Epping RSL, Sydney
Tasted Saturday, September 17, 2011 by graemeg with 775 views
This year’s New Release tasting of Private Bin wines was hosted in Sydney by Chris Tyrrell, fifth-generation scion of the family and member of the current winemaking team. It’s the swansong for the standard ISO glasses, evidently; some of these rather subtle reds look none-too-exciting in their “little glass prisons”, as James Halliday is prone to refer to them. Tyrrell gave a quick background on the 2011 vintage, which across the country was a near-universal failure due to record rainfall, save two regions alone; the Hunter, which threaded its way between early drenching rains in November-December and later baking heat from New Year’s Day to emerge broadly successful, and Margaret River, right at the other end of the continent, where they had one of the driest seasons on record. Hunter winemakers apparently enjoyed the unique experience of fielding telephone calls from Barossa wineries seeking advice on handling mould and rot…
These struggled with the January heat, and although the alcohols look fairly normal, and the pHs hover around the 3.0 – 3.1 mark, they are pretty generously flavoured. With quite soft acids (perhaps Vat 1 apart) these will be best in the short-medium term, I reckon.
As planted in the Hunter, these resisted the vintage heat quite well according to Tyrrell, shutting down completely and riding out the wave; the dehydration and sunburn that afflicted the semillons failed to eventuate here. With all fruit picked by Feb 9, it’s a clear ‘chardonnay’ vintage, although the Private Bin range of labels for this grape is only half that of the semillons.
A lighter year for what is already a pretty light style of wine. Tyrrell was candid in his opinion of a lot of Antipodean pinot, finding them all fruit and no palate interest (step forward New Zealand). This is the fourth year out of the last eight they’ve made this, and when Chris gives it a 5-8 year drinking window you might wonder what the point is of making it at all. Try some inherent stubbornness, a nod to O’Shea’s old pre-WWII wines, pride that these NV6 clones are probably some of the oldest pinot vines in Australia, but mostly just because they want to. Good on them for that.
The tricky 2010 vintage is evidenced by the absence of the 4 Acres from the line-up (blended away elsewhere). Perhaps the other single vineyard centenary wines only just made the cut; this would be the first time probably since 2004 that the cross-vineyard blend Vat 9 is clearly the pick of the traditional reds. And if the ability of vintage to trump pedigree within a vineyard is required, look no further than the 2009 regular release of the Stevens shiraz against the Old Patch flagship from 2010 for an object lesson in this fraught question.
There were just the two other reds in the masterclass tasting, with the Hilltops cabernet losing its ‘Vat 70’ moniker this year. In response to a question, Tyrrell conceded that a lot of the reds around the turn of the century are brett-riddled to varying degrees; Tyrrell’s were far from alone in this, and I’ve noticed quite a few Australian prestige/flagship reds from the late 90s suffering the same smelly fate. Chris stated that they regard any brett as an outright fault and have since moved away from the higher pH levels of those flawed years.
The Brokenback shiraz was on tasting at the open bar which I sampled afterwards, so didn’t get the back-and-forth comparison I applied to the other reds.
An invaluable tasting. When was the last time you tasted 8 new release reds and none of them were over 13.5%? Prices listed are for club members; retail will be higher. Although the ‘open bar’ is worthwhile, with many of these wines the differences between them are so subtle that you really need a glass of each to go back and forward between them, or the nuance is lost. Except for the chardonnays, I felt this year’s releases didn’t quite match their counterparts from the previous year’s vintage, but they’re still a worthy set of wines, and the 09 Stevens shiraz is a solid find.
2011 Tyrrell's Sémillon Single Vineyard Stevens
Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{screwcap, 11%, A$22} A generous splash of youthful lemon-detergent and cut-grass aromas. The palate has warm grassy/straw flavours, with a distinct lemon twist, it’s dry, sits rather towards the front palate and finishes clean and fresh. Light-medium bodied, with a medium-length finish and medium acid, it’s a sound if fairly generous example of the style which is probably best over the next 5 or so years.
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2011 Tyrrell's Sémillon Single Vineyard Belford
Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley, Belford
{screwcap, 11.4%, A$22} Belford is back, after the hailed-out 2010, but it seems to have suffered worst in the vintage heat, with a surprisingly developed nose of lemon/lime aromas, a vaguely sweaty note and even a touch of honey. The acid is quite soft here, with the result that it feels dense, almost medium-bodied, with rich honeyed flavours of medium intensity. The structure isn’t so robust; the flavours tend to congregate on the tip of the tongue, and although there’s an interesting interplay between the sweetness of the flavour and the actual dryness (ie. no residual sugar) of the palate, the finish is only about short-medium length. Enjoyable enough now, but there’s little to be gained cellaring this; I’d say drink within 3 years for best reward.
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2011 Tyrrell's Sémillon Vat 1
Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{screwcap, 11.5%, A$36} Classic lime and mineral nose. This blend of the best of the winery’s own blocks seems nearest to its usual standard. Although the palate is the most mineral of the semillons, a strong citric note ensures it still remains quite generously-flavoured. Medium-high levels of acid add to the purity of the texture and intensity of the palate; there’s is plenty of presence right the length of the tongue. It all culminates in a long, dry, minerally finish. It’s a good medium-term Vat 1, but I wouldn’t entertain expectations of greatness here.
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2011 Tyrrell's Johnno's Sémillon
Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{screwcap, 11.4%, A$36} I’m a huge fan of the concept of Tyrrell’s releasing these small batch, single-vineyard bottlings, even if the wines themselves sometimes leave me a little bemused. For a wine that offers almost identical chemical specifications to the Vat 1 – alcohol, pH, TA & so forth – and which derives from at least one of the same vineyards (the Long Flat), it’s remarkable that Johnno’s could taste so much softer (yet if anything the acids measure fractionally higher here). The difference is attributed to the basket-press used to produce this ~200 case cuvee (only 10% of Vat 1 production). The nose has a whiff of the lime/minerals of Vat 1, but is overlaid with a hint of fine spice and a flowery/petal-like note. The palate seems less fruity; with stoney, rocky, flinty flavours, a dash of citrus perhaps, but not much; the fine crystaline structure is all about subtlety. Absolutely light-bodied, although still tantalises all the palate; the finish is medium-long, but of the utmost delicacy. You could gulp this down, so lightly does it flit across the palate. I think you’re mostly paying for potential, but all on trust – after all, there are no old vintages to try yet.
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