it’s true to the variety that way. It’s also medium-bodied and absolutely rent with dusty tannins, not especially oaky, but really powerful. Despite that, there’s not a lot of back-palate presence; it really tans the front part of the tongue. Too drying to be drunk without food, and really needs some time to settle down. Medium length finish.

[cork, 12.5%] {Greg} Cru Artisan, huh. A resurrected classification applied to small makers below the level of Cru Bourgeois, and retailing in France for €5-10/bottle. Sold by GPO Cellars in Sydney for A$80. That’s called ‘charging what the market will bear’. An authentic Bordeaux nose of tobacco and lead pencil, now past its youth. A medium-bodied palate, dry, grittily tannic; with some mid-palate weight but not exactly generous with flavour. The actual balance is OK, bar an increasingly watery finish. Drink up, with protein.

[cork, 12.5%] {Geoffrey} Garnet with a fading rim; looked quite old. Aged nose of sweaty red fruits. Light-medium body, fading dusty tannins. Dry, dilute bordeaux, short finish, fairly nondescript. Given the hot vintage, would have been best upon release.

[cork, 135%] {Graeme} This is better. Mainstream, developing Paulliac nose of juicy currant fruits and cigar-box. All medium-sized and nicely integrated; red fruit, powder-texture tannin, acid all at medium level. Good even palate, with presence along the tongue, and a tidy medium-length finish which tastes all-together and balanced. Very drinkable now, will hold a while; good claret without being outstanding.

[cork, 13%] {DavidM} Youthful. Ripe, juicy, jubey red currant fruit. Very young indeed. Medium-bodied palate which starts with a wave of flavour and follows up with a wave of chalky tannins. Fruit is still vibrant, and overshadows much of the back palate, the tannins are pretty chunky too. It’s is drinkable now, but it should show much better with another 8-10 years cellaring given the vintage. And remains Bordeaux, rather than being a new world imitation. Pretty good wine all round (despite poor value at Australian prices).

[cork, 14.5%, A$43] {Steven - Guest} A real contrast after the Bordeaux; ripe, glossy, modern cabernet, all currants and dark chocolate and expensive french oak. A big, bold palate, full-bodied, with plenty of graphite-like oak, medium powdery tannins and pretty low acidity. These all combine to give it a slightly syrupy texture; it’s a style with a fairly narrow drinking window between the fruit settling down a bit and the structure collapsing. Probably better in the shorter term (within 5 years); this is still a pretty impressive and flavourful wine that looks very good for the price.

[cork, 13.5%] {Kevin - guest} Developing nose; chocolate, blackberries, vanilla, cedary oak. New World cabernet writ large, without being a caricature. Perfumed and a touch jammy, the palate is awash with sweet fruit, ripe and crowd-pleasing, although just a bit simple. It’s medium-full bodied, with fine chalky tannins, low-ish acid and a medium length finish. Good presence on the mid-palate.
Should settle down with time into a very drinkable cabernet, but is still good now.

[cork, 15%] {DavidC} Dark ruby colour. Blueberry, liquorice, jam. Lifted, alcoholic nose. Explosive, really. Newton or neutron? Heavily macerated black fruit flavours, big but coarse tannins battle over the porty taste. Not much noticeable acid here. At the extreme end of the spectrum, so that will determine your reaction to. Within the style, it’s a very good example, and at 7 years, holding together better than many.

[cork, 14.5%] {Bruce} Young, juicily-fruity, rather cordial-like wine. Low gritty tannins, short finish, simple fruit. Mediocre, and not helped in context by being out of the night’s theme. Pass.

[screwcap, 9.8%] {winelist} A semi-sweet (off-dry) spritzy, moscato-like offering apparently made from riesling. Tastes like a slightly flat lemon squash, without being quite that sweet. The bubbles are rather coarser than your average d’Asti however.