NobleRottersSydney - Alliteration night

September 2012: Resourceful Rotters gather gleefully for an effervescent evening of all alliteration. Some missing members too, but back-up bottles saved the situation.

• 2009 Petaluma Croser

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Piccadilly Valley

  [cork, 13%] {Stephen} Nose of white flowers with a waft of fresh bread. Seems very chardonnay-dominant. The palate is soft, despite medium acidity, with a sour-dough flavour; light-medium bodied; but overall a bit anonymous. The bubbles are quite small, but the whole thing still finishes fairly short. Needed more time on lees for greater complexity, at least. Can be kept a little while, but it won’t outgrow its inherent simplicity.

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• 2000 Mount Mary Chardonnay

  Australia, Victoria, Port Phillip, Yarra Valley

  [cork, 13%] {Graeme} Still only pale-lemon in colour at twelve years old. A gorgeous nose, which seems to become younger and fresher as it sits, of figs and grilled nuts. The palate offers stonefruit and mineral flavours, stunningly medium-bodied, freshly acidic still and free of malolactic influences. It’s bone-dry, not at all oaky, rich but savoury, persistent in length and beautifully balanced along the tongue. Stunningly good, and seems like it could age another dozen years easily. Probably the best chardonnay I’ve ever tasted, and easily the best over a decade old. Just magnificent.

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• 2005 Louis Latour Chassagne-Montrachet

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Chassagne-Montrachet

  [cork, 13.5%] {Graeme} So scarred was I by past experience with Mount Mary chardonnay, that I brought an oxidation-prone white burg as a back-up. Since overall numbers were pretty low we opened it, and predictably enough, it went nowhere near matching the preceding wine. Mid-lemon colour. It has a weirdly confected developing nose, with aromas of honey, butterscotch and a kind of metallic note. The palate presents the unmistakeable staleness of browning melon fruit, propped up with subtle, vanilla-tinged oak. It’s dry, medium-bodied, but the finish lets it down, being short-medium length, and drying out a little. One to drink up.

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• 2010 Terre à Terre Pinot Noir Fleurieu Peninsula Parawa

  Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu

  [screwcap, 14.3%, A$35] {Glenn} Pinot in Fleurieu – that’s the definition of optimism. A warmish, perfumed strawberry nose which verges on the cordial-like. The palate contributes low level but gritty tannins, along with some rather harsh acid, to make up a palate that ultimately tastes fairly commercial. The strawberry fruit is light and tart, and it’s thankfully dry, but the short finish detracts from what is otherwise a fairly simple and cheerful, and reasonably authentic, pinot. 310 cases produced of this wine, made from vines planted in 2003; Dijon clone 114.

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• 2009 Henschke Henry's Seven

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa

  [screwcap, 14.5%] {Bruce} Shiraz, grenache, viognier and mouvedre. Through the perfumed spice and cured meats on the nose, the apricot of the viognier charges like a cavalry. The palate is richly sweet in flavour, oddly contrasted with a very drying texture that seems to be something other than the soft dusty tannins. The bubble-gum of the grenache duels with the apricot; it’s medium-bodied in weight, but all still a bit much for the acid, so it finishes a little flabby and short. Think it would have been better without the white grapes myself. Drink within 3 years.

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• 2007 Yarra Yering Dry Red N°1

  Australia, Victoria, Port Phillip, Yarra Valley

  [cork, 12.3%] {Gordon} This wine was roundly abused for bushfire smoke taint on release by Jeremy Oliver, who claimed the late proprietor Carrodus would never have sold it himself. Cash flow is king I suppose. Decanted 2 hours prior to consumption, the nose is initially pleasant enough, with sweet, rather simple blackcurrant fruit, but I couldn’t escape a distinct eucalypt note that instantly began to impress itself as smokiness. The power of positive sugestion is very strong! The palate isn’t unpleasant; perhaps a touch acrid; only medium-bodied, with some low chalky tannins. Medium length finish, although the back-palate is laregly absent. It’s OK, but not what you’d expect from YY, and its inadequacies were clearly demonstrated by the following 2004 wine. As for this, drink up.

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• 2004 Yarra Yering Dry Red N°1

  Australia, Victoria, Port Phillip, Yarra Valley

  [cork, 13%] {Vlad - Guest} Also decanted for 2 hours prior to drinking. Developing nose of olives and blackcurrants, herbs; some green but never unripe. Powerful palate, but tight and compact; there’s no green here. Luscious and harmonious; all the cabernet family flavours are generously present; sweet fruit meets medium powdery tannin; only medium-bodied in weight but with great density and yet totally drinkable. Alcohol is spot on. Medium-long finish. Should drink very nicely for another 5 years at least. Wonderful wine.

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• 1994 Wirra Wirra Cabernet Sauvignon The Angelus

  Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale

  [cork, 13.5%] {Greg} Decanted for one hour. Aging garnet colour. Aged nose; oak. Vanilla oak. American oak. Sweet oak. Did I mention the oak? Still, it’s very seductive oak. Coconut and aged raspberry swathed in oak. Big cuddly palate, not really complex; nearly full-bodied still after all these years, with soft powdery tannins (the oak is more flavour than texture now), and a big fluffy mid-palate to wallow in. Perhaps not a definitive expression of cabernet, but a lovely example of a big McLaren Vale red. Medium-length finish, tasting of, wait for it, oak. Ready now.

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• 1994 Château Léoville Las Cases

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Julien

  [cork, 12%] {Gordon} 2 hours in the decanter. Classic aging Bordeaux cigar-box and pencil-lead nose. Some Saint-Julien spice too. Minerals. Very attractive. Palate is very dry, verging on ‘astringent’; there is maybe just a bit too much structure for the fruit here. Medium-high powdery tannins, medium-full bodied, dry cedar flavours. It makes a fair impression right along the tongue, but it just neesd a bit more generosity to lift it into the special category. Doubtless this will age for an age, but I don’t think it’s ever going to be really attractive, or even terribly interesting. It really is time to drink the 1994s, surely.

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• 1982 Lindeman's Vintage Port Bin 6237

  Australia

  [cork, 18.5%] {Stephen} Decanted for 3 hours before consumption. Rich cherry and liqueured truffle nose. Powerful and intense; a parade of aromas covering liquorice, chicory, nuts. They’re really hard to detect on the palate though; this seems to be all about the nose. It’s full-bodied, and the alcohol is very noticeable as heat; it makes up most of the medium-length, quite dry finish too. This is probably the best of these early-80s vintage ‘ports’ we’ve had from Stephen over the last few years. I’m not really convinced by the style…

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The theme was always going to give us a weird mix of wines. 04 Yarra Yering and the Mount Mary were the picks for me.