St Hugo Coonawarra Cabernet Vertical spanning 3 Decades (Merce's Castle): Under cork which came out in one piece and was in excellent condition. From the famed 1998 “unicorn” vintage. Great colour, deep bright red with beautiful aromas of sweet dark fruit, spice and vanilla (oak). Very rich on the palate, big, powerful, but well balanced and flavoursome. This is a show pony … a look at me, look at me wine!! Not overly complex like the 1996 before it, but fruit driven with blackcurrant and berry … with a long, long integrated silky tannin finish. One in the group thought it finished a little bitter. Definitely a crowd pleaser and has plenty left in the tank, but unlike the 1996 won’t improve with further bottle age. Lives up to the hype of the vintage but lacking the X factor for me.
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Cork was in good condition. Stained half way. Deep red with slight bricking to the edges. Nose quite developed, cedar, tobacco, sweet dark, ripe fruits, lot's of spice. Quite complex. Palate; the first thing that hits you is how smoooth this is. Cherry and dark plum. Tannins have melted and totally integrated. The finish is very flavoursome and rounded. Really lovelly drinking now. Kept in good conditions this should hold a while. A beautiful mature Coonawarra dry red. 94+
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On the nose, a harmonious blend of old mellow oak stained with violets and blackcurrant. Tannins have softened considerable, still a luscious balance of sweet mild fruits and dried herbs. Drink it now, before it fades, you won't be able to leave the bottle unfinished.
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NobleRottersSydney - Cabernet & blends (Fix, St James, Sydney): {cork, 13%} [Geoffrey] This makes up for the Rosemount, though. Well-developed aromas. Dark cassis with some herbs on the nose. But also malty, even resinous oak too. The palate is very ‘cabernet’, with some classic Australia mint to add to the basically black-fruited flavours. There’s some vanilla oak quality here too. It’s a bit light-on for complexity, being a bit one-dimensional, but it has plenty of body and presence on the tongue. Drink up though, it’s nowhere left to go except downhill now.
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12/2/2023 - sthugo Likes this wine:
St Hugo Coonawarra Cabernet Vertical spanning 3 Decades (Merce's Castle): Under cork which came out in one piece and was in excellent condition. From the famed 1998 “unicorn” vintage. Great colour, deep bright red with beautiful aromas of sweet dark fruit, spice and vanilla (oak). Very rich on the palate, big, powerful, but well balanced and flavoursome. This is a show pony … a look at me, look at me wine!! Not overly complex like the 1996 before it, but fruit driven with blackcurrant and berry … with a long, long integrated silky tannin finish. One in the group thought it finished a little bitter. Definitely a crowd pleaser and has plenty left in the tank, but unlike the 1996 won’t improve with further bottle age. Lives up to the hype of the vintage but lacking the X factor for me.
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1/31/2023 - Vintage1961 Likes this wine: 94 Points
Cork was in good condition. Stained half way.
Deep red with slight bricking to the edges. Nose quite developed, cedar, tobacco, sweet dark, ripe fruits, lot's of spice. Quite complex.
Palate; the first thing that hits you is how smoooth this is. Cherry and dark plum. Tannins have melted and totally integrated. The finish is very flavoursome and rounded.
Really lovelly drinking now. Kept in good conditions this should hold a while.
A beautiful mature Coonawarra dry red. 94+
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8/13/2022 - mralanchan Likes this wine: 92 Points
On the nose, a harmonious blend of old mellow oak stained with violets and blackcurrant. Tannins have softened considerable, still a luscious balance of sweet mild fruits and dried herbs. Drink it now, before it fades, you won't be able to leave the bottle unfinished.
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7/6/2022 - graemeg wrote:
NobleRottersSydney - Cabernet & blends (Fix, St James, Sydney): {cork, 13%} [Geoffrey] This makes up for the Rosemount, though. Well-developed aromas. Dark cassis with some herbs on the nose. But also malty, even resinous oak too. The palate is very ‘cabernet’, with some classic Australia mint to add to the basically black-fruited flavours. There’s some vanilla oak quality here too. It’s a bit light-on for complexity, being a bit one-dimensional, but it has plenty of body and presence on the tongue. Drink up though, it’s nowhere left to go except downhill now.
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4/17/2022 - mhellyer65 Likes this wine: 91 Points
Rich berry notes good colour great wine
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