Bee's Knees In Aussie's: Vintage Wines Ltd, Monthly Thursday Tasting
The Bee's Knees in Aussie's
March 17th 6:30 pm
Second Third Thursday Tasting for 2005 at Vintage Wines. This one written up as: We will taste some hot new wines from Down under all of which will blow you down! This will just be a few cobbers sittin around getting blotto!
The wines were served single blind, and as is my usual practice I did not look at the list, although I’d seen the proposed listing on the web site. The wines are listed in the order they were tasted. Identities were revealed at the end of the tasting.
Clarendon Hills Brookman Vineyard Syrah 2001 $59.99USD
Dense cherry red with red edge. Aromas of barnyard and oak overlay a slightly burnt character and pleasant, ripe fruit. Medium weight with good acidity, the flavors carrying well on retronasal. (2, 2, 3.9, 9.8 = 17.7/20 (89), 94 WA).
AusVetia, Coonawarra 2000 (11% cabernet Sauvignon). $54.99USD
Cherry red with pink edge. Very open with aromas of blackberry and pepper; developed a dry tea leaf character with time. Medium weight with excellent mouthfeel and better balance than the first wine. (2, 2, 4.1, 10.1 = 18.2/20 (91), 14% alcohol)
Torbreck Descendent, Barossa 2003 Approx. $100USD
Almost purple with deep red edge. A big, extracted aroma of tar and blackberry. Is this a Port tasting? Full bodied, finishing with very firm tannins and a lot of alcohol. (2, 2, 4.0, 9.8 = 17.8/20 (89).
Henry’s Drive, Barossa 2003 Approx. $30USD
Purple with deep red edge. Very perfumed with a slight hint of ethyl acetate (VA?) and toasted oak. Almost sweet on the palate, but well balanced, and pleasant to drink. (2, 2, 3.7, 10.1 = 17.8/20 (89)
Burge Family Draycott, Barossa 2003 $47.99USD
Cherry red with a faint orange/brown tinge to the edge; lightest colored wine of the flight. Pronounced barnyard aroma with caramel and ink notes. Medium weight, well balanced with good acidity and flavors that carry well on retronasal. (1, 2, 3.6, 9.9 = 17.5/20 (87) 14.5% alcohol).
Two Hands Bella’s Garden, Barossa 2003 Approx. $50USD
Cherry red with faint orange tinge to the edge. Unusually flavored with aromas of raisins and caramel. Developed an attractive savory note with time. Thin and acidic on the palate. (2, 2, 3.7, 9.3 = 17.0/20 (85) 94WS, 15% alcohol)
Marquis Philips Integrity, McLaren Vale 2003 $109.99USD
Dense cherry red with red edge. Very open and richly flavored with floral and pepper notes. Full bodied, well balanced with fine tannins at the finish. Flavors carry well on retronasal. (2, 2, 4.2, 10.2 = 18.4/20 (92) 94 WA)
Passing Clouds The Killa Kowalski Vineyard, Bendigo 2003 $44.99USD
Dense cherry red with red edge. Rich and open with blackberry, vanilla, white pepper and mint. Soft entry, a backbone of firm tannins and covers the palate with richness until it finishes with one big alcohol hit! (2, 2, 4.2, 9.8 = 18.0/20 (90) 92-95+ WA, 17% alcohol)
The original listing for the tasting was 2003 Two Hands, Bella's Garden Shiraz, 2003 Torbreck The Struie, 1999 AusVetia, 2003 Henry's Drive Shiraz, 2001 Clarendon Hills Brookman Syrah, 2003 Burge Family Draycot Shiraz, 2002 Deisen Shiraz and 2002 Connor Park The Honor. I’d only tasted two of the wines on this original list, 2003 The Struie and the 1999 AusVetia. Of the wines actually served I’d only tasted two, the 2003 Descendent and the 2000 AusVetia. I’d rated both of the Torbreck wines very highly previously (under non-blinded conditions at the vineyard) and I’d rated the 2000 AusVetia highly in another single blind tasting about a year ago. However in this tasting both the Descendent and the 2000 AusVetia showed no evidence of their distinguishing characteristics, Viognier and Cabernet respectively. I guess I can be happy that I still rated the AusVetia highly, but the Descendent was a completely different wine to that tasted a few months previously. One thing that was a problem with several of the wines, including the Descendent, was the evident alcohol, and it is possible that some of the wines may have shown better if they had been served a few degrees cooler. But this tasting did reinforce a couple of lessons. First, if you are going to taste single blind then at least make sure you know what wines are in the tasting. And second, the same wine tasted under different conditions does not have to taste the same.
