5/8/2023 - Milliontown wrote:

Needed some time, really fragrant with air and showing a lot of dark fruit for pinot. Bit of bramble and dark cherry. Classic bare bones structure that is the house style, I like the transparency though. Nothing but fruit. The tannins that I felt were too coarse as a young wine have melded into the frame of the wine well. In a great spot.

5/8/2023 - Milliontown wrote:

Golden yellow. Dazzling aromatics, poached pear, candied lime/cumquat sort of thing, marzipan, lychee, delivers with minerality and ripeness in a way I've never seen Tas Riesling approach. Texture and extract on the palate drive out awesome length. Crazy cheap for the quality here.

4/21/2023 - Milliontown wrote:

Consistent with prior note, just gaining more toasty/honeyed character with age. Still a broad mouthfeel, borderline oily but has a nice lemony zing to cut it. Really interesting wine.

3/12/2023 - Milliontown wrote:

Some liquid seeping through the wax prompted me to check in on this. I didn't find it tired but it did have a sense of dusty, slightly porty fruit which I think is a hallmark of this great estate. It's dark in the glass, has a fair bit of oak spice on the nose but also a glossy liquorice / faint eucalypt character. Drying, fine tannins. A bit hard work to get through in the end. Other bottles may go the distance - this one was in a good spot, I get the feeling I would have preferred it as a younger wine with more primary fruit, personally.

3/12/2023 - Milliontown wrote:

Great - I didn't find this to be a "big" style of chablis like the other ratings here, although maybe there's a sense of volume on the palate that I think is imparted by some age. It's in a good spot though, really crisp and tart with an expansive edge on the palate. Not huge length but lovely fruit characters of white peach, jasmine, elderflower cordial.

2/25/2023 - Milliontown wrote:

Nice, this is showing a lot of finesse and subtlety for AV Chardonnay, but still has a nice generosity of fruit once it opens up. Love the balance and the length. Oak is a little nutty and spicy but not too prominent. Good value.

2/25/2023 - Milliontown wrote:

Just terrific. Very vinous with lovely sherry-ish aldehyde and secondary fruit characters. Golden colour. Incredible palate. A lot of vitality left and would probably age further but this is just so delicious right now.

1/7/2023 - Milliontown wrote:

The recent (bretty) ‘13 I had over Xmas prompted me to check in on this bottle. Sad to see some of the same initial horsey barnyard notes. Blew off after a while and had more of a core of tangy fruit than the ‘13. Every time I looked the horse was less and less noticeable, more powdery, mushroomy, earthy. Faint sense of dustiness on the palate and sort of sandy, spicy tannins. Really bright sour cherry, very Burgundian. Threshold brett imparts that sort of sweet and sour profile but doesn’t strip fruit too much here thankfully. I’ve had enough foillard now to confidently say bottle variation plays a big part.

12/26/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Nice, a very soft lighter Pinot with a little age to mellow it into something more coherent than what I tasted on my last note here. It's definitely in the Mac Forbes style of skeletal structure, tannins are lean, acid is high, but the fruit is gorgeous and distinctly Yarra to me. Wish it had a little more spice and power maybe, I feel like it's going for elegance but comes across as a little simple and one-note.

12/26/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Sadly quite brett affected.
On decanting it was quite horsey. Most of that blew off but the palate was really scalloped with an initial attack of fruit that quickly subsides, and a lingering sharp acid without any fruit power to balance it.
Has a shadow of the nice mellow cherry fruit that I know this wine can deliver. I'd love to try an aged bottle one day but preferably without the brett characters which seem to randomly affect bottles.

12/26/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Don't know if anyone will ever read this beer review here, but for completions sake I'm writing a small note for it to anyone wondering if beer like this can age well. It can. Carbonation is on the lower side, its very very malty and sweet but has mellowed into a smooth, flavourful brew. It's strong and needs food maybe, was great with tiramisu. Had most of the 6 pack on my wedding night 6 years ago, glad I saved some.

12/26/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Consistent with my prior note, this has had a little time to grow into itself and develop more harmony, the acid feels a little less bitey than I remember. More mineral and vivid on the palate, more tropical fruit aromas. Takes me back.

12/26/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Nice, has a bit more to offer than your average rosé. Nice colour too with some flecks of orange/gold. Has some power on the palate with lovely texture and spice to match the acid. Really well done and hits the spot on a hot day.

12/26/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Consistent with my prior notes, a little more honey and grassy tones coming out with the bottle age. Beautiful, refreshing yet complex wine and I can't wait to open my one remaining bottle, although I'll try to keep my hands off of it for as long as possible.

12/26/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Agreed with the other notes, lacking character.
Not flawed, but not interesting. Expected a bit more given the price and write up from the producer. Served it blind to guests and nobody had any idea, totally nondescript white wine.

12/18/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Under screwcap, as fresh and tight as it looked on release. Lovely struck match character, very minerally. White peach, talc, green apple. Very strong acidity. Strikes a nice harmony with the creamy buttermilk edge in the background. Beautiful length. Really well done. Nice value

12/18/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Fairly average, gave it plenty of air time too. Dark colour, bit brick-red/maroon around the rim. Aromas are a bit one dimensional with a strong feeling of ripeness, ie. Stewed fruits, chocolate, oak spice, very boozy. Feels hot on the palate too. Seems developed, but nowhere near past it. Feels as good as it’s going to get. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh but that comes with the price tag. Would be dissapointed if I had paid full price for it.

12/10/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

I gave this two days but didn’t feel it ever really showed the same power and grace as other vintages I’ve tried of this wine. Felt a bit oak dominant with a sense of thickness and density to the fruit profile. Big length, quality fruit but I still found this to require a bit of effort to get through.

12/10/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Looks just like it did when I first tried it nearly a decade ago, maybe a little bit less pronounced aromatics. In a bit of a dumb phase maybe, this may need another 10-20 years. Still a young bright yellow colour. Tropical fruit aromas, a little mosel mineral flint in the background but there’s a bit of an overwhelming weight and dominance to the tinned pineapple aromas. On tasting, the sherbety zingy acid hits at first but is quickly overwhelmed by a strong viscosity and sweetness. It’s not blousy or overly thick, it’s enjoyable, there’s some elegance to it, but it is nowhere near peak drinking yet. Should blossom with time.

11/18/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Beautiful and exactly what I felt like. In the zone at the moment, still some freshness and primary fruit, but some secondary notes creeping in. Starting to take on a golden colour. Beautiful saline energy, zippy acid, waxy creamy mouthfeel with an understated generosity of flavour. Delicious.

11/28/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Not a whole lot of development for its age, still looks fresh and tightly wound. No hints that this has gone through malo, it has some generosity but it's mainly about freshness, purity, has a bit of a seaspray thing going on but i'm mainly getting citrus fruits on the nose. Riesling-like intensity on the palate, I like the acid driving the structure but this wasn't for everyone, certainly not for those who expected a more traditional chardonnay.
A nice expression of a really special site though.

11/22/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Golden colour. Day one it was about what I expected from the other notes here - oily, honeyed, viscous mouthfeel. Very aromatic with a sense that it’s going to be heavily extracted and sweet on the palate, but it finishes quite dry. This had improved a lot by day 2… the honeyed notes became more waxy and more aromatic complexity emerged, and somehow my perception of the acid increased which seemed to pull everything together and balance the wine. Nice, enjoyable if a bit pricy for what it is.

10/15/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Decanted a couple hours. Agreed that it looks at peak, some vintages can go longer in my experience but this has everything right now. Very perfumed, great mix of porty dried fruit character with some primary jubey elements. Silky smooth tannins, absolutely mouth-filling and generous but so so elegant.

10/15/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Great to see this has blossomed and filled out since my last tasting of this. Amazing aromas of cashew nuts, lemon zest, seaspray, lime candy. It took some time but the frame of the wine filled out to be much more classically waxy and persistent, incredible length. Really good.

10/8/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

No expectations with an unknown region and variety here for me. Big pronounced ripe fruit aromas, stewed cherries and strawberries, bit of rose petal, some musk / candy note in the background. Ripe characters, not cooked but obviously a bit pushed. But there’s total balance on the palate, with tangy jubey acid supporting fine chalky tannins. Loved it, a pleasure to drink, easy to guzzle but with ample complexity.

8/21/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

The best of the 18’s to me, totally clean and with a striking presence to it. Very bright orange colour. Aromas of grilled nuts, candied cumquats, orange oil, shoe polish, lemon curd. Absolute velvet on the palate. Drinks like a red in some ways. Lots of intensity to the flavours, but a crisp weightless texture. Beautifully pitched acid. Would love to see how this ages. These wines, when they are on, have to be the best orange wines in Australia.

8/10/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Dark colour, has the appearance of a pretty dense wine. Delighted to say it’s super clean on the nose, all cherries and violets, rhubarb, cardamom, some bramble, really seductive and complex. Pure feeling palate, expansive, superb structure. Fruit is beautifully pitched, just fans across the palate and melts like chocolate. Delicious tangy strawberry and blackcurrant conserve. Tannins slowly fade in, they’re slightly coarse but they meet the impact of fruit and fade back out gently. Whew. Top notch Beaujolais here. This will be a re-buy for me.

7/29/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Beautiful and clean, I could tell just from smelling the cork.
Heady tropical fruit at first, pineapple, guava, kiwi, sort of lollyish with this starburst/sour worm candy thing going on, with a faint high note of VA there too. Other terpenes jump out, like limonene and a sort of citrus curd. The starburst candy flavour hits on the front of the palate and it's delightful. Really citrusy and tart, the acid is very high and brings it to a dry, clean finish. Layers of detail here. Very good.

6/30/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Lovely polished aromas, classic Syrah with violets, blueberry jam and liquorice. Enhanced by a bit of spicy oak too. Unfortunately, the presence of the oak on the palate seems to swallow all the fruit, leaving a bit of a watery, empty mid palate. Tannins have a bit of a papery, rough edge to them. Slight bit of heat but otherwise a nice finish.

6/30/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Under cork now. Similar to my impression of the Sallio, these wines aren’t as clean as they used to be. This one is also affected by some VA on the nose and a savoury, dried out palate. Weird ashy bitterness to it too. It did get a lot better on day 2, more sherry aldehydes with lovely nutty notes enhancing the puckering citrusy acid. The structure seems to need time to come together - I recommend a 24 he decant minimum.

6/30/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Under cork now. Bright vivid golden orange colour. Big aldehydes on the nose, like sharpie marker, hiding the fruit somewhat. With time, more of the classic apricot and toffee lime come through, but the palate is marred by some slight mouse character which seems to have stripped the fruit. Not as clean as previous releases

5/14/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Mixed notes here, prompted me to check in on a bottle. I wonder if some of the less positive notes didn't give the wine fair time in a decanter. The '01 I had a few years ago benefitted from 12+ hours decanting.
I asked Filippo at Valdicava about this, he suggested a couple hours would be sufficient, but the wine could certainly hold up for longer.

I decided to pop the cork in the morning and leave it to slow ox all day, decanted at about 6pm and got into it around 8.
There was initially some strong brettanomyces notes, old leather, cloves, nothing too stinky about it. After another hour the fruit underneath started to emerge, more morello cherries, strawberry, a lovely herbal edge. Great structure on the palate, lovely fine tannins but this is really drinkable and moreish.
Would have loved it to be a bit cleaner but thems the brakes. Will check in on my one remaining bottle in another 5-10 years.

5/1/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Unfortunately not great. Big ciderish VA upfront masking some ripe fruit underneath, absolute essence of tinned apricots. It’s intriguing, and not entirely awful, but just strange and a bit dirty feeling. There’s some rancio/aldehyde there too. Not really together on the palate - broad and weighty, sort of a vinegary/cidery wash to the acidity, and a considerable amount of papery tannin for a white wine.
Left another day to give it some air, and unfortunately it became quite mousy on the palate. Blech

4/16/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

And here it is, my last bottle. Decanted one hour. Quite similar to how I remember it. Has some nice bunchy herbaceous notes (and slight VA), very earthy with some nice stewed strawberry/cherry fruits. Still lots of spice and primary fruit flavours. Feels like the palate is losing vitality a bit, low-ish acid (for pinot) with a broad, slightly oily texture coming to the fore. Nice fine tannins still. Drink soon.

4/16/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Looks incredibly fresh and youthful, both in appearance and aroma/taste. Light colour, still redolent with fresh lychee, pineapple, guava, the whole lovely spectrum of quality Sauv. With time, a definite sense of the “mineral”, ie. gunflint, slight petroleum note, some sulfidey reduction. Also a sort of herbaceous grassy note I’ve seen before in aged Sauvignon. Glassy feel on the palate, very delicate feeling, yet it has a definite impression from the oak and lees work in terms of texture - that’s more on the back palate. A delicious wine with all elements in total harmony. Didn’t quite reach the heights of complexity I hoped for given the price, but it’s very good nonetheless.

4/1/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Really great Cabernet Merlot blend, under the radar but I love this producer. Strong oak at first, contributes some lovely cedar notes, not too prominent but a bit in your face at first. Thankfully this opened up in the glass a lot and the fruit got to speak, classic cassis and strawberries, very floral, with time a more liquorice/new car smell comes in. Melts on the palate like great cab should, expansive blue fruit with weight balanced by a lithe tartness on the finish. Has aged well and will continue to develop in bottle, another 5 years and I think that oak spice will have melded into the frame of the wine nicely.

4/1/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Really should have given this the full decanting treatment but it was opened spontaneously. Looked very closed at first, some time in the glass and it begins to unfurl. Really savoury aged white, beeswax lanolin vibe with some strong citrus curd notes. Very clean and fruit driven with a balanced sense of aged notes like oxidised/baked fruit setting in. Lovely aldehydic boot polish note over the top of it all. Expansive on the palate, almost drinks like a red with it's sense of texture and weight. Dancing, prickly acidity still cutting through. Big length. Special wine, I really enjoyed it.

1/21/2022 - Milliontown wrote:

Whew. I've had a run of bad luck on natty wines and this wine broke that streak. Stunning, rich ripe orchard fruit tones, with a varnish / walnut thing - aldehydes, bound to happen with a no sulphur wine, I don't mind it in this context though, kind of gives it this saline/sherryish vibe given the high acid.
On the second day it looked quite different, more dried apricot and flowers, a bit of the varnish thing but still incredible length and structure. Beautiful intriguing wine, lots going on, I really enjoyed it.

10/31/2021 - Milliontown wrote:

Another roll of the dice at the natural wine shop, another bretty, volatile mess. This felt borderline threshold at first, some red cherries and slate notes, but a horsey, sort of sweet/sour finish. With time the brett became more pronounced and the finish became more unbearable. I wanted to like it, in part because it wasn't cheap. Disappointing.

10/15/2021 - Milliontown wrote:

Immaculate cork, impressive for a wine of this age. Looked very closed at first, all prune juice and strong heady spice, so I decanted for a bit and even shook it around. With time, this became a lot more expansive and unfurled into something really beautiful. Big fruit presence, dark fruit even, so not super recognisable as Shiraz. Has a cabernet-like intensity, dark fruited and brambly, inky even. Faint eucalyptus. Has a big presence on the palate without feeling weighty or unbalanced. Coats every part of the palate though. The fruit is so velvety and precise feeling. Still manages to feel elegant, sort of ethereal and fresh feeling. Incredible length, it keeps giving... just dances and changes across the palate as it softly fades away. Wow.

10/15/2021 - Milliontown wrote:

Gifted from the family cellar, this bottle unlabelled but wax sealed and caked in dust. Fortunate enough to have this special birth year vintage of this same wine twice now. And looking back at my previous note, this is pretty similar.
Brown colour, no redness left, just a very faint orange. Transparent, very light, almost looks like a rosé. Heaps of sediment. Unlike my last bottle which was shared among 4 people and consumed fairly quickly, this was given a few hours in the glass to open up. At first, it's just very dried out with a strong savoury note, underlined by some old-bottle VA, bit of a shoe-polish thing. As it unfurls, more prunes come to the fore, dried flowers, other secondary/tertiary notes of liquorice and smoked meats. I could use lots of descriptors but none of them would be fruits.

It's past it's best honestly. Would have been at peak 10-15+ years ago in my opinion, although I still enjoyed it as a curiosity and peek into history. Still has some structure, some zingy acid. Interesting, very distinctive aromas, hard to compare to anything else. The smoked meats thing I have encountered in old Best's PM before, so I'm happy it still had some varietal character to express.

8/2/2021 - Milliontown wrote:

Well I managed to hold on to my last bottle for a bit longer than I thought. But this experience was quite different to my note from 6 years ago!
Gone is the intense dark fruit spectrum; it's morphed into a porty sort of muted fruit profile, dried flowers/potpourri notes, and prominent cinnamon/vanillin. The oak is quite punchy and a lot more pronounced than I remember. Really charry and distracting.... That's rather disappointing for me - I felt this would just mellow out a little with some bottle age but it seems to have faded into a secondary or tertiary phase. There's still a nice balanced mouthfeel but it's marred a bit by some sawdusty oak tannin.

8/2/2021 - Milliontown wrote:

Heady aromas straight away, lime cordial and toast like an aged riesling, some lemon curd and waxy rockmelon notes too. Good. Palate is a little empty in the middle and feels a little watery and plain - the acid feels dissociated from the wine and seems a little thin and wiry.

8/2/2021 - Milliontown wrote:

Sound wine, dark fruited and fairly dense and opaque. Bit hefty for Mencia, feels like the extraction here is quite heavy - milky, soupy density on the palate. Not particularly exciting

7/25/2021 - Milliontown wrote:

Not bad. Feels a bit more new world in style - has a slightly cheesy petrol note with a fresh primary fruit profile of lime cordial and lemon curd. A bit one note but I was impressed with the balance and texture relative to the price.

7/24/2021 - Milliontown wrote:

Very fruity and lithe expression of cab franc, feels very pure and vibrant. Aromas of violets, rosemary, eucalypt, camphor, blackcurrant, some faint nutty aldehyde note. Drinks more like a Beaujolais - really fruit forward. Love the mouthfeel, fine papery tannins but the structure is more about tangy acid and sort of a milky texture. Savoury finish. Feels very “natural” in style but is done very well.

7/18/2021 - Milliontown wrote:

Nice, this was very cheap and is very delicious. It is very grapey and has all the muscat terpenes with a very lollyish, sweet-fruited personality, but I find it very vinous on the palate still with some lovely weighty texture and a dry finish. Good value.

7/17/2021 - Milliontown wrote:

Spicy, savoury number this. Black olive, bacon fat, bay leaf, iron, bramble fruit, pepper, wild herbs. Lovely aroma. Definitely some brett on the palate though. Borderline mousy feel back there, and feels like the palate is a little stripped. Acid is very high. Still chewy tannins. Very interesting wine.

7/16/2021 - Milliontown wrote:

Light almost green yellow colour, turbid though. Lots going on here, notably some spicy barrel/lees work characters, definitely some oak lactones, something like overripe fermenty pineapples, slight cat pee terpene from the sauv Blanc. Some burnt butter/burnt orange rind thing too. Big texture on the palate, really impressive breadth and a sheer crispness to it too. Feels raw, like I’m tasting from the barrel. I like it. Random chance at auction, very happy for $20.

7/12/2021 - Milliontown wrote:

A very good Shiraz straight from the bottle which shows an array of cool climate characters; violets, plums, apricot, bay leaf, slight peppery note, bit of oak spice too, but it's well melded into the frame of the wine. Feels full bodied but this is very easy to drink, lots of complexity and grainy fine tannins to finish.