NobleRottersSydney - Oliver's 5-star Oz wines

Over the years we’re given the Langtons Classification a fair hammering as the source of wine themes for our dinners. For this event we turned to long-standing Melbourne writer/critic Jeremy Oliver, and taken the 5-star wines from his annual Australian Wine guide. There are 21 such wines listed in the 2011 edition, but we broadened the criteria to include more-or-less anything that been at the 5-star level over recent years. The whites were the current releases he reviews, but the reds were slightly older vintages.
On a sadder note, it was Ron’s swansong as a regular member. Maybe if someone builds that Very Fast Train from Canberra things will change. That should only take about 35 years or so…

• NV Bollinger Champagne Special Cuvée Brut

  France, Champagne

  [cork]{Ron} No shortage of bubbles here. The aromas are a powerhouse of bakery smells. Very attractive. The palate is rich and fresh in typical Bollinger style, with a creamy feel to the texture, fine bubbles and big yeasty flavours. Impressive.

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• 2008 Pierro Chardonnay Margaret River

  Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Margaret River

  [14%, screwcap, A$80] {Bruce} A limpid yellow-green colour. Youthful and intense nose of roasted nuts, grilled toast, minerals and slate aromas, with a touch of cedar/sandalwood oak. All class. The palate rides on a terrific medium-high level of finely cut acid, with grapefruit, nut and minerally flavours culminating in a long persistent finish of medium-full bodied weight. There’s a faint chalky tannin note to the texture, and the flavours cover the entire palate. A pristine wine indeed, and with the controlled power on offer here it’s just a little more open than the following Giaconda wine. Drink with extreme pleasure over the next ten years.

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• 2008 Giaconda Chardonnay Estate Vineyard

  Australia, Victoria, North East, Beechworth

  [13.5%, screwcap, A$130] {Gordon} Served a little colder than the Pierro. Nose of cloves and cinnamon, grapefruit and some quality french oak, but seemingly a little more closed than the preceding wine. The palate is just as impressive; light chalky tannins, a medium-full body of smoky, nutty chardonnay flavours, a spine of strong acid and quality vanilla oak. Impeccably balanced, the palate satiated with fruit of perfectly-judged ripeness and with a long finish; this is a tour-de-force of Australian chardonnay. Ought to sail along very nicely for ten years; beyond that is anyone’s guess. Preference over the Pierro is largely a matter of taste; there’s little to pick between these two excellent offerings.

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• 2001 Mount Mary Quintet

  Australia, Victoria, Port Phillip, Yarra Valley

  [12.5%, cork] {Graeme} Double-decanted for sediment 3 hours prior to drinking. Solid garnet. The developing nose of cassis and cigar-box french oak is intense and seductive. A little berry red fruit beneath isn’t lost, but doesn’t prance about in front of your nose. Certainly smells ten years old, if not more. There are no surprises on the palate; it’s an entwining helix of wispy developing red fruits and lingering chalky tannins. It’s mirror-smooth for texture, reasonably intense despite only really being medium weight, and has extraordinary evenness of presence along the tongue which evolves into a long sophisticated finish. Well-served by its old-fashioned alcohol level, there’s not the slightest trace of green about the flavours either. I might have a slight reservation about ultimate longevity, but I wouldn’t discount the possibility of this holding its current plateau for ten years or longer; there is a little way to go developmentally, but it drinks very nicely now. Probably not for the very long term though. A sharp contrast in style to all the following reds, and didn’t suffer for it at all.

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• 2000 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon Flawed

  Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Margaret River

  [14.5%, cork] {Glenn} Opened and immediately poured. Musty, initially. It seemed to blow off a bit to reveal some raisin-like fruit, but the dank aromas kept wafting back. I gave this a good twenty minutes in the glass (and then went back to the rest 2 hours later) but it remained hot-tasting, unbalanced, alcoholic, and with a harshly gritty texture. No length to the finish either. I could never get away from my initial impression of TCA/cork taint, and given that it shared provenance with a stunning bottle in Feb 09, and that the vaguely persistent mustiness never went away, I’ll call this a low-level TCA scalping.

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• 1998 Seppelt Shiraz St Peters

  Australia, Victoria, Western Victoria, Great Western

  [14.5%, cork] {Stephen} Decanted for two hours, then rebottled and consumed two hours later. Still a dark ruby colour, and offers a surprisingly intense blast of ripe fruit, only a little beyond primary. Deep-chested plummy aromas, blueberries are capped by a jammy kind of sweetness. The palate tasted oddly confected to me; incredibly jammy, with a saturating fruit sweetness. They’re seasoned with a dash of Worcester sauce; but they’re still so strong that they seem to overwhelm what’s left of the powdery tannins. This was a monolithic monster when young, yet at 12 years it seems the fruit will outlive the structure. Bizarre – I don’t know what to make of this for the future. Such soft tannins leave it a touch greasy and cost it some freshness, but maybe it just needs a lot more time.

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• 1989 Penfolds Grange

  Australia, South Australia

  [13.5%, cork] {Kim} Decanted about ninety minutes prior to consumption. The last ‘reasonably-priced’ Grange which Rotters bought in some quantity, this is something of an old friend now. And this example was right in the mainstream of previous bottles; the floridly flamboyant liquorice/raspberry aromas, somewhat developed, the exotic spicy flavours on the medium-full bodied palate, with now a hint of coarseness to the tannins. This wine hasn’t really gone anywhere in recent years; there’s surely little doubt that it’s an enjoyable drink-now proposition. Not quite typical of Grange, but very good anyway.

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• 2004 Seppelt Shiraz St Peters

  Australia, Victoria, Western Victoria, Grampians

  [13.5%, screwcap] {David} Opened and immediately poured. The first obviously youthful red of the night. Dark cherries, currants, charcoal and a touch of ripe plums. Maybe there’s a familial link to the earlier ’98; it is the same vineyard after all. But here the dusty tannins have retained their soft presence, and there’s a touch of earth and black olives about the flavours, instead of just rampant red fruit. It does grow a little jammier as it sits in the glass; but has decent length of flavour on a medium-full-bodied palate, and finishes medium-long. Was generally rapturously received when released as I recall; this is now a bit in between, having not yet evolved much in the way of secondary development. I think it’s a finer cut of wine than the 98; leave at least another 5 years (ten is better) before approaching again.

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• 2006 Giaconda Shiraz Warner Vineyard

  Australia, Victoria, North East, Beechworth

  [13.5%, screwcap] {Geoffrey} Opened and immediately poured. This label seemed to come from nowhere and very quickly become Giaconda’s second-most-sought-after wine. The nose here is initially a touch reductive, although this blows off after 10-15 minutes. There are robust youthful aromas; cured meats, spices; aromatically it’s not that far from the odd Torbreck shiraz. It’s quite refined and polished. The classy palate has smoke, bacon, charcoal flavours, a touch of liquorice. It’s classy and underdeveloped, is medium-full in body but not grotesque at all. The palate is evenly coated with flavour – there are no dips or holes anywhere, and the medium-long finish avoids heat. A perfectly pitched shiraz that should improve for 20 years at least.

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• 2002 Clarendon Hills Astralis

  Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, Clarendon

  [14.5%, cork] {Greg} Decanted about two hours prior to drinking. Still a ruby/black colour – positively opaque. There is some development to the aromas, but they’re almost absurdly dominated by lifted jam compote / raspberry / strawberry notes. There’s smoky oak, and eventually a touch of tobacco as it sits, but it’s a real leap-from-the-glass effort. The palate is big, ripe and flamboyant. Rich jammy fruits abound; it’s not a million miles from the 89 Grange but lacks the integrity of that wine. This is even more lavish somehow; soft powdery tannins only really play a supporting role to the full-bodied fruit which is almost syrupy in its upholstered velvety character. For me the sheer density of the flavours, with acid and tannin firmly in the background, rob the palate of some freshness; the finish is about medium length and the back palate isn’t quite so saturated as the rest of the tongue. Drink up I say, because although it will doubtless last a long while yet, I doubt it’ll improve in any meaningful way. But now the disclaimer: this is my first Astralis…

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• 1999 Tokaj Hétszőlő Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos

  Hungary, Tokaji

  [500ml, 11%, cork] {Ron} Solid gold colour. Rich nougat and caramel aromas with some honeyed development to them. The palate is very sweet indeed, positively syrupy in texture, with only just about enough acid to carry it along. On the palate it’s a sort of dense alcoholic (not warm) honey, with great presence on the mid-palate and just a medium-length finish. Sugar will only go so far. Ultimately lacks a little complexity, being pretty up-and-down in its medium-bodied flavours. Ready to drink now.

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In all, Mr Oliver’s choices seem to be a pretty decent subset of the best Australia can offer, even if we just brushed the surface of his 21 current darlings. I’d say none of the nights’ reds needed any alcohol above 13.5%; the Warners and the Quintet were my picks, but both chardonnays were hugely impressive too. A great finale to 2010.