WTN: Intrepid exploring: Australia 1996

A friend put up a tasting of Aussie 1996s. He's a great chap but our tastes couldn't be more different. I tried to approach these with an open mind and tried to step outside of my subjective tastes to see how these would be to others. I would really love to hear what Aussie fans think of these wines - they were mostly difficult wines for me, I'll admit that. The Vasse Felix was very interesting, however, and I would like to taste more of this property if they are as savoury yet still very Australian in feel.

• 1996 Barossa Valley Estate Shiraz E & E Black Pepper - Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley (9/5/2007)
  Dark toned nose, with lots of mulberry and tar. The palate is full of everything: fruit, acids and alcohol are all a bit overbearing for my palate. Long and tarry aftertaste. IMO it seems to be a fair example of the bruising Barossa style - unfortunately a style I don't really like.
• 1996 Geoff Merrill Shiraz Henley - Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale (9/5/2007)
  The nose is vegetal and peppery. The palate is on the elegant side of today's tasting: not so thick, but still with sweet fruit, more acidic profile and a delightful savoury vegetal note. I rather enjoyed it, but the strong vegetal character was a bit of a surprise.
• 1996 Leasingham Shiraz Classic Clare - Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley (9/5/2007)
  A very smooth nose of mulberry and tar and sweet fruit. The palate is full bodied and drier than the scent promised, spicy and well structured and intense. The aftertaste is long but the alcohol does come out a little. Very good in its style.
• 1996 Hardys Shiraz Eileen Hardy - Australia, South Australia (9/5/2007)
  Dark toned nose of mulberry with a bit of lift/eucalyptus also. The palate is thick, but with some refreshing lift, moderate acidity and still quite a bit of tannins. It is sweetly fruity, a little bit tarry and though "correct" for its style, I don't think it quite reaches the level of some others tonight.
• 1996 Yalumba Shiraz Octavius - Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley (9/5/2007)
  Massively oaky and toffeed nose. To my tastes, this is very off-putting, but if I try, I can find some intriguing dried fruit character underneath that struggles to come forward past the oak. The palate is in better balance: it is also oaky, but that doesn't tread over the tarry Shiraz fruit. It is too soft, but still has a long aftertaste. A very difficult wine for me - no matter how I try to step outside of my own tastes, I find it hard to find many redeeming qualities in this.
• 1996 Jim Barry Shiraz The Armagh - Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Clare Valley (9/5/2007)
  This is fragrant like an oolong tea, sweet and berried - a rather personal style and attractive though very oaky. The palate is soft and plump but there is enough structure to carry the fruit well. Some acidity gladly becomes apparent on the finish so it isn't cloying despite the sweet fruit. Interesting style, and I think will become very good once the oak calms down more.
• 1996 Penfolds Shiraz Magill Estate - Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Adelaide Hills (9/5/2007)
  The smell is too raisiny and porty - it lacks any savoury scents so the whole is cloying. The taste is better: lighter and more acidic than most wines tonight, but also a little bit hollow. Long aftertaste. It seems to be in pieces and the whole just doesn't IMO add up.
• 1996 Yalumba The Signature - Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley (9/5/2007)
  A fresh and lifted scent with the aromatics of both grapes noticable. The palate is more Cabernet dominant with cassis fruit, but the aftertaste shows some tarry Shiraz character. A very successful blend of the two!
• 1996 Yalumba Cabernet Sauvignon The Menzies - Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra (9/5/2007)
  The nose has cassis and tobacco-leaf yet also a bit of bell pepper. The palate is sweet but a little hollow and unstructured on the mid-palate, yet on the aftertaste the fruit dies away and the structure comes apparent. Not unpleasant, but not really in balance either!
• 1996 De Bortoli Cabernet Sauvignon - Australia, Victoria, Port Phillip, Yarra Valley (9/5/2007)
  The smell is oaky and bell peppery. The palate is both sweet but light - quite unbalanced. Not very enjoyable.
• 1996 Vasse Felix Heytesbury - Australia, Western Australia (9/5/2007)
  A rather attractive wine. It shows quite a bit of oak, but also cassis, tobacco leaf, herbs and some darker toned fruit to balance the savoury Cabernet aromatics. The palate is full bodied, but has refreshing tannins and moderate acidity - it is well structured yet fruity. It still seems a bit on the young side. I like it.
• 1996 Yarra Yering Dry Red #1 - Australia, Victoria, Port Phillip, Yarra Valley (9/5/2007)
  The Bx-blend aromatics are suffocated by the woodworks. The palate is a bit like berryjuice. I didn't really care for it.
• 1996 Glaetzer Cabernet-Malbec - Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley (9/5/2007)
  The nose is very oaky and toffeed but does have some meaty fruit notes as well. The palate isn't as concentrated as the nose led me to believe, but is still sweet and oaky. Not bad.

Posted from CellarTracker

Oh you intrepid voyageur you!!! Good to see you are still open-minded about some of these monsters which will drink nicely who-knows-when!!!
Vasse Felix is one of the top wines around these parts!!

An interesting mix of wines, Otto; I can understand you being averse to some of these, but I was sutrprised at your reactions to the two Yarra wines - I thought they'd have been more up your street.
96 was a fine vintage in South Australia generally (less so in Victoria), but there were a number of makers who were really laying on the oak at the time. The E&E especially for me is overly toasty, the Leasingham is oaky in an old-fashioned Rioja-ish sort of way. I had a 96 Octavius three months ago and found it undrinkable (Oaktavius!). And Glaetzer's signature has always been oak as well! Even Yalumba's Signature was pushing the wood a little in 96 I felt, but the wine carried it OK. So it looks to me as though your friend was buying with a particular profile in mind.

I'm disappointed you didn't like the Magill better - a recent bottle I had was a little leafy and spicy and mostly very good in a non-blockbusterish sort of way. Armagh needs more time, definitely. The others I haven't tasted. To palates used to old-world wines, almost all Australian red wines - even the leanest - taste impossibly fruity, and I can understand some finding it a distraction.

Cellartracker is a bit bizarre. 'Port Phillip' is a pretty vague sort of geographic term. I don't doubt that it's valid, but since nearly all wines in the area form part of more specific locales - Yarra, Geelong, Mornington - it seems a bit redundant. Like emphasising Leoville-Barton is 'Medoc'.
And yet Vasse Felix loses the rather critical 'Margaret River' designation...
cheers,
Graeme

Cellartracker is a bit bizarre. 'Port Phillip' is a pretty vague sort of geographic term. I don't doubt that it's valid, but since nearly all wines in the area form part of more specific locales - Yarra, Geelong, Mornington - it seems a bit redundant. Like emphasising Leoville-Barton is 'Medoc'.
And yet Vasse Felix loses the rather critical 'Margaret River' designation...
cheers,
Graeme

That is how the Australian GIs work so blame the AWBC rather than Cellartracker

and the Heytesbury isn't 100% Margaret River as far as I know ...

I found this for you all...........................

http://www.vassefelix.com.au/frames.htm

I don't have a problem with any of your assessments, Otto. I've tried almost all of them from one time or another over the last decade and own only a few bottles of the Yalumba Signature (bought on the strength of the sensational 1990 vintage, but subsequently have given it the flick, like most of the Aussie reds I used to buy from the better years!).

The Octavius is probably is one of the best examples of a waste of old vine Shiraz fruit I have ever come across. The wine's oak-aged in tiny 8 stave (90 litre) "well-seasoned" US barrels. The sooner Yalumba give up on this the better, IMHO. I've drunk most vintages since the inaugural 1990 vintage and I've always had trouble with it. An extremely difficult wine to drink, no matter how old it seems to be. The fact the company, perennially, continues not to acknowledge the effect of this oak treatment indicates they are not listening.

The Jim Barry Armagh is a Grange look-alike and probably will last for another 10-15 years.

The Magill Estate is always the most elegant red of the Penfold's premium portfolio and your note attests to the style. It would have been most difficult to judge it with some of the monster reds served before and after.

Thanks for your report.

David, the Heytesbury? From a good vintage, how long can one cellar this for max pleasure?

Bob,

I looked at the 1996 a year ago and was very impressed. The 1998, alongside it, was a bit of an oaky monster. On the strentgh of this I would suggest 15 years from the year of vintage would see this wine at its best.

Nice to see notes on some of the wines I own, Otto.

Too bad you didn't have the Balmoral - I've been wondering how it is doing. But then you sacrificed yourself enough - you'll probably have purple teeth for a week!

Thank you Aussie-contingent, for the replies and expert views! It's no secret that my friend's tastes are pretty much opposite mine: he likes oak, he likes big, blockbusterish fruit, he likes low acidity - he likes gobby whereas I like my wines more like the Gobi.

I was also a little surprised about the Yarras not being more to my taste - but I had a hard time getting past the combination of oak + bell pepper. I like savoury Cabernet, but I like it more in a leafy, herbal, cassis-type of way than as bell pepper. These are subtle nuances, but often the subtle nuance is what causes the strongest likes and dislikes.

The Magill Estate is always the most elegant red of the Penfold's premium portfolio and your note attests to the style. It would have been most difficult to judge it with some of the monster reds served before and after.

If this is so, I do wonder if the bottle was a bit heat shocked? That sort of raisininess I thought was just over-ripeness, but I guess since the palate was more austere, it might suggest that all was not well with the bottle.

That is how the Australian GIs work so blame the AWBC rather than Cellartracker

and the Heytesbury isn't 100% Margaret River as far as I know ...

I figured Eric picked up his geography from a formal site - I didn't mean to question its correctness - it's just that it's one of those GIs whose name you almost never see (like 'Big Rivers').
But I didn't realise the Heytesbury was beyond the bounds of MR, so fair enough...
cheers,
Graeme

The Octavius is probably is one of the best examples of a waste of old vine Shiraz fruit I have ever come across. The wine's oak-aged in tiny 8 stave (90 litre) "well-seasoned" US barrels. The sooner Yalumba give up on this the better, IMHO.

For readers who find this a bizarre concept, I should point out that Yalumba actually have their own on-site cooperage. This silly little barrel they make is a 'point of difference' I suppose. At any rate, when you visit the winery and see great stacks of wood sitting outside, rest assured they're not broken-up pallets waiting to be taken away, they're next year's barrels undergoing seasoning!
cheers,
Graeme