NOBLEROTTERSSYDNEY - CELLAR TREASURES - 360 Bar & Dining, Sydney (6/07/2015)
A vague but interesting theme of ‘cellar treasures’ brought a near-full house of Rotters bearing an interesting selection of wines. Mostly bulls-eyes too.
2004 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Brut Vintage Reserve - France, Champagne
(Bruce) Lemony nose. Only a little yeast character. Creamy texture. Even, lemony flavours, dry but not tart. Medium body with medium acidity. Small creamy bubbles. Persistent finish. Very convincing, although seemingly only a short way down its developmental path. Excellent champagne.
1996 Peter Lehmann Sémillon Barossa - Australia, South Australia, Barossa
{cork, 12.5%} (Stephen) Solid gold. Some sherried characters on the nose, but mostly honey and mead, with aged citrus. The palate is gorgeous, really, with honey and dust, and brown leaves. Beautifully aged, and in amazing condition, if the flavours are just a little simple perhaps. Tastes lightly oaked, but may not have been in reality. Light/medium-body; really very good, for a wine which was probably wasn’t really intended to last this long: the ‘museum reserve’ across the label slash surely wasn’t intended to push it on to twenty years. Very fine, although it was completely over-shadowed by the next wine…
1998 Tyrrell’s Chardonnay Vat 47 - Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley
{cork, 14%} (Stephen) Initially rather subdued in aroma, despite the solid gold colour. But the aromas blossom discreetly; figs, nuts, honey. The palate is even more spectacular; it still has a fizz of acid knitting it all together, with honey, spice and sandalwood among an absolute library of aged chardonnay flavours. It’s medium-bodied, with an awesomely even palate. Staggeringly impressive. Right at peak.
1970 Château Batailley - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
{cork} (Gordon) Barely ullaged. Double-decanted two hours earlier. Looks great; garnet with some bricking. The nose is ancient; cigar-boxes with a musty carpet note. Camphor almost! The palate presents an initially lovely and antique flavour spectrum of leaf-tinged black fruit, soft and gentle, with only the barest of tannins remaining, quite an even light/medium-bodied presence along the tongue, but a rather short dry finish. In many ways it’s quite lovely, but it lacks the ultimate complexity and ‘wow’ factor. On the other hand, what do you expect from a 35-yo 5th-growth? Lovely to find it showing so well. Drink up!
2001 Tahbilk Shiraz 1860 Vines - Australia, Victoria, Central Victoria, Nagambie Lakes
{cork, 13.5%} (Graeme) Double-decanted about two hours prior. Scary nose of bacterial, volatile aromas; with a fungal, mushroom note. Very worrying, like a toxic old-world syrah, and smelling way older than 14 years. The palate was much better; intense and savoury, with leathery, cherry-tinged aging fruit. Has a touch of biltong about it. It’s dry, earthy and savoury, medium-bodied, with an even, low-key profile. Medium dusty tannins and medium acid carry the show; it has a medium length finish. The nose is such a let-down that I don’t know what to make of it really; presumably it would have stood a longer decant, and hence cellar time. Hard to call, and although I’m certainly disappointed in this showing, there might be a modicum of hope that things will change with time.
2002 Stoneyridge Larose - New Zealand, North Island, Auckland, Waiheke Island
{cork, 13%} (Guest - Aaron) Bottle 14499. Just opened and poured (no decant) . Still ruby red. Amazingly youthful nose; this must be the world’s most boisterous 13-year-old. Lots of spiced cabernet (franc-like)/curranty fruit, with cedary French oak. Polished and powerful on the nose. The palate seems to show a rustic note I always associate with malbec; although it’s not without some refinement, with its savoury, currant-tinged, leafy/basil flavours. Despite the blackcurrant fruit power, medium powdery tannins and medium/full body it really seems built for food, with its dry medium/long finish and great mix of new and old-world qualities. Has another decade in front of it easily. Cab-S, Malbec, Merlot, PV, Franc in the proportions 51/27/11/8/4 for the record.
2002 Wolf Blass Black Label - Australia, South Australia
{cork} (Greg) Not decanted, just poured. Developing nose, mostly of chocolate and vanilla. Medium/full-bodied palate, rather big and blocky, with clunky, medium/high dusty tannins; it seems rather uneven in the sense that it comes and goes on the tongue. Medium finish. A bit simple now, but I would happily keep this to see what happens.
1998 Wirra Wirra Shiraz RSW - Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale
{cork, 14.5%} (Kim) Big cuddly fruit-cake nose. Spicy. Coconuts too. The US oak becomes more apparent as it sits in the glass (not decanted, or at least not for long). Medium-full body, with a big velvety vanilla-flavoured palate, laced with blackcurrant. A touch uneven. Satisfying but a bit predictable and four-square. At peak.
2005 Bernard Faurie St. Joseph - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph
{cork, 13%} (Glenn) No decant. An initial mustiness raised the TCA spectre, but it seemingly blew off to reveal vaguely stewed blackberry fruit, with minimal oak. The palate still retained some mustiness; the wine ticked all the medium boxes with some gritty tannins; but over time the attenuated finish and scalped quality to the flavours constantly nagged at me that this wasn’t quite right. Not convinced.
1986 Château Margaux - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux
{cork, 12.5%} (Gordon) Still solid garnet. Voluptuous nose of violets and currents. It’s intense and powerful. The palate is big; awesome in the traditional sense of the word. Multi-dimensional and delectable nose; but the palate which follows is not charming by any means; it has cigar-box flavours and ripe cabernet flavours, but still has a distinct hard edge to it. It’s not unripe or overly tannic, it’s just a bit of a brute. Hugely impressive wine; maybe not what you expect from Margaux. Long finish, and although it drinks well enough now, I get the sense that it will hold for many years yet. Not sure that it will ever ‘soften’ though. Is this the most Paulliac-like effort from Ch Margaux? This is a picky note though; I probably have stupidly high expectations of mid-80s Bordeaux for some reason…
2011 Inner Mongolia Hansen Winery Group Cabernet Gernischt - China, Inner Mongolia
{cork, 13.5%} (Graeme) Just a bit of fun, to fill a long gap before the desserts arrived. The nose is all spice and pepper. The palate tastes like a blend of under-ripe and over-sweet fruit, if that makes sense. Tastes earnestly made; with low gritty tannins, medium acid and spicy lean red fruits with white pepper forming a short-finishing wine which won’t change anyone’s life, but certainly comes as a surprise from inner Mongolia…
1981 Chateau Reynella Vintage Port - Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale
{cork, 17%} (Bruce) Tawny, murky brown colour. Camphor and caramel aromas, with musty carpet-underlay notes. Nuts, coconut, caramel too. Weird palate; lots of flavour to start with, then a somewhat hollow mid-palate. Medium finish, medium body and medium-dry for sweetness, but I still don’t find it terribly satisfying.
cheers,
Graeme
