NobleRottersSydney - South Aust Shiraz 2005 (blind)
Alio's, Surry Hills
Tasted Monday, April 6, 2009 by graemeg with 536 views
Introduction
A blind tasting with a difference for the Noble Rotters tonight. And, given the theme – South Australian Shiraz from the 2005 vintage – perhaps calling it a ‘blind’ tasting is not quite right. Still, the actual wines themselves were unknown prior to the night. So, let’s call it a ‘visually-impaired’ tasting. Therefore, notes come first, with the wine’s identity following, unless already known. We attempted to score the wines by estimating how much we’d be prepared to pay for each wine. This establishes a personal ranking preference, and also makes for a fascinating comparison with the actual retail prices. Wines were presented in random order. And there weren’t that many of them either. Where is the commitment from the Rotters? I didn’t record everyone’s pricing estimates…
Flight 1 (8 Notes)
Closing
I thought this night was a bit of a disappointment, wine-wise. Too much fruit, too much alcohol. You might make a case that the wines were too young also, but it’s hard to picture some of them improving with age in any way – just getting older and, perhaps, less balanced. And nothing under 14.5% alcohol, either. Generally, the Dead Arm and the Blackwell were considered to be the best of the bunch, but I’ll bet no-one rushed out and bought a case of either the next day…
2005 d'Arenberg Shiraz The Dead Arm
Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale
[screwcap, 14.5%, A$70 but $40 at auction!] Dark chocolate and coffee aromas. The palate offers plenty of chalky tannins, ripe spicy shiraz fruits; blueberries and black fruit characters. The finish is full-bodied and warm, but not hot. Strong coverage along the palate, and an intensity of flavour that speaks of tight structure. A very good wine which ought to age respectably, given the balance between fruit, acid and tannins.
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2005 Fox Creek Shiraz Reserve
Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale
[screwcap, 14.5%] A nose of richly confected fruits; mixed peel, raisins, sultanas; all very fruit-cake related. The palate is quite low in acid, and the medium-full bodied weight is coming from the fruit; even the tannins are surprisingly soft. As a result the wine is quite syrupy on the palate, and grows increasingly hot and blocky the longer it sits in the glass. McLaren Vale? Big and rich, but needs more structure to be considered for aging. Drink soon. After-A wine that seems to have lost much of its mystique and reputation since the mid-90s.
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2005 St Hallett Shiraz Blackwell
Australia, South Australia, Barossa
[cork, 14.5%,A $40-ish] A massively intense and fruit nose, with darkly black fruit dominating all else. The era of excessively-oaked shirazes seems to be over, at least in South Australia! Now we just need to tame the fruit… The palate has a rich, ripe blackberry/raspberry jam quality to it. Almost too fruity! There are fine medium-weight powdery tannins but they scarcely get a look-in over the rich fruit. Is this Torbreck? Again, a good weight of fruit flavours along the palate, and a medium length finish are encouraging for aging potential. This was a generally popular wine on the night.
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2005 Turkey Flat Shiraz
Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley
[cork, 14.5%, A$30] Oh my. A lavish blueberry fruit nose. So sweet. Has this fermented yet? The palate is hugely voluptuous, with lashings of dusty tannins, massive intensity of ripe raisined fruit, and seemingly insufficient acid to hold it all together. The palate is rather weighted towards the front of the tongue. It really is all over the place – like a Jackson Pollock in a bottle. I guessed Barossa, but had no idea whose wine.
And I was surprised at the identity, as I’d associated Turkey Flat with rather more restrained, balanced offerings.
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2005 Torbreck Woodcutter's Shiraz
Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley
[screwcap, 14.5%, A$20-ish] Very strange. Metallic aromas, sweet jammy fruits and, gosh, can you smell residual sugar? Like a tour through the Cottee’s factory. The palate is off-dry at best, with a medium-weight sugary palate, and no real structure to speak of. Like alcoholic cordial. Blech!
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2005 Brand's Laira Shiraz
Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra
[screwcap, 15%] Anonymous commercial nose of heavily worked black fruits. Youthful but coarse. The palate doesn’t redeem things, the medium weight deriving from highly macerated fruits of simple black fruit flavours. A front-palate, short, warm finish of no refinement or even real interest.
McWilliams really seem to have lost their way with this label. They ought to be doing a lot better than this…
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1979 Lindeman's Vintage Port Bin 5632
Australia
[cork, 19%] Still sweetly endearing, although I tend to find most Oz ‘port’ styles lack much in the way of subtlety. The brandy spirit always seems to be prominent, as it is in this wine. But this has a nicely aged patina to it, with nutty fig-like flavours over the rich spiced fruits. These old Lindemans bottlings seem to last more-or-less forever, so there’s no real rush to drink this.
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1982 Marsh Estate Shiraz Simon II Vintage Port
Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley, Pokolbin
[cork] This, on the other hand [v Lindemans 1979 Bin 5632], seems headed over the cliff. A rather dirty, spirity nose of stale tobacco and generally unclean aromas. There’s a smear of red fruit under there somewhere, but really it’s the blast furnace of alcohol that makes the most impression.
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