First Wednesday Wine Club (Bella Puglia, Five Dock): Served blind leather, liquorice, black plum tends to prune. Juicy acidity, red and black fruit, a little almost sweetness, plenty of grip is woody tight, minty elements. For some reason I had Heathcote Shiraz in my head.
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Hard to believe this is from 1996. Obviously well cellared. Bottles like these surely must comfortably sail through another 20 years.. no maybe not, the cork is likely to begin to fail (it wasn’t an expensive looking cork).
13%, cork.
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Opened at last Fri wine group. Decanted 2 hours earlier. Drank well and stood up well against Black label and st Hugo. I think the wine will not get better and I will drink the next two bottles soon. Perhaps just a decline in fruit with age.
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The nose is clean. The aromas have a medium(-) intensity and show notes of herbal characters (eucalyptus, mint), mineral (menthol), and vegetable characters (subtle potato [apparently via pyrazines]). The wine appears youthful on the nose [it is difficult to assess the development due to the aroma intensity and my sensitivity to pyrazines; primary only, no tertiary notes].
On the palate, the wine is dry with medium(+) acidity, medium alcohol, and full body. The high level tannins are ripe with a nature similar to wet and dry sandpaper. The flavours have a medium(+) intensity showing notes of black fruit (blackberry, blackcurrant), oak (vanilla, cedar), bottle-age characters (new leather), and herbal and mineral characters (eucalyptus, menthol). The finish has a medium(+) length.
This is a very good quality wine. The flavours are concentrated and have a great balance with the alcohol and the acidity. The ripe tannins provide a great textural component, and have a good balance with the acidity. In its current state, the wine shows complexity with primary, secondary, and tertiary characteristics. The oak treatment is well-integrated complementing the primary and tertiary characters. While there is a bunch of pyrazines on the nose, the black fruit, oak treatment, and tertiary notes are more prominent on the palate, with the pyrazines holding a more complementary role in the flavour profile. The wine has a finish with great length.
The wine drinks well now, but has potential for further ageing. The primary fruit is still quite vibrant, the flavour intensity is great, and the tannin and acid structure should support the wine as the tertiary notes continue to develop.
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Haut Medoc Birthday lunch (Bel & Brio, Barangaroo): Polished oak; caramel, vanilla, blackberry and currant fruit. Earthy leathery, sweet spice. Thick, dense and a little alcohol n the palate, plenty of oak juicy, similarly focussed fruit. Nice.
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Coravin fun - new arrivals (My place, Kent Street): From Coravin. Biscuit, leather, a little gamey, plentiful sweet spice, slightly dusty cigar box and ripe/stewed black fruit. On the palate it's juicy with Ribena fruit, soft, leathery tannins, a little spice, cedar, long, harmonious…
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GMs - Casual Fridays September 2017: Dark coloured. Cedar and mint, with menthol, redcurrant and blackcurrant with some chocolate as well - good mix of everything. Quite rich fruit on the palate, still showing good youth with a vibrancy as well as good structure. Really well balanced.
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Very similar comments to previously (March 2015) Excellent, classy wine, quite elegant and still in prime. 13% alc. Colour: clear black berry Bouquet: intense blackberry, mint and eucalyptus, cedar, cigar box, vanilla, French oak, toasty. Palate: as bouquet, full bodied, big soft tannins, very full bodied but in a velvet glove, silky, long clean finish, great structure, green olives, blackberry, plum and vanilla, soft full but fine grained tannins, and long dry finish. Great balance and poise. August 2016
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Terroir-istes International - Australia-Bordeaux Blends (Groot Constantia): (Tasted Blind): Deep ruby-black colour showing aromas of dark chocolate, mocha, undergrowth and black fruits. The palate is complex and enticing and displays excellent fruit concentration, intensity, and power. The mid-palate is juicy and fleshy, with a prominent fruit core emphasising blackcurrant and berry notes, black plum, mocha, vanilla and tobacco with a hint of eucalyptus—pliable tannins with a grip reminiscent of limestone. Perhaps not the depth of some wines; the finish is long and savoury.
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Wish I had more of this. Opened my last w Motz in his honor. At almost 20 yrs it's still rippin butt. Tasted over 3 days and was so intrigued by it's strength and complexity. RIP. 93+
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Still sportin' rippin' acids, a highly appealing, harmonious bouquet (that screams red soils (Coonawarra)) and a mélange of eucalyptus, mint, bay, and basil, and a powerful palate guaranteed to rock (pun intended) the taster's world!!!
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This is pushing 94 for sheer pleasure. My favorite aged Australian anything at this point. What a bottle. Sad to see it go, but that's what wine is. Fleeting enjoyment whose perfection lingers on the mind forever. Beautiful.
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Excellent, classy wine, Colour: clear black berry Bouquet: intense blackberry, mint and eucalyptus, cedar, French oak, toasty. Palate: as bouquet, full bodied, big soft tannins, very full bodied but in a velvet glove, silky, long clean finish, great structure, fine grained tannins, and dry finish. March 2015
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Exactly as I remembered it. Definitely had some great se aus funk, tomatoes, brush...dark ripe fruit, almost cooked...a nice amount of pebbly minerality to it too. At the price I got them at, an absolute steal. So good!
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Consistent with previous notes. It needs several hours of air to show its best, and it has a lot of 'best'! Great mouthfeel, texture, weight, and grip. Delicious!
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Wow! At the price we got it at, this had a fantastic attack. Big fruit, and all kinds of acid, and a surprising amount of tannin. Had blind, and honestly, from the get go, it seemed like it had a CDP nose on it - big stone and graphite. On the palate, it almost seemed like a quality Washington cabernet. If you can find it anymore, it is well worth it.
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A very serious Cabernet Sauvignon that gives no indication of its age. Vibrant, stalwart, and nuanced. It should continue to shine for several more years.
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It is really difficult to describe just how awesome this wine is!!! Upon opening, and for the first couple of hours, it was very nice. By the third hour, it opened and turned into a massive Cabernet Sauvignon with tremendous structural grip. At eighteen years old, it's still very lively. Oak is almost completely integrated. By the third hour it put my mind to great vintage Bordeaux...it's that good!!! Got it on a ridiculous closeout for $10.
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This wine was holding up beautifully and a flat steal at $10! A big note of green olives and slight jalapenos followed by mature fruits of plum, and muddled berries a ton of cigar box, dried herbal notes and pencil shavings. It slight tannins on the palate with mature fruit and accents. Great with BBQ'd ribs.
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NobleRottersSydney - 1996 South Aust reds (Alio's, Surry Hills): [cork, 13%] {DavidM} Opened as a back-up, with so many earlier disappointments; all this did was add to them. A dark green olive note; developing, but dark and subdued aromas constituted the nose. The palate was lean and mean; has some leafy cabernet-derived black fruits in an aged way; soft gritty tannins, about medium-bodied weight, and a washed-out, short finish. Oh dear. As it turned out, this was a harbinger of Lindemans Coonawarra for the following ten years. Another dud, although I suspect this is a typical example, unlike the night’s previous poor bottles.
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This is a lovely wine with still some way to go. The nose is fragrant plum and oak. The taste very fruity with well integrated tannins and good length. Colour very deep. Jeremy Oliver, the Australian wine expert, having originally said the wine should be drunk by 2004, is now giving a drinking window of 2008-2016.
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NobleRottersSydney - 1996 night (Lucio's, Paddington): I really can’t get past a hugely US-oaked nose on this wine. There is a hint of buried blackberry fruit, but really the palate’s all tannin. And yet it finishes rather short, despite the astringency. I tasted this exactly 5 years ago at the Hunter Valley CD, and the tannins appear to have receded not one jot. Not drinkable yet! May one day come together, but I wouldn’t like to put the house on it…
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1/24/2024 - chatters wrote:
First Wednesday Wine Club (Bella Puglia, Five Dock): Served blind
leather, liquorice, black plum tends to prune. Juicy acidity, red and black fruit, a little almost sweetness, plenty of grip is woody tight, minty elements.
For some reason I had Heathcote Shiraz in my head.
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9/5/2022 - ProfByron Likes this wine: 92 Points
Same as previous note.
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9/22/2020 - ProfByron Likes this wine: 92 Points
Remarkably dark colour.
Very fragrant (pristine cork obviously), mint, chocolate, cassis. Noticeable oak at least at prior to breathing.
Sweet intense minty fruit, menthol, with chalky tannin finish. Lovely acid. Nice weight. Fresh, classy. Concentrated.
Distinctly Coonawarra.
Match to strongly flavoured food.
Hard to believe this is from 1996. Obviously well cellared. Bottles like these surely must comfortably sail through another 20 years.. no maybe not, the cork is likely to begin to fail (it wasn’t an expensive looking cork).
13%, cork.
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6/1/2020 - ken.payne Likes this wine: 98 Points
Stunning and the years ahead of it
Fruit and acid and tannins all in beautiful balance
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10/27/2019 - Pins wrote:
Opened at last Fri wine group. Decanted 2 hours earlier. Drank well and stood up well against Black label and st Hugo.
I think the wine will not get better and I will drink the next two bottles soon. Perhaps just a decline in fruit with age.
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12/15/2018 - CBRwineguy wrote:
Haut-Medoc lunch (Bel & Brio, Barangaroo, Sydney): The appearance is clear and deep ruby in colour. Tears are visible.
The nose is clean. The aromas have a medium(-) intensity and show notes of herbal characters (eucalyptus, mint), mineral (menthol), and vegetable characters (subtle potato [apparently via pyrazines]). The wine appears youthful on the nose [it is difficult to assess the development due to the aroma intensity and my sensitivity to pyrazines; primary only, no tertiary notes].
On the palate, the wine is dry with medium(+) acidity, medium alcohol, and full body. The high level tannins are ripe with a nature similar to wet and dry sandpaper. The flavours have a medium(+) intensity showing notes of black fruit (blackberry, blackcurrant), oak (vanilla, cedar), bottle-age characters (new leather), and herbal and mineral characters (eucalyptus, menthol). The finish has a medium(+) length.
This is a very good quality wine. The flavours are concentrated and have a great balance with the alcohol and the acidity. The ripe tannins provide a great textural component, and have a good balance with the acidity. In its current state, the wine shows complexity with primary, secondary, and tertiary characteristics. The oak treatment is well-integrated complementing the primary and tertiary characters. While there is a bunch of pyrazines on the nose, the black fruit, oak treatment, and tertiary notes are more prominent on the palate, with the pyrazines holding a more complementary role in the flavour profile. The wine has a finish with great length.
The wine drinks well now, but has potential for further ageing. The primary fruit is still quite vibrant, the flavour intensity is great, and the tannin and acid structure should support the wine as the tertiary notes continue to develop.
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12/15/2018 - chatters wrote:
Haut Medoc Birthday lunch (Bel & Brio, Barangaroo): Polished oak; caramel, vanilla, blackberry and currant fruit. Earthy leathery, sweet spice. Thick, dense and a little alcohol n the palate, plenty of oak juicy, similarly focussed fruit. Nice.
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10/13/2018 - chatters wrote:
Coravin fun - new arrivals (My place, Kent Street): From Coravin. Biscuit, leather, a little gamey, plentiful sweet spice, slightly dusty cigar box and ripe/stewed black fruit. On the palate it's juicy with Ribena fruit, soft, leathery tannins, a little spice, cedar, long, harmonious…
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9/1/2017 - CamWheeler wrote: 91 Points
GMs - Casual Fridays September 2017: Dark coloured. Cedar and mint, with menthol, redcurrant and blackcurrant with some chocolate as well - good mix of everything. Quite rich fruit on the palate, still showing good youth with a vibrancy as well as good structure. Really well balanced.
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8/14/2016 - rmarkey Likes this wine: 96 Points
Very similar comments to previously (March 2015)
Excellent, classy wine, quite elegant and still in prime. 13% alc.
Colour: clear black berry
Bouquet: intense blackberry, mint and eucalyptus, cedar, cigar box, vanilla, French oak, toasty.
Palate: as bouquet, full bodied, big soft tannins, very full bodied but in a velvet glove, silky, long clean finish, great structure, green olives, blackberry, plum and vanilla, soft full but fine grained tannins, and long dry finish. Great balance and poise.
August 2016
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6/6/2016 - rikipedia Likes this wine: 91 Points
Terroir-istes International - Australia-Bordeaux Blends (Groot Constantia): (Tasted Blind): Deep ruby-black colour showing aromas of dark chocolate, mocha, undergrowth and black fruits.
The palate is complex and enticing and displays excellent fruit concentration, intensity, and power. The mid-palate is juicy and fleshy, with a prominent fruit core emphasising blackcurrant and berry notes, black plum, mocha, vanilla and tobacco with a hint of eucalyptus—pliable tannins with a grip reminiscent of limestone. Perhaps not the depth of some wines; the finish is long and savoury.
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7/7/2015 - olddominion wrote: 93 Points
Wish I had more of this. Opened my last w Motz in his honor. At almost 20 yrs it's still rippin butt. Tasted over 3 days and was so intrigued by it's strength and complexity. RIP. 93+
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6/30/2015 - Motz wrote: 93 Points
Still sportin' rippin' acids, a highly appealing, harmonious bouquet (that screams red soils (Coonawarra)) and a mélange of eucalyptus, mint, bay, and basil, and a powerful palate guaranteed to rock (pun intended) the taster's world!!!
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5/18/2015 - Johnfromspokane wrote: 93 Points
This is pushing 94 for sheer pleasure. My favorite aged Australian anything at this point. What a bottle. Sad to see it go, but that's what wine is. Fleeting enjoyment whose perfection lingers on the mind forever. Beautiful.
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3/20/2015 - rmarkey Likes this wine: 96 Points
Excellent, classy wine,
Colour: clear black berry
Bouquet: intense blackberry, mint and eucalyptus, cedar, French oak, toasty.
Palate: as bouquet, full bodied, big soft tannins, very full bodied but in a velvet glove, silky, long clean finish, great structure, fine grained tannins, and dry finish.
March 2015
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1/25/2015 - sphBacchus wrote: 89 Points
Still fresh but too sweet for my taste
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1/2/2015 - Johnfromspokane wrote: 91 Points
Exactly as I remembered it. Definitely had some great se aus funk, tomatoes, brush...dark ripe fruit, almost cooked...a nice amount of pebbly minerality to it too. At the price I got them at, an absolute steal. So good!
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9/28/2014 - Motz wrote: 92 Points
Consistent with previous notes. It needs several hours of air to show its best, and it has a lot of 'best'! Great mouthfeel, texture, weight, and grip. Delicious!
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9/25/2014 - Johnfromspokane wrote: 91 Points
Wow! At the price we got it at, this had a fantastic attack. Big fruit, and all kinds of acid, and a surprising amount of tannin. Had blind, and honestly, from the get go, it seemed like it had a CDP nose on it - big stone and graphite. On the palate, it almost seemed like a quality Washington cabernet. If you can find it anymore, it is well worth it.
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4/14/2014 - Motz wrote: 92 Points
A very serious Cabernet Sauvignon that gives no indication of its age. Vibrant, stalwart, and nuanced. It should continue to shine for several more years.
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3/23/2014 - Motz wrote: 91 Points
This bottle had not held together as well as the last one, but it was still excellent.
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2/18/2014 - Motz wrote: 93 Points
It is really difficult to describe just how awesome this wine is!!! Upon opening, and for the first couple of hours, it was very nice. By the third hour, it opened and turned into a massive Cabernet Sauvignon with tremendous structural grip. At eighteen years old, it's still very lively. Oak is almost completely integrated. By the third hour it put my mind to great vintage Bordeaux...it's that good!!! Got it on a ridiculous closeout for $10.
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6/17/2013 - bajayngo wrote:
This wine was holding up beautifully and a flat steal at $10! A big note of green olives and slight jalapenos followed by mature fruits of plum, and muddled berries a ton of cigar box, dried herbal notes and pencil shavings. It slight tannins on the palate with mature fruit and accents. Great with BBQ'd ribs.
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2/2/2013 - Dsen Likes this wine: 92 Points
earthy and savoury, good balance and length, still will evolve over next few years. One bottle was corked but one was fine.
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12/30/2012 - sphBacchus Likes this wine: 89 Points
dark red but no bricking . Good balance of sweetness and acidity - cassis .
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11/5/2012 - graemeg wrote:
NobleRottersSydney - 1996 South Aust reds (Alio's, Surry Hills): [cork, 13%] {DavidM} Opened as a back-up, with so many earlier disappointments; all this did was add to them. A dark green olive note; developing, but dark and subdued aromas constituted the nose. The palate was lean and mean; has some leafy cabernet-derived black fruits in an aged way; soft gritty tannins, about medium-bodied weight, and a washed-out, short finish. Oh dear. As it turned out, this was a harbinger of Lindemans Coonawarra for the following ten years. Another dud, although I suspect this is a typical example, unlike the night’s previous poor bottles.
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10/26/2012 - sphBacchus wrote: 87 Points
20 months since opening a bottle of this and not as fresh as when tasted then but still good drinking
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2/20/2011 - sphBacchus wrote: 88 Points
really enjoyed this - infinitely better than the '97 . very dark with loads of fruit .
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12/28/2008 - cgutch wrote: 92 Points
This is a lovely wine with still some way to go. The nose is fragrant plum and oak. The taste very fruity with well integrated tannins and good length. Colour very deep. Jeremy Oliver, the Australian wine expert, having originally said the wine should be drunk by 2004, is now giving a drinking window of 2008-2016.
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6/2/2003 - graemeg wrote:
NobleRottersSydney - 1996 night (Lucio's, Paddington): I really can’t get past a hugely US-oaked nose on this wine. There is a hint of buried blackberry fruit, but really the palate’s all tannin. And yet it finishes rather short, despite the astringency. I tasted this exactly 5 years ago at the Hunter Valley CD, and the tannins appear to have receded not one jot. Not drinkable yet! May one day come together, but I wouldn’t like to put the house on it…
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1/13/2001 - SadEdjo wrote:
juicy strawberry & spice.
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8/15/1999 - graemeg wrote:
NobleRottersSydney - Hunter Valley; 8/13/1999-8/15/1999 (Hunter Valley): {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.
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