De Bortoli Yarra Valley Estate Pinot Noir 2004 Thursday, Sep 7 2006
Tasting Notes and Australia and Yarra Valley and Variety and Red and pinot noir
I drank this with dinner last night (worked a treat with salmon sashimi) and while it may not be the most clinical and precise environment in which to review a wine I think that it also has merit. I might also add that the bottle was gone far too quickly and later we mourned its passing while drinking some heavier (and far sweeter) shiraz.
Aromas of black cherry, plums, spice, forest, a bit of the ‘earthy mystery’ of good pinot noir and a light application of sexy French oak. On the palate flavours of red berry and cherry, spice, undergrowth and a gentle sappiness. Beautifully weighted. Fine grained tannins. Fresh acidity. No alcohol heat. No overbearing sweetness.Very long dry spicy finish. A crackingly good Yarra Valley pinot with verve and class.
Rated : 94 Points
Tasted : Sep06
Alcohol : 13.5%
Price : $27
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2006 - 2011
Source : Winery Sample
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33 Responses to “De Bortoli Yarra Valley Estate Pinot Noir 2004”
September 7th, 2006 at 8:09 am
I tried this last night as well. Very good wine I agree.
September 7th, 2006 at 8:33 am
And something of a bargain.
Campbell.
September 7th, 2006 at 8:39 am
and nice to drink.
GW
September 7th, 2006 at 10:06 am
This is what Pinot should be. Not big and sweet and alcoholic like 90 per cent of NZ Pinot.
September 7th, 2006 at 10:12 am
and tasty.
GW
September 7th, 2006 at 10:52 am
And I was thinking … oh I forget.
Campbell.
September 7th, 2006 at 11:33 am
Steve Webber should be made Prime Minister. He is good at getting the message through about the quality of De Bortoli wines.
September 7th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
Campbell…
Isn’t here that you should start to sing the praises of Tassie Pinots? Lest another article appears in the Hobart Mercury?
P.S GW has a PDF copy if you need it…
September 7th, 2006 at 1:51 pm
Regan,
It was a very good article. I actually fell for the old three card trick - a journalist, who is a friend, asked me a question via email, I responded, and lo and behold that email response ended up in print! If I’d known that I was going to be quoted, I would have plugged winefront rather than winorama
There’s a problem in Australia at the moment: this morning I went to the post office and there was just short of 8 dozen samples waiting for me, and I go to the post office every day - that’s just one day. 4 dozen of these were due to an unusual circumstance but there was still another 4 dozen on top of that.
No one can be “across” everything.
Campbell.
September 7th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
You poor bugger - sorry to see you doing it so tough………..
September 7th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
King of Hearts.
The Australian wine industry is getting so broad and deep that you could almost treat it like the Wine Advocate does with countries/regions.
Actually the Wine Advocate may as well just cover McLaren and Barossa but that is a different story…I had not realised until very recently that West Australian wines are, in fact, not very good.
‘Just as an aside, I’m less taken with the wines of Western Australia, as an example. They’re Australian wines wanting to be European but not quite succeeding. ‘ Dr Jay Miller.
I’ll just let that one hang silently in the air for a little while I think..
GW
September 7th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
What Chris, you reckon that’s fun?
September 7th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
No if it was samples of Italian Chianti Classico or Barolo now that would be fun
Went it is Yellowtail or Bin 45 you have to question why they even bother sending samples of these sort of wines.
September 7th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Campbell.
well, I can give you my address if you like and I could be your padawan
I totally agree that with the sheer volume of product being produced a it is exceptionally difficult to be across them all. Pity the poor consumer at the bottle shop then…
September 7th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Funny, it was such a buzz to start receiving free samples for review ( and it still is ), but I get where Campbell is coming from. You want to do justice to everyone who has taken the effort to send you wines for review, but it gets increasingly more difficult as the weight of numbers grows. I probably receive on average 30 bottles a week,sometimes more, but I find that I am at a point where I don’t have the time to write a quality tasting note on them all, as much as I would like to. And then I hear that Campbell is getting 90+ bottles on one day! His task is impossible, and imagine the number of e-mails that follow up asking for when he is going to review the wines that have been sent.
Might sound trivial, but lives and business’s can swing on the words of one good review from the right person.
GD
September 7th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
8 cases in a day - just out of the question that you could get 10000 bottles a year to sample, eh?
September 7th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
GW, you read a quote like that and in one minute any chance of other Oz wines getting a look in TWA with Parker relinquishing his role gets blown out the water.
And these guys are experts :rolleyes:
September 7th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
Yeah. I am staggered.
Q) Why are premium Australian shiraz sales declining in the USA?
A) A major factor has to be because the American public are probably sick of the same diet of WA/WS highly rated chocolate cake style shiraz and now think it all tastes the same…and many have written it (and Australia) off because they no longer or never did like the style. It is almost culpable behaviour on the part of these critics. Looks like they are going to continue to get a steady diet of more of the same with Dr J..
GW
PS. Personally I like chocolate cake style shiraz a lot but it’s just ONE of our styles.
September 7th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
Dr. Jay Miller = Fool.
September 7th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
That’s probably a bit strong…
GW
September 7th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
Not sure you can label the guy a fool. Bit harsh.
Certainly say with some certainty that he made a foolish comment. Worse, a comment very much fraught with danger given his position.
September 7th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
Okay, then I’m a fool for saying that he’s a fool when he only may have made a foolish comment.
And i’m not in the mood to suffer fools…
September 7th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
Don’t rush in where angels fear to tread!
GW
September 8th, 2006 at 7:54 am
As Grant said above “…lives and business’s can swing on the words of one good review from the right person.”
If the WA wines have been declared “Australian wines wanting to be European but not quite succeeding;” does that then add a mystique to them that the TWA readers will be keen to experience?
September 8th, 2006 at 8:44 am
Quite possibly…actually. At least the curious ones might. Most would continue to buy European I think.
GW
September 8th, 2006 at 11:45 am
More lemmings than people who are curious and think for themsleves from what I see.
September 15th, 2006 at 12:45 am
For my money De Bortoli are really hitting their stride with pinot. Bring it on!
October 5th, 2006 at 11:49 pm
Gary
Had some of this tonight (cork version) and found the oak to be obvious (not excessive) with some vanilla/coconut and even caramel. This did seem to diminish a bit over time. Very nice wine.
I am still of the thinking I would prefer to have a few of the 05 Hoddles Ck in the cupboard as I think it has some where to go while the 04 De Bortoli might be about as good as it will be.
October 6th, 2006 at 8:48 am
I guess they are a year apart and 2005 would be generally considered a better pinot vintage in the Yarra. I did not know they bottled it under cork too. Silly buggers. I think that the De Bortoli has some improvement - the oak should settle into the wine a bit better for example. Both good wines. I reckon you are on a winner with either.
GW
PS. Love the feedback on wines too by the way.
October 25th, 2006 at 5:46 am
Opened a screwcap version of this earlier this week. It appeared light and was dissapointed to find that it was subdued on the nose and thin and grippy on the palate. Very ordinary (you guys on Wineorama are idiots etc), left the bottle on the bench.
Went back to it last night and it was singing. Fragrant, intense and long. This needs a good decant or at least another 6 months it bottle. Australian Pinot that tastes like Pinot. Webber you are a geeeeenioooooos.
October 25th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
Well they are - idiots that is - but remarkably accurate
More and more I am finding similar results with Aussie Pinot benefiting greatly from a bit more air than I otherwise would give it. This is a no brainer for the money IMO.
October 25th, 2006 at 5:36 pm
2005 is about to be released. anyone tried it yet?
October 25th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
Yes. Very good.
GW