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Wine Type Vintage Name Variety Locale Date Posted Score Helpful Comments More...
White

2021 Collector Wines Chardonnay Tiger Tiger

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4/7/2024 - ProfByron Likes this wine: 91 points

I’m raising my assessment of this wine. The acid is electric. Exciting drinking now.

12.9%, screwcap.

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White

2022 Collector Wines Chardonnay Tiger Tiger

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3/27/2024 - rapcor Likes this wine: 90 points

Very Good. A wine with special qualities. It should continue to improve with time

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White

2018 Collector Wines Chardonnay Tiger Tiger

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2/23/2024 - Dr S Likes this wine: 91 points

Collector number among the Canberra district’s front rank. Maker Alex McKay is a thinking drinker’s wine man. I’m not sure the reds have built on their early promise - good, but not quite sustaining the upwards trajectory from the 06s and 08s that won garlands and bling at reputable shows. The Chardonnays, on the other hand, vie for top spot. Like the best in Canberra, the fruit is sourced from uber cool,
high altitude Tumbarumba.

Silver gold colour, signalling midway to maturity.

Textbook contemporary Oz Chardy nose. Smoky bacon (sulphite), nectarine skin, gently sautéd yellow peach, sprinkling of grilled nuts. Hits the mark for me.

Good, pleasurable palate but doesn’t quite follow through on what the nose promises. Soft, caressing, gentle tingling acid finish. A melange of flavours from the nose, soft focus. Fresh but middling intensity. Not quite the zip of the top years. Where’s the trademark Tumby crystalline acid cut and thrust?

No matter. You’ll find those distinguished characters in the thrilling 2017. Drink the 18 now while you let the better years take their time to settle and mature.

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White

2021 Collector Wines Chardonnay Tiger Tiger

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1/18/2024 - For The Love of Loosen Likes this wine: 91 points

Nose of almond, new oak and a hint of struck match. White peach and pink grapefruit. Good acid, my wife labelling this as fresh. A leaner style, almost bordering on a little tight at this point. Clean yes, but also some time on lees. Our tasting group met to pick the Chardonnay for one of our member’s wedding: we all chose this wine. 12.9% ABV. Collector apparently a suburb of Canberra, and definitely worth putting a few of these down in the cellar. Drink now henceforward to 5 years plus.

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White

2021 Collector Wines Chardonnay Tiger Tiger

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12/19/2023 - ProfByron Likes this wine: 90 points

Very classy but a bit dilute. Not on par with previous vintages.

12.9%, screwcap.

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Red

2022 Collector Wines Shiraz Cherry Orchard

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11/24/2023 - Avid Wino wrote: 91 points

Really enjoyed drinking this, can’t remember the last wine I had that was so insistently smashable, it’s been a while…. Could be that I was more susceptible in this particular Friday evening. Don’t ask me for specifics. I’ll quote the label “lifted violets, red fruits, ripe cherry and gentle spice yield to a palate of dark plums, sweet fleshy tannins, and a long resonant finish” to which I would only add there’s ripe blueberry in the mix too, and roast beef meatiness after a couple of hours of air. Enough length.

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Red

2014 Collector Wines Shiraz Marked Tree Red

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11/17/2023 - chatters wrote: NR

Age has leant a little anonymity to this...Damn.

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White

2021 Collector Wines Chardonnay Tiger Tiger

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10/1/2023 - Rote Kappelle Likes this wine: 91 points

Avid has written a very good note on this one to add to the bank of reviews.

This note will, thus, be less a review than a paean to the way sometimes a good but not great wine can none-the-less be part of something great.

Another grinding Friday, where I haul my sorry arse out of bed after spending a few happy hours between 2 and 4am worrying about work, worrying about the coming fire season, AI and other happy places. The phone starts at 8am sharp, emails begin to bank up. How do you even think when there is all this noise?

I can't begin to think about what food and wine I want to drink when I finally get to the weekend. Does it matter? I have to do my monthly trust account reconciliation and maths and I are not good friends. The weekend offers only a change in pace to the unremitting, bloody grind.

Around 1.30pm I return another lawyer's call. I have loaded up the flame thrower and triangulated the place for a nice missile strike. All that will be missing will be me smashing my way down the line to emerge with their blood, gristle and organs in my teeth.

I am completely disarmed when I suggest we speak further on Monday and there is a slight pause and then my putative dinner says 'But it's a public holiday' in a tone that suggests I have proposed we dine on Bambi.

A public holiday? Monday off? Suddenly all is good with the world. I can hear Quiet Riot's 'Metal Health' and Accept's 'Balls to the Wall' and Nazareth 'Hair of the Dog'. I need lunch and I need booze.

Off to Tilley's where many a happy slammer spends time in the afternoon, slurping and procrastinating. I used to be good at both those things, once. Today I return to my inner truth. Now it is Lee Aaron's 'Metal Queen'. I have the Salt and Pepper Squid - they now do a few things with it for me that are not on the menu, though a nude Lee Aaron is still a work in progress. I want, I need, I deserve and am worthy of booze.

I could drink a bottle of Peroni and then get back to work. Suddenly, every decent rock band worth a dime appears before me and they are all saying 'Unless you really are into the whole 1980's Manchester scene, you are getting wine, you worthless bastard'. What can one do? Then Lemmy leans in and adds "Not a glass, son, none of that shit. A bottle or I will have your guts for garters" And so it is a bottle of the 'Tiger Tiger'.

Aside from the wine being rather jolly, 'Tiger' was my ex-wife's nickname for me. Although I tried to explain to her that I didn't really want to share a name with Clemenceau, she seemed to feel it applied (she was more science than history, but I don't really hold it against her - she at least saw that Napoleon was great and she liked cricket and rugger). I always felt more like Captain Haddock than a tiger, or perhaps more like Tigger or Toad. Or Tom Joad.

Regardless of all this ephemera, the 'Tiger Tiger' was great with the food and the moment. I think that whilst there is a bit much grapefruit for me to feel ecstatic, there are lots of other good things happening and, at the price, a lot more than you have a right to expect. It could be bottled piss and I would probably be ok with it because this is the eve of an unexpected long weekend. The wine and the food and the moment have me flying; isn't that all one can really ask for?

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White

2021 Collector Wines Chardonnay Tiger Tiger

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7/14/2023 - Avid Wino wrote: 92 points

Nectarine, melon, grapefruit, lemon. Uncooked bacon. Milky feel, gold top. Bit of struck match and flint. Enough length. Quality and enjoyable but not quite up to the level I hoped for based on some prior vintages.

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White

2018 Collector Wines Chardonnay Tiger Tiger

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6/26/2023 - chatters wrote: NR

Chardonnay and Pinot (Silver Territory Seafood Restaurant, Burwood): "Served Blind.
Slight struck match reductiveness, good quality but well handled oak, touch of stone fruit. Medium plus intensity acidity and the feeling that Malolactic fermentation has been suppressed, creamy lees, textured grip, the fruit is slightly muted with a little sweet spice.
I went with Australian and feels Victorian - but not from Yarra, Beechworth or Mornington...initially I thought NSW and wish I'd stuck with that"

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Red

2013 Collector Wines Shiraz Reserve

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5/17/2023 - chbeaumont wrote: 90 points

Plum coloured, dull; muffled red fruit, on the restrained side; lovely purity of fruit; elegant finish. Very long.

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White

2019 Collector Wines Marsanne Lamp Lit

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2/15/2023 - robferguson1 wrote: 90 points

Good

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White

2021 Collector Wines Chardonnay Tiger Tiger

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2/4/2023 - Rote Kappelle Likes this wine: 90 points

The always perceptive Chatters has provided a very good review of this wine, so I will just add that a few months on from his review, on day 2 open and allowed to be served at a cool room temperature we see more melon fruit and better balance between the wine-maker's artifice and the fruit. Yesterday I felt the fruit was under-done, melon but more so grapefruit and ripe lemon.

2021 was a tricky vintage in the Canberra region (and the gloriously named Tumbarumba is at higher altitude, so cooler again than Canberra), though first rate in many other places. Here we had a cool summer and some rain at the wrong times. Not a disaster but definitely one that needed a lot of care and a little luck.

Give this plenty of time open (as in 12 plus hours), don't serve it too cold and I used a large ISO shape stem.

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Red

2009 Collector Wines Shiraz Reserve

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2/4/2023 - Rote Kappelle Likes this wine: 91 points

How you feel about this wine and how you score it may well turn on your attitude to oak. From a bushfire year (like 2020 and 2003), in the Canberra region, harvest was actually in coolish conditions, the worst heat being over a few weeks before the end of Summer. One expects some potent fruit in this mix, given the vintage.

When first released in 2011 or 2012, a striking thing about this wine was what seemed to be purity of dark cherry and plum fruit with some blackberry and the freshness of the wine. A friend with a far more perceptive palate always warned me about the maker having a bit of a tendency to be heavy handed with oak, though he wasn't referring to this wine. Perhaps back then he would have picked it up, providing the high notes that elevated the cherry and plum? Perhaps some of that perfume was oak working hard? It wasn't the obvious vanilla/coconut/coffee/dark chocolate stuff but maybe it was there, all the same?

Colour is medium deep and goes to the rim with little fading when you tilt the glass. Always in my mind a sign of likely intensity and power. There is some brick and the wine is not as crimson and bright as it was about 6 years ago when I opened a bottle. So, a wine entering the mature stage.

The nose and the palate develop a great deal over about 4-5 hours in decanter. At first the wine is a little disjointed with some definite oak breakdown - touches of mocha and chocolate- there is also some earth and slightly shy dark cherry. Hmmm. Over time and following a stern lecture, the wine pulls itself together. I get some wine gum, blackberry, dark cherry dominant and a hint of spicy oak, with some mint and Kirsch. That is all pretty enjoyable.

The palate has very good length, intensity and power are not quite as much as I expected, though it makes for a civilized guest at dinner. Tannins are fine and close to being resolved, coming in gently at the finish. There is a touch of sour at the end, but this isn't strong enough to be a distraction or to detract from the experience. In fact, I like it because it keeps the palate fresh.

Given the year, this is an impressively elegant and pleasurable wine. It is certainly no Ozzie blockbuster style and it is nice to have a wide range of styles in this large country.

In dialogue with the friend who played Cassandra to the oak of Collector, we agreed that the Clonakilla 2009 Shiraz-Viognier is the high-water mark for this region in the vintage (and I think generally), but it is a much more expensive wine. The oak was a bigger issue for Cassandra than for me and, over time open I felt it went from being quite irritating to being pretty well integrated. I don't think we have the intensity here for an 'Outstanding' rating but within the excellent range there could be a range of numbers given that are all fully justifiable.

I decanted this, overcoming my usual slovenliness and I am glad that I did. This bottle needed plenty of time to shrug off its initial hesitancy. Being under screw cap, I expect most bottles will be similar. Note made across two days of drinking, mayhem and the inevitable recriminations - the usual really.

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White

2019 Collector Wines Marsanne Lamp Lit

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2/5/2023 - Tony Molester wrote: NR

Stelvin closure
Hyped up by my local shop.
Not showing much atm. I only like marsanne after significant ageing. Tastes like many a modern oaked chardonnay at the moment.

Revisit in 2030, much upside left.
13.3% abv

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Red

2018 Collector Wines Pinot Meunier Landfall

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1/22/2023 - CamWheeler wrote: 85 points

Cherry and smoke with some rosewater and herb. Not too well put together on the palate, it's quite sweet edged but also feels thin. Probably better on release?

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Rosé

2022 Collector Wines Rose Shoreline

 Canberra District Rosé Blend more
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11/24/2022 - chatters wrote: NR

Rose and sausages (Prince Sydney, 40 Hansard Street): Jubey, pretty red cherry fruit proves a little bold. Clean. Juicy, tangy, slightly savoury cherry, rather pleasant

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Red

2009 Collector Wines Shiraz Reserve

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10/17/2022 - NoelB Likes this wine: 90 points

More restrained than when we first had it.

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White

2021 Collector Wines Chardonnay Tiger Tiger

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9/17/2022 - chatters wrote: NR

Modern Australian Chardonnay Tasting (Prince Sydney, 40 Hansard Street): New oak lends toasty notes, a touch of butter, smokey bacon, touch of melon and stone fruit in support. Medium plus intensity acidity, tightly textured oaky grip, savoury smoky bacon, fruit very much in the background. A little too much of the wine makers hand.

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White

2018 Collector Wines Chardonnay Tiger Tiger

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9/14/2022 - Gavin Sutherland Likes this wine: 92 points

Lemon curd, brioche and grapefruit on the secondary palate. The nose has vanilla, some floral notes and citrus too. Great length, v well balanced

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Red

2012 Collector Wines Shiraz Folded Blue

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8/14/2022 - chatters wrote: NR

KC agreed to crack this with Rib eye so into the decanter it went. After a moderately vigorous agitation it showed wild blackberry and red currant on the nose backed by toasty oak, sweet spice and a fair peppery note. In the mouth the slightly sour red currant fruit took precedence over the darker hued contingent, tannins were lightly textured but tongue tugging and persistent and those peppery notes were very present...made better friends with the toasted walnut/pumpkin/feta/parsley/thyme salad than the steak but pleasant none the less.

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Red

2021 Collector Wines Pinot Meunier Landfall

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7/31/2022 - Avid Wino wrote: 91 points

Red berries, touch of blackcurrant. White deli meats, spice, green herbs, black pepper. Light to medium bodied, fresh, ample length. A joy to drink!

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White

2021 Collector Wines Fiano Summer Swarm

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6/3/2022 - Avid Wino wrote: 92 points

Brilliant even on a very chilly Canberra winter evening, more typically associated with enjoying a hearty red. The label notes are spot on. White flowers, preserved lemon, almond, citrus, crisp and textured. Enough length but length is the main thing holding this back from higher points.

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Red

2012 Collector Wines Shiraz Marked Tree Red

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4/25/2022 - CamWheeler wrote: 89 points

Cherry, rhubarb and redcurrant, with some peppery spice. Palate a good mix of the bright red fruit and savoury slightly aged profile. Drink now though.

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Red

2016 Collector Wines Shiraz Marked Tree Red

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5/12/2022 - brodien wrote: 89 points

Wonderfully aromatic - some stems, red berries, spring flowers etc.
Silky and soft on the palate. Medium bodied tending towards light. Length is not amazing but this is plush, mouth filling and would work with most dishes. The tannins are also excellent and will hold this in good stead.

Very good value here - this is a hard style to execute at this price point. A wine to drink in August / September as the winter sun is turning to spring and warming our fragile souls.

Edit: This was quite flat on day two and tasted rather developed. I would drink these sooner rather than later. 91 points night one, 88 night two.

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  • Tasting notes: 166 notes on 59 wines

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