I attended a tasting earlier in the week that produced quite a few stunners -
The Richmond Grove Watervale Riesling 2001 displayed a lot of colour for a screwcapped wine, was reasonable, but, unfortunately, is in a problematic stage where some classy toast and honey character has latched onto weird nettly/unripe pineapple - something I find most unattractive and all too common in middle-aged Aussie Riesling's. There's hope for the wine yet as I've seen these qualities disappear in other examples with several years more bottle age. 76 points.
The Tyrrell's 1999 Belford Reserve Semillon was another story. Incredibly youthful, pale straw colour, a nose brimming with an uncanny minerality, notes of lanolin, grass and hay, subtle nuance of toast and honey followed by a stunningly tight, rapier-like palate filled with mineral-rich, steely green-fruited bliss and a wealth of acidity in the extended finish. This is the Hunter at its finest. Outstanding wine with another decade or more of development and drinking pleasure. 93 points. Only 9.8% A/V but, sadly, sealed with a cork.
After my very positive experience with Dominique Laurent's 1996 Lavaux-St-Jacques earlier in the week, I decided to open his 1996 Les Suchots from Vosne-Romanee. Lacking the sheer opulence of the L-St-J, the Suchots did reveal a wealth of lovely Vosne perfume with violets and spice box to the fore with admirable contributions from cardamon, black cherry, well-hung game, sous bois and pinot sap but the vintage thumbprint of high acidity marginally destabilised the wine's otherwise excellent equilibrium on the palate. Far more youthful in nature to the Lavaux, this wine is still in need of several years in the cellar to soften and mature and I'll not broach another for quite a few years. Overall, I thought the wine provided very enjoyable drinking with the marinated barbequed mushrooms but without the food the palate was just a tad too spikey for me. BTW and FWIW, the oak was well under control from go to woe. 90 points. Drink 2013-2020+
The next masked wine went through the most extraordinary transition I can recall in the recent past. Upon pouring this wine screamed out "I'm ready!" with volumes of rounded, soft and cuddly, integrated mature scents of old leather, dark chocolate, a little "good" brett (a nice touch of fresh chook poo and perhaps the faintest whiff of band-aid) with hints of licorice, fennel and cigar box. The palate was similarly etched - sweet-fruited, smooth, beautifully modulated, round and mouth-filling, lax tannins and soft acidty. And then it started to happen. Within minutes, the wine started to freshen .... constanly transforming .... and changing quite remarkably ... the old replaced with the new, so to speak. On the nose scents of weedy blackcurrants emerged backed with strong cedar and herbal undertones, then black olive, tapenade, gravel, lead pencil. The palate now grew extra vitality and depth with much brighter acids and quite firm but balanced and penetrating tannins. The sheer weight increased, the structure now firmer and more youthful, the finish remarkably more sizeable and authoratative with much greater length. Initially I was predicting a beautiful old Aussie shiraz from South Australia, possibly the Hunter, probably from the 80's (about '86 if I had to guess COTB). After options it turned out to be the 1990 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon. My score - 94 points with a drinking window of now-2020! Bravo! Cork sealed and 13.0% A/V.
Lastly we had the pleasure of trying a truly great olf Aussie icon - the 1956 Penfolds Five Star Club Port - a remarkble old wine in great shape. A hazy ancient tawny red with khaki and rust, heady nose of rancio, old leather, cherry licquer, old books, christmas cake, dusty oak, sweet earth and hints of sump oil and burnt toffee. The palate retains amazing freshness for such an ancient blend - ckocka-block full of astringent old rum and raisan, briar, rancio, plenty of strong wood, massive acidity and astringency providing an extremely firm, powerful and long conclusion to what can only be described as a totally fascinating experience. We were all pleasantly surprised when the wine was revealed! 92 points. Drink now.
Last night, my daughter, Katherine and I took Mum and Dad out to dinner to celebrate Mum's 79th birthday and I opened bottle of the wonderful 2006 Cape Mentelle Chardonnay (93 points) and a wine in urgent need of drinking, the still quite fine but just beginning to tire, 1990 St Hubert's Cabernet Sauvignon (88 points).