Winestar Offline
Paddington, Sydney
Tasted Tuesday, December 20, 2005 by graemeg with 527 views
Introduction
A chance to meet quite a few folks from the Winestar forum at a pre-Christmas offline in Paddington. Very good wines - from a purely qualitative aspect, one of the best I've attended.
These notes are added somewhat afer the fact,so the more salacious details have escaped me...
2000 Weingut Heymann-Löwenstein Riesling Schieferterrassen
Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
Blind. My initial guess was a 10-15yo German Spätlese. Mid-yellow verging on light-gold, there were some developed apple/citrus fruit aromas riding a still quite crisply acidic palate. Ripe and persistent, yet not obviously sweet, it’s impossible to fight the instinct to call it a riesling, yet it’s really quite a powerful wine. Its revelation as 2000 Schiefferterassen QbA (A.P. 0401) clears things up a little. A full 12% strength and from a tricky, quicker-developing vintage, it’s interesting to see how this has come together compared to a bottle I tasted 3 years ago. Back then it was still big, but pungent and brutish; after a little more time the colour has remained stable, the flavours have melded together nicely, yet the wine tastes no older. Good effort from Löwenstein’s entry-level wine.
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1991 Pipers Brook Vineyard Riesling
Australia, Tasmania, Pipers River
Last of the freak wines from my step-father-in-law’s passive Hobart cellar. A shimmering yellow, not without the remaining fleck of green, the nose offers chalk, talc, honey, & apple aromas with no trace of kero or petrol. The palate almost suggests underdevelopment; there’s still fresh acid holding everything together, but the wine is now a seamless affair, ripe fruit flavours seemingly unbowed by any oxidation whatever flit lightly across the palate. Persistent light-medium finish of great elegance. Lovely stuff.
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1999 Grosset Riesling Watervale
Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Watervale
This is starting to drink nicely now. Yellow in colour, there are some developed aromas on the palate amid the lemon and toasty/cheesy notes. Lots of prickly acid around the edges of the tongue. It’s phenolic and powerful – would pummel most chardonnay’s in an alley-fight, that’s for sure. No hurry to drink.
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2002 Françoise & Denis Clair Santenay Clos Genêt
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Santenay
A slightly dirty, earthy nose. Underlying black cherry fruit does poke through. The palate is quite acidic and somewhat harsh; the balance is all front/mid palate as well. The wine certainly finishes warmly. Very much a triumph of texture over fruit. Drying tannins. Generally lean and aggressive. With little experience of young Burgundies, I can’t say much about it’s future; perhaps my only serious caveat is the relatively short finish.
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1991 Henschke Cyril Henschke
Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Eden Valley
This is brick red, and offers the classic aged Australian red wine nose – sweet brambly fruit, eucalypt, cinnamon, spice and soft old oak/cedar notes. The palate follows consistently – the slightly herbaceous notes on the nose certainly don’t manifest in any green form on the palate, which has some remaining ultra-fine tannins contributing to the velvety mouthfeel. No palate holes (some merlot helping there?) and the medium weight segues into a lovely long finish. Super stuff, and probably my red wine of the night.
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1991 Henschke Shiraz Mount Edelstone
Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Eden Valley
Still quite a dark red, this has a very much blacker aspect to it. A blackberry and malt nose with a distinctly medicinal/bretty whiff leads to a dry, tannic palate that is lean and ungenerous. Not a patch on Cyril, and I’m not sure this will ever be a harmonious wine. Disappointing.
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1996 Château Lanessan
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Haut-Médoc
Instructive to taste this alongside the preceding wine [96 Yeringberg red]. The aromas here are of soft red berries and graphite/cedar, but restrained beside the local offering. Palate is somewhat spicy, with soft tannins and a gentle drying finish. Dusty oak presence. Modest length.
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1996 Yeringberg
Australia, Victoria, Port Phillip, Yarra Valley
A nose of herbaceous character, a whiff of asparagus/capsicum, together with some dust and cedar. The palate is more generous than you might expect from what appear to be rather green-tinged aromas. It’s finely tannic, quite smooth in structure , with good persistence and (just) medium weight. Holding well enough remembering a bottle I had a few years ago, but unlikely to improve further I think. Would garner at least 75 points from Robert Parker, I reckon. Enjoyable enough, unless you’re a total fruit-slut.
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1990 Yarra Yarra Cabernet Sauvignon
Australia, Victoria, Port Phillip, Yarra Valley
From magnum. Sensational nose! (Thanks very much - a comment I often hear.) Lovely textbook blackcurrant/cassis/cedar nose. Ripe, clean, pure, yet not overblown in any way. The palate has kept plenty of tannin, and to a degree the terrific nose is reflected on the palate, yet the finish is very abrupt – almost devastatingly so. Most peculiar. It’s nicely balanced, though, so it’s a bit of a puzzle. One of those wines that rewards sniffing more than swallowing.
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1997 Seppelt Shiraz Great Western Vineyard
Australia, Victoria, Western Victoria, Grampians
Another [blind] mystery wine showing up here. There’s a big inky ripe nose; warm climate, fruit-cake, chocolate. Between that and the bottle shape, we’re agreed on Australian shiraz (big surprise!) There’s spiciness and warmth on the palate, smooth mild tannins, but somewhat spiky acidity. Medium/full body, not overdone, but the wine doesn’t exactly feel effortless either. Finish is not especially long, but it’s pretty good nonetheless.
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2003 Cayuse Syrah En Cerise Vineyard
USA, Washington, Columbia Valley, Walla Walla Valley
Overt nose of barnyard and cinnamon, with white pepper and perhaps a whiff of brett. The palate is also spicy, has coarse tannins, and is hot! I see 14.9% might have something to do with that. Perhaps unsurprisingly, with all that heat and upfront action, the finish is quite short and falls away noticeably. Not my style of wine, I’m afraid.
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2003 Carlisle Syrah Knights Valley
USA, California, Sonoma County, Knights Valley
A lurid crimson purple colour, the offers much warmer riper aromas of almost confected sweet jammy red fruits. This rich nose disguises some pepper on the palate. There’s moderate tannins and some spiky acid, but it the alcohol that shines through for me, and again the up-front quality seems to come at the expense of the length of finish. The alcohol here rises to a dizzying 15.5%, and I just don’t think the fruit is there to carry that much heat. Interesting to try these wines, but I can’t help but wonder if the idea in the US is to make the ‘biggest’ shiraz possible. That’s a dead-end road if you ask me…
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1999 Klaus Hilz Dirmsteiner Mandelpfad Gewürztraminer Eiswein
Germany, Pfalz
Retains a significant degree of varietal typicity; pot-pourri and rosewater and spice, with something of a spirity note on the nose. There is clean sweetness of fruit on the palate, not in the least cloying, with a lengthy fresh, clean, musk-scented finish. Minimal botrytis, and a terrific wine. I think it was a 375ml and I failed to get an AP number.
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