Important Update From the Founder
Read message >
NobleRottersSydney - Hunter Valley
Hunter Valley
Tasted August 13, 1999 - August 15, 1999 by graemeg with 127 views
Introduction
Found these notes during an office tidy-up 23 years after the fact and wrote them up, just for the record. No retrospective adjustments to the tasting notes, but it’s hard not to reflect a bit on the wineries in the years’ since.
Flight 1 (7 notes)
Friday night dinner with Andrew Margan at a restaurant I can’t remember!
White
1994 Brokenwood Sémillon
{cork} Honey and lemon nose. Still has solid acid, slightly nutty flavours but without obvious toastiness. Medium length finish
White
1999 Margan Verdelho
{cork} Almost clear. Grass & straw nose and palate, with sharp zingy acid. Something of a SB impersonator.
White
1999 Margan Sémillon
{cork} Cut grass, lemon. Sharp acid. Sits on the front and mid-palate, short finish. Not got the structure to age.
Red
1998 Margan Merlot
{cork} Coconut and a little plum. Soft palate but carried by some acidity. Very restrained tannins; saw ‘6 weeks’ in new oak. Early drinking style.
Red
1998 Margan Cabernet Sauvignon
{cork} Closed. Inky blackcurrants. Plenty of acid and tannin. Fullish weight. Too young to drink now.
Red
1991 Brokenwood Shiraz Graveyard
{cork} Inky blackberry nose, still fairly youthful. Black palate, with chocolate and vanilla. Intense and concentrated, with fine dusty tannins and great palate length. Really impressive.
White - Sweet/Dessert
1994 Brokenwood Gewürztraminer
{cork} Nougat and caramel nose; similar palate with initially explosive fruit flavours that quickly fade – despite the acidity – to a short finish. Meh.
Flight 2 (12 notes)
The McGuigan was a large and very commercial set of offerings. The barrel ‘personal reserve’ reds seemed to show promise, but I don’t ever seem to recall them showing up much at retail.
White
1999 McGuigan Verdelho Bin 6000
{cork} Lemon and grass. Sharp acid emphasizing spicy flavours, but short finish. Not exciting.
White
1999 McGuigan Chardonnay
{cork} Barrel sample – about to bottle. Strongly oaky, malo-driven nose, with plenty of melon following on the palate. Fullish body.
Red
1998 McGuigan Shiraz Personal Reserve Vine Vale
{cork} Barrel sample. Barossa Shiraz. Almost black colour. Intensely oaky nose. Still disjointed but intense black fruit on the palate, with immense, fine-grained wood tannins. All the full-bodied components are here but it’s still a pup.
Red
1998 McGuigan Cabernet Sauvignon Personal Reserve
{cork} Inky blackcurrants. Very similar in character to its brethren shiraz save a more curranty/cabernet character with less spice. Also has a more tannic, astringent finish. Seems to promise much though.
Red
1998 McGuigan Cabernet Sauvignon
{cork} Fruit from Saxonvale in the Hunter. Little obvious oak on the nose; instead a sweaty, earthy character. Palate has some herbaceous, capsicum notes. Very astringent though, with puckering tannins which leave the fruit far behind. Seems unbalanced to me.
Red
1999 McGuigan Shiraz Personal Reserve
{cork} Deep purple colour, concentrated plum aromas and flavours. Softer structured palate, which soft dusty tannins but prominent acidity. Might come along nicely.
White
1998 McGuigan Sémillon Bin 9000
{cork} Mid straw colour. Light lemon/citrus fruit, a bit spritzy, almost seems a touch sweet, soft acid; might have been better with a bit of a chill. Average.
White
1998 McGuigan Chardonnay Personal Reserve Sandy Hollow Vineyard
{cork} Mid yellow. Buttery, oaky nose with plenty of MLF character. The palate just lacks the acid to carry this much oak. Fruit is reticent and finish is on the short side.
White
1998 McGuigan Gewürztraminer Sandy Hollow Vineyard
{cork} Pale straw. Classic spicy and varietally true nose. Spritzy palate initially, but there is some cloying sweetness too, to the point where it sags on the finish. Needs a bit more structure to hold it together.
Red
1998 McGuigan Malbec Bin 5000 Limited Release
{cork} Mid red. Stewed jammy nose, with a slightly metallic note on the palate. Light body, sits on the tip of the tongue. Short finish. In character more of a rose style, despite the colour!
Red
1998 McGuigan Cabernet Sauvignon Shareholders Reserve
{cork} Strongly curranty nose. Fairly anonymous commercial style with a richly warm palate of no particular distinction or characterful flavour.
Red
1998 McGuigan Shiraz Shareholders
{cork} Black pepper and earth nose, fairly restrained. Nicely ripe, full-bodied, quite focussed palate with a medium length finish. OK.
Flight 3 (24 notes)
Looking back on these notes twenty years hence, the portfolio really isn’t all that impressive, and even the mid-late 90s Mount Pleasant wines never turned into anything great, nor fetched decent auction prices. I just don’t think the winemaking – nor oak choices – were up to the mark. It took until at least 2007 before they began to reliably produce decent wines from the Mount Pleasant name. Brands Laira was always an underachiever in Coonawarra, and the Lilydale and Barwang names seemed to disappear into oblivion in the new century.
White - Sparkling
1993 Mount Pleasant Wines Pinot Noir Sparkling
{cork} Soft strawberry nose, medium bead. Dry but soft, with a short finish.
White
1998 Lilydale Estate Gewürztraminer
{cork} Clear pale straw. Floral, oily nose. Accurate palate, dry finish, lovely acid giving decent length. OK.
White
1998 Brand's Laira Riesling
{cork} Restrained citrus nose. Drying acid, grippy fruit on the palate which is just a bit simple with its short finish. Drinker not a keeper.
White
1997 Mount Pleasant Wines Sémillon Sauvignon Blanc Florence
{cork} Pale straw. A bit average; soft sauvignon varietal characters, neither too tropical not fruit salad sweet. Fresh acid, mostly dry light palate and short finish. A bit so-so. The ‘Florence’ name came later.
White
1998 Mount Pleasant Wines Verdelho
{cork} Dry, green apple sort of character, zingy acid, medium length finish. Good enough in the short term.
White
1994 Mount Pleasant Wines Sémillon Elizabeth
{cork} Pale yellow. Slighty honeyed but restrained fruit. Toasty palate, medium weight, long finish. Nice.
White
1990 Mount Pleasant Wines Sémillon Elizabeth
{cork} Mid yellow. Quite aged, toasty nose, palate seems oaky but isn’t, nice nut and fig flavours; doing its best to look like a chardonnay! More interesting than the ’94, but with an appreciably shorter finish. Ready to drink.
White
1996 Mount Pleasant Wines Chardonnay Maurice O'Shea
{cork} Massive butterscotch nose; worked palate all about oak and winemaking rather than fruit per se. But finishes too short to really be interesting.
White
1997 Barwang Chardonnay
{cork} Light yellow. Intense glowing melon/peach character. Had enough acid to balance the oak, and the MLF is deftly handled. This is OK.
White
1996 Brand's Laira Chardonnay
{cork} Slightly dirty nose. Melon fruit which quickly dies to an artificial acid character and then a short finish.
Red
1997 Brand's Laira Shiraz
{cork} Intense deep red colour. Strongly peppery nose follows through on the palate. Ripeness? Crude acid, then medium tannins. Feels all over the place somehow. Weak vintage in Coonawarra.
Red
1997 Barwang Shiraz
{cork} Rather closed nose. Red berry fruit with finely dusty but intense tannin. Tidy. Way better than the more fashionable Brands wine.
Red
1996 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Maurice O'Shea
{cork} Peppery, earthy nose with intense red fruit beneath. Seems soft & fruity to start, then drying tannins push through on the palate – too much, too rough. Not convincing.
Red
1996 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Rosehill
{cork} Dirty farmyard nose. Light weight, cherry fruit, soft tannin. Underachieving a bit.
Red
1996 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Old Paddock & Old Hill
{cork} Bingo! Perfect ripe hunter/earthy red fruit, dry dusty tannins, integrated acidity. Still a bit closed overall but this is the goods. Lovely now or for years to come.
Red
1995 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Philip
{cork} Mid red. Earthy nose with a hint of pepper. Actual fruit seems very faint; this seems mostly a mass of dry grippy tannin. Not impressive, even for an entry level red.
Red
1995 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Rosehill
{cork} Good raspberry fruit and fine grapey tannin. But the length seems to rely almost purely on tannins, giving it an unbalanced feel.
Red
1997 Barwang Cabernet Sauvignon Hilltops
{cork} Cool climate nose with rich blue fruit. Medium weight. Fine-grained tannins dominate acid now but feels like it just needs a little time to knit together.
Red
1997 Lilydale Estate Cabernet Merlot
{cork} Coconut and tannin. You can stretch out your thin cabernet with fashionable but dull merlot and get this drying, uninspiring sort of wine. Pass.
Red
1995 Mount Pleasant Wines Merlot Hunter Valley
{cork} Entirely closed nose. Soft raspberry/cherry fruit with disjointed tannin on the medium weight palate. But pretty average all round.
Red
1994 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Old Paddock & Old Hill
{cork} Bricking red. Raspberry nose with an earthy twist. Nicely balanced palate in a light/medium weight style. Good wine, enjoyable now.
Red - Fortified
1979 Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon Tawny Port
{cork} Red turning orange. Rich caramel and cold tea nose. Smooth, rich rancio characters; fabulously long finish.
Red - Fortified
1977 Mount Pleasant Wines Vintage Port
{cork} Deep caramel and burnt treacle nose and palate; molasses too; long finish but palate doesn’t quite have the concentration of depth the nose seemed to promise. Nice enough.
Red - Fortified
N.V. Mount Pleasant Wines Show Reserve Muscat
{cork} Grand old style; rancio, caramel; smooth palate, great length. The fortifieds here left the table wines in the dust.
Flight 4 (9 notes)
A new offshoot of the McGuigan empire. A lot of people seemed to feel the need to make these Len-Evans-like attempts to sell grape/region matches (Clare Riesling, Barossa shiraz, Coonawarra cabernet) under the one brand. Tower Estate kicked off around the same time with the same philosophy. Pepper Tree was another. None ever really amounted to much, I gotta say.
White
1999 Tempus Two Sémillon Sauvignon Blanc
{cork} 70% Semillon, but SB is all the rage; best of both worlds from a marketing perspective. This is tart, with a zesty lemon presence and a little sweet fruit on the front palate. Semillon dominates the flavour but ain’t what’ll sell the wine. Easy drinker.
White
1998 Tempus Two Riesling Reserve
{cork} Straw yellow. Very advanced with rich – too rich if not sweet – Riesling flavour but good length. Drink up.
White
1998 Tempus Two Chardonnay
{cork} Solid yellow. Butter and caramel. Paw-paw. Lots of MLF character. Flavour sits toward the front palate. Average.
White
1999 Tempus Two Gewürztraminer
{cork} Lifted floral nose; rosewater, pot-pourri. Sweet fruit tipping over into RS which the structure can’t really hold up. Drink up.
Red
1998 Tempus Two Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz
{cork} Soft raspberry/strawberry fruit. Shortish length; feels like a lot of sweet oak chips went into this. Grim.
Red
1998 Tempus Two Chambourcin
{cork} Rotten vegetable nose. Sweet and stewlike palate which seems disjointed. Medium length finish. Time might help this a little but it’s a dubious sort of grape!
Red
1998 Tempus Two Shiraz Pewter Vine Vale
{cork} From the Angel Vale vineyard. This is crimson red, with cherry and plum aromas. Blurry wine, mostly well-balanced but for a reticent acid line giving it a soft finish. Possibly better young.
Red
1997 Tempus Two Shiraz Pewter
{cork} Seem not to have recorded specific flavours here, other than ‘pure fruit’! Nicely integrated oak, balanced feel overall, medium length finish. Impressive despite vintage.
White - Sweet/Dessert
1997 Tempus Two Sémillon Botrytis
{cork} Light gold. Apricot/botrytis character. Medium dry, but light flavours, nicely balanced. Pleasant short-term wine.
Flight 5 (6 notes)
We tasted 21 wines in the Rothbury Cask Hall in a smorgasbord affair, followed by dinner (I think – can’t really remember this many years later) and a few more bottles.
White
1998 Andrew Garrett Sauvignon Blanc Sémillon
{cork} Full on palate with lemon/lime/straw flavours. Generally fresh feel but short finish.
White
1998 Brokenwood Sémillon
{cork} Very sharp and tart, acidic. Seems quite old school in that sense. Will the finish stay this short or fill out?
Red
1997 Annie's Lane Shiraz Red Essentials Schultz's Wrattonbully Vineyard
{cork} Deep red. Rich red berry and raspberry fruit. Fine lingering tannins, medium length finish, well-balanced. Good stuff.
Red
1997 Baileys of Glenrowan Shiraz 1920's Block
{cork} Dark chocolate flavours with a cinnamon touch. Background dusty tannin, sound acid line, slightly warm finish. Good.
Red
1996 The Rothbury Estate Shiraz Brokenback
{cork} Spicy rich red fruit and oak flavours. Balanced earthy hunter fruit, subtle tannins, medium length finish.
White - Fortified
N.V. Baileys of Glenrowan Muscat Founder Liqueur
{cork} Toffee and caramel. Sweet rancio and old wood. Medium length finish. Not as good as the McWilliam’s muscat earlier today.
Flight 6 (13 notes)
I do recall plenty of sore heads on this morning, and here we were at Lindemans Ben Ean at 9.30am on Sunday morning. Certainly the brand was in decline at the time but I don’t imagine anyone could have foreseen how far it would continue to fall into the 21st century. After lunch there we had a few last minute wines from Pepper Tree.
White - Sparkling
N.V. Lindeman's Bin 25 Brut Cuvee
{cork} Honey, yeasty, biscuity nose. Green apple acid on the palate, coarse bead. Short finish. Commercial fizz at a basic level.
White
1998 Lindeman's Sémillon Bin 9255
{cork} Pale straw colour. Sharp citrus and apple aromas yet feels much softer on the palate, suggesting an early drinker.
White
1995 Lindeman's Sémillon Bin 8650
{cork} Touch of honey and toast over lemon. Subtle acid, but still holding nicely. Still a little closed on the palate. Tradition says this is an awkward age for top Hunter Semillon.
White
1998 Lindeman's Chardonnay Padthaway
{cork} Plenty of malo and butter character here, but the acidity is up to the job. Just needs a bit more fruit I reckon. Always something of a bridesmaid region, Padthaway.
White
1996 Lindeman's Chardonnay Reserve Bin 8580
{cork} Mid yellow. Restrained nose, soft melon fruit on the palate but nicely structured with shadowing acidity. Understated but promising wine.
Red
1994 Lindeman's Shiraz Bin 8803
{cork} Sibling similarity with the ‘95 is evident, although this is a bit earthier with a pepper note to the flavours and a grippy grape tannin astringency.
Red
1995 Lindeman's Shiraz Bin 9003
{cork} Less pungent than the preceding bottle ‘94 vintage. Cherry/plum nose, almost with a liquorice flavour on the palate. Pronounced tannins too. Doesn’t really seem built for the long haul (the xx03 Bin number being the ‘regular’ release as opposed to the ‘00’ or ‘10’ reserve versions).
Red
1988 Lindeman's Shiraz Steven Hermitage Bin 7625
{cork} Dark-hued but closed nose. Palate suggests that’s just because the fruit has faded away. There’s nowt left but a hollow tannin astringency. To be fair, it was a dreadful vintage with endless rain.
Red
1996 Lindeman's Shiraz Steven Bin 9225
{cork} Intense purple colour. Lifted plum fruit, strong grapey tannins. Always with the gentle smeary hunter palate texture though. The caveat is that the finish is a bit short, to be honest. Takes the edge off.
Red
1996 Lindeman's Cabernet Sauvignon St. George
{cork} Deep red/purple. Blackcurrant and a touch of herb. Smooth entry initially, with sweet black fruit, with strong, fine oak tannins following. Still very young, but promising.
Red
1996 Lindeman's Shiraz - Cabernet Limestone Ridge Vineyard
{cork} Warm spicy shiraz cuts through black cabernet. Oak is almost overpowering, but the fruit fights back. Medium/full weight. Seems better balanced overall than the St George.
Red
1996 Lindeman's Pyrus
{cork} Perhaps the pick of the Coonawarra trio this vintage on this tasting. Great balance of raspberry fruit, acid and oak tannin in medium/full body. Medium length finish but has all the goods to age gracefully.
White - Sweet/Dessert
1994 Lindeman's Riesling Botrytis Padthaway
{375ml, cork} Usual apricot botrytis nose, although with a bit more purity compared to Semillon-based examples. But the fading acidity is letting this sag a little. Medium length finish but would be better at a cooler temperature. Drink up.
Flight 7 (8 notes)
White
1998 Pepper Tree Sémillon Sauvignon Blanc
{cork} Almost colourless. Grassy nose; seems to be riding on acid without much obvious fruit. The SB (I think) is from McLaren Vale of all places; seems to give it a palate warmth. Still, it finish a bit sharp and harsh.
White
1998 Pepper Tree Chardonnay Unwooded
{cork} Pears and melon. A hint of malo character. The fruit shines without an oak curtain and the acidity is emphasised. Not bad.
White
1997 Pepper Tree Chardonnay
{cork} A multi-region effort – semi-trailer blend. Melons and French oak. Nose is reticent though. Cashews and malo/butter on the palate. Acid works though. Decent enough.
White
N.V. Pepper Tree Frost Hollow
{cork} Nebulous melon fruit. Multi-vintage. Grassy semillon dominates seemingly, but the palate is soft and fat with little acid evident. Feels like an attempt to get ‘chardonnay’ on the label when there wasn’t enough of it around! Dull stuff.
White
1998 Pepper Tree Gewürztraminer
{cork} Extra sweet-smelling aromas with rosewater and violets. Surprisingly dry palate with medium acidity but a fairly one-dimensional flavour.
Red
N.V. Pepper Tree Mulberry Row
{cork} Multi-vintage, seriously! Pretty base level wine though, with sweet stewed jam flavour lacking much in the way of structure (acid, tannin). Oh dear.
Red
1998 Pepper Tree Shiraz Limited Release Hunter Valley
{cork} Deep crimson colour. Berries and plums. Rich and full on the palate, even if the fruit seems more earthy. But then it finishes rather on the front of the tongue. Curious. Time might help.
Red
1998 Pepper Tree Cabernet Merlot Franc
{cork} Quite impressive. Blackcurrant on the nose, plenty of fine bitter tannins, coats the palate properly, good length finish. Decent stuff which should ago OK.