| Wine Type | Vintage Name Variety Locale | Date Posted Score Helpful Comments More... |
|---|---|---|
| Red |
2015 Hardys Pinot Noir HRB D667Australia more |
9/6/2017 - Delectable Blue Does not like this wine: 79 pointsThis is another pinot that is not quite ready for prime time. There is a slight barnyard funk on the nose, and the cherry and raspberry fruit are also a little on the funky side, although a little indistinct in the process. The mid-palate is unusual - the flavours, as opposed to the bouquet, are deeply perfumed. It tastes like I’ve been sucking on a perfume bottle (yes, I’ve done that). There are some cola flavours, and a hint of cardamon in support. The tannins are soft and the finish is unbalanced. |
| White - Sweet/Dessert |
1995 De Bortoli Noble One Botrytis SémillonRiverina more |
4/29/2017 - Delectable Blue wrote: 90 pointsVery deep in colour, looking more like a tawny port than an aged semillon. The flavours are intense and multi layered. The initial sweetness is tempered by dried apricot, citrus rind and herbal tea flavours. The acidity is still good, driving a long finish. It’s not overly complex, but vey beautiful and deeply satisfying. |
| White - Sweet/Dessert |
2008 Westend Estate Wines Sémillon Botrytis Sémillon Riverinamore |
12/25/2016 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 88 pointsNot bad for a cheap and cheerful desert wine. Sold as a clean skin, but surprisingly carrying eight years bottle age. Maybe some old stock that had to be moved. The colour is a deep vibrant gold. The nose is honey. The fruit is ripe apricot with citrus rind and creme brulee adding depth. Not as rich or intense as some of the better known brands, nor as sweet, but enjoyable and refreshing. Beautifully matched with Christmas pudding. |
| Red |
2012 Belgravia Cabernet SauvignonOrange more |
10/24/2015 - Delectable Blue wrote: 75 pointsI found this wine very challenging to evaluate. It is an example of a more austere Cabernet style (cool climate?) that I’m as yet not overly familiar with. |
| Red |
2013 Hungerford Hill Merlot Orangemore |
11/15/2015 - Delectable Blue wrote: 82 pointsMedium bodied. Aromas of white pepper predominate on the nose, supported by hints of black olive across a firm earthy background. |
| Red |
2013 Hungerford Hill Merlot Orangemore |
8/24/2016 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 88 pointsAnother merlot that has improved considerably with additional bottle time. The intense and somewhat jarring fruit flavours have now softened, delivering a much more balanced mouthfeel. The favours are still sitting in the plumb and raspberry spectrum with a strong helping of black olive. The french oak now a distant memory. |
| White |
2014 Lake's Folly ChardonnayHunter Valley more |
5/3/2017 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 95 pointsAlthough the Hunter Valley is better known for it’s sublime semillon, it also makes some spectacular chardonnay, and this is one of them. |
| Red |
2011 Thomas Allen Shiraz AlasdairHunter Valley more |
12/26/2015 - Delectable Blue wrote: 94 pointsA beautiful hunter shiraz. One of my favourites. Beautifully layered and complex. A real delight. |
| Red |
2011 Thomas Allen Shiraz AlasdairHunter Valley more |
8/19/2015 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 94 pointsOne of my favourite hunter Shiraz's. A real exemplar of the regional style. Complex plumb fruit and spice on the palate, with a delightful smoky earthy background. Beautifully integrated tannins and oak and great length of finish. Just when you think you're finished the flavours keep pushing on. Almost a vintage port flavour to the final push. |
| Red |
2015 Thomas Allen Old SchoolHunter Valley Shiraz Blend, Syrah more |
10/22/2016 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 89 pointsStill young, but the wine is vibrant and quite smooth. The black cherry and blackcurrant fruit are sweet, with little respite from the still underdeveloped mid-palate. Secondary complexity comes in the form of chocolate, cured meats, dried herbs and cedar. More medium bodied than the 2013, the tannins no where near as drying, delivering a very smooth elegant finish, with a hint of spice and vanilla. Another beautiful wine from Thomas Allan, but still a little unbalanced in its youth. |
| White |
2014 Pepper Tree Chardonnay Limited Release Single VineyardHunter Valley more |
12/5/2015 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 90 pointsA stunning chardonnay. Beautifully balanced oak and fruit, with subtle malolactic characters lending a nicely rounded mouthfeel. Tastes a lot more expensive than it is. Attracted quite a bit of attention from those who tasted it. Regrettably the occasion was too social for me to take detailed tasting notes. |
| Red |
2011 Calais Estate ShirazHunter Valley more |
4/18/2017 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 94 pointsI’m still loving this wine. It is broad and rich, with dark plum and blackberry flavours floating on a sea of Hunter Valley volcanic earth. The oak treatment is now starting to really mellow, with beautiful vanillan notes now joining the score. The tannins are still ultra fine and super velvety. The balance is still good and the wine has a long and lightly spiced and smokey finish. This is why I so love Hunter Valley shiraz. Superb. |
| Red |
2011 Calais Estate ShirazHunter Valley more |
9/7/2016 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 92 pointsFlavour profile is consistent with previous notes, but the overall balance has improved as has the secondary complexity. Very nice. |
| Red |
2011 Calais Estate ShirazHunter Valley more |
3/16/2016 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 90 pointsOne of my all time favourite Hunter Valley shiraz. This is not an award winning wine but it is chock full of that quintessential Hunter Valley character - a real expression of place. Bucketfuls of opulent black fruit on the front of the palate, with a background hum of scorched earth, peppery spice and all things nice. Fine velvety tannins and a slightly acidic finish round out the experience. In reality probably only an 85 point wine, but I give it an extra 5 pts for the huge smile it brings to my face. Love it. |
| White |
2016 Thomas Allen Chardonnay Mango TreeHunter Valley more |
10/18/2016 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 95 pointsFresh as a daisy. A traditional Burgundian style Chardonnay. The fruit is intense and vibrant, ripe white peach, honeydew and starfruit mingle on the front palate. The wine has unusual complexity for a young chardonnay. Secondary flavours of honeysuckle, toffee and baking spice evident. The intensity is such that it leaves an almost lolly like sensation in the mouth, yet it is not overly sweet. The wine is lightly oaked with only a slight creamy malolactic mouthfeel evident. Good acid balance and a long finish the icing on the cake. Sensational. |
| Red |
2014 Margan Cabernet SauvignonHunter Valley more |
1/15/2017 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 94 pointsTasting for all the world like a rich left bank bordeaux, and very reminiscent of the 2005 Chateau Tour Massac (Margaux), this Hunter Valley cabernet is both opulent and complex. The rich earthiness of the Hunter Valley terroir combines with a deeply layered complexity from the sweet vanillan oak, supporting the primacy of the legendary 2014 vintage fruit superbly. I could drink this forever. Great value at $25 a bottle. |
| Red |
2014 Thomas Allen Shiraz MMV PokolbinHunter Valley more |
8/30/2016 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 95 pointsA single vineyard shiraz from the old-vine moon mountain vineyard. Very aromatic, heady with ripe berry fruit. The body dense with flavours in raspberry & plum spectrum, although not as intense as the Alasdair. The fruit is fresh and quintessentially Hunter Valley in character. The wine is also not as tannic as the Alasdair, which is a little surprising given the extended cold soaking and fermentation time. There is nice complexity and depth for a young wine, with hints of tar, pepper and spice across that earthy Hunter Valley background. The oak is very restrained and barely perceptible, the balance exquisite. Superb. This is the yin to the Alasdair’s yang. What a pair... |
| White |
2013 Thomas Allen Chardonnay Mango TreeHunter Valley more |
6/14/2016 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 92 pointsCarrying the distinct flavour of ripe summer fruits and honeydew melon, this wine is aptly named. Supported with secondary flavours of toffee and pie crust, the wine is simply irresistible. Unlike the 2014, the oak treatment is quite restrained, with only subtle woody notes, and a divine malolactic creaminess left on the palate. The mouthfeel is quite luxurious, although I would have liked to see a little more acidity in the wine. A sublime chardonnay. |
| Red |
2013 Glenguin Tannat IronbarkHunter Valley more |
11/5/2016 - Delectable Blue wrote: 90 pointsI’m new to Tannat, but if other Tannat’s are like this then I think I’m going to be a big fan. Medium bodied and very savoury in style, but incredibly moorish. The black raspberry and black plum fruit is juicy without being overly sweet. There are cured meats, nutmeg and a touch of cedar on the mid palate, followed by a light smoky finish. The tannins are firm and slightly drying, but not overly so. I like it - a lot! |
| White |
2001 Aruna SémillonHunter Valley more |
10/21/2017 - Delectable Blue Does not like this wine: NRTainted |
| White |
2001 Aruna SémillonHunter Valley more |
11/19/2016 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 97 pointsBottle #3. They say there are no great old wines, only great old bottles, and this bottle certainly demonstrates that point. It is sufficiently different to bottle #1 & #2 to warrant a separate note. There is an intensity to this wine that is difficult to describe, it nearly tastes more like a rich aged Oloroso sherry, than a semillon. Almost bone dry, the palate is strongly beeswax, with a marked flinty/smokey mid-palate, there are also nutty rancio notes on the finish. Wow, just wow. This is why I love aged semillon. |
| White |
2013 First Creek Wines Chardonnay Winemaker's ReserveHunter Valley more |
5/8/2016 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 92 pointsA lovely luscious chardonnay. White peach and grapefruit flavours with a saline undercurrent and lime peel setting off the palate. Very smooth with a creamy mouthfeel, but no evidence of malolactic fermentation except for a subtle hint of creme brûlée. The oak very restrained. The acid is quite subdued at this point, giving the wine great balance with a long lingering finish. Simply beautiful. |
| White |
2001 Aruna SémillonHunter Valley more |
9/30/2016 - Delectable Blue Likes this wine: 88 pointsBottle #2. It looks like there may a little bit of bottle-to-bottle variability, which is not unexpected at this age. The second bottle is deeper in colour and markedly more intense than the first bottle. The wine is almost bone-dry, which is a little drier than I'm used in a semillon. However the intensity of the flavours carry the day. This bottle has a slight smokiness to the finish that was not evident in the first bottle. Quite nice actually. |
| White |
2001 Aruna SémillonHunter Valley more |
8/23/2016 - Delectable Blue wrote: 85 pointsA bargain basement semillon, just starting to develop that luxurious Hunter Valley character after a mere 15 years. Honey, sherbet, beeswax with a subtle citrus sting. Lacking a little in intensity compared to it’s more accomplished competitors. Unfortunately I think it’s still in its transition phase and probably needs another 5+ years to really start to shine. Very nice, just needs more time. Patience… |
| White |
2014 Thomas Allen Chardonnay Mango TreeHunter Valley more |
10/18/2015 - Delectable Blue wrote: 75 pointsToasty oak and melon aromas predominate with subtle guava and vanilla undertones. Soft creamy palate with a luxurious mouthfeel and buttery malolactic characteristics contributing to a subdued acid balance. Another wine that will benefit from some more bottle time. |
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- Tasting notes: 235 notes on 185 wines
