NobleRottersSydney - 20th Anniversary - 'Wow!' wines

Alio's, Surry Hills
Tasted Monday, February 4, 2008 by graemeg with 707 views

Introduction

The first Noble Rotters dinner for 2008 commemorates the founding of the group twenty years ago. Accordingly, the theme was along the lines of ‘Knock your fellow Rotters’ socks off’, or more simply put, ‘Wow wines.’

Flight 1 (12 Notes)

1992 Tyrrell's Chardonnay Vat 47

Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley

{cork, 13.1%} Proudly wearing Murray Tyrrell’s quirky nomenclature ["Pinot-Chardonnay"], these examples [+87, 84 vintages] produce an interesting verdict on the aging ability of this father of Australian chardonnay. This 1992 is in great shape, mid lemon-gold in colour, with aromas of honey and peaches. The palate is dry, despite the richly aging fruits of nuts and figs, with some warm minerality. The flavours run the length of the palate, combining for a decent length finish. Oak has softened out to a sort of gentle woodspice note; interestingly the wine doesn’t taste a million miles from the Vat 1 semillon of the same age. The Hunter terroir trumps winemaking, at least in this vintage. No need to hold this wine longer, but feels like it will keep for a while yet.

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1987 Tyrrell's Chardonnay Vat 47

Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley

[cork, 12.5%} The 1987 presents a similar, if less intense, aromatic profile [to the '92], but with an intriguing bronzed note overlaying the nose. This is quite a big wine, with a yeasty/leesy note to the stone fruit palate, with more of that honeyed quality, verging on caramel, layering the palate. Lots of mid-palate richness is helped by still-fresh acid; and overall the additional developed aged characters made this the favourite of the three whites [92, 87, 84 vintages] around the table.

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1984 Tyrrell's Chardonnay Vat 47

Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley

{cork, 13%} Strangest of all [vs the '92 & '87] is the 1984, its colour now definitely within the ‘gold’ part of the colour spectrum, the nose clearly aged. Low intensity, slightly musty but not unattractive aromas of wet leaves and old cupboards hardly reveal at what is to come, because the palate seems to be missing in action. It has some gently prickly acid, but the flavours seem to have departed altogether. The wnie has gone, only the liquid remains. There’s no oxidative nuttiness, no volatility, just…nothing much at all. Short finish, too. Much like a glass of water! Bizarre.

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1971 Penfolds Grange

Australia, South Australia

{cork, 12.3%} Well, well. Everything you’ve ever read about this legendary wine is true. Remarkable in every respect. Solid garnet red, with just the faintest bricking around the rim. A developed and lavish nose of leather, tar & violets, a whiff of VA, fruit cake – it’s all here. Just transcribe an old Len Evans tasting note. The palate is positively enchanting; the tannins resolved yet present, and mirror-smooth. Rich, full, spicy fruit follows, not massive in size but intense and persistent. There are flecks of soft vanilla flavour, wild exotic flowers and earthy notes; honestly, the whole flavour wheel is on display here. A stupendous palate; there’s not a part of the tongue that isn’t coated with the silken essence of this epic wine. It’s becomes more fruity as it sits in the glass (the wine was decanted into a stoppered flask two hours prior to dinner), and almost starts to do the ‘burgundy-in-a-glass-evolution’. Shows absolutely no sign of falling over on the evidence of this bottle; impossible to imagine it tasting any better, yet seems like it could hold forever. Purchased on release (that was $15 well spent!), held ever since, and an absolute privilege for us to share now. Utterly stunning.

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1982 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou

France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien

Glowing garnet with minimal fading. Lovely developed nose of sweet cedar and brambles. The palate offers aged red fruits, nicely ripe, with smoothly powdery tannins slightly dominant, and a very dry finish, yet not bitter. Well structured, with an arc of subtle flavour carrying through to the back palate nicely. Just a bit above medium weight, and with a medium-long finish, this is pretty well at peak now, I think. Rather overshadowed by the [71] Grange, but in truth crackingly good claret at the quarter-century mark.

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1980 Penfolds BIN 80A Coonawarra

Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra

{cork, 12%} A deep garnet. Pushing 30 years and not even a hint of bricking around the rim. The nose is showing some development, with characteristic Penfolds meaty aromas, dark red fruits, and a little rich leather beginning to emerge. The palate is full-bodied, and seamless; the spice of Barossa shiraz and assertive cassis of Coonawarra cabernet knitting so well together that no joins appear anywhere. Plenty of soft chalky tannins cradle the structure; the back palate is a tiny bit soft, the finish is long and powerful. Lacks the sheer flamboyance of the Grange – perhaps the cabernet component does contribute a little seeming austerity – but makes a wonderful contrast in style. I kept some in a glass over next following hours, and it stayed utterly consistent the whole time. In all, a lovely wine, probably peaking sometime over the next 10 years or so but holding for a while after that.

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1989 Château d'Armailhac

France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

{cork, 12.5%} Garnet with a fading rim. The nose is all cedar and smoke, with secondary characters to the fore. On the palate there’s some soft round plummy fruit which can’t quite keep up with the tannins, smooth and resolved though they may be. Nicely structured wine, with all the components hovering around a ‘medium’ level of concentration. Grippy finish. Textbook classed growth Bordeaux drinking well now, perhaps struggling to make much impact on a night like this, but in all honesty a very satisfactory bottle. Needs drinking over the next few years lest it dry out too much.

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1990 Henschke Shiraz Mount Edelstone

Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Eden Valley

{cork, 13.5%} Another garnet wine with minimal visual sign of aging. Liqueured chocolate, raspberry, spice, classy oak on the nose, all very rich and ripe. Brambly developing fruits on the palate, wonderfully sybaritic and exotic. Medium chalky tannins, decent acidity, and wonderfully intense, although it’s a wine well within itself – this is not a bull-in-a-china-shop effort, instead it’s all class. A long rich palate and a medium-long finish of lavish ripe fruit. A real crowd pleaser, and several magnitudes better than a bottle I had about two years ago. This has restored my faith!

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1990 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 707

Australia, South Australia

(Coonawarra, Barossa, McLaren Vale) {cork, 13.5%} I’ve shared in about five Rotters’ bottles of this over about the same number of years – they’ve not all been as good as this one. Still a glowing ruby – no garnet here. Blackcurrant/cassis liqueur aromas of opaque richness leap from the glass. The oak here his been effortlessly consumed – there’s no vanilla frame to dominate the picture. The palate does have a mass of dusty tannin, but the full-bodied fruit carries it easily. The kaleidoscopic flavours maintain just enough austerity to remain truthful to their cabernet heritage – this is no concocted laboratory wine. Rich, ripe, majestic, regal, but with just a touch of the exotic. A Hispano-Suiza of a wine, in fact. Intense and powerful, with a long persistent and balanced finish, this will develop further – it’s part way between primary and secondary at the moment – and will likely provide top drinking for another quarter century at least. Magnificent.

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1996 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon

Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Margaret River

{cork, 14%} Ruby red. Slightly developing nose of dusty cabernet essence, dark chocolate and cassis. The palate is still a bit closed – the monolithic fruit doesn’t really want to come and play. The wine is medium-full bodied, with plenty of tannins and unobtrusive acid, dips but a little in the mid-palate, and finishes moderately long. At this youthful age, however, it just lacks development and complexity. Ought to develop well over another ten years or so. One to watch.

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1986 Château Léoville Las Cases

France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien

{cork, 13%} This wine was really brought in case the ['82] Ducru was off-song somehow, but we needed one red with the cheeses, so in the spirit of the moment, the cork came out. Solid garnet right the way to the rim. The initial aromas are of a slight sappiness, but then the solid, and ripe, cabernet cassis comes through. There’s very little secondary development, even at this age. The palate is equally puzzling; medium bodied in every way, and although wonderfully balanced, it remains obstinately austere, almost sullen. It’s like meeting Katherine Hepburn at a party, and when she finds out you’re not Laurence Olivier, she doesn’t want to talk to you. Good even structure right through to the back palate, but this wine really doesn’t want to play. Given the pedigree, I suppose you’d leave it another 15 years and revisit. After the dinner I checked some critics – Parker was effusive in his ’97 book, Broadbent (in 2000’s effort) called it a bit hard and unyielding.

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1999 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese

Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

AP19-00 {cork, 8%} Just barely lemon in colour, trying hard to remain green. A lightly developing nose of exotic flowery apples, lychees and white fruits, with just the suggestion of age. Gently sweet on the palate, the quite delicate aromatic flavours persist nicely to the back of the tongue. Light-medium bodied in weight, it none-the-less manages a moderately long finish. But, the acid is softening out, and I suspect more development may come at the expense of freshness. Lovely to drink now, and a gamble to hold.

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