The Home of Renowned Tasting

Day One
The notes are a little sketchy, although I took some, but for once I’d expect that you might let me off the hook a little as it’s a social occasion for me, rather than a professional one (such as I might consider myself every now and then). I’m writing these notes straight from the heart - the best wines evoke this (feel free to call me a wanker now). The first night (Friday) was held at the magnificent Yarra Valley restaurant of Gary Cooper and Tim Sawyer, Bella Vedere, who shut up shop and created a feast of Babettesque proportions for our vinous revelry. And now if I don’t concentrate too much on the food, then that’s not because I don’t appreciate it, but more because this is a wine review site. I will say that it was breathtakingly good grub at times, and the food and wine matching was, well…a match made in some sort of heaven. You can click on the menu to have a look at the dishes.

Quail egg with green salt and sugar
96 Krug
This was our standing up and chatting wine - and coupled with the sweet/salt/creamy taste of the innovative egg dish..well masterful. It’s almost a dry white, like a big strong white Burgundy in its intensity and power. Hazelnuts, licorice, white fruits, biscuits and spice but rolled layer upon layer so that the concentration is almost mind blowing. Painfully intense and destined for greatness…but not a wine for pleasure now. Outstanding Champagne.

Caviar Malossol superior Oscietra on crushed kipflers, with flat leaf parsley
90 Krug,
Sitting down now. The 90 is dry and very fine, subtlety harnessed to power. Showing some bottle age, but essentially youthful and vigorous with classic Krug complexity and an explosion of citrus and yeasty fruits. More superlatives required. A much better wine than the 96 at this stage..but not later. The Caviar on kipflers quite simply amongst the best things I have ever eaten.

Crayfish and scampi in brandy butter on angel hair pasta with tomato and crayfish porcini froth
01 Ramonet Montrachet
White flowers, fragrance, almond paste, mineral and yellow fruits. Light but enormous power (often the hallmark of truly great wine). Rich but bone dry with a tapestry of vanilla, almond and stone fruits. The length carrying on for an eternity. Magnificent wine. Amongst the best White Burgundies I have tasted.

03 Leroy Corton-Charlemagne
Slightly funky and fishy, smoke, peach, vanilla and grilled nuts. A big wet sloppy kiss of a wine but full of flavour and drive. It’s fat but beautiful. A lascivious creature that overwhelms the senses. Not the class of the Ramonet, but certainly a compelling wine. Superb long dry finish leaving the mouth aglow with warmth and longing.

96 Drouhin Montrachet ‘Marquis de Laguiche’
Flowers, almond, a smokiness, yellow fruit and vanilla oak. It combines the best attributes of rich creaminess with a bone dry, almost tannic, flinty character - although subtle and winning. By any mortal standards a wine of considerable greatness.

Licorice tea smoked duck breast with fennel and black truffle
88 Leroy Musigny
An engaging potato sack earthiness coupled with sweet black raspberry, vanilla, licorice and an almost alarming fragrance. In the mouth a huge spread of dry extract offering beautiful tannic density combining with earthy but sweet dark fruit. It’s magnificent and builds and builds and builds with time in the glass. Apparently one of about 300 bottles. A rare wine and a rare privilege to taste.

01 Leroy Musigny
Bloody hell..you could get lost in the aromatics pumping out of this. Raspberry, spices, earth, violets, soil, caramel - multi-layered and complete. The palate is an effortless journey from finish to end. Velvety but concentrated - rich but floating through the mouth. The finish endless. The essence of red Burgundy. One of the greatest wines I have tasted. I’m dribbling as I type!

Foie gras and Sauternes jelly with toasted brioche
59 Suduiraut
Now I must say that I’m a moderate consumer of animals, perhaps a couple of times a week, and a lot of vegetarian dishes I cook…so the old FG I approach with respect and caution…but I love the stuff. I’m a bugger for it and we were delivered a rare old slab here. The 59 is an amazing wine - it smells like the freshly torched sugar on a Creme Bruleé and then some apricots, old leather bottle age and a host of other subtle smells. The palate is rich and full with apple and quince past - great intensity and closes with a bone dry finish of enormous length. I’m not a big one for sweet wines but this had me raving.

Rare breed pork shoulder braised in chocolate and sour cherries
62 Vega Sicilia ‘Unico’ All fresh and lively - looked like a 10 year old wine - strawberries and lashings of vanilla, medium bodied, sweetly fruited with slight leathery bottle age character coming through on a silky tannin structure. It built in the glass rather than tired but still looked slightly one dimensional compared to the mighty 65 3110…

65 Lindemans Bin 3110
The legend continues. Licorice, earth, dusty bottle age, blackberry. It’s dry and tannic but still young and vigorous. Layers of flavours and always something new to reveal. It’s a magic wine and one worthy of a place alongside all the greatest wines of the world. This is my fourth encounter in the last couple of years, and every bottle has something unique to say.

Glenloth pheasant boned and filled with foie gras and truffle, glazed en cocot with pomme anna potato
74 Heitz ‘Martha’s Vineyard’,
A second encounter with this wine and by far the strongest showing. A myriad scents - sweet fruit, mint, cigar box, spice and earth. The palate is wonderfully complex but still muscular and vigorous showing all the classic Cabernet traits of lead pencil, sweet fruit, herb and mint. An outstanding wine and most likely a fond farewell - I doubt that I’ll ever have (such) the pleasure again. As good as any Cabernet you could wish for.

92 Dalle Valle ‘Maya’
I’ve since decided that Californian Cabernet hits a particular sweet spot for me and this was no exception. Rich Cassis, cherry, chocolate, mineral and lavish oak. Full bodied, dense and concentrated with ripe fruity blueberry, Cassis and good minerality - perhaps lowish acid but no concern for me as the ripe furry tannins are minding this part of the shop. Great wine - although an alarmingly young one.

Wagyu beef oven roasted with orange salt with black bean sauce and buttered broad beans
82 Chateaux Mouton Rothschild
By this stage I was feeling a bit stuffed but there’s nothing like the fragrance of Mouton to revive the spirits (and someone has written in my notebook ‘Gary is a wonderful human being - so glad you are here!’ - so that’s nice too). An exotic and flamboyant nose of lead, cassis, flowers and mineral leads on to a hugely concentrated, yet balanced and poised, textbook Cabernet palate. It’s a wine of irrepressible charm and charisma, and while the palate is not quite at the outrageously great level of the nose, it’s so good that you’d never want to quibble.

82 Chateaux Latour
A second outing with the 82 and an equally compelling bottle. The nose is more sauvage and strict than the Mouton but still a thing of beauty, although reticent - earth, cherry, mineral, coffee and cedar - brooding and magnificent - the young Marlon Brando of Pauillac. The palate ratchets the intensity up a notch with amazing power and thick mouthfilling earthy Cabernet fruit. The line and length astounding. The essence of Cabernet.

82 Chateaux Margaux
Corked.

Cheese plate – Comte and Meredith blue, Yarra Valley walnuts and pear
90 Chateaux Margaux
Two years ago I remember this being a lush and very full wine but here it seems fine and poised. A more delicate wine of grace and great symmetry with the classic Margaux fragrance and a certain fine boned beauty. Perhaps I’m fading. Nonetheless an exceptional wine, but not inspiring for me on this night.

90 Cheval Blanc
It’s about my favourite wine of all time. Raspberries, a gentle grassiness and fragrance cut with smoke and mineral. Sweet fruit on an endlessly fine, medium bodied palate of grace and precision. One of the true greats.

Apricot and white chocolate pudding with cumquat and sauternes ice cream
67 Chateaux Suduiraut
Again the Creme Brulee, cumquat and spice but without the additional layers of complexity of the ‘59 Suidairaut, which made it look a little simple and old. A thick syrupy palate but still fresh and clean. On any other night it would have been a star.

95 Krug
In the car on the way home. It’s a top wine, and refreshing, but fair to say I was not concentrating enough to tell you more…

99 Chateau Petrus
Black raspberry, tea, plum, truffle. It’s a rich wine but very tight with silky tannins and a winning personality - certainly at this time of night anyway. Here I resort to a Clive Coates style note in my pad and have merely scrawled “very fine indeed!”

Day Two
I have to retire for the evening - I’ll fill this in later.
(more…)

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Linc asked the question about aging Pinots a couple of years back so we revisit older wines occasionally. I visited Scott Henry with friend Lindsay in 2002 and this wine was a “Special” release at the cellar door. Lindsay put it on blind the other night and played options. My first comment was: “Is it a Shiraz?”. It still had several years ahead of it but it was not my style of Pinot Noir. The nose has plummy fruit, cashew nuts and a sort of toasty bit. On the palate it is rich, plummy and quite drying with a bit of leather on the finish. The overall package is rich and was not falling over 24 hours later, if anything the leather flavour standing out more. I have had some nice older American Pinots, including one with Linc but I suspect they were more at the cherry end than the plum end of Pinot flavours.

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I have been listening to a few podcasts from Radio Grape recently and this got me thinking about Napa and Oregon Pinots. I sussed out a few on the net and some were coming in at 15.5% abv, which sounds like lunacy to me. Anyway, I visited the Den of Temptation on the weekend and had this wine recommended to me, and after checking the alcohol level I bought a bottle.

A great nose, showing red cherries and spice, sappy, with a touch of mulch and game. The palate showed red fruits, more cherries than beetroot or strawberries, with some pepper and stalk. The mouthfeel is quite silky, with a generous roundness, and hints of stalk that appeared and disappeared over the afternoon, ebbing and flowing. Very good length, with a lingering sappiness and a touch of stalk. Yum.

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This is the top wine from Elk Cove in Oregon. The previous vintage of 2004 provided me with one of my Pinot Noir highlights. This wine has great pinosity but needs time to settle. Friend Nat bought it back from his recent visit to Oregon. It opens with a slightly reductive edge to the nose. The palate shows clean red fruits along with a little more of the reductive flavour that was on the nose. The cherry flavours have a bit of plum and some nice oak but the reductive edge keeps the fruit subdued at the moment. It is my experience that this will settle down in another six or so months but for now, if you get any, leave it alone.

Other vintages : 2004

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We enjoyed this wine with friends last night, I mean really savoured and appreciated it. Now I look at the label and see 14.5% alcohol and wonder if I should have enjoyed it so much but in all honesty it didn’t look like 14.5% at all, to any of us. You may think, nuthouse, means that’s where I belong after a comment like that. The name comes from the the winery building which in a previous life was a hazelnut drying facility. The aromas were rich red cherry with a little raspberry in back. The palate was quite sumptuous showing red and dark cherries with that marachino intense sweet fruit flowing along, ripe and soft tannins. Very easy to consume but I suspect for medium term rather than longer.

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We opened this alongside the “Nuthouse” reviewed earlier because we wanted to look at some good Oregon Pinots to see if they were as we remembered. This wine was rather tight, and took a while to come around. It started with a bit of a sulfide pong. If you look at the alcohol level you understand why it seemed dwarfed alongside the Argyle Nuthouse Pinot Noir, 12.9% Vs 14.5% is a big difference. This looked tight to begin with but 24 hours later it has opened up, the sulfide has dissipated, revealing nice cherry, firm tannins and a good length. I suspect it will age very well. I will certainly save my other bottle for 5 years to test my theory.

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I have seen a lot of good Pinots lately and many are good value and from the Southern Hemisphere so why not start with an expensive one from the Northern Hemisphere. The mix of clone 667, Pommard and G5V15 from one of estates seven vineyards in Dundee Hills of Oregon had me quite excited. The wine did not disappoint. It has a lovely nose of dark cherry, a little cola and something spicy that I couldn’t pin down. The palate was quite long and the overall package very moreish showing lovely cherry flavours. The texture was soft and silky and I have to confess that the four of us polished it off over the evening.

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This wine was purchased by friend Lindsay when we visited Acacia in 2002 and he served it masked the other night. I enjoyed the wines during our visit and this mob made one of the best viogniers I have ever had, 1997. This wine has a nose with cherry, plum, a little “poo” and a hint of raisins. It seems like it had low brett and some sulfide, things that can be real bad or in moderation, add a nice touch of complexity. The reason for writing it up is that it got some absolute rave reviews when young and I thought others may share my curiosity about how it has aged. The colour suggested it had a few years behind it and its raisin notes also suggested Gevrey Chambertin but it just seemed so much richer than Burgundies get (apart from 2003). The flavours were such that when tried with food, the things that were a little off, vanished . It opened quite well but I suspect that it doesn’t have too many years ahead of it.

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This wine was served masked as part of a benchmarking exercise. I had assembled the wines and knew it was somewhere in the group of 8. It has a sister wine, the Roosevelt that I was most impressed with and since this was a clonal selection based on the Roosevelt vineyard I anticipated something great. It was very good but the earth did not move. The nose has ripe red berry aromas and seems very clean without oak dominating. The palate had lovely ripe cherry flavours, a bit of oak char and lovely powdery tannins. All this is great but it finished a little quickly. The key feature was that the red berry fruit is bright and there is no bitterness or stalkiness, just lovely Pinot. If the finish had been longer it would have scored even higher.

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The “Don Miguel” vineyard is in western Sonoma County and has the appellation of Russian River Valley. That’s about all I know about this wine. Still quite red in colour, but I could be convinced there was a touch of bricking. A mature nose, leather, stewed fruits, a bit of warm spices, butter and according to my wife, lychees. Hmmmm; she was adamant. The palate had a mellow character, red fruits and leather, dirt, brown cherries, dried meat, a dustiness and just a touch of varnish. More of a dry red style, and certainly showing more secondary characters than primary. Seemed to lack some freshness and vibrancy; a tough wine to put a number on, but I did anyway.

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Friend Greg also bought this wine along at our “reunion dinner” at Donnovans restaurant. It has lovely ripe cherry aromas and a hint of tobacco. The palate has lush layers of red cherry with a little vanilla from well interated oak and at the back of the palate some raisin like fruit. It hangs around for quite some time and was rather easy to consume. An excellent example of Russian River Pinot from a producer I had not seen before that went oh so well with the whole roasted duck.

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A friend brought this wine from the Santa Rita Hills in California. I had been trying to get hold of a Loring Wine Company (LWC) Wine for some time you see. LWC generally get great scores in the US and sell out in a flash. The nose is all about tar and earth with cherry in back. The palate is cherry and tar with dark fruit notes. I found it a little tough and the fruit seemed extracted rather than sweet. The others who tried it were equally disappointed when it was revealed. So maybe it’s time to look at an ‘05 Burgundy as a comparison.

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The last Chardonnay from my recent time of benchmarking. It is from a winemaker, Ted Lemon who was working at Domaine Dujac in Burgundy for a few years. Ted tells me that 2005 was a cracker vintage for 2005 Californian Chardonnay and on this sample, I agree. Many Winorama readers love LEAS Chardonnay, well this wine is very similar. The aromas show citrus, melon, peach and a hint of apricot. On the palate there is great length as the flavours unwind. I imagine it has had a malolactic fermentation but there is no sign of buttery flavours, a little vanilla from the oak maybe. A beautifully crafted wine that I suspect is best over the next 2 to 3 years. By a coincidence, Ted was interviewed on grape radio recently which can be accessed via this link Be warned, it is about 35 mins long. They waffle on a bit for the first 20% of the program then it goes to the interview for the next 60% before the Grape radio team return. The first bit of their prologue is really good background material about Ted Lemon and Littorai. A fascinating insight into top end wine in the USA.

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The smallest and least visible alcohol notation that I have seen which is in complete contrast to the wine itself. An absolute “Cali” classic. The nose is all about toasty oak and peachy flavours. The palate is lovely and rich and provided you like that level of toasty oak, its very good. The flavours are at the ripe end of the chardonnay spectrum, peach and a bit of apricot but they are the passengers on the toasty oak train. My friend M. l’Eveque loves this style but despite the richness and power it finishes a little quickly. In the USA it has got a great wrap and several scores of about 95 but to my palate that reflects more the difference between what Americans love compared to Australians who tend not to like the oak having that much influence. Note that it is similar in price to the Tapanappa and Penfolds Reserve Bin 05A.

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This wine is from very old vines in the Dry Creek Valley not too far from San Francisco. It is usually viewed as one of the best Zins made by Ravenswood. It was one of four Ravenswood wines that I brought back from the US for our annual zin din. Unfortunately, the most famous, Distasio, was corked, such is life. This opened with aromas of raisins and vanilla oak. On the palate it shows a bit of plum and a bit of baked red pepper. It has great length and huge power along with a nice acid level that will hold it together for many years as it opens up.

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A single vineyard wine from Sonoma County with vines that are about 100 years old. The nose is very plush with aromas of plums and spices with a dried herb edge. The palate shows a very rich wine that has layers of flavours starting with dark cherries and moving through to plums with a bit of vanilla and maybe a little raisin like edge. It has a lovely acid balance that I think will help to hold this together for many years. Nearly forgot the catch phrase of Ravesnwood “No Wimpy Wines”. Some readers may have bumped into me wearing a blue T-shirt that proclaims this that I bought in 1989!

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This wine is part of what is called the Ravenswood County series. It is big production and still sells out quickly. We had this at our zin din and since we had no idea what to expect it and the other US wines were not consumed blind. It opens as a rich fruit bomb. The palate has rich plum flavours with a lush mix of spices and boysenberry on the finish. Soft and easy to drink without having the full palate weight I normally associate with more expensive zinfandels. I asked Jules of North Sydney Cellars and Anth of Boccaccio if they stock much and actually sell much Zin and they both replied that its a relatively hard sell so that you wont see that much about. I have reviewed a few good Aussie Zins that I suggest you try in case you never get to try the real deal in the USA.

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I have been looking at Riverland Reds and Aussie Shiraz for quite a few weeks so an invitation to dinner with the mandatory masked Pinots was quickly accepted. This wine was rich on the nose showing tary/chary oak and tight cherry fruit. It opened up well to reveal a lovely balance. I wondered about the level of lifted character and there was an acid like prickle on the palate that I put down to a bit of dissolved CO2. However, the fruit prevailed and it had lovely length and a rather grippy tannin finish, NOT harsh. One of the better Beaux Freres that I have had and when I discovered the alcohol was 14.4% I was quite surprised because it was not evident. In case you did not know, Robert Parker does not review this wine because the proprietor is his “Beau Frere” ie brother-in-law. Its from Oregon.

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At a great Pinot based evening with friends a very worthwhile yet at the same time eclectic collection of Pinots were produced, all served masked and all turned out to be very good. When I say “Blind”, the provider of the individual bottle knew what they had brought but had no idea of the others. I have been wanting to try this wine for some time and even though I knew what it was I can honestly say it was better than I expected. The nose had a lovely concentration of red cherry. I know this wine gets some new oak but on this occasion it did not stand out on the palate. The palate was all about Pinosity, lovely rich red cherry flavours to begin with moving into dark cherry on the finish. Glorious texture, elegance and balance. One of the best Oregon Pinots that I have tried.

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I had this a few weeks ago at the opening of the Armand Rousseau Memorial Cubby-house. This is a new addition in our backyard - it catches the afternoon breezes and shade, and it overlooks some lush greenery. This means it is ideally suited for drinking wine and exchanging stories. Anyhoo, the wine was given a couple of hours in a decanter and served blind, and turned out to be a glass-swapper - was it better in a Bordeaux stem or a Burgundy stem? Red fruits, spices, a rich meatiness and quite a bit of classy oak, with firm but fine tannins. New World in style, and seemed more in the dry red mold, and though it does seem to lack some delicacy it does have some style and grace. Very nice but very young - should look better in a few years.

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