NobleRottersSydney - Clare Valley

The March 2010 Noble Rotters’ dinner – minus five regulars, but with two guests helping – has a night in the Clare Valley, so to speak. Another night of many white wines, but things were not so drastic as last month! A blind tasting night, although not so much for options questions as to remove pre-concieved notions about what we were drinking.

• 2008 Leo Buring Riesling Clare Valley

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  {screwcap, 11.3%, A$15} A youthful nose, faintly sulphury to me, with a stony, smoky, minerally aspect to it. Fruit is more apparent on the palate, with apple/citric flavours and some lemon juice. There’s a dry, chalky texture, it’s light-bodied, and sits very much towards the front of the palate. With modest sort of acid, it’s relatively low impact, and will generally be an early drinker. Way better than your average sauvignon blanc, however.

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• 2009 Taylors Riesling St Andrews

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  [screwcap] {Geoffrey}
  Pre-release. Not sure if recently bottled, or a tank sample (surely not after 12 months…). Nose seems very soft and seductive; a faint flintiness hardly conceals the aromatically floral lime & apple fruits. The palate is unusual, seemingly very soft in acid, with the fruit surprisingly developed for such a young wine. Lemony flavours precede a drying, powdery finish. Lovely even balance of structure along the palate that’s very encouraging. The more you taste the tighter it seems – yes, there is a spine of acid here, but it seems swamped by lavish fruits. It’s never anything but dry, either. Perhaps this is ready to go into a sullen period or something – it’s hard to believe it could successfully age for long, and yet this won’t even be released for some years. I’ll trust that Taylors know what they’re doing.

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• 2006 Grosset Riesling Polish Hill Clare Valley

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  [12.5%, screwcap] {Greg} Yellow/green. Developing nose of intense lemon fruits shot through with the beginning of toasty, kerosene-like notes. This smells powerful, and indeed a taste confirms this; minerally citric flavours pound the full length of the palate like a locomotive. Even with this almost full-bodied expression of Clare riesling, there’s an accompanying austerity that promises more to come. Palate is less developed than you’d conclude from the nose. The best thing about the wine is the length, which reaches evenly right to the back palate. A long, dry, acidic finish follows. One to keep.

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• 2008 Tim Adams Riesling

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  [11.6%, screwcap] {guest-Kevin} Fruit for this is pulled from six local vineyards, and the wine is made only from free run juice. Given that, the nose is as you’d expect; soft, clean lemon-cheesecake aromas lead to a flowery, fresh, soft and even palate. Caught still pretty much in its youth, there’s prickly acidity present, but the wine remains gentle and friendly. Good even palate of fairly low intensity. Probably not for long keeping, but drinking beautifully now.

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• 1996 Taylors Riesling St Andrews

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  [11.5%, cork] {Graeme} Several shades deeper yellow than any other riesling tonight. The aromas are of lemon-butter on toast, but can’t escape a certain oxidised quality that goes beyond just aged. There’s plenty of acid still on the medium-bodied palate, but the fruit has broadened out into yellowing apples, with a rather broad, flat, stale aspect to it. There are definite hints as to the potential this wine once had (the back label suggests 20 years cellaring), but I suspect this has been let down by poor cellaring earlier in its life.

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• 2001 Kirrihill Cabernet Sauvignon Estates

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  [14.2%, cork] {guest-Cameron} A grand-smelling nose of spicy aging fruits and vanillan oak. Lavish, but simple. The palate is big and shambling, clunkily aging, with acidic touches. Offers plenty of rather coarse (US oak?) tannins; it’s medium-bodied, warm but not hot, and its flavours peak on the fromt palate. It’s decent-enough drinking, although the idea of cabernet hardly comes to mind. Drink now.

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• 1998 Leasingham Cabernet Sauvignon Classic Clare

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  [14%, cork] {Ron} As someone remarked, who knew they grew durif in Clare? Smells like port maturing in American oak. As old-fashioned as big hair and shoulder pads (similar to drink, too), the massive doses of sweetly vanillan oak sweep all before them. Tannins are gone; the flavours are diffuse and watery, like a hollowed-out Rioja. Still manages to taste rather raw, despite all that, yet not hot. Strange indeed; in decline certainly – another witness to the crime of ‘bulking-up’ wines in the 90s and further proof that it was an evolutionary dead-end.

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• 2006 Kilikanoon Shiraz Covenant

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  [15%, screwcap, A$40] {Andrew} This is a vivid, youthful purple with a polarising nose of raw, spirity fermenting fruit. This is four years old? On the palate it’s a great blunderbuss of a wine, hot and porty and almost totally lacking in tannin; big and chunky, beefed up with acidity. High toast oak flavours compete with caramelised fruits, it’s full bodied, spirity and hot, lacking much freshness. A wine to drink with burnt sausages. About as full-throttle as it gets. Not my style at all.

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• 1998 Grosset Gaia

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  [14%, cork] {Graeme} 75% cab, 20% franc, and 5% merlot. A label that’s always struggled to live up to its reputation, never mind its price, and tonight didn’t help matters. The nose is rank with dimethyl sulphide; any semblance of ripe red fruit is submerged by the green leafy character which seems to have grown worse over time – some bottles of this drunk in recent years have been more palateable. Structurally it seems sound enough otherwise, with resolved dusty tannins and medium-bodied weight and length of finish, but it’s just so extreme with aroma and flavour that it repelled most of the table. Not a good look.

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• 1978 Lindeman's 1978 Vintage Port Bin 5532

  Australia

  [19.2%, cork] {Stephen} Brandy spirit and raisins. Massively medicinal on the palate; warm, nutty, with elements of cough mixture. More dry than sweet, it’s just mostly hot…

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The whites carried the night, no doubt about it.