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Know anything about these Australian wines?

Group,

As I mentioned in a posting last week, my sister ordered me a 6 bottle grab bag from the Gratefulpalate.com, which is run by Dan Philips -- they import many lesser known Australian wines and Marquis Philips wines.

For USD30, I just received the following six bottles (all from Australia):

1999 Ashton Hills Pinot Noir Picadilly Valley (2 bottles) 1998 Geoff Weaver Lenswood Chardonnay (South Australia) 1998 Geoff Weaver Lenswood Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot (South Australia) 1998 Thalgara Shiraz Show Reserve (Hunter Valley) 2000 Quartetto Clare Valley Sangiovese

They appear to be in very good condition -- hopefully they didn't sit for too long in a hot truck -- they travelled from California (Oxnard?), I think, to Boise, Idaho.

I looked them up through Yahoo but didn't find much information. One website,

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which I assume is related to the Grateful Palate, provides a little biographical information about Weaver and Ashton Hills, but not much else. It claims they are "artisinal wines" of high quality. I guess the whole theory behind Grateful Palate, is that Dan Phillips has extremely high standards for food and wine and then he passes his expert knowledge of lesser known delicacies on to the public. He apparently likes bacon a great deal. I am very eager taste these wines. My mom also signed me up for his two wines a month club.

Obviously, one cannot expect too much for USD5 a bottle, but the website says he usually picks a few more expensive wines to ship (something about a guilt complex caused by his psychiatrist father). Hopefully this is not just clever marketing.

I'm wondering if anyone knows anything about these wines. I will probably drink them all fairly soon so I will post my opinions. At any rate, USD30 is really inexpensive for six bottles (especially considering my sister paid).

Any comments/knowledge is appreciated.

Thanks,

Rob Adelson

Reply to
Rob
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You've done amazingly well. You could have easily paid $US30 for a single bottle of Ashton Hills Pinot or either Geoff Weaver wine (all of these wines are good vintages, too). Thalgara and Quartetto are pretty obscure, but certainly not cheap. Ashton Hills is made by the same guy who makes the legendary Wendouree reds.

A site like

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might include some tasting notes for these vintages.

In any case, it would have been a good buy at $US100. At thirty it's ridiculous.

Kieran

Reply to
Kieran Dyke

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