NobleRottersSydney - Fosters new releases
Guillaume at Bennelong
Tasted Monday, March 6, 2006 by graemeg with 733 views
Introduction
March 2006; David Irvine from Beringer Blass/Rose-South-mount-Fosters-Corp comes to dinner with lots of goodies from the company sample bin. Also tasted half a dozen Kemeny's Hidden Labels from Fermoy, Torbreck, Killikanoon, Grant Burge, etc
2005 Penfolds Chardonnay Bin 311
Australia, South Eastern
(screwcap, $35) The Penfolds comes as a very strong contrast 0to Margaret River], the aromas fairly leaping out of the glass. Nuts and figs are carried along on a lumberjack’s parade of oak – all quality French stuff, mind, but still very in-your-face. The acidity is rather clunky on the palate, and the it appears very big-boned beside the first wine. It is oaky, but the usual companions to that – buttery texture and malolactic flavours – are not present. A fair wine, but overpriced…
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2004 Penfolds Bin 138 Shiraz Grenache Mourvèdre
Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley
(14.5%, screwcap, $18) The same grape combination presents an utterly different face [to earth, spice & pepper] in the Penfolds. Here clean young jubey fruit dominates. Confectionery-gummy notes are sweet on the palate, but this is not residual sugar. Fizzy acidity keeps things fresh, but at this stage it’s a reasonable simple fruit-dominated wine. Gentle grapey tannins – I don’t really notice any oak here. Plenty of pizzaz to it now; I imagine it’ll settle down pretty quickly. But will it develop more interest…?
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2003 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 407
Australia, South Australia
(14.5%, cork, $27) The second tasting in a fortnight for me of this wine. I do like the nose. It has classic cabernet fruit; herbs, some cassis tipping over into vegetal notes, with a little whiff of capsicum. Nicely judged coconut oak lies beneath. All good so far. But the palate I find harsh and short; the fruit tastes unripe, the balance seems all towards the front of the mouth, tannins are coarse, and the whole thing has a contrived quality about it that is very disappointing. Oh dear.
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1998 Mount Ida Shiraz
Australia, Victoria, Central Victoria, Heathcote
{cork, 14%} Mt Ida is not a wine familiar to me – this must be close to the my first tasting, The nose is gorgeous; plush plumy fruit aromas follow through on the palate, which is wonderfully velvety and soft, yet with fine tannins still present. The finish is furry, with good balance; the mid-weight finish lingers impressively in the mouth. Lovely stuff.
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1996 Metala Shiraz Original Plantings
Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, Langhorne Creek
{cork, 14.5%} I drank a number of bottles of this Metala some years ago, but I don’t recall them being so overtly minty as this one. Eucalypt & spearmint aromas are there as well – it’s like a dentist’s office in a glass. Still tastes very young with all these primary fruits. Acid is still prominent too, and although the weight of the wine is generally toward the front palate the balance is not too bad. Tannins have subsided considerably over the years; despite its apparent youth I would drink up within the next few years.
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2002 Wolf Blass Black Label
Australia, South Australia
{cork, 15%, A$90} The 2002 offers deep-chested plumy fruit, with lashings of fine vanillan oak. Classy stuff. Rich ripe red/black fruits, fine tannins. clean, yet still closed. Round and smooth on the palate OK, it’s enjoyable now (the sweetish oak helping, no doubt) but it’s a bit like cuddling a lovely oak chest without the key to get inside. Forgot to note the geographic origin – I see it shifts around a bit as WB seek to blend from far and wide.
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2001 Wolf Blass Black Label
Australia, South Australia
{cork, 15%} The 2001 is more overtly fruity on the nose than its [2002] successor; in fact it verges on jammy. The palate is big and ripe, but I find it comparatively simple, and the balance seems overly weighted towards the front of the palate. Tannins are nicely judged, but overall I find this wine a bit one-dimensional. Despite the 15% alcohol (which is not noticeably warm at this stage) I wonder about the ripeness of the grapes; can’t help but feel a lot of work went into this one in the winery.
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2000 Wolf Blass Black Label
Australia, South Australia
(Barossa - Langhorne Creek) {cork, 14.5%} The 2000 is very different again [to the 02 &01]. The nose is very forward here and beginning to develop. Aromas of vanilla oak, blackcurrant, spice, licorice and chocolate all compete for attention. The palate is big-bodied but not clumsy, the tannins are sandy-fine, and the balance excellent. Long finish. I think this will harmonise and soften beautifully with age. Opinions were a bit split here as to which was the better wine, with the 00 and 02 seen as opposing types. I find the qualities attributable to the cabernet-dominance of the 2000 more interesting than the 2002. In the modern context of super-cult wines the price here doesn’t look too bad, I suppose.
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2003 Penfolds Shiraz Bin 128
Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra
{14%, cork, $24} The nose of Bin 128 was all dust and smoke, with a minimum of spiced fruit. A clunky thin structure; what minimal fruit there is dies on the front palate. An anodyne affair, as it has been for quite a few years, in my opinion; can’t help wondering if it’s only it’s pedigree as one of Schubert’s original blends that stops this wine going the way of the Clare Estate red…
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2003 Penfolds Shiraz Bin 28 Kalimna
Australia, South Australia
{cork, 14.5%, A$24} The Bin 28 is in some ways even more disappointing! [than the Bin 128] The nose is of ripe, yet highly stressed fruit. Blackberry & oak fight it out. The palate is big in size, yet hollow, and precedes a short harsh finish. I know it’s young, but it seems to me to lack the stuffing and/or innate quality to age well in future.
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2001 Wolf Blass Shiraz Platinum Label Adelaide Hills
Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Adelaide Hills
{screwcap, 14.5%, A$130} The Platinum shiraz has a sensational, almost Grange-like nose, with deep red fruit, chocolate, coffee, tar, bacon and underlying oak. Gosh this is good. There’s terrific purple richness on the palate, which has a wonderful velvety texture supported by ultra-fine tannins. The fruit flavours are intense, yet the wine’s not overblown in any way; just even and persistent and pure. Still young, and lacks that 4th dimension it will presumably develop, but all the components are here and clearly coming together. Wine-of-the-night for me.
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2001 Saltram Shiraz The Eighth Maker
Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley
{cork, 14%, A$150} Eighth Maker was launched in a blaze of grand publicity a year or two ago. The nose is an essence of distilled raspberry pastille fruits. It’s gloriously rich; the remarkably sweet fruit aromas rise from the glass. I find they dominate the palate though; the tannins are so fine they almost disappear entirely, and the acid is very soft. Ultimately, despite the richness of that fruit, I find it too much of a good thing; it tips the wine into the unstructured category for me, where the syrupy mouthfeel dominates everything. There are times when less is more, and this is one of them.
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2003 Penfolds Bin 389
Australia, South Australia
{cork, 14.5%, A$44} The Bin 389 has a sort of low-voltage Penfolds nose, some charry oak, ripe blackberry fruits with a little spice; a kind of generic red blend that seems to somehow add up to less than the sum of its parts. On the palate, raspberry fruit feels stretched to it’s very limit, with corresponding coarse tannins. The balance of the wine is not bad; I find it coats the palate evenly, but it lacks depth and profundity. Medium length finish only. As present custodian of the Bin 389 legacy, this vintage is a boy on a man’s errand.
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2001 Jamiesons Run Winemaker's Reserve
Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra
{cork, 13.5%, A$45} Cabernet-Shiraz, for what it's worth. This particular label of Jamieson’s Run is new to me; I’ve rather lost track of the Blocks and Reserves released under the brand over the last few years. The aromas here are rich and seamless. Raspberry & coconut fruits mingle with fine cabernet tones on the palate in a wine of mid-full weight, which is presently a little chunky and disjointed, but seems to have all the right stuff for the next few years. An easy winner over [2003] Bin 389, it must be said…
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2000 Annie's Lane Shiraz Copper Trail
Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley
[cork, 14%} There’s not much typical Clare menthol fruit in the 2000 vintage offering. Instead it’s a mass of sweet jubey red fruit. The palate is fresh, bold and clean, and also quite light, despite the 14% alcohol. Ultimately chalky tannins arrive to dominate the fruit which feels a bit weak to ever poke it’s way through the furry forest. An OK wine, but not memorable.
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1998 Annie's Lane Shiraz Copper Trail Flawed
Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley
{cork, 13.5%} Well, we’ve pulled 14 corks tonight; so it’s about time for statistics to exert their inevitable destructive force. The 1998 is ruined by TCA.
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1996 Saltram Shiraz No.1
Australia, South Australia, Barossa
{cork, 14%) It’s a pity these wines are coming so late in the night; I’d have liked to taste them when a little more, er, sober. But even someone semi-shickered would concede that the 1996 has aged beautifully. Lots of Barossa-style fruit-cake aromas, that wonderful combination generated when ripe fruit meets ten year’s cellaring. Developed sweet fruits cross into mocha-coffee territory on the palate. Softened out fine tannins add to the attractive blurry mouthfeel; the medium-full body of the wine coats the palate evenly. Everything is in balance here in this lovely rich decadent wine. Will surely go longer in the cellar, but obviously now climbing up onto it’s maturity plateau.
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2000 Saltram Shiraz No.1
Australia, South Australia, Barossa
The 2000 boasts fruit that rates several shades further down the tar scale [from the 1996]; it’s very dark and coal-like. On the palate it’s sweet-fruited, with simple tannins. A rich wine, but somewhat lacking in personality beside the 96, a characterization which probably reflects the vintage conditions. It’ll still age perfectly well, but I doubt the final article will be worth the weight.
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1997 Beringer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
USA, California, Napa Valley
{13.8%, cork} Something unusual for us, and a wine that would be priced around the A$60 mark if on current release, which given the level of local taxes and American pricing suggests it ought to be judged against Bin 407-type wines. The nose here offers fairly simple cabernet leafy/cedary fruit; a bit one-dimensional perhaps, but still pleasant. The palate adds some choco-vanilla oak notes to the soft berry fruit. The finish does fade away to thinness quite quickly – I guess this wine is probably best drink within 5 years or so of vintage. OK but not exciting.
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