1. Home
  2. General Wine Forum
  3. TN: Cellaring a cheap Oz

TN: Cellaring a cheap Oz

Gorgeous warm April weather, and friends (actually, former neighbors) invited us over for dinner Monday. Nice day to grill, so Betsy made some potato salad and fruit salad, and we took along the basset hound to see her favorite "aunt and uncle". While the fire was getting hot, had a glass of their 2001 Cartlidge and Browne Chardonnay. Good pear and tropical fruit flavors, but jeez is there a lot of oak there. Good for the style at that price, but just not my style. B/B- I know the Penfolds Koonunga Hill line is intended for "drink on release", but I had thought a few years back the 1998 Penfolds "Koonunga Hill" Shiraz/Cabernet had a nice tannic backbone, so put a couple away. Brought one along and opened with the bison burgers. Spice and vanilla on the nose, nice blackberry and cassis fruit, good finish with a peppery edge. Oak seems fully integrated, tannins fully resolved, successful experiment in the chancy areas of aging cheap wines. B+

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency. Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

Reply to
Dale Williams
Loading thread data ...

Hi Dale,

You'll be interested to know that James Haliday's Classic Wines has vertical tasting notes for the Koonunga Hill. For a cheap bottle, they age very well. If you have a bit of space in the cellar, a drinking a case over 12 years might be a worthy experiment. :-)

Reply to
Oliver White

We had a 91 Konunga Hill half bottle a couple of years ago (ie 10 or 11 years from vintage) and were amazed at how good it was. Great nose, plenty of fuit, not tired at all. OTOH, I think that these days the KH is a little softer in style so may not be at its best for as long. 1998 was a particularly good vintage of course. 2002 may be one to look for due the cool summer in most areas in SE Oz which should benefit the big production wines that can source better than usual fruit from the warmer regions.

Reply to
a

One of the best wines I ever had was a 1986 Koonunga Hill Shiraz/Cabernet at a Penfolds tasting. It was being compared to a 1996. We also tasted a 1985 and 1995 Grange.

Wine of the day was the 1986 Koonunga Hill for mine. You can't really compare the Grange to the Koonunga, but at AU$5 on release, the 1986 Koonunga was indeed a great deal.

Cheers,

Michael

Reply to
Michael Walker

DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.