The Home of Renowned Tasting

This was my last bottle of Henschke: the end of an era. I used to buy a lot of Henschke through their mailing list, all the reds except the Hill of Grace, and even a few of the whites, particularly the gewurztraminer. And then the prices went up, allocations were limited and more often than not the wines could be picked up cheaper at retail. I dropped off the list and then only bought their wines occasionally. And then not at all.

A blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot and 14% Cabernet Franc. Significantly browning in colour. Oh dear. The palate has dried out, sunburnt leather and wood, like an old derelict shed, with roof gone and all the walls smashed out: just an empty shell. With some imagination, I think I can see some red fruits, but I’m kidding myself. All secondary flavours, which make it soft and supple and easy to drink, but just not very interesting. Should have been better I think, and unfortunate as I would have liked to have gone out on a high…

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This is the red blend, and the wine has a very short name, which should make Gary happy.

An alluring nose of red currants and creamy oak. The palate is polished with red fruits, nettles, streaky acid, mocha and maybe some old coffee beans. The tannins are silky smooth, the length is good and there is a hint of char on the finish. With time, the palate flexed its muscles and I was wrestling some supple sexy savoury fruits - just the ticket for watching the Australian Open final. I don’t think I’ll be keeping this wine long term as I fear it might dry out; it tends to drink well young and that’s the way, uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh.

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Pale in colour. A nose of lemon, cashews, meal, melon and a quick shake of vanilla. The palate is full and fruity, white peaches and vanilla, perhaps a bit one-dimensional, and finishes with musky fruits and lemon peel. It does however suffer from a slight abrasiveness, but this is not to say that it isn’t a good wine, because it is. And certainly at $17, and sensibly sealed under screwcap, this wine offers excellent drinking now and for a few more ages I would imagine.

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Quite developed in colour, almost golden yellow. Awesome nose of minerals, lemon, honeydew melon, maybe some peaches. The palate is plush, with explosive flavours, and a fineness of acid that penetrates all the way through the palate. Lemon, oatmeal, and sweet fruits, and a touch of butterscotch. Finishes with tremendous length and some grapefruit pith. A beautiful wine.


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It has always been my policy to open leakers, so when I found a bottle Domaine Rousseau Clos de la Roche 2000 with that problem, it just had to be consumed. An impromptu tasting was organised, which sort of snowballed, with the Clos de la Roche being joined by two more Rousseaus: a Gevery-Chambertin Clos St.-Jacques 2000 and Chames-Chambertin 2001. All of a sudden, we had a Rousseau-fest…

The best thing around having three Rousseaus opened at the same time is that you can compare the wines easily, look for subtle differences, contrasting expressions of terroir, and the suchlike. The worst thing is that invariably an otherwise excellent wine will be made to look inferior. In this case, it was poor old Clos de la Roche.

The 2000 Clos St.-Jacques got a two hour decant and it certainly benefited from it. An awesome nose: smoky, animalisque, jubey fruits, sweet pork, creamy, almost custardy, terrific acid, earthy notes. The palate is seemless, red fruits, some spice, expressive with power, balanced, tremendous length – I can still taste it now. Looking excellent at the moment. 94 points. Drink 2008-2015

The 2000 Clos de la Roche was allowed to come up in the glass, and initially showed lighter florals, seemed a more delicate wine. The palate differed substantially, and it evolved to more deeper earthy notes, robust tannins (for Rousseau that is, not that big really), spice, black jubes and pastilles, quite a romantic wine. Three hours later this wine was really singing. 91 points. Drink 2008-2012+

The 2001 Charmes-Chambertin had a gorgeous nose straight off the bat, maybe the best of the three, with musky red fruits, spice and some animaly hair adding another dimension. Not as much weight as the Clos de la Roche, but still quite a pretty wine, with a purity of fruit and a charming precision. Alas it was only a 375ml bottle and it over before it all started. 92 points. Drink 2009-2015.

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Made by Tom Carson, straw in colour. The nose is symphony of aromas: lemon, honeydew melon, minerals and vanilla. The palate is true to the nose, with just a touch of peaky acid in the mid-palate, but the structure is compelling, and the finish is very good, with some pith/lemon skin. Don’t serve too cold as it seems to better express itself with some warming. I prefer this to the Reserve. Really quite an excellent wine.

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Soft and cuddly nose: red cherries, cherry liqueur, almost medicinal, with some earthy notes. Palate is true to the nose: red fruits, savoury earth, wood spice, leather, old camphory wood, certainly lots of secondary characters. A wine that is orthogonal to lots of wine on the Australian market at the moment, but when consumed with food, it sits nicely in the background without feeling the need to impress and draw attention to itself.

Actually, I do fear that this was not the best bottle, because for a Huntington this is not terribly old, and it did seem to lack a bit of freshness, so I will be grabbing another bottle from the racks as soon as possible.

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From the Loire Valley, made in the traditional method. A big chunky bead, quite vigourous, and a nose of lemon and brioche. The palate is pleasant, with the lemon peel, yeasty notes, a bit of spiky acid and average length. Competes well at its price point.

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This bottle has been in my beer fridge for over a year. It was time…

Barely any fizz left, though it is difficult to tell with a stout, but there was a very very fine bead. It is labrador black, with a nose of molasses, caramel and tar. The palate is true to the palate, with a touch of (good) bitterness. Eminently quaffable, the classic “meal in a glass”.

I thought this was the last bottle in existence, but I’m told that Wizz has found another small cache in the past week, so if you’re lucky, you might get to sample this unique beer.

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I do like Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and this is no exception. The vines in this domaine are between 30 and 100 years of old, and this blend is typically Grenache dominant, with Mourvèdre, Syrah, Cinsault and Clairette making up the remainder. Yields are normally 24-28 hl./ha., and the wine is aged in up to 20% new oak for about 18 months.

The palate is a real treat: provencal herbs, spice box, dry river stones, red cherries, and sweaty animal notes adding complexity. The palate shows gravelly red savoury fruits, is medium bodied, with a hint of tobacco, and finishes with some lovely drying tannins. The wine is excellent with food, perfectly ripe, no heat from alcohol, and just slips down far too easily. An excellent wine to consume now, and should drink well for another 5 years at least.

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Barossa Valley floor riesling – is there anything more unfashionable? Made from vineyards in the Vine Vale district of the Barossa Valley, which nestles under the slopes of Mengler’s Hill, east of Tanunda.

Straw yellow in colour. Shows quite pleasant fruit on the nose: grapefuit, faint rockmelon, lime, musky fruits, minerals and a hint of kerosene. The palate needs time to blossom, but is quite floral, like drinking petals, with a firm acid backbone, but not bracing like a Crawford River or Drumborg, and grapefuit and lemon peel, with a chewy finish. All-in-all, a very interesting wine.

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Aromas of nectarine,peach,grapefruit,cashew oak and lots of struck match. A very powerful intense palate with flavours of nectarine, citrus and grilled nuts. Lots of yeasty lees flavours but offset with a razor sharp acid backbone. Long and leesy on the finish. Powerful fruit (like so many 2003’s) and plenty of winemaking to go along with it. A bit less would be a bit more for my tastes. Top chardy though.

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A new label design, a big heavy burgundy bottle and closed with Diam. These 2004 releases certainly look the business.

Very intense purple. Aromas of crushed boysenberry/raspberry, chargrilled steak, pepper, spice , vanilla oak and some grassy characters. A medium bodied palate that is packed with pepper and spice and bright berry fruit. Some charry flavours here too. A goodly amount of grainy dry tannins certainly make their presence felt. A very spicy savoury finish. It still tastes young and quite primary at this stage but I think it has good potential. If you like lots of pepper and spice in your shiraz and perhaps a more European styling then this is well worth investigating.

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A new label design, a big heavy burgundy bottle and closed with Diam. These 2004 releases certainly look the business.

Fresh and fragrant with aromas of cherry, red berry, spice and a measure of vanilla oak. There is a light lemon smell too. On the palate a dry spicy wine with red fruit (leaning to the strawberry spectrum) and some smoky flavours. Slightly stalky grainy tannins. Warm but in balance. Dry finish. An attractive medium bodied varietal pinot that should improve with a bit more time in the bottle.

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Les Veroilles is a 0.37 ha vineyard at the northern end of the Chambolle-Musigny commune, and lies above the southern end of Bonnes-Mares. Part of the vineayrd was recently promoted to premier cru, but the labelling on this wine would indicate that this is not from the 1er cru part.

A beautifully aromatic wine, with rose petals, watermelon, raspberries, pink sausage meat, a delicate cleanness. The palate is a bit lean, but fleshes out with time, sour cherries, not a lot of complexity or weight at the moment, but its purity and mouthfeel is quite engaging. More of a ballerina than an All Black loose-head prop, but which would you rather date?

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Vegetal and composty, dank and woody – my wife reckons it smells like the scraps bucket… hmmm, something not quite right here. The palate is worse – acetone… bleeech. Time to get another bottle.

This one is better: dark and red cherries, but there’s still some spiky acidity and a slightly tarry finish. Nougat, beetroot, stalk, fleshes out with time, quite nice, but nothing special.

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I’ve been enjoying my 2003 Mornington Peninsula Pinots over the past few months. There certainly didn’t seem to be many problems getting the grapes ripe in the 2003 vintage, and this wine from Paradigm Hill is no exception. It has got a big ripe nose: dark mushy red cherries, roasted nuts, stalk and some charry oak. The palate is big too, with expansive red fruits, sour cherries and raspberries, fleshy, quite a bit of oak, but it doesn’t overpower the fruit by any means. There’s a touch of bitterness on the finish, but this receded with time. The wine spent 17 months in 75% new French oak, and yields were 1.2 tons per acre. If you try a bottle, don’t be too quick to judge it, as it seemed a bit clunky on opening, so let it come good in the glass, or perhaps decant it - 2 hours won’t do it any harm I reckon.

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Winorama was 3 months old last Saturday. Considering there were only 2 posts in October that makes the current monthly tasting note average quite high. Can we maintain this dangerous pace? I certainly like to think so and with the addition of Lincoln to the team we have upped the run rate quite considerably. We should crack the ton this week. Hooray.

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Initially, pea and white asparagus – what is going on here? Far too vegetal. In to quarantine. Waiting…

After a while, the nose has settled, less green vegetables and more red fruits. The palate is ok, a tinge of vegetables, but strangely has ripe red fruits too. With more time, there is an assortment of smoky meats, fleshy green tomatoes, blanched beetroots, but with an underlying vegetal character: an English wine - meat and three vege in a glass. Certainly a stylised wine, and an interesting wine too. Perhaps not to everyone’s tastes. Needs a very good decant.

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From a single vineyard in the McLaren Vale. I last tried this in May 2005 and it still looks a super wine. In fact, a better wine, because the reduced characters I saw previously no longer seem to be there and everything is slotting into place quite nicely.

Very dark colour. Aromas of chocolate, plum and blackberry with some licorice, charcoal and well measured vanilla/cedar oak. On the palate richly fruited with blackberry, plum and chocolate flavours. There is also an attractive subtle herb and savoury undercurrent which complements the sweet fruit very well. Tannins are fine and ripe and although the wine weighs in at 15% alcohol you don’t notice any heat - just some gentle warmth. Dark chocolate and herb finish of good length. The vineyard has delivered the goods in a less than perfect vintage. A work mate has just ordered a case so I will snaffle a couple of bottles of this for the cellar with any luck.

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