3/14/2024 - Christopheroz Likes this wine:

Traminer still dominating the flavour, but multi layered., with extra depth and complexity from the Chardonnay. Ageing beautifully too, with a honeyed richness, and it’s the Riesling that promises an extended life yet

11/8/2023 - graemeg wrote:

{screwcap, 14.5%} Rustic, like a rusty gate. Black plums, tobacco, cranberry, earth. Distinct country bumpkin quality to this, but comforting in every way.. Low acid, loose-knit but quite low level gritty graphite tannins. Medium weight, warmly alcoholic finish. Not quite sweet, but lavish and rich all the same. A wallowing wine, not a considered one.

9/8/2023 - graemeg wrote:

{screwcap, 12.5%} A little grass, a hint of gooseberry. But gentle and friendly - if there is RS here it's very finely judged. Light palate, no real acidity nor length of finish. Very bistro.

6/8/2021 - Paul Anderson Likes this wine:

Going threw the wine cellar , i came across this wine for Dinner tonight , which has not been reviewed here , lets see what we have...
On opening we have a Black Core in colour with a deep ruby rim at June 2021. excellent
Again on opening we have ripe sweet black fruits of Plumbs, Prunes and blackberries showing with nice well integrated newish oak with complements nicely.v/good and maturing as expected .
On the palate we have ripe sweet fruit upfront similar flavours to above , nice medium bodied mid palate richness and perfect sweet oily tannins giving lovely long finish too which lingers and lingers and that beautiful balance i expect from this style and class of wine . Not cheap these days as prices rising fast due to old vines here. If u have visited this winery u would notice the virtual sun trap the vineyards are in this area and why they do so well. This winery being owned by Treasury Wines and access to capital also helps , but saying that this wine is better than the 2012 for certain. QPR $60+ is getting up there .Perfect with rare Duck or beef best ..Cheers

3/5/2018 - graemeg wrote:

NobleRottersSydney - Two Hands + specials (360 Bar & Dining, Sydney): {cork, 12.3% [Gordon] Re-corked at the 2014 clinics, topped up despite level still in the neck. Tonight, decanted immediately prior to service, although sediment was minimal. Still a wonderfully dark garnet, with just the faintest bricking around the rim. Mature aromas of staggering beauty: leather and spice, chocolate and vanilla, laced with violets, aged plum and raspberry fruit. There’s just a hint of the trademark volatility that made this such a controversial show wine back in the day. The palate is mirror smooth, not really more than medium-bodied, but all of-a-piece. Ethereal flavours dance, kaleidoscope-like, on the tongue; everything that you sniffed is there, and the rest that can’t really be pinned down. A shopping list of flavours seems a bit pointless with a wine like this; it’s so much more than the sum of its parts. It’s well-aged, but it still has freshness and vibrancy. There’s even the presence of gentle low-level graphite tannins. Doesn’t seem especially oaky either. Immaculate balance on the tongue, and has an endless finish that make this a matchless wine. Considering this is approaching fifty years old, it’s extraordinary. It’s not fragile initially, although I wouldn’t decant it long, and it’s hard to see any improvement left, only the risk of decline. But anything non-ullaged, or ‘clinic-ed’ should hold a while yet. One of the great wines of the twentieth century by anyone’s standards and an absolute privilege to drink.

11/23/2019 - graemeg wrote:

{screwcap, 11.5%} Pale straw, still with some green. Soft nose of grass and some gentle green herbs, oregano, maybe. A hint of lime too. The acid still has a nice little spritz kick, but is otherwise round and friendly. It’s only light-bodied, but bone dry. Even palate, and at least a medium length, persistent finish, despite the lightness of weight. Mild flavours; it’s not especially aged yet, but has moved away from primary. Probably best to let this sit another half-dozen years; shame it’s my last bottle. Likely still available via the winery for a decent price though.

12/8/2021 - graemeg wrote:

NobleRottersSydney - a fine finale (Fix, St James, Sydney): {cork, 14.5%} [Kim] As for the St Henri, another soft crumbly cork saw this open-decanted about two hours before consumption. I wasn’t convinced by this, finding the nose raw and chippy, like bottled particle-board, with a hint of volatility. Palate is more gluhwein-like, with baked fruit and a carpet-like flavour. There’s some jam character too, with lots of vanilla oak. Feels like a bit of a side-show alley wine after the St Henri. I suspect pH is too high, alcohol is too high… Dunno what’s happened to my relationship with Bin 389 over the last 20 years; it used to be the world’s most dependable wine; now it seems to have developed a bipolar disorder or something. Or is it me?

6/21/2021 - Drinking Trees wrote:

Flavour is heavy, dense, and somewhat closed: intense cassis and raspberry, with hints of leather, black pepper, roast garlic, and violet. Medium-bodied, with firm tannin and strong acidity. Lots of potential, but needs a lot of time to open up.

6/30/2021 - Screwcaps Likes this wine:

18 Quintet
Was decanted a day ahead. This note a day after on reflection.

A quiet and elegant wine, jubey and pure, with masses of complexity and almost unbelievably long finish in its lithe and light to medium frame. Oak is not a feature.

Finest of tannin, energetic acidity, and body all in perfect harmony.

This needs a quiet room, the closer and more time you can spend with this wine the higher the score goes up. Exceptional. Thank you duck.

Drink now to 15 years, it will cellar but it’s so good now you’d hate to miss it peak. Only down side is that this is under cork. The only thing holding it back from a higher score is intensity and body which should come with age.

In Australia there are not rules about what gets planted where. This is a fantastic example of Cabernets made by a Pinot producer- you can see the lightness of touch.

5/5/2021 - graemeg wrote:

NobleRottersSydney - reds at 10 20 30 (Fix, St James, Sydney): {cork, 12.5%} [Graeme] Double-decanted two hours earlier. Level still slightly into the neck, but with a tiny vein of wine up the side of the cork and a little ancient flaky wine under the capsule. I surmise that happened right at bottling and then the seal was maintained. I’ve had this in the cellar since 1997 and the level never moved. Aged garnet colour, but not too orange. Classic aged nose of leathery old red, spice, generic aged red berry. Plenty of aged oak too; this was getting to around ‘peak-oak’ for Wynns, and it’s pleasant but not especially complex. The palate has faded red fruit too, with a gently chalky tannin astringency, medium-bodied weight, nicely ripe but not baked. It’s very plesasant, especially for 30 years old, but perhaps a bit prosaic. Medium length finish. Seems like it will still hold a while but there’s no more complexity to come. Would have been better with a bit less oak. Possibly judged a bit harshly as it was comprehensively overshadowed by the following 91 Grange.

3/31/2021 - graemeg wrote:

{screwcap, 11.5%} Still very pale; barely mid yellow. Slightly developed nose of pineapple, grapefruit, fleshy melon. Oakless, but with a greasy sort of aroma. The palate is seemingly deficiently low in acidity, certainly initially, where there’s just a grape skin quality with fleshy, thick white fruit characters. But eventually there’s a kind of scaffold of acidity which holds the structure together. That said, it’s still pretty thick in texture, furry and dense, medium/full in weight, with a medium/long finish of largely a single dimension in flavour, if impressive in length. Butter and nuts too. Almost tannic in texture. Will be interesting to see how it ages further. Tahbilk may have some of the largest plantings and oldest Marsanne vines in the world, but they’re scarcely spoken of in hushed tones of awe, which it feels though they should. Not sure this wine will be tipping point, but at only $40-ish perhaps that’s a big ask. But then, why should it be, if everything is done with an eye to the supreme achievements of quality?

11/13/2019 - graemeg wrote:

{screwcap, 14%} Mid garnet, not too dark. Slightly developing nose, of currants, basil, brambles and a cool-climate spearmint edge. Maybe a touch of olive? Not oaky. Palate is fairly loose-knit, with a green-but-ripe tang, bramble and spice, maybe with some basil or other green herb. Bit of a mid-palate hole, with a warm tingly presence on the tip of the tongue. Very fine gritty tannins, not quite keeping up with the rest of the weight somehow. Acidic enough, a bit spicy perhaps. Medium weight, but a fraction warm. I think it might be in an awkward stage. I see from the back label that it’s mostly franc, at 42%, with 35% merlot and just 23% cs to round it out. In retrospect that makes sense - it doesn’t have a real cab sauv underpinning. Also they say it’s a warm sun-bathed vintage; kind of figures too, although I think it’s left the wine a bit under-done for structure, despite the spicy quality. Drink it cool, and give it a bit longer and hope the tannins hang in there.

3/3/2021 - graemeg wrote:

NobleRottersSydney - regional Oz shiraz (Fix, St James, Sydney): {diam, 12%} [Graeme] Noir and Meunier make up 37% and 16% of this and give it its pale salmon-like hue. It smells a little like roses too, strawberries, with a touch of yeast. Pleasant, if well-developed. Sadly, despite persistent and fine creamy bubbles, the palate is dull and muted in flavour. It’s not obviously faulty (perhaps storage was an issue?), but at any rate it finishes very short indeed, despite its initial promise of medium weight, and sits almost entirely on the tip of the tongue as well. Not very impressive.

12/18/2020 - graemeg wrote:

{screwcap, 14.5%} Still an inky ruby colour. Youthful nose of malt, meat, crushed ants, ink. Palate is full/bodied, high in finely grainy tannins but not over oaky (the lagrein?). It’s also quite warm; I reckon a lab would give me more alcohol than the label does. Ripe, but also a bit porty and not exactly fruit-fresh. I doubt it’s an aging style, yet it feels like it needs time to lose some of the ‘in yer face’ character. Drink with bruising food might be the best recommendation.

7/25/2019 - graemeg wrote:

{screwcap, 14.5%} Grim stuff. Dark inky black colour. Big nose of raisins, vanilla, oak chippy notes. Raw and brutal rather then rustic. The palate is harsh, with extracted black flavours, no charm, no seduction. It,s medium/full-bodied, although that’s due to the alcohol and extract, it has harsh medium gritty tannins, a short, dry, hot finish of patchy and porty character. Goodness. This is what the once—mighty Bin 28 has come too. A basic commercial FMCG offering. As Trump would say, sad.

9/19/2010 - graemeg wrote:

{cork, 14.5%} Despite fine provenance, and a cork that appeared to have done its job, this wasn't up to much. Aged aromas, pruney and raisinlike, with a distinct metallic edge. The palate is mostly tar and cough mixture, with elements of aged ripe fruit making an occasional cameo, but you've really got to look hard. Little - none, really - in the way of interesting or complex secondary development, no charm, just an old fading wine. More than a touch of volatility about it too, and I don't mean that in a good way. Medium-full bodied - in context! - but no great length of finish. More proof that the plush/ripe/more-of-everything style in McLaren Vale has an effective shelf-life of about ten years. In fairness, this was certainly drinkable, and it's perhaps not universally off-putting, but as the flagship wine from one of Australia's best-known wineries it's not a great advertisement, either for McLaren Vale or for 1998.

7/8/2020 - graemeg wrote:

NobleRottersSydney - Mount Mary (Fix, St James, Sydney): {cork, 12%} Garnet/orange-ish colour, but not too faded. Aged but fabulous nose, all dressed up in St Emilion garb, with intense cigar notes everywhere. Beautiful, refreshing, yet mature chocolatey palate, rich with old plums but not over-the-top by any means. Cedary oak fits in, doesn’t dominate. Medium weight, with low/medium chalky tannins, medium acidity and just perfect balance; even palate, cool and refreshing with a lingering medium/long finish. Startlingly good wine which will presumably hold longer; it’s nowhere near falling over on this showing.

6/17/2020 - arthrovine wrote:

Badly flawed with secondary ferment.

6/3/2020 - graemeg wrote:

{screwcap, 13%} Different provenance but very similar to February’s bottle. Sweet aged fruits, compost, jam, soft dusty tannins, medium acidity. Enjoyable wine still, but certainly peaky, with trembling hints of volatility. A bit drying on the finish; although it’s pleasant it’s not all that complex; the fruit has faded relative to the more boney elements of the structure. Ah, well. Very nice to throw back as a mid-week drinker, especially considering the ambitions once held for the label.

9/26/2019 - Zyigo Likes this wine:

Wonderful Chardonnay. One of the better Chardonnay varietal wines I've had in a long time! I don't consider myself a Chardonnay lover, but this absolutely settles at the top of my white list.

For me, I got stone fruits high on the palate with the winemakers suggested "apricot" being what I settled on also. Prior to looking at the tasting notes, I couldn't quite find the citrus note as it was hidden behind what I consider to be a beautiful rendition of a traditional Chardonnay. That being said, it's definitely there.

2/9/2020 - graemeg wrote:

{screwcap, 13.5%} Bright garnet, but quite translucent. Could almost pass for Pinot. Blackberry, cranberry, white pepper. Ripe but savoury in style, as the palate reinforces with red fruit flavours, and a fairly light and open texture, medium/high acidity, and low/medium faintly gritty tannins, with minimal oak evident. A bit of smoke and tobacco, but also a spiced fruit quality. Is medium weight, certainly, with good front and mid-palate presence; finishes about medium length, with a sweet fruit twist. Will see another 5-8 years easily, might pick up further dimension too. Decent wine.

1/8/2020 - graemeg wrote:

{screwcap, 13.8%} Smoke, gentle spicy oak, earth and raspberry flavours. Bright and youthful. Fresh light-medium weight palate, with peppery characteristics, low dusty tannins and medium acid. Quite lively on the palate, with a sweetish twist to the flavours on the finish, which is short/medium in length. Jubey and juicy wine for youthful consumption, I can’t see the structures or tannins for proper aging.

5/31/2019 - graemeg wrote:

Hunter Valley - 3 Cellar Doors (Hunter Valley): {screwcap, A$50} It might only have 10% cabernet, but my goodness, its presence is easily noted. Mint touch, blue fruit. A malty blue/black touch on the palate too. Very lean and pointed cabernet influence after the savoury shiraz majority. Even palate, medium/full body, medium dusty tannins, but not overtly oaky, despite the only red in the portfolio that sees barrique maturation (but just six months’ worth). Actually it’s not bad value, considering the quality of the fruit, but it’s still a bit young to drink. Give it 3 years, then drink it over the next twenty!

2/21/2019 - chatters wrote:

Dario supper (My place, Kent Street): Served through an aerator. Leather, eucalyptus, muted black currant, earth, mushrooms, pretty much fully mature but there is a fragrant, perfumed blueberry note that opens with time. On the palate it's got chalky tannic grip that is drying and quite peppery with juicy acidity, the palate is generally muted with a little sweet black fruit. It does improve and soften with both food and wine.

12/11/2018 - #COT wrote:

Sourced from McLaren Vale, Wrattonbully, Langhorne Creek, Barossa Valley, Padthaway and Upper Adelaide, and spent 13 months maturation in used American oak hogsheads. The colour is a healthy, deep and dark red-purple; given the weight of the fruit, the decision not to use even a small percentage of new oak (of whatever origin) is an interesting one - as is the jumble sale of regions. First up, disappointing in the context of the vintage, however much it will develop in bottle and gain stature through to '32.

1/20/2018 - graemeg wrote:

Hunter Valley - 4 Cellar Doors (Hunter Valley): {screwcap, 14%, $50} Haven’t the years caught up with the price of this label? That said, this has a beautiful savoury nose of blackberries, with an integrated palate of the same basic flavor, tinged with spice. Even palate, medium weight, little oak evident (good to see) and with a medium long finish. Nice wine with some years ahead, almost justifying its price.

6/7/2018 - VinCapitan wrote:

black cherry, cherry pip, sour cherry nerds (all the cherries) and blood orange. Has a spike of crimson acidity that hasn’t melded in to the wine and is sitting outside of it. Like the last kid picked for team sports. Dark earth flows on lovely tannin work, but that acid spike hits me wrong

3/5/2018 - graemeg wrote:

NobleRottersSydney - Two Hands + specials (360 Bar & Dining, Sydney): {screwcap, 13%} [Gordon] Quite developed nose of nuts, figs, yeast. Still has a hint of sulphur about it, despite the age. The palate is steely and mineral-like, a touch forward on the tongue but with a largely even palate, dry, with a hint of mushrooms (in a good way). A bit more earthy and open and, I dunno, textural, than the following Leeuwin wine. Perhaps more Burgundian, although I’m reluctant to use that term, since these should really be judged on their own merits (and I harbour a personal prejudice that top Oz chardonnay will spank a lot over over-priced Grand Cru Burgs in a way which local pinot won’t do to its red equivalents). This medium-bodied, with an even, medium-long finish of great interest and complexity. Very good, with plenty of life left, and amazingly different to the Margaret River alternative…

2/5/2018 - graemeg wrote:

NobleRottersSydney - Penfolds at 10 20 30 years (360 Bar & Dining, Sydney): {cork, 13.5%} [Aaron] Had a 40-minute decant. Big, chocolate and cedar nose. Liquorice too. Very ripe, powerful. Plenty of oak on the palate, too, with sweet chocolate and currant flavours. Medium chalky tannins, medium-bodied with lowish acid. Makes a bit initial impression in the mouth, then flattens out a bit, and only finishes medium length. Weaker back-palate, despite the pleasant flavours it’s just a bit hollow and simple for a Coonawarra flagship red. The more I taste JR from the late 90s the more I understand why they ripped out so many vines and re-thought the oak treatment.

1/15/2017 - graemeg wrote:

Hunter Valley - 4 Cellar Doors (Hunter Valley): {screwcap, 10.5%, A$80} As much a victim of the vintage as the Belford it seems. Aromas of tobacco and dirt. Doesn’t smell botrytised, but it has a fungal character to it. It lacks freshness and tastes more of browning straw. It’s light/medium-bodied, with just a medium-length finish. OK wine, weak for a Vat 1, don’t think I’d cellar this much longer.

4/2/2017 - graemeg wrote:

{diam, 14%} First time I've seen a diam soaked nearly to the top. Disconcerting. But, this isn't oxidised at all. It's very typical of Domaine A, with its herbal, basil and currant character. Very much on the green side, although it doesn't otherwise display signs of unripeness. Medium dusty tannins, medium and clear-cut acidity, medium weight and a medium/long, dry, solid and varietally cabernet-like finish are its hallmarks. It's somewhat developed, clearly not aged, but I wonder if the green character will become still more pronounced as time passes. I daresay if you drink a lot of Bdx it won't seem too leafy at all. Good wine, but rather pricey for what it is. I think recent vintages were back in the $40-ish range.

1/15/2017 - graemeg wrote:

Hunter Valley - 4 Cellar Doors (Hunter Valley): {screwcap, 11%, A$35} Lovely developing aromas of toast and tobacco. You’d swear there was oak. Still with medium/high acidity, this is filling out beautifully on the palate. Honey-tinged tropical fruit flavours, yet always dry, with an earth and soil aspect. Long even palate. Lovely over the next five years.

6/17/2016 - F1NUT Likes this wine:

Well what a surprise to open one of these bottles tonight. I suppose we would think the wine will be well past it, but it had good reviews after release and I had kept three bottles which I lost track of until recently.

The cork is awful. It crumbled half way down and the rest could not be easily removed. A filter rescued the wine from immediately tipping down the drain. An initial filtered amount displayed golden in the glass. A sniff revealed a strange combination of old socks, old oak, caramel and something resembling a chardonnay. Tentatively a taste reveals some quince fruit, butterscotch and then some welcome grapefruit acidity to finish. It was drinkable so I decanted it and left it for half an hour.

Then it revealed some nicer, cleaner bouquet and flavours. The sox had gone and some caramel without the sweetness was observed. Tasting the wine I now experienced a little more lighter fruit, like dark stewed peach and apricot instead of quince. The nice acidity gave the wine good length and the toffee had moderated to a light butterscotch without much sweetness. It became a rather pleasant wine to drink and considering the age it was impressive. I like the experience of opening and then being able to enjoy such a wine.

The wine became more and more enjoyable. Initially I decanted half a bottle off into small bottles for cooking wine. After four hours I am eager for more of the wine. Even the butterscotch is less imposing and the acidity now gives the wine great length. It has been good with the meal, and also with some cheese.

I might be a sad case, able to enjoy an old Chardonnay like this, but really this wine still has merit. It has evolved into a different space than the winemakers intended but there is a lot of connection with what would have been a nicely balanced flavourful Chardonnay for a few years after its release. It still has a lot of merit.

I doubt the winemakers intended anyone to keep this wine for 14 years but it shows credit to them for producing a wine which is still rather enjoyable after that time. Despite the state of the cork, it seems there is no perceptible oxidation and the wine is nicely clean from TCA and Brett. Its a nice example of well made New World Chardonnay, but unusual to be kept to this age!

3/26/2017 - graemeg wrote:

{cork, 13.5%} Despite its immaculate appearance, I'm a bit dirty on this cork. The wine has a terminally musty quality I just can't get past. But is it the cork's fault? I don't know. There are aged aromas of mulberry/ripe fruit, subtle and restrained. Mild dusty tannin, moderate acid. But the wet carpet character is also strong. Admittedly, it doesn't have the rank cardboard of full-blown TCA, but the mouldy character never goes away. The finish is just too anonymous - and mushroom-tasting - to be convincing. Also, although the texture seems to persist on the medium-weight palate, it seems to be all tactile characters, and very little actual flavour. A perplexing wine (of unknown provenance) which needs to be opened alongside some sibllings to be sure. I still think - drink - on this evidence.

4/7/2014 - graemeg wrote:

NobleRottersSydney - Hunter Valley (Verde, East Sydney): { screwcap, 13.5%} (Graeme) A developed and spectacular mix of earth and spice; ripe grape aromas but all savoury promise. The palate is medium-bodied, with soft chalky tannins. It’s seamless, with a long even presence on the tongue; hints to blackberry and dust, with a little leathery oak are evident. Medium-bodied, but with a long, dry, savoury finish, this is seriously evocative and almost wistful in is seductiveness. A standout wine, presumably at peak, but showing no sign of falling over. A reasonable but not great vintage in the Hunter, I’d drink these (if I had more) over the next five or so years.

2/14/2014 - graemeg wrote:

2014 Sydney Royal Wine Show - Exhibitor's Tasting & Trophy Wines Lunch (Homebush & Four Seasons Hotel): [gold medal] {screwcap} This is pretty much a ringer for the preceding 2010 Lovedale wine. Some age apparent on the toasty, heneyed flarours and aromas. Oak-free, with a terrific line of acid carrying this along the dry palate, and a great length of finish. Top shelf Hunter Semillon. The winery did well (show-trophy-wise) with the 2007 vintage; this proves it’s no fluke.

2/18/2016 - graemeg wrote:

{cork, 14%} Bright garnet red. Youthful, tobacco-and spice infused nose. The palate has twig, spice and tobacco, a touch of tomato; a bit like cab franc. There are loose-knit, faintly gritty tannins, at a low-ish level; the wine has medium acid, and a confectedly sweet touch just emerging at the end. It finishes warmly on the palate, always with that tobacco character, and with short/medium length. Decent wine from a novelty grape for the short term.

10/6/2015 - Andrew67 Likes this wine:

Generally I think the vat 47 stylistically is under ripe. I recall when buying this wine, thinking exactly that, but I was persuaded to purchase. Now I am glad I did, whatever I thought about this originally, it now has great complexity and structure. The oak is well balanced with the fruit, there is no sign of greenness. I enjoyed this wine immensely.

2/15/2013 - graemeg wrote:

2013 Sydney Royal Wine Show - Exhibitor's Tasting & Trophy Wines Lunch (homebush & Darling Harbour): [Gold medal] {screwcap, 14.5%} Gentle strawberry fruits nurture peaty earth. Berries and sandy soils blend together. The palate is wonderfully fine-grained, with pure light red fruits of great intensity but not size, and fresh acidity forming a medium-bodied wine with great evenness of presence along the tongue. Dry and balanced, it culminates in a long contemplative finish. This is a really classy wine that hides its alcohol very well indeed, and avoids excess oakiness as well. A class act in every respect.

8/3/2015 - graemeg wrote:

NobleRottersSydney - shiraz all prices (360 Bar & Dining, Sydney): {diam, 12%} (Graeme) Served blind, with predictable results; assumed to be fine champagne! Classy, developing nose of yeast and smoke. The palate has a light honeyed richness, always dry in texture, with medium acid, chardonnay-like flavours along with a crisp, crunchy freshness, and even though only light/medium-bodied, was quite persistent in its finish, with medium-sized creamy bubbles revealing real quality here. Not a lot of pinot character evident. Very tidy wine indeed, although no bargain at £36 even in its home country.

6/30/2015 - Arch57 Likes this wine:

Had to go 100 pts on this one as after 1,525 tasting notes on CT since 3/24/06 I have not had a better wine. Debated giving it 99 but this wine had no flaws so how can I not score it perfect? Of course it was my first and only Grange so possibly the '98 or '04 would have rated higher if I had the privilege to taste such vintages but alas this was all my modest cellar contained.

I had sourced this on 6/1/05 for a bargain $165 and when I tagged it I wrote "for Retirement" on the bottle not quite knowing at that time when the day would come and stuffed it away in the wine cooler. Fast forward 10 years and a month and retirement day has arrived. Walked out after 30+ years without my laptop and company phone and I could have floated across the parking lot!

I knew this needed a serious decant so opened it at 3pm and tried a first sip and the tannins let themselves be known so into the decanter it went. Finally around 6:30 time for the first pour with my wife into our Riedel glasses and a joyous clink of the glasses on the deck. Color was a dark crimson with some bricking in the color, very unlike young Aussie' Shriaz. Swirling brought out aromas of cigar box, forest, dried fruit. First sip was mouth coating with cranberries, earthy notes, allspice.
After we got to "know" the wine it exhibited many personalities. A times it had the elegance of an aged Bordeaux, other times it had the power of a Napa Cab. Kind of odd was that it never had the extracted Shiraz flavor found in many wines from down under. No this was all about class and balance. The finish would go on and on for 50-60 seconds (that was a benefit as it made every sip last and slowed down the consumption of this marvelous wine)! Paired it with prime filet and fresh corn and baked potato, the perfect accompaniment for this bottle.
I told my wife that it would have been awesome if I had a bigger wine budget in 2005 and bought all 3 bottles my local wine shop had because it would be fascinating to try this one in 5 then 10 years. You could just tell it had the stuffing to last. A remarkable wine on a remarkable day in our lives. Cheers!

2/14/2014 - graemeg wrote:

2014 Sydney Royal Wine Show - Exhibitor's Tasting & Trophy Wines Lunch (Homebush & Four Seasons Hotel): [silver medal] {screwcap, 13.5%} The judges had this pointed identically to its Alex 88 sibling. Interesting, because it’s quite a different style of wine. This is a much darker offering, oozing of currants and blackberry essence. There’s less pepper and spice here, but more herbs and iodine. It’s very polished in texture, with superfine powdery tannins (still prominent though) which carry sweeter fruit flavours. It certainly has more obvious appeal, but I think it also has greater depth and dimension and perhaps a slightly longer finish. A class act.

9/12/2014 - graemeg wrote:

{screwcap, 13.5%} Surprisingly deep yellow for fout years old, but still shot through with green. The nose is moderately intense, smelling of green vegies, wet stones, and - yes, as another TN says - juniper. The palate is dry, and has a raspy, phenolic - almost tannic - quality to it. Very grape-skin like. It sits mostly on the front palate, and the finish is short/medium in length. Flavours are in line with the aromas. I'd concede a peppery quality does emerge at the tip of the tongue. It's interesting enough without really drawing you in. Probably ready to drink. At auction for A$19, value is OK.

6/3/2013 - graemeg wrote:

NobleRottersSydney - Random night (Verde, East Sydney): [screwcap, 14.5%] {DavidC} There’s something wrong with this; it’s fungal and bretty. There are inky earthy spiced flavours underneath, but the palate is overlaid with a distinctly bacterial character, giving a harsh finish. There’s charcoal oak, sure, but there’s little presence on the mid-palate (in a McLaren Vale chiraz, of all things!) and the finish is very short. I can’t believe this bottle is characteristic. Weird.

5/22/2013 - graemeg wrote:

{screwcap, 13.5%} Pretty young still, or so it seems on first sniff. Vaguely minty aromas, twigs & sticks, tobacco, herbs. Cabernet element seems dominant as far as the aromatics go. The palate is cool, a bit spicy and medicinal, with vanilla & liquorice flavours, olive-like aspects. It's far more shiraz than cabernet in the mouth. There are fine - almost fading - dusty tannins, medium acidity, but the finish is disappointingly short; although the wine makes its impressions fairly evenly along the tongue, they all fade together rather quickly. In fact, the finish is such a let down, it kind of clouds the whole experience. And I really wanted to like this more than last time...

3/4/2013 - graemeg wrote:

NobleRottersSydney - Clare Valley (Alio's, Surry Hills): [15%, screwcap] {DavidC} Big, hot raisin/prune nose. Full-bodied, low acid wine; ultra-ripe – over-ripe but not dead! – grape flavours; prunes, liquorice, soy on the palate; medium gritty tannins, lots of presence on the front of the tongue, medium length finish. If this note reads as stilted, it’s because the wine has a blocky, coming and going quality to it; this is a modern, fashionable, legitimate style of wine, but I think it’s one that always shows better young; this wine is close to the end of that ideal window I reckon, so I sense I’m tasting the last of the best of it. Get into it before it blows itself apart and turns into a black hole…

2/25/2011 - David Paris (dbp) wrote:

Three days in the Hunter Valley, 13 Cellar Doors, 115 wines; 2/24/2011-2/26/2011 (Hunter Valley, Australia): Much lighter aromas here than the Steven's, though there are some light pickles present which are nice. The palate dials it up a notch, which is rich and soft, yet strangely chunky in texture. It coats the tongue in acid and granny smith apples. The finish doesn't express quite as fresh acidity as some of the previous, younger wines, but plenty of green apples. This lingers for some time and really coats the mouth. Upped the score a point a minute after tasting as the flavors were still lingering.

6/29/2010 - Goldstone wrote:

Cold War Nuclear Escalation Wine Club Dinner (Otto e Mezzo, Alexandra House, Central, Hong Kong): As ever, thanks to Runny and it didn't take too much unabashed sychophancy on our part for him to bring this along......after all, it has become a tradition. Deep, deep rich red colour that is still semi-opaque. The nose grabs you immediately and plunges you down Alice's rabbit-hole....where opium smoke hits you both in smell and taste and also creates an in-the-head resonance that is incredibly rare to experience on the nose......fresh and vibrant, wafts of youthfuil bramble fruits.....all harmony and integration. The palate is just OFMG....rich, sumptuous, velvety, punchy, smoky like a temple and with deep, deep, deep (did I say deep?) fruit......great oak and soft tannin structure that is mirror-polished mahonogy....it has a Pomerol softness and roundness about it but with such power. Gosh......it resonates in the head like bells in Chartres cathedral. Powdery but firm tannins remain on the tongue long after it has been swallowed.....and then begin the reverberations and reveries. Wow! I think it was everyone's WOTN and it even moved Jean-Paul to poetry......which is pretty impressive (the wine...) when considered it was up against Ch. Latour 1959 and Margaux 1983, amongst others. If you love wine, drink one before you die.

5/3/2010 - Alex H wrote:

Icons of Clare Valley: Sweet cane water, light touch of white rum , white port and light creame nectarine. A pristine example of aussie riesling. Clean dry lightly off dry and pristine minearlity. Great staying power with dry rootish finish. Exemplary riesling for australia.