The Coonawarra Single Bottle Club descended on Lake House at Daylesford for an indulgent weekend, with some pretty serious booze in tow. I can highly recommend Lake House to anyone visiting Oz looking for a luxury getaway in Victoria’s high country just an hour and a half from Melbourne.
We kicked off with a couple of lovely Champagnes. The 2008 Billecart-Salmon ‘Çuvee Nicholas Francois’ was so fine and linear, tightly coiled, all white fruits and savoury goodness, with an impossibly fine bead. The 2007 Bollinger Grande Annee was broader, more developed, but showed latent power and palate richness. Two contrasting styles.
We followed these with some warm up whites. A 2017 PYCM Chassagne-Montrachet "Morgeot’ 1er was young but humming, glistening white stone fruits, carried ripe and abundant mineral acidity. A 2007 Trimbach Riesling ‘Cuvee Frederic Emile’ showed quite a bit of petroleum, but also richness and fine acid line. A 2004 Domaines Schlumberger Pinot Gris Kessler Grand Cru was ripe and heady, with fruit sweetness and some development. Probably needed some foie gras.
On to the reds and none were corked. To me Grange is in the zone at around 30 yrs so this line up would test my theory well from vintages displaying diverse conditions. 1985 Grange - Now mature but still very vibrant. Cooler year, showing leather, spice and plum. Lovely harmonious wine. 1990 Grange - the ripest of the line up, an extra dimension of fruit sweetness. So silky and complex, juicy sweet tannined finish. Vied for wine of the night. 1991 Grange - Super balance, fruits are still quite vibrant, quite complex and multi faceted with outstanding length. 1994 Grange - Darker, but never heavy. None of these wines are ‘big’. Dark plum fruits, coffee, with lots left in the tank.
1990 Penfolds Bin 90A - Priced above or near Grange on release. A blend of Cabernet and Shiraz, based on the legendary 60A so assume a large portion of CS from Coonawarra and Shiraz from Barossa. Darker, more structured, more obvious tannin. Really quite young and all juicy dark fruits. Young. What a treat.
Hi Kent, thanks for posting this, sounds like all the wines showed well. Based on your notes, only the 1985 sounds like it is fully mature ?
Although a relatively narrow range of vintage (29 years to 38 year from vintage); how did this tasting impact your view on “in the zone around 30 years”?
I used to say the same but now I am leaning towards 40-50 years from vintage.
Great notes, thanks! I’m planning on opening some Grange for my wife’s birthday next week and was debating 80s (81 or 86) vs 90/91. She would enjoy a more fruit forward wine so I was thinking the 90 based on these notes + recent CT notes, but would welcome thoughts.
Those late '90s vintages seem like beasts to me. I’d love to try a Grange in a place where I would use the word “harmonious”. Maybe some day, or maybe they’re just not for me. I guess I’ll need something from the '80s to find out any time soon.
That 90A – you know a wine is high quality when you’ve got “young” in the note twice, 33 years from vintage!
That’s a great question Brodie. The answer is ‘it depends’!
85 was a cooler year, 90 and 91 stellar years and 94 was also strong.
I think that you can be safe to say 30 to 40 yrs. If I had more 85s I would be drinking them as they wont get better and if I had more 90s I would also be drinking them over the next decade. 91s and 94 I am holding.
Yes either 90 or 91 Aaron, they are both really lovely, with teh 91 looking a little more primary. 91 was a bit of an overlooked vintage at the time coming on the back of the highly lauded 90 that won WS wine of the year, but 91 was a special year too.
Kent’s recommendations are strong but if it were me I would go with the 1986. This is truly great Grange vintage and is very powerful with lots and lots of fruits. I would not be in the slightest bit concerned about it being too mature, in fact potentially the oppoosite.
Thanks for the suggestions guys. We ended up going with a 90 and a 96. The 96 was quite a bit more primary than the 90. Both very good but neither quite as powerful as I’d expected. And both drinking well now but the 96 in particular needs a bit more time to develop tertiary characteristics.
I opened both in the morning and served without decanting (in part because I was juggling dinner prep), which was a mistake - both needed to open more and a short decant of the 90 helped.
Started the dinner with vichyssoise and some 2014 Grosset Polish Hill, which was good but not quite old enough - the acid had softened and there was a bit of petrol and honey but still mainly primary (lime, straw).