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Chris Ringland Shiraz-20 Vintage Vertical Tasting

Ciao Bella Restaurant, Hewlett, NY

Tasted October 24, 2015 - October 25, 2015 by bobbubbabs with 91 views

Introduction

It was a tremendous honor, privilege and pleasure to meet and taste wines with Chris Ringland. His passion for wine is effusive and contagious. We tasted 10 different vintages on consecutive days, starting with the youngest the first day (1999-2008; the final year is bottled but not yet released). Wines were served in flights of three, with a tenth taste the finale each day. Years 1989-1996 were represented by the Chris Ringland Three Rivers bottlings, 1997 the Randall's Hill and 1998-2008 his 'Estate' wines.

Closing

It was rather interesting that most of the 3 wine flights had two excellent results and one of less interest. In the latter category I would put the 1994, 2000, 2003 and 2006. I personally found the younger wines (10 years or less) to be very 'jammy', though the power in many of these is evident, and I've often felt the same way towards young Grange. Equally, some of the older vintages had a bit less fruit than I might have expected.

Looking over my admittedly sketchy notes from the two days, my favorites were the following vintages: 2002, 1993, 2004, 1990, 2001, 1991, 1996 and 1998. I'm sure the other 20 or so people at the event had a different order of preference. But each of us was blessed to have had the opportunity to participate in this fabulous tasting!

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