My turn to host a dinner tasting last night, theme: Australia.
First up were a couple of whites, with clams.
1998 Yalumba Barossa Semillon - I picked this up at the Vancouver wine festival a few years ago because I thought it was a Semillon with aspirations to be a Chablis. It showed lemon and quite a bit of mineral in the nose, and was smooth and quite rich in the mouth, definitely a bit more in the French style than your typical Semillon.1998 Tyrells Vat 47 Pinot Chardonnay (Hunter Valley) - bought at the same festival (not by me), this was very nice too, although not as good a match with clams. Sweet rich nose, fairly typical oaked chard, lower acidity, and my only criticism was that the fruit ended early and the acidity carried on, so that while it wasn't all that high in midpalate, the wine suddenly seemed to be high in acid because that was all that was left to taste.
1985 Lake's Folly Cabernet - I asked every one to predict where their wines, tasted blind, should come in the tasting order, and we got it almost perfect last night. This mature wine was appropriately offered up first. An excellent Bordeaux style of nose, primarily cabernet, the wine completely mature and just lovely. Those who left some in their glass found that it developed an attractive tar component in the nose with a bit of time.1997 Mt. Langi Ghiran Shiraz - this wine had a nose that was very much Northern Rhone, and it had the metallic note you get in Cote Rotie, (although none of the violets). It had bright fruit and was sweeter than the European version would be, but all in all a creditable Shiraz done in the restrained style. There are days when you want an ooze monster (see the last wines in this tasting) and there are days when this style is much easier to take!
1995 Eileen Hardy Shiraz - I first tasted this wine when Bill Hardy came to town about 6 years ago and presented a short vertical. It is (based on my old notes) 50% Padthaway, 50% McLaren Vale fruit. When young, this wine had always shown the more typical mint nose, but last night it was big time dill all the way. Medium bodied (I think you have to read that in the context of what we were tasting) and still a fair bit of tannin. On palate, lush cherry liqueur fruit and yet more oak (a bit much perhaps). This wine could use more time.1995 Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet - Shiraz - good nose with some slight Bordeaux elements but also mint, medium body, almost elegant, good length. Hey - I can put up the 90, 92, 93, 94, and 95 - anyone want to continue the run and do a vertical tasting?
1999 Cape Mentelle Zinfandel - someone had to pull this one out, and as he expected, it flummoxed us. Dark wine with a eucalyptus nose and lots of sweet fruit, a bit hot. The fruit melded well with the tannins and it had good balance, but as was the case with the 1996 we had, there was no varietal clue whatsoever.1999 Chestnut Grove Merlot Manjimup (Western Australia) - a real hard one - a varietal not exactly in the top 5 when you think of Oz, and a producer none of us were familiar with. The nose was bitter chocolate (the only indicator of varietal?) and the wine was medium bodied, well integrated, admirable length, and not very merlot-like, damn it!
1997 Fox Creek Reserve Shiraz - my friend and I had set this next pair up, so we didn't guess the wines. I have seen several reports of the doom and gloom variety recently about these wines, and the only way to know if they were true was to start pulling corks. The 97 was dark (like that needed saying!), and a rubber nose that segued into tar and licorice as it opened a bit. A big wine, noticeably hot, but it drinks quite well, with a sweet fruit finish, the tannins not hitting until a half beat later. I have no reservations about this wine - I tasted it on release, and while it has lost some of the baby fat fruitiness, it has gained more in terms of increased complexity and by becoming more accessible. A long life ahead would be my bet, and my case will stay buried for another few years.1998 Fox Creek Reserve Shiraz - we figured that even though this pairing constitutes the sort of infanticide I normally criticise (all the while greedily sucking up other's notes), in this case it was merited. This wine was quite different and showed much less development. The nose was a bit sweeter than the 97, and the middle had a good chalky mouth feel to it. The wine was even darker, and the flavours of primal fruit were completely undifferentiated. I have no idea how long this monolithic Shiraz will need to start showing its stuff, but it isn't going to be next year! I find the naysaying relating to these wines a bit perplexing. I guess there are people that value 'fruit above all', and I wonder whether they prefer to drink their vintage Port at 5 years old, and think those of us that leave them 20 or more are daft. From my point of view, these wines, tasted when they first hit our market a few years ago, have lost nothing that would make me run about doing my Chicken Little impression. From where I sit, the sky is NOT falling.
1996 Thomas Hardy Cabernet - I first guessed it might be a 1998, and when told no, identified it as a 1996. This wine was quite appropriately left until the end, as impenetrable as the Fox Creeks had been, this was perhaps even 'thicker'. Very dark, and now showing some complexity, it had a cassis nose with a fair bit of vanilla and lots of mint. Well structured, this wine needs another 5 years to mellow out. Very nice. Both this and the Foxes use American oak when many winemakers have shifted to French, but they make good examples of wines where American oak works well. I'd love to taste any of them done with French - I wonder if the winemakers have done any experimental barrels?We tasted these wines with a Provencal beef stew (oragne juice and rind with black olives etc), and then continued the last 3 with cheese, and finally opened the Port
1980 Offley Boa Vista - I had been fooled by the Grahams of the same vintage only the month before, so thought I'd be able to do the same. I suppose I gave it away when I responded to guesses in the early 80s by telling them they were 'Offley close". This wine nearly witnessed a sad end for our hero. I had a general idea of where it was in the cellar (all Ports are on the bottom as they don't need to be readily accessible), but since it was placed in that repository my cellar had grown, rather like a river, where sedimentary deposits consisting of newer cases end up concealing earlier deposits. I had removed a tier (or is that rank or file?) of cases in front of where I estimated the Offley to be (I was one row over) and was lying prone on the floor, reaching in behind the stacks of cases to try and dislodge the Offley, when the cases on either side of the ones I'd removed started collapsing, and with bottles raining about my ears and onto my head (it was fortunate that the floor is carpeted and that I am large and soft, but even so it was only BC wine....). I tried to get up, but my not inconsiderable bulk, the looming cases and an old racquetball knee injury had me pinned, and it was difficult to move under the cases without pushing on the wood racks with the good stuff in them. I had visions of my wife coming home and wondering where I was, being unable to hear my increasingly faint and plaintive cries (I was also unable to reach a corkscrew to fortify myself), but in the end I managed to emerge with Offley in hand and the damage limited to dignity, which with no one to witness is quickly healed. Which is a lot about the retrieval of the Port, but nothing about the wine itself. It was hot. It was bloody hot. It was so hot, that this was its defining characteristic. The colour was starting to 'give' a bit, but there were no real clues for people, because the fruit which was there was adequate, but was quickly subsumed in the alcohol, which obliterated everything else. We all agreed that we wouldn't expect to guess either year or wine, so we went on to the bonus round.Beaulieu Vineyards Muscat de Frontignan - I picked this up sometime around 1980 when I was racing old sports cars at Laguna Seca, and would load up on wine on the way home. I don't believe they make it any more - it is fortified (18%) and matured in French and American oak. It comes in a squat sort of bottle, and when poured it was light brown, almost like a very old red wine or a Madeira and was redolent of the Muscat grape. Interesting.