NobleRottersSydney - Oz cabernet blind

Six Rotters and one guest gather for a rather specific night of blind-tasted Australian cabernet. It was supposed to be selected vintages from WA, SA and Victoria.

• 2010 Hamelin Bay Chardonnay Blanc de Blanc

  Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Margaret River

  {cork, 12%} (Glenn) A repeat from last November, this bottle is consistent with the previous example. How a wine apparently made entirely from chardonnay can smell to much like strawberries beats me. Still, there it is. There are crisp apple flavours to accompany the strawberries on the light-medium-bodied palate, an obvious lack of yeasty characters, fairly lively bubbles and a medium length dry finish. Simple but pleasant wine which should hold a few years easily.

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• 1996 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 407

  Australia, South Australia

  {cork, 13.5%} (Stephen) This is a dirty dark garnet colour, and a manky, dirty-tobacco-smelling thing. Bacterial, bretty, or just plain too old. It’s aged and sweaty-tasting on the palate, with astringent horsey flavours. Simple, aged, and drying out. Has minimal tannin, light-medium body, short finish. Well-cellared, so possibly a non-representative bottle, but representative to me of the fact that 407 is a dead-end wine. On this showing, avoid.

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• 1998 De Bortoli Windy Peak Cabernet Shiraz Merlot

  Australia, Victoria

  {cork, 13.5%} (Geoffrey) Aged, jammy fruits. Blackberries? Dusty texture. Good acid balance, low-medium tannins, fairly soft and obviously aged texture. Unveiled, a way better wine than you’d expect from this label, but manifestly simple in every respect. Not a straight cabernet either, which added to the confusion.

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• 1991 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 407

  Australia, South Australia

  ) {cork, 13.5%} (Dick - guest) Aged vanilla and coconut nose. Way too much oak, and not much of anything else. A musty, oaky and hollowed-out palate, with little tannin, a wash of flavour only on the tip of the tongue, and a short finish. I thought this might have been an ancient off-vintage Bin 707; that a top year like 1991 produced this wine confirms to me that Bin 407 should have been a one-time wine in 1990 and not persevered with. Well past best unless you’re an oak addict.

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• 2006 Saltram Cabernet Sauvignon Mamre Brook

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa

  {screwcap, 15%} (Gordon) Double-decanted 3 hours earlier. An absurdly powerful nose of black youthful fruits. Palate follows on; it’s sweet, curranty, and a bit disjointed, big and aggressive, with medium-high powdery tannins and medium sharp acid. Or is that alcoholic heat? It certainly has a warm and confected character to the medium-length finish. Less cabernet than Barossa, and big-mutha Barossa at that. Too hot to age well in my opinion; others may disagree. Certainly it’s a real mouthful of wine right now.

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• 2001 Tahbilk Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve

  Australia, Victoria, Central Victoria, Nagambie Lakes

  {cork, 14%} (Graeme) The first wine that was identifiably cabernet tonight! And it’s pretty tidy too. Developing nose of soft currants and mulberries; with a whisper of leafy herbs and small berries. Refreshing; still fruity by old-world standards; some intensity of cabernet fruit still laced with medium dusty tannins (oak barely detectable though) and medium acidity. No more than medium-bodied really, it still managed a long, dry, balanced finish. A fine wine with plenty more years left in the tank. At least with Tahbilk ‘Reserve’ means what it says; that is, if the trebling in price over the standard offering didn’t convince you…

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• 2008 Devil's Lair Cabernet Sauvignon

  Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Margaret River

  {screwcap, 13.5%} (DavidC) Absurdly young. Looks black and inky, smells iodine-like, with cassis essence and black olives. Given the theme, it could only be Margaret River, as it proved. It has a charcoal and currant quality to the flavours; it’s medium-full bodied with medium-high, somewhat gritty tannins. Has a medium-length warm finish, but doesn’t seem alcohol-driven. Tidy French oak isn’t obvious either. Plenty of mid-palate presence; the only thing this really needs is time, and plenty of it. And you’ve got to like olives…

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• 1990 Penfolds Bin 920

  Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra

  {cork, 13%} (Gordon) In retrospect, we should have had this at the start of the night, or with more congenial surrounding wines. Beside what else we drank, this looked a bit sparse; throw it in amongst a table of 1990 Bordeaux 1ers and it would have looked fruity! The nose is evidently aged, and manages the classic Penfolds mix of meat and spice cupboard. It’s settled down to a medium-bodied wine, still showing spicy oak on the palate but infused with blackberry fruits. Has a classic Coonawarra leanness – the shiraz component (35%) probably doesn’t have the richness of the Barossa component in the Bin 90A, for instance – you’d say that terroir trumps variety here. Yet, this is still pretty generous for a thirty-year-old wine, with an even palate and a long finish just turning a bit astringent towards the end. On this showing, ready to drink, but should hold longer.

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• 2011 Tim Adams Riesling Botryitis Affected Riesling

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  {375ml, screwcap, 10%} (Glenn) Youthful nose. Smells strongly of lime and honey. Lots of honey, wow… There’s something about the palate that gives the impression of smoke too, although perhaps that’s a character of the honey flavours. Smoked honey? It’s medium-sweet; there’s only a hint of apricot-botrytis character, rather than it dominating the palate. There’s just enough acid to keep things fresh; given the vintage reputation and the sense that this is balanced on a razor’s edge I’d be getting into it in the short term. Drinking very well now, though.

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Bit of a mixed bag. The Bin 920 was something of a fish out of water, and other bottles were out of their depth/window. Rotters seem to have too much shiraz in their cellars and not enough cabernet. And reduced numbers cut the spread of wines. Never mind…