NobleRottersSydney - Twenty Years On...(1988)
Alio's, Surry Hills
Tasted Monday, October 6, 2008 by graemeg with 654 views
Introduction
October’s Noble Rotters dinner saw a return to the 20-years-ago theme which was so successful in the past. Reduced in numbers for various reasons, we struggled on…
1998 Perrier-Jouët Champagne Belle Epoque
France, Champagne
[cork] A kaleidoscopic nose – every time I went back to it, there was something different. Fresh bread aromas were thematic, but there were all kinds of biscuity notes, lightly-spiced meats, yeasts. Like walking through a perfume factory. Inside a frame of the finest delicate bubbles danced flavours of strawberries, prosciutto, bakery-biscuits, and the rest. Only really light-medium body, with a faintly chalk-tannin tail, the wine finishes long, clean and dry. Staggeringly good champagne – I could have drunk the entire bottle easily.
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1989 Hugel Riesling Vendange Tardive
France, Alsace
[cork, 14%] Lemon-gold colour. Lots of honey and quince on the well-developed nose. The richly ripe and sweet aromas carry through onto the palate, which has a faintly greasy oiliness to the texture, plenty of body – it’s really very powerful – and a long balanced finish. Acid is unobtrusive but critically present. Finishes clean and almost dry, despite the overall sweetness level. Suspect it’ll hold this development plateau for years longer. Very good indeed.
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1984 Leo Buring Chardonnay South Australia
Australia, South Australia
[cork, 13%] No indication of region anywhere, although the old Leonay winery in the Barossa is pictured on the label and encouragingly, winemaker John Vickery’s signature is there as well. Barossa is the obvious bet, but who knows? Distinct amber, but still clear and almost-healthy looking. A very aged – but not collapsing – nose of old wooden furniture! No apparent fruit remains. The palate is curious; most of what remains seems to be soft old oak flavours, oxidised but not harsh. There’s little acid left, so the wine has fallen away to be light-bodied and rather short on the finish, but it’s far from undrinkable. Certainly too old, but rather than turning feral it’s just become spectral and ghostly. Better than you’d expect, that’s for sure.
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1988 Antoine Ogier Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Reine Jeanne
France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
[cork, 13.5%] There was invariably going to be one dud wine tonight, and this was it. A respectable garnet colour was cancelled out by the dull, hazy appearance, and the nose was of rotting vegetable with a dirty machine-oil kind of smell. A little bitter dark-chocolate on the palate can’t really compete with the creeping volatility, and the finish was harsh and hot. No good.
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1987 St Hugo Cabernet Sauvignon Coonawarra
Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra
[cork, 12.2%] From an unheralded and mostly unremembered vintage, this was a major surprise. A lovely glowing garnet colour, this offers a perfectly aged and quite intense new-world cabernet nose; a dash of cassis, lashings of cigar-box, and a touch of herbal leafiness. The dry palate still presents plenty of fine powdery tannins, medium-body weight and intensity, and good length with a persistent balanced finish. There’s a lovely blurry dustiness to the texture of the wine, it richly coats the palate without being exaggerated. The style which made Coonawarra famous – look at the alcohol – it’s a tragedy that almost no-one seems to be making Coonawarra wine this way any more. A top wine.
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2002 Torbreck Descendant
Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley
(Shiraz Viognier) [cork, 14.5%] With so few attendees, and all the old wines, there was a chance we’d have nothing palatable to drink at all; hence this wine. Very much the house-style of nose – flamboyant smallgoods aromas, bacon, liquorice, spiced raspberries & plums. On the palate the warm spice-theme continued with fruit-cake and sultry berried fruit flavours. Tannins are very soft, and don’t preclude a warm finish overall. There’s plenty of flavour extending to the back-palate; it’s certainly a crowd-pleaser now, but I suspect it lacks the structure to evolve into something truly interesting before fading away. I’ve not much experience with Torbreck, so I won’t be too dogmatic.
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1989 Penfolds Grange
Australia, South Australia
[cork, 13.5%] The Rotters’ standby! Garnet. Surely one of the most distinctive Australian wines of the last 40 years. There’s some development here, but the wine’s exotic and lifted spicy blueberry liqueur and liquorice aromas are as prominent as ever. The palate is rich and lavish, with lots of powdery tannins, and medium-full weight and finish. You’d swear there was some viognier here, the lifted fruity notes are so exaggerated. Long finish; the wild fruits don’t preclude some decent structure. Still, in the context of the Grange pedigree, this wine is wearing a flashing-light, spinning-around, water-squirting bow tie amid a line up of brethren in sober suits and silk ties. Enjoyable, although right on the edge!
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1983 Kaiser Stuhl Selected Release Auslese
Australia, South Australia
[cork, 11.8%] None of my reference books seem to adequately cover this time in Australian wine history. I figure this is probably Barossa Riesling, but who knows? It looked pretty scary – who put pinot noir in a riesling bottle? I wondered – but although in the glass the colour hovered somewhere between amber and brown, the wine was still clear and glowing. A decadent coppery nose couldn’t quite hide a metallic note underneath; the palate presents a wild concotion of cumquats, cold tea, malt, lychees and who-knows what else. It is drying out a little, and probably is past its peak. But plenty of sweetness remains, along with barely-reigned-in acid, all resulting in an intensely-flavoured, medium-length wine. A fascinating curio, and cellared since release! Fun to drink and marvel at!
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