Miscellaneous notes over the last week:
2002 Cookoothama Shiraz - an inexpensive Shiraz for those non-serious moments, with a big, sweet vanilla fruity (but by no means complex) nose, and with a nice brightness at the end.2002 Thornhaven Gewurztraminer - entry much sweeter than I remembered it, but once I got over that I recalled why I liked this wine - the true varietal nose and the good balance on the back end. One of the better BC Gewurz.
1993 Plaisir de Merle Cabernet - this South African wine is now at peak, doing its very best imitation of a decent petit chateau Bordeaux. Vanilla nose and good fruit levels. Great value!1993 Ferrari Carano Cabernet - a striking contrast to the previous wine - the fruit too low and the acidity a bit edgy. I hope it was a bad bottle and not representative of how this wine is holding!
1989 Ch. La Mission Haut Brion - When faced with the next two wines blind, I figured this was a Bordeaux, with a secondary possibility of being a Californian Cab, given the high fruit and oak levels. This was one huge wine, and it showed big time cocoa and vanilla and maybe even a bit of road tar in the nose, although the nose backed off a bit with time in the glass. Excellent acidity, great depth of flavour, and very harmonious, I was fooled into thinking it a 1990s wine. When told that it was older, I correctly deduced that it was a very good 1989, as the fruit wasn't quite as lush as a 1990, nor was the structure right for either 1988 or 1986. My backup guess was a very, very good 1982. I was troubled a bit by the fact that it seemed to be fading somewhat in the glass, having been opened for a few hours, as all other indications are for a long lived wine. In fact this handily surpassed the 1989 Latour I had a couple of weeks ago.1981 Grange Hermitage - I guessed this as a Californian wine, with a back-up of possibly being Australian, but if so, a Western Oz wine. The fruit was riper than the Bordeaux had shown, and there was black currant and vanilla in the nose, and lots of soft tannins. The colour was very dark and the edges aren't fading at all. I blew this big time by guessing an early 1990s Australian. The Western Oz wasn't illogical - the fruit is well integrated with the still significant tannins, and the fruit was no longer so lush nor the oak so predominant that it struck one as a 1990s Oz wine from anywhere but the West. Some mint crept out in the nose, and the length was exceptional, and although it was weighty in the mouth, it showed a refinement that I do not recall detecting when I tasted this a few years ago. At that point it was a typical impenetrable Grange. Now it has smoothed out and has begun to drink well. I'll bet it will continue to do so for the next couple of decades, given the structure! Zowie! Hard to choose between the La Mission (an RP 100 pointer) and this wonderful wine, but I think I'd have to give the nod to the Grange.
I get fooled once in awhile by more than a decade (OK, the most was by 40 years, but it was a 1928 Burgundy that probably had half the Rhone blended in), but not often! You can fool me any time you want with wines of this caliber. It should be noted that this had also been open for a considerable time.