The Home of Renowned Tasting

I popped down to Coldstream Hills last week to take part in a couple of tastings. The first was a comparative of top end Pinot from Stefano Lubiana, Felton Road and Coldstream Hills and the second being this session - ‘Cabernet at the Crossroads’. Not sure why it was called that, I must not have been paying attention, but I do know that I felt on home ground getting back to that superior and most noble of grapes - Cabernet Sauvignon. This tasting amply illustrates how good the Yarra Valley can be at producing great Cabernet, and indeed I feel it is the regions best red grape, yet it’s such a shame there are not more producers. Coldstream, Oakridge, Mount Mary, Yeringberg, Wantirna Estate, Yarra Yarra would be the main players with some smaller, newer operations such as Hillcrest creating successful wines.

We were only given an hour to taste and cobble together some notes on the wines, so while I am reluctant to assign scores based on a small hasty taste, I will do so because it’s important to establish my perspective on relative quality. The notes are pretty much as typed up on the day and I provide a little of the background discussion and my own thoughts in order to provide a bit of additional insight - which is after all pretty much what these tastings are all about. The photo is of the upstairs tasting room at Coldstream and at the end of the table you can see winemaker Andrew Fleming but not James Halliday (to his right) who is obscured by a radiant god-like glow..

2005 Coldstream Hills Reserve
Juicy cassis, cedar, flicker of mint. Rich and varietal.
Lush cherry/cassis, some chocolate and dried herb/tobacco flavours. Nice tannins – slight greenness but attractive. Smooth and fluid. Very smart wine. 94-95 points

This wine in a bracket of its own and I’d guess it has been and gone now. I never got to see a whole bottle but loved the 2005 varietal Cabernet and this is a big step above.

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2004 Coldstream Hills Reserve
Some capsicum/twiggy, blackcurrant, touch of beefy, cedar oak. Red fruit and black currant, nice and fresh. Some green eucalypt but legitimate. Dry firm tannins – quite grainy and strict. Good finish. Nice line. Quite classic. Should age well. 94 points

2004 Moss Wood Cabernet
Quite high oak – gluey vanilla, mulberry, surprisingly minty. Chocolate. Very tight with strong tannins. Some warmth. Quite butch. Tannic to close and berry fruits. Very young and compressed. Pretty dry. Looks blocky and compressed. May come good.. 88-89 points

2004 Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou
Beefstock, slighly bretty, earthy and minerally, some floral notes but not so fruity –cherry/raspberry probably. Has a good palate - medium bodied with good line and drive and a fine sense of freshness. Quite dry and tobacco with good oak in support. Savoury earthy finish. Very nice wine. Dry finish. 93 points

The Coldstream and Ducru both looking really good and entirely typical of fine Cabernet. The Moss Wood on a hiding to nothing looking baked and over-ripe and quite lifeless in comparison. I can recall a comment from Huon Hooke (not on this day) saying it would not look out of place next to a Pichon L…it certainly looked odd next to a Ducru B anyway. On the day it had it’s admirers with Ben Edwards stating he had a bottle the other day and it needed a good decant and showed well as a result. I, however, am not so sure any amount of oxygen will breathe life into it…. There was also some discussion about the high quality of oak used in the Ducru versus the gluey blu-tack oak in the Moss Wood.
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2000 Coldstream Hills Reserve
Old, bit mulchy and bark, mint. Sweet old tobacco and blackcurrant fruit. Quite savoury and developed. Tailing off a bit. Mint. Really good. Some Bdx similarities. 93 points

2000 Moss Wood
Raisined and tired. Beefy old raisined fruit with grassy flavours. Just very ordinary. Hard tannins. Getting better with air but out of class here. 87 points

2000 Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou
Licorice, scorched earth, blackcurrant. Very strong tannins on beefy cherry/raspberry fruit. Impeccable balance and outstanding length. Dried herbs on exit. Still very young. 95 points

Halliday noted this as the strongest bracket of the tasting with all wines showing really well. I felt compelled to pipe up and offer the opinion that the Moss Wood was pretty tired and ordinary. Several enthusiastic agreements noted here. I have four bottles in the cellar of the 2000 Moss Wood so hope it was just a poor showing for this wine. To be fair it should really have been a 1999 or 2001 vintage - not 2000 which was not so flash in Margaret River. I have tasted the 2000 Coldstream many times on release and over the years and it still looks very good - although suspect that maybe it was best as a younger wine. The Ducru was simply all class - a great wine.

Revision Feb08 : Opened a 2000 Moss Wood from my cellar and it looked very good. Stored at 15c since release. Excellent wine and although I was not thinking much about it in a scoring context I’d probably say around 93 points.
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1998 Coldstream Hills Reserve
Raisined and a little tired. Better palate but pretty dried out. It’s OK but not great. Come back to this. 88 points

1996 Moss Wood
Earthy, black fruits, dusty oak – bit chocolaty. Very impressive palate. Lots of power and excellent ripe tannins. Shovels through the mouth. Blackcurranty finish. Absolute classic. 96 points.

1996 Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou
Some capsicum, blackcurrant, pencil, aniseed and mineral. Clean, fresh and tight. Strong tannins, dried herb and lovely blackcurrant fruit with a little spice. Excellent length. Dry tannic finish. Very classic. Very long term. 96 points

Not an auspicious start with comments from winemaker Andrew Fleming that ‘96 was not such a great vintage in Bordeaux. This bracket was not thought to be that strong by the moderators (Halliday and Fleming) and in particular a condemnation of the Ducru for hard tannins. Winsor Dobbin and myself the only (vocal) supporters of this wine. I thought it was absolutely classic long term 1996 Medoc and a magnificent example of a great Cabernet vintage and said as much. Edwards and Stock both raising eyebrows and Edwards commenting something along the lines of - ‘it smells great but then with those tannins it’s “get out of my mouth!” ‘. Perhaps the fumes from sniffing too much Burgundy have made them a bit soft in the head The 1996 Moss Wood again performed to expectations (possibly above) and looked as good as any Bordeaux. A top wine. The 1998 Coldstream looked like the product of a hot vintage to me and while my notes said “come back” to re-taste…I never did.
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1992 Coldstream Hills Reserve
Sweet red capsicum juice, red fruits, smoke cigar box. All very nice mind you but pushing the envelope. Quite dry with sweet fruit behind. Capsicum tinges. Red fruits. Like a Yeringberg. Really sweet and nice but maybe too capsicumy by half for some. I like it. 93-94 points.

1990 Moss Wood
Lovely peppery beefy sweet old fruit. Generous mid palate. Licorice flavours. Really nice. Flows along. 92 points

1990 Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou
Brett and mild taint. Not rated.

As with all of these sorts of tastings that utilise multiple older cork sealed bottles there is often variation. It is fair to say that half the room may be tasting one wine, the other half another. Certainly looked the case with the Ducru which was cardboardy, bretty and tainted all at once (although a helpful sommelier told me it was not corked…) No point discussing it further. The 1990 Moss Wood was lovely and I may have under-rated it. The 1992 Coldstream also a really nice wine but you have to like the style. It still looked young and vigorous and I would be happy to knock one off any day of the week.

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All in all a great, informative and well run tasting. Many thanks to Coldstream Hills for flying me down and paying for transfers to and from the airport (mentioned as disclaimer).