{cork, 12%} [Geoffrey] Hello – a second tasting so soon! Lovely sourdough nose, but still quite tight. Palate is fresher than the nose, with yeasty characters less evident. Tight lemon flavours. Medium-full weight, with medium-high acidity, Vivid, medium sized bubbles. Vibrant wine that feels like it needs cellaring time to relax a bit. And I had a chance to answer my own question from last month; back of the bottle says disgorgement was 11/17. This information should be on every bottle of Meth. Champ. fizz I reckon, and in this case explains the relative youth of the wine.

{screwcap, 12.4%} [Stephen] Lemon/gold. Looks a decade. Aged nose of kerosene and lemon. Dry palate, aged, with a hint of-under-ripe character for me – asparagus? – despite the smoke and toast edge to the flavours. But the acidity has faded somewhat, giving it a flabby air. Has lost freshness but not picked up sufficient complexity to keep it interesting. Light-bodied, with short finish. Past its best, really.

{screwcap, 12%} [Glenn/DavidH] Two bottles of this brought by sheer co-incidence, but with the surfeit of wine we opened just the one. Mid lemon yellow. Lemon on the nose too, but smoke too. Very Clare. The palate is tangy, raspingly dry, yet with quite low/medium acidity and medium weight. It almost seems furry in texture, sits fairly evenly across the tongue, with fading citrus flavours and not much else. Finishes short/medium in length. Seems to have missed the mark a bit. A bit disappointing for a sporadically-vintaged flagship cuvee.

{screwcap, 12.5%} [Greg] 70% Clare, with the rest drawn from Tasmania. Could very well be a unique ‘Hardy’s Regional Blend’. Still quite a light yellow/lemon colour. Developing nose of lime and musk, along with a bit of Clare-citrus. Still plenty of primary character in evidence. Medium/full in weight, it tastes much as the nose promised, with a fleshy quality to the citrus, although there’s that lychee/musk Tasmanian quality which really lifts this, to the point where I think more cellaring would help with more flavour dimension still. But it has medium acidity, an even presence of flavour along the tongue, and a medium/long dry finish. Potential here still; 3-5 years won’t hurt at all.

{cork, 13%} [Graeme] The Osterberg vineyard is 24.6ha beside the village of Ribeauville and planted 46% to Riesling, 29% gewurz, 24% PG and 1% muscat. Good level, fine looking cork. Still, it’s a fairly deep gold colour. Aged nose of copper and honey. Some oxidation perhaps? The palate is earthy, dry, with a mineral/dirt quality, quite phenolic, with flavours of butterscotch/caramel, without actually being sweet at all. Medium/full in weight, with softening medium level acidity, it dips after the mid-palate, and finishes medium length. Decent, but far from great. Possibly not in peak condition (who knows with old Riesling and cork) but on the evidence of this bottle, drink up.

{AP 7 10, cork, 12%} [Graeme] No doubts on the condition of this. Lightly developing nose of minerals, warm stones, spiced yellow fruit flavours. The medium/full-bodied palate offers a mix of youth and semi-maturity, with apple and tropical fruit flavours on offer too, but always conveying the special character of the sand and quartz Berg slope above Rudesheim. Quite powerful on the palate; medium/full-bodied, but always poised and elegant. Covers all the tongue, and culminates in a long dry but rich finish. Might be close to peak; certainly it’s wonderful drinking now.

{screwcap, 11.5%} [Gordon] Semi clear yellow-green. Nose is equally youthful with only a little evolution; quite sharp aromas of lime and detergent dominate. They’re joined by rich melon flavours on the palate, with more citrus; there’s medium/high acidity and medium/full weight. This really needs more time but seems to have the structure to age a while; it has presence right along the tongue. Let’s hope it gets away from the all-too-frequent Clare lemon-juice assault.

{cork, 13%} [Glenn] A guest appearance from Bruce’s cellar. Off-theme, of course, but entirely appropriate. Developing, very cedary, even slightly bretty nose. Dry palate, light/medium in weight with flavours of grape-skin, red cherry, vague black fruit. Has a fairly tart character on the palate; medium acidity is in order, with minimum oak evident. Very savoury in style and still quite fresh, but it’s not a very concentrated wine. Finishes a bit on the short side. Not much point in keeping this, but I won’t hurt either.

{screwcap, 13.5%} [Aaron] Youthful nose of pointed confectionery, jubey notes. Red jam too. All fruit on the vibrant nose. The palate is a bit lighter than expected, with savoury raspberry and plums; clean, light/medium in weight, with medium acidity and low chalky tannins. Dry red, finishing a little on the short side too. Seems a very vintage-dependent wine for the Barossa; a 2014 drunk since is much oakier and weightier. Think this will be better in the shorter term.

{AP 12 08, cork, 8%} [Aaron] Developing apple and custard nose, although the colour is still light and green-tinged. Off-dry palate, sponge-cake sweet, with a gently fragile quality to the flavours (per bouquet). Seemed a bit glassy somehow beside the JJ Prum Graacher. Light/medium weight, with medium acidity, a bit of a front-palate bias, and a medium length finish. No great rush to drink this either.

{AP 32 08, cork, 8.5%} [Gordon] A bit more exotic and complex than Haardt, the bouquet here encompassed apple juice, honey, custard, passionfruit. In a Spatlese context it’s close to full-bodied, with a honeyed richness to the cinnamon, vanilla and strudel flavours. Even palate, and a medium long finish; classy effort. The acidity needs looking for a bit, so further aging might be chancey, although it hardly seems like you have to rush. Very attractive wine.

{cork, 13.5%} [Geoffrey] A mix of nougat and stainless steel aromas; almost smells a bit grassy, as you might expect of Semillon. Quite a rich, dense palate, medium dry, with some grape-skin texture, not so much oak apparent. The sweetness is beguiling, but falls short of luscious despite its honey/vanilla flavours. Medium weight, with a medium long finish. Very decent, second wine or not, and will surely hold and even improve for another five years or so.