One of a final few bottles of 3 cases consistently enjoyed over the past 10+ years.....and this vintage just refuses to lie down and die. After 20 bottles of fused corks I finally decided to go first with a 'sommelier's friend' device and it all came out in one piece for the first time ever. Decanted for an hour then drank over 2 hours. Totally translucent faded red velvet colour but still bright and fresh. Nose is immediately a box of red plums left in a wooden case in a garden shed at the end of the summer.....and interesting counterpoint of red/black plum fruit and slightly sweet decay. Palate is immediate bright fresh acidity but very quickly overwhelmed by a Musar-like sweet strawberry incense that demonstrates the fruit fading, but in a lovely controlled way. Mildly reverberant and a bit too heady because the 14% alcohol still pokes through even at the end of the life of Aussie reds. But it gets silkier and more lightly liqueur-like with a couple of hours out of the bottle. A really lovely bottle of wine drank over a home-cooked dried angus steak......this just refuses to die and to let me get on with the 2002 (the subsequent great vintage). Bravo!
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Opened and consumed at cellar temperature with no decant......the last of three cases drank over the past 10 years and with a crumbled cork typical of all the recent bottles. Nose is high-toned red plum, red cherry and red liquorice bootlaces candy together with undertones of black coal and coal-tar soap (childhood memory) in the background. More earthy plum comes out with time in the glass. Palate is good acidity followed by autumnal plum fruit and cigarettes & cigars in an ashtray that are not quite unpleasant but I suspect will become so within another year or so. With extended time you get this rather interesting drying chalky plum liqueur taste that coats the mouth. Fully mature top-tier McLaren Vale Shiraz in its sundown period. An excellent examle if you were in a wine class of what a fully mature wine should taste like. Good heady and fleshy resonance and reverberance on the finish. A great drop that has given me super and consistent pleasure for the past 10+ years but now is time to bid adieu and move on to the 2002.
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Opened and decanted briefly after extracting a totally powdered cork that has been a feature of all my bottles in recent years. Typical very heavy sediment. Totally opaque liver-blood colour just lightening to plum red translucency at the meniscus, probably because of minimal decanting. Nose is eucalyptus and bright blackcurrant and blackberry fruit with some lovely damp red Australian earth. Palate is an immediate rush of confit plums, wallpaper paste and white chalk that segues into a lovely balance of dried red chilli in chilli oil and then notes of chinese red vinegar. Super dry, chalky finish. Good length and long high-toned resonance inside the head on the finale. Just like the St. Hallett Shiraz 1985 I drank earlier this week, this exhibits all the best aspects of fully evolved older Australian Shiraz from a great producer, although the Dead Arm still has more corks hanging around the brim of its hat. One of the last few bottles from several cases I bought many years ago in Hong Kong when wine duty was 80%. Still worth every cent but it's now time to move on to the 2002 vintage, which is the only subsequent vintage to match it in my opinion.
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"Welcome Back, Runny" Dinner (St. George Restaurant, Hullett House, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong): Decanted for 90 minutes or so before serving. Bright, transparent blood-red colour. Nose is earth…..deep, deep loamy earth. Palate is gorgeous chewy, black and red fruit balanced with fresh, bright acidity. Big growling resonance. Absolutely gorgeous and close to “at point” for a while before it closed up and went monolithic in the glass. Needs a few hours more decanting than we gave it.
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Intense ruby. Medium intensity nose of sweet vanilla, plum and dark fruit, developing into bacon fat with time in glass. Milky smooth palate, with good acid, fully developed fruit and evident oak. Rich and reasonably long.
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Decanted briefly. Stunningly deep red opaque colour with a lot of secondary sediment hanging in it and very light amber bricking at the meniscus. Nose is lovely rich, ripe autumn blackberries on a country lane bush in England after a very hot summer, Ayers rock dry red earth, some unobtrusive eucalyptus, brown shoe polish and shoe cream, and more of that lovely brambly and smoky aura. Palate is wonderfully poised acidic frame and firm but fully resolved tannins that together envelop gorgeous brambly late season blcackberries with a tart but warm finish. With more time in the glass it has all the dried Typhoo tea bags and old cigar character on the back end that I mentioned in my 1/29/2011 note. This continues to age very gracefully and benefits from slower more lingering drinking over several hours.....which, sadly, we didn't give this bottle. This is a great advert for how mid-range, well-made Aussie Shiraz can turn into something quite un-hooligan and very mesmerising after 15+ years. Anyone currently drinking the Dead Arm 2002, for example, is missing out on at least 40% of its future promise.
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Wedding Anniversary Dinner (The Library, Crown Wine Cellars, Hong Kong): Two bottles decanted 3 hours beforehand. Deep red opaque colour...almost blood-red. Nose is just the epitome of "sweaty saddle"....superb. Palate is a grand assertive harmony of brambly fruit acidity and soft leather plushness and age. Wonderful depth and length on the end with a really persistent finale of resonance inside the head despite my increasingly intrusive cold on the night. This rocked....more than any of the many bottles I have drank before.
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Almost seems as if Goldstone (see below) and I shared the same bottle, although I rate it higher. Graceful aging, elegant, complex, almost Bordeaux-style wine with an Australian/Syrah peppery edge of Eucalyptus and medicinal notes under a very powdery cork that almost seemed to be glued to the bottle. Secondary notes in the nose of earth, smoke, meat and overripe prunes. Hints of chocolate and figs. The freshness of this wine surprises, in a year that is supposed to be its end-of-maturity-platform. This bottle could - well stored - have survived five more years at least. Fortunately I have some more left.
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Decanted briefly and rescued from a powdery cork fused to the neck of the bottle. Deep ruby red semi opaque colour only very slightly lightening at the edges and with no bricking. Nose is deep loam, red earth, rich roadside brambles fruit, smoke, dark chocolate, mocha coffee, ripe rich fleshy plums, fresh prunes....the loam, plums and white mushrooms form the dominant bass notes. Palate is nice harmony between high notes of acidity and tart blackberries and tinned prunes with mouth- drying tobacco leaf on the back end that turns into dried Typhoo tea bags, bitter dark chocolate and burnt rubber. It has a very nicotine but not unpleasant finish. Some length and an interesting resonance in the head of red fruits and Sunday Mass incense. Finally it's all old cigar leaf and still sharp fleshy blackcurrant. Very interestingly complex and kalaedoscopic in the way you can't really pin it down on the finish...those tart, ripe blackcurrants have come back. Fully mature but not fading.
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Initial impressions aren't bad; rich dark fruited flavours accented by eucalyptus and touches of coffee, but with time the oak/coffee element really dominates and overwhelms everything else in the wine. Not particularly pleasant after the first couple of sips, this doesn't seem to be aging too gracefully.
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Two bottles decanted 7 hours in advance. Light red semi-translucent colour that makes it look much younger than its actual age. Lovely eucalyptus and fresh ripe plums velvety sweet nose. Palate is a lovely balance of refreshing acidity, deep rich plum compote fruit and mellow framing tannins. Good length and some resonance in the head on the finish. Very good indeed and one of the best showings of this wine I have drank in the past 10 years.
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Blood red semi-translucent colour dark at the core and thinning at the edges but it seemed to get darker with time in the decanter. Nose is initially tinned prunes then fresh red plums, eucalyptus, high-toned nail varnish remover that quickly evapourates, moving into rich black and red fruit stones, a bit of allspice, strawberries and then damp earth coming through....... very multi dimensional and constantly getting better as the hours unfold in the decanter. The palate has a very smooth, rounded attack of ripe black plums, raspberries, creosote, warm white mushrooms and juniper berries/old leather on the back end. Good length and a nice resonance inside the head at the end.......loganberries and black cherries. This is exhibiting increasing tertiary aromas and flavours but retains a lovely richness of fruit and very dusted tannins with a nicely balanced acidic backbone. Excellent.
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Drank over a leisurely relaxed but chilly post-New Year lunch at Top Deck in Aberdeen, Hong Kong. This was my contribution to the lunch but it didn't sing enough for me to make a detailed note. Nose is prunes compote, eucalypyus and a touch of sweaty new saddle leather. Similar palate but with quite striking and not properly integrated acidity. Immemorable length and resonance. I have had better bottles of this.
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Pre-Opening Dinner at Union J Restaurant, Hong Kong (Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Hong Kong): Black, totally opaque colour. Quiet nose but full of deep, deep welcoming red fruit, raw meat and beef broth coming through over time. Lovely palate of beef broth and dark red and black fruits with good acidity and some considerable grip. Good length. This bottle hadn't been decanted in advance and would certainly have scored higher had it been. This wine is in a great place now and will remain there for at least 5-7 more years.
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Two bottles decanted for two hours and drank over a long leisurely lunch at Top Deck in Hong Kong. Black/red inpenetrable and hardly tanslucent colour with just faint transparency at the miniscus. A lovely, "in your face" nose of classic McLaren Vale shiraz.....all damp earth, sweaty new saddle leather and touches of menthol and warm Rosemary bushes. Deep, rich blackberries, cassis and blueberries sweet palate that later throws out mocha coffee and white chocolate but with a mix of acidity and tannins that you need a knife and fork to cut through. Still extremely primary compared to both the 1999 and 1980 (not surprisingly) Ch Musars we paired against it. Reasonable length and resonance but needs another few more years to really show its true character. A great work in progress and not surprisingly one that Runny and I think of as a contender for Grange/Hill of Grace rivalry given another 10 years.
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Dinner at Chez Patrick Sun Street, Hong Kong (Chez Patrick Sun Street, Hong Kong): Perfect cork. Double-decanted 8 hours before drinking. Fantastic deep colour, looks very young still. Coffee beans, mocha, vanilla nose. Slightly tart palate but gorgeous predominance of deep red berries. Beautiful. The abiding impression is of a quite light and beautifully refined wine which would convert many who think that all Australian Shiraz in thick and chewy. There is lots of life left in this wine.
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Drunk with friends over the cheese course of dinner at Chez Patrick, Sun Street in Hong Kong. Double-decanted for 4 hours beforehand. Still a very deep red colour with no signs of bricking. Initial touches of VA blew away and the nose was very nice in a way more restrained way than most Australian Shiraz. That was a good prelude to the palate, which was a gorgeous blend of bramble, dark fruits, a hint of coffee and some nice oak. The tannins have broken down for the most part but the acidity has restrained from becoming over-predominent. Some length. Our guests were blown away by this but I think we have had it perform better in prior occasions. Could it be closing down before a final reprise?
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Drunk without food on a Mid-June 2006 Sunday evening. Very good indeed. Beautiful deep translucent colour with no fading at the rim, wonderful legs in the glass, a good complex mushrooms and spice nose, the nose is very good indeed and more remniscent of a Californian Cabernet than of a classic Aussie Shiraz. Very balanced and well structured in the mouth with great harmony and bags of small berry fruit very well balanced by oak and a touch of acid. More sublety than most Aussie Shiraz'. Reasonable length. I think this will continue to improve but don't see it seriously challenging Penfold's Grange or even the Hill of Grace. I have kept the two final glasses for tomorrow night. A bit more dark chocolate on the nose and something like strawberries has come out more in the mouth with some coffee aftertaste and a touch of old leather. Very nice.
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CT Group does Rhone Varietals @ Surf Village (Milford): Inky black in color. Intese aromas of roasted coconut, black fruit, and spice. Good weight on the palate. Great mouthfeel. Great wine! This is an in-your-face Australian if there ever was one.
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9/10/2016 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 91 Points
One of a final few bottles of 3 cases consistently enjoyed over the past 10+ years.....and this vintage just refuses to lie down and die. After 20 bottles of fused corks I finally decided to go first with a 'sommelier's friend' device and it all came out in one piece for the first time ever. Decanted for an hour then drank over 2 hours. Totally translucent faded red velvet colour but still bright and fresh. Nose is immediately a box of red plums left in a wooden case in a garden shed at the end of the summer.....and interesting counterpoint of red/black plum fruit and slightly sweet decay. Palate is immediate bright fresh acidity but very quickly overwhelmed by a Musar-like sweet strawberry incense that demonstrates the fruit fading, but in a lovely controlled way. Mildly reverberant and a bit too heady because the 14% alcohol still pokes through even at the end of the life of Aussie reds. But it gets silkier and more lightly liqueur-like with a couple of hours out of the bottle. A really lovely bottle of wine drank over a home-cooked dried angus steak......this just refuses to die and to let me get on with the 2002 (the subsequent great vintage). Bravo!
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7/5/2015 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 89 Points
Opened and consumed at cellar temperature with no decant......the last of three cases drank over the past 10 years and with a crumbled cork typical of all the recent bottles. Nose is high-toned red plum, red cherry and red liquorice bootlaces candy together with undertones of black coal and coal-tar soap (childhood memory) in the background. More earthy plum comes out with time in the glass. Palate is good acidity followed by autumnal plum fruit and cigarettes & cigars in an ashtray that are not quite unpleasant but I suspect will become so within another year or so. With extended time you get this rather interesting drying chalky plum liqueur taste that coats the mouth. Fully mature top-tier McLaren Vale Shiraz in its sundown period. An excellent examle if you were in a wine class of what a fully mature wine should taste like. Good heady and fleshy resonance and reverberance on the finish. A great drop that has given me super and consistent pleasure for the past 10+ years but now is time to bid adieu and move on to the 2002.
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12/30/2013 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 91 Points
Opened and decanted briefly after extracting a totally powdered cork that has been a feature of all my bottles in recent years. Typical very heavy sediment. Totally opaque liver-blood colour just lightening to plum red translucency at the meniscus, probably because of minimal decanting. Nose is eucalyptus and bright blackcurrant and blackberry fruit with some lovely damp red Australian earth. Palate is an immediate rush of confit plums, wallpaper paste and white chalk that segues into a lovely balance of dried red chilli in chilli oil and then notes of chinese red vinegar. Super dry, chalky finish. Good length and long high-toned resonance inside the head on the finale. Just like the St. Hallett Shiraz 1985 I drank earlier this week, this exhibits all the best aspects of fully evolved older Australian Shiraz from a great producer, although the Dead Arm still has more corks hanging around the brim of its hat. One of the last few bottles from several cases I bought many years ago in Hong Kong when wine duty was 80%. Still worth every cent but it's now time to move on to the 2002 vintage, which is the only subsequent vintage to match it in my opinion.
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7/24/2013 - peternelson wrote: 90 Points
Patina: sweet blackberry and tar, dry black earth finish, earthy cumin; slight chunky aspect, medium + tannins still.
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5/5/2013 - RayOB wrote: 93 Points
Drank at Home
Much better than the first bottle with a great complexity and subtleness from old Shiraz.
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9/14/2012 - Goldstone wrote: 91 Points
"Welcome Back, Runny" Dinner (St. George Restaurant, Hullett House, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong): Decanted for 90 minutes or so before serving. Bright, transparent blood-red colour. Nose is earth…..deep, deep loamy earth. Palate is gorgeous chewy, black and red fruit balanced with fresh, bright acidity. Big growling resonance. Absolutely gorgeous and close to “at point” for a while before it closed up and went monolithic in the glass. Needs a few hours more decanting than we gave it.
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7/21/2012 - G.M. wrote: 93 Points
Intense ruby. Medium intensity nose of sweet vanilla, plum and dark fruit, developing into bacon fat with time in glass. Milky smooth palate, with good acid, fully developed fruit and evident oak. Rich and reasonably long.
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3/17/2012 - RayOB wrote: 91 Points
d'Arenberg The Dead Arm Vertical '95 - '04: Medium bricking, dark core, ruby red
Slight nose of cherries, blackberries, eucalyptus, earth, tar, forest floor and burnt caramel
Medium finish
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12/27/2011 - Goldstone wrote: 91 Points
Decanted briefly. Stunningly deep red opaque colour with a lot of secondary sediment hanging in it and very light amber bricking at the meniscus. Nose is lovely rich, ripe autumn blackberries on a country lane bush in England after a very hot summer, Ayers rock dry red earth, some unobtrusive eucalyptus, brown shoe polish and shoe cream, and more of that lovely brambly and smoky aura. Palate is wonderfully poised acidic frame and firm but fully resolved tannins that together envelop gorgeous brambly late season blcackberries with a tart but warm finish. With more time in the glass it has all the dried Typhoo tea bags and old cigar character on the back end that I mentioned in my 1/29/2011 note. This continues to age very gracefully and benefits from slower more lingering drinking over several hours.....which, sadly, we didn't give this bottle. This is a great advert for how mid-range, well-made Aussie Shiraz can turn into something quite un-hooligan and very mesmerising after 15+ years. Anyone currently drinking the Dead Arm 2002, for example, is missing out on at least 40% of its future promise.
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9/30/2011 - trufflehunter wrote: 89 Points
Still drinking very nicely and surely will be good for a few years yet,.
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6/26/2011 - Goldstone wrote: 93 Points
Wedding Anniversary Dinner (The Library, Crown Wine Cellars, Hong Kong): Two bottles decanted 3 hours beforehand. Deep red opaque colour...almost blood-red. Nose is just the epitome of "sweaty saddle"....superb. Palate is a grand assertive harmony of brambly fruit acidity and soft leather plushness and age. Wonderful depth and length on the end with a really persistent finale of resonance inside the head despite my increasingly intrusive cold on the night. This rocked....more than any of the many bottles I have drank before.
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6/11/2011 - svdheijden wrote: 91 Points
Almost seems as if Goldstone (see below) and I shared the same bottle, although I rate it higher. Graceful aging, elegant, complex, almost Bordeaux-style wine with an Australian/Syrah peppery edge of Eucalyptus and medicinal notes under a very powdery cork that almost seemed to be glued to the bottle. Secondary notes in the nose of earth, smoke, meat and overripe prunes. Hints of chocolate and figs. The freshness of this wine surprises, in a year that is supposed to be its end-of-maturity-platform. This bottle could - well stored - have survived five more years at least. Fortunately I have some more left.
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3/23/2011 - Christine Beevers wrote:
ok
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1/29/2011 - Goldstone wrote: 89 Points
Decanted briefly and rescued from a powdery cork fused to the neck of the bottle. Deep ruby red semi opaque colour only very slightly lightening at the edges and with no bricking. Nose is deep loam, red earth, rich roadside brambles fruit, smoke, dark chocolate, mocha coffee, ripe rich fleshy plums, fresh prunes....the loam, plums and white mushrooms form the dominant bass notes. Palate is nice harmony between high notes of acidity and tart blackberries and tinned prunes with mouth- drying tobacco leaf on the back end that turns into dried Typhoo tea bags, bitter dark chocolate and burnt rubber. It has a very nicotine but not unpleasant finish. Some length and an interesting resonance in the head of red fruits and Sunday Mass incense. Finally it's all old cigar leaf and still sharp fleshy blackcurrant. Very interestingly complex and kalaedoscopic in the way you can't really pin it down on the finish...those tart, ripe blackcurrants have come back. Fully mature but not fading.
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11/23/2010 - salil wrote: 76 Points
Initial impressions aren't bad; rich dark fruited flavours accented by eucalyptus and touches of coffee, but with time the oak/coffee element really dominates and overwhelms everything else in the wine. Not particularly pleasant after the first couple of sips, this doesn't seem to be aging too gracefully.
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4/1/2010 - Goldstone wrote: 91 Points
Two bottles decanted 7 hours in advance. Light red semi-translucent colour that makes it look much younger than its actual age. Lovely eucalyptus and fresh ripe plums velvety sweet nose. Palate is a lovely balance of refreshing acidity, deep rich plum compote fruit and mellow framing tannins. Good length and some resonance in the head on the finish. Very good indeed and one of the best showings of this wine I have drank in the past 10 years.
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2/14/2010 - Goldstone wrote: 91 Points
Blood red semi-translucent colour dark at the core and thinning at the edges but it seemed to get darker with time in the decanter. Nose is initially tinned prunes then fresh red plums, eucalyptus, high-toned nail varnish remover that quickly evapourates, moving into rich black and red fruit stones, a bit of allspice, strawberries and then damp earth coming through....... very multi dimensional and constantly getting better as the hours unfold in the decanter. The palate has a very smooth, rounded attack of ripe black plums, raspberries, creosote, warm white mushrooms and juniper berries/old leather on the back end. Good length and a nice resonance inside the head at the end.......loganberries and black cherries. This is exhibiting increasing tertiary aromas and flavours but retains a lovely richness of fruit and very dusted tannins with a nicely balanced acidic backbone. Excellent.
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1/3/2010 - Goldstone wrote: 88 Points
Drank over a leisurely relaxed but chilly post-New Year lunch at Top Deck in Aberdeen, Hong Kong. This was my contribution to the lunch but it didn't sing enough for me to make a detailed note. Nose is prunes compote, eucalypyus and a touch of sweaty new saddle leather. Similar palate but with quite striking and not properly integrated acidity. Immemorable length and resonance. I have had better bottles of this.
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3/19/2009 - Goldstone wrote: 92 Points
Pre-Opening Dinner at Union J Restaurant, Hong Kong (Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Hong Kong): Black, totally opaque colour. Quiet nose but full of deep, deep welcoming red fruit, raw meat and beef broth coming through over time. Lovely palate of beef broth and dark red and black fruits with good acidity and some considerable grip. Good length. This bottle hadn't been decanted in advance and would certainly have scored higher had it been. This wine is in a great place now and will remain there for at least 5-7 more years.
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1/1/2009 - Goldstone wrote: 90 Points
Two bottles decanted for two hours and drank over a long leisurely lunch at Top Deck in Hong Kong. Black/red inpenetrable and hardly tanslucent colour with just faint transparency at the miniscus. A lovely, "in your face" nose of classic McLaren Vale shiraz.....all damp earth, sweaty new saddle leather and touches of menthol and warm Rosemary bushes. Deep, rich blackberries, cassis and blueberries sweet palate that later throws out mocha coffee and white chocolate but with a mix of acidity and tannins that you need a knife and fork to cut through. Still extremely primary compared to both the 1999 and 1980 (not surprisingly) Ch Musars we paired against it. Reasonable length and resonance but needs another few more years to really show its true character. A great work in progress and not surprisingly one that Runny and I think of as a contender for Grange/Hill of Grace rivalry given another 10 years.
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1/26/2008 - Goldstone wrote: 92 Points
Dinner at Chez Patrick Sun Street, Hong Kong (Chez Patrick Sun Street, Hong Kong): Perfect cork. Double-decanted 8 hours before drinking. Fantastic deep colour, looks very young still. Coffee beans, mocha, vanilla nose. Slightly tart palate but gorgeous predominance of deep red berries. Beautiful. The abiding impression is of a quite light and beautifully refined wine which would convert many who think that all Australian Shiraz in thick and chewy. There is lots of life left in this wine.
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11/2/2007 - SBA Guru wrote: 93 Points
Great with Chili and a cuban cigar.
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10/22/2007 - burg72 wrote: 90 Points
sehr guter Wein mit süsslicher Frucht. sehr ausgewogen und guten Tanninen. Trotz alledem etwas enttäuschend nach all den Vorschusslorbeeren.
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10/1/2007 - SBA Guru wrote: 93 Points
Much better then last bottle. Drank with Cigar, smokey flavor was a perfect fit with a nice Cuban.
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6/9/2007 - Goldstone wrote: 89 Points
Drunk with friends over the cheese course of dinner at Chez Patrick, Sun Street in Hong Kong. Double-decanted for 4 hours beforehand. Still a very deep red colour with no signs of bricking. Initial touches of VA blew away and the nose was very nice in a way more restrained way than most Australian Shiraz. That was a good prelude to the palate, which was a gorgeous blend of bramble, dark fruits, a hint of coffee and some nice oak. The tannins have broken down for the most part but the acidity has restrained from becoming over-predominent. Some length. Our guests were blown away by this but I think we have had it perform better in prior occasions. Could it be closing down before a final reprise?
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4/15/2007 - SBA Guru wrote: 88 Points
Same
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4/6/2007 - SBA Guru wrote: 88 Points
Not the same style as later vintages or I had a cooked bottle
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3/11/2007 - padapuma wrote: 93 Points
Turned me onto aussi shiraz with a little bit of age. Smooth fruit and pleasurable tannins.
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6/16/2005 - Goldstone wrote: 92 Points
Drunk without food on a Mid-June 2006 Sunday evening. Very good indeed. Beautiful deep translucent colour with no fading at the rim, wonderful legs in the glass, a good complex mushrooms and spice nose, the nose is very good indeed and more remniscent of a Californian Cabernet than of a classic Aussie Shiraz. Very balanced and well structured in the mouth with great harmony and bags of small berry fruit very well balanced by oak and a touch of acid. More sublety than most Aussie Shiraz'. Reasonable length. I think this will continue to improve but don't see it seriously challenging Penfold's Grange or even the Hill of Grace. I have kept the two final glasses for tomorrow night. A bit more dark chocolate on the nose and something like strawberries has come out more in the mouth with some coffee aftertaste and a touch of old leather. Very nice.
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6/1/1998 - mdefreitas wrote: 95 Points
CT Group does Rhone Varietals @ Surf Village (Milford): Inky black in color. Intese aromas of roasted coconut, black fruit, and spice. Good weight on the palate. Great mouthfeel. Great wine! This is an in-your-face Australian if there ever was one.
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