NobleRottersSydney - Langtons Classification

Gordon very generously threw a mixed case of Langtons Classification wines onto the table for us. A wide varietal mix, with eight regions across four states, as originally supplied by Langtons. And Aaron chipped in a couple of ports to finish.

• NV Gosset Champagne Brut Grande Réserve

  France, Champagne

  {cork, 12%} Beautiful bakery nose. Despite the intensity, the palate is surprisingly elegant, with finely-cut acid and pith and soft white fruit flavours. Medium sized, delicate bubbles (and plenty of them) culminate in a come-hither, medium-length, dry and zesty finish. Very nice.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2007 Mount Pleasant Wines Sémillon Single Vineyard Lovedale

  Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley

  {screwcap, 11.5%} Beautifully classic nose of aging toasty Hunter Semillon aromas. Still some grass and straw – from the primary phase – and the colour is still light and shot through with green. It’s medium-bodied, still with fresh acid, but really starting to develop nicely. Even palate, with a long dry finish. Quintessential Hunter sem at its peak. Likely to hold another 10 years easily.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2009 Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay Art Series

  Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Margaret River

  {screwcap, 14.5%} I’ve rarely drunk much of this label for some reason. Pity, because this is sensational. Mid-straw-yellow, with some green still there. Polished, slightly developing nose of fig and vanilla-bean. The palate is searingly good; medium/full-bodied, with medium crystal-cut acid, finely-judged oak, with cedar and grapefruit flavours. The palate is so even right along the tongue, and the finish is longer than one of Tchaikovsky’s. Staggeringly good. Very hard to keep these longer!

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2012 Grosset Riesling Polish Hill Clare Valley

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  {screwcap, 12.5%} Still very pale. Pure, translucent nose. Spring water with a touch of lime juice. Very little of that great lemon whack I so often find in this wine. The palate has medium acid, a slightly chalky texture; it seems almost more Eden than Clare. Bone dry, but the acid doesn’t screech at you. Medium-bodied, for all the transparency of the flavours; the finish is medium length too. It was a much-heralded year for Clare Riesling; I’d have higher hopes for this than some of the more monolithic offerings I’ve tasted in the past. Keep.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2008 Bannockburn Pinot Noir Serre

  Australia, Victoria, Port Phillip, Geelong

  {cork, 12%} Bricking and orange-tinged. Leafy, developed nose; vegetable soup, smoke. Very earthy, almost bilgey. It’s only light/medium-bodied, seems almost to have a touch of spritz about it too; the tannins are just a powdery smudge at this age. Flavours are also leafy and earthy; it really is trying to be old-world, but lacks the complexity to match the premier crus. The finish is savoury, medium length and very dry. I thought it OK, just, even if probably past its peak; others were less forgiving…

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2011 Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier

  Australia, New South Wales, Southern New South Wales, Canberra District

  {screwcap, 13%} In this wettest of vintages, the viognier has lifted this a bit without kicking it out of balance (perpetually a problem for me with this label). Nonetheless, the nose is a touch vegetal and savoury. Perhaps a little pepper too. The palate is likewise a little hollow; the wine is light/medium-bodied, with fine soft powdery tannins, medium acid, and just a little apricot character from the white skins. Be it low key, it’s still nicely balanced; this helps it to a medium-length finish which is all-round a good save from the vintage, but certainly among the lesser examples of the label. Don’t see any point in keeping this longer.

  Post a Comment / 1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2010 Mount Mary Quintet

  Australia, Victoria, Port Phillip, Yarra Valley

  {diam, 12.7%} I’ve only had a few MMQs made since the death of Dr John a decade ago; I haven’t noticed any great change in style. This was decanted for 90 minutes before tasting, and did it show. The nose was all ripe Bordeaux; great currant fruit, cedar oak; all with exquisite polish. It’s medium-bodied, with just-medium powdery tannins, perhaps not quite of first growth texture, but pretty impressive anyway. The flavours are all herbs and ripe fruit; it’s no monster (per tradition) but derives its impact from the endless finish and sense of integrity. So even, so balanced. Seriously gorgeous, and better in 5 years, without doubt. Wine of the night I think.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2009 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon Moss Wood Vineyard

  Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Margaret River

  {screwcap, 14.5%} 90 minute decant. Assertive, dark intense nose. Sort of liquid british racing green. There is a dark green, tomato-character to the iodine-tinged black fruits. Fine powdery tannins, but it has a spotty, slightly hollow feel to the palate, and a vaguely desiccated quality to the dry, medium length finish. It’s medium weight, and not obviously alcoholic, but to me it just lacks freshness and vibrancy a bit. It may just be a sullen developmental trough, but I wouldn’t be confident that this will ever truly blossom into a thing of beauty.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2009 Majella The Malleea

  Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra

  {cork, 14.5%} Old-fashioned aussie style cab-shiraz blend, with plenty of ripe red fruit and lashings of American oak. Plum and mulberry flavours, medium/high chalky tannins with sweet oak aggregate to make a full-bodied wine with plenty of heft on the mid-palate. Rather astringent on the medium-length finish; although this is enjoyable I think it best drunk before its decade is out; the flavours just tip into the over-ripe category, which never augers well for long-term cellaring (as November’s 1999 example confirmed). Good wine, possibly over-priced; drink up.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2010 Mount Langi Ghiran Shiraz Langi

  Australia, Victoria, Western Victoria, Grampians

  {screwcap, 13.5%} Smoky aromas, along with the classic white pepper. Tobacco. Smells like fag-ends with a raspberry twist. The palate has a glycerol smoothness, emphasised by fine-grained, low/medium powdery tannins. Oak is understated. The flavours follow the nose, and fill the palate nicely; it’s medium-bodied, with medium acidity, and a dry, medium-length finish. Shiraz is usually pretty drinkable all through its life, but this does feel a bit lost between primary and developed at the moment. Nicely put together, will be better when it’s ten, as long as the pepper doesn’t get out of hand.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2008 Kilikanoon Shiraz Oracle

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley

  {screwcap, 14.5%} Slightly evolved in aroma (not the deep ruby/black colour!) but largely smelling of black-tinged spearmint and blackcurrant fruit. It’s full-bodied, richly-extracted, with all Clare’s super-ripe, verging on over-ripe dark brambly, liquorice-like shiraz on offer. Plenty of heat comes through too. Big impact on the mid-palate, medium acid, surprisingly soft dusty tannins. The finish is medium-length. There’s nothing really to complain about if you like the full-throttle style, and it’s no fruit-bomb caricature either. And yet, I still think it’s at best around a decade old; time to start opening these.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2008 Taylor (Fladgate) Porto Vintage Vargellas

  Portugal, Douro, Porto

  {375ml, cork, 22%} Nutty raspberries with a spirit quality. There’s a black core of fruit on the palate, with flavours of dust and earth; it’s more rich than sweet. Nicely structured, very drinkable. More satisfying than the adjacent Noval LBV.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2003 Quinta do Noval Porto Late Bottled Vintage

  Portugal, Douro, Porto

  {cork, 19.5%} Volatile and fumey nose. Seems like a festival of bacteria to me, especially beside the Taylors. Mottled old berries, plenty of weight. The brandy seems to carry this, rather than the remnants of rustic black fruit. A little sweetness, but in a medium-dry way.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

Langi was the best of the shirazes for me, but Quintet stole the show. That all said, Lovedale was very fine indeed and the Leeuwin probably came second for wow-factor to the Mount Mary. The more reds I drink at 12 or 13% alcohol the less impressive I find the 14.5% crowd, I must say.
Thanks again to Gordon for a very generous gesture bringing these wines. And to Aaron for some throwback port, about which unfortunately, I am crap at writing meaningful tasting notes without a lot more practice!