WTN: Dalwhinnie and Neil Ellis

[Jenise]

2004 Neil Ellis Cabernet Sauvignon, South Africa
Popped and poured. Dark wine with blackcurrant, blackberry and plum fruit on the nose and palate. Very open and drinkable; fruit is sweet and plenty ripe, so it seems incongruous (though not atypical of South African wines) when a green bell pepper streak not unlike what I associate with underripeness develops. Otherwise, soft tannins with trademark South African acidity are present; could cellar another five years, perhaps longer. Good but not great at $22.

2001 Dalwhinnie Shiraz, Pyrenees (Moonambel region), Victoria, Australia
Very un-Australian restrained red fruit on the nose and palate. Fills out just a bit with time in the glass and adds some green olive notes and other Croze Hermitage-ish complexities; it could pass for a cooler-year Rhone in fact but for the dilly quality I presume is coming from American oak. As such its probably welcome in neither place, but on my table it was quite good with grilled burgers and a bargain at the $15 that I paid for it.

Jenise
A good choice with the Dalwhinnie - but a no-brainer at that price (did you give them their wallet back after mugging them? ). Arguably more mainstream in Aussie circles, but compared to the Aussie fruit bomb fad in the US, yes definitely untypical.
I suspect you're right on the dill (oak influence)
regards
Ian

Dalwhinnie at $15 - how and where?

Those wines are AWESOME - really gorgeous cool climate Aussies (their Cab is also fantastic), but I've never seen them even close to that price. (Yes, I'm very jealous...)

[Jenise]

Dalwhinnie at $15 - how and where?

Those wines are AWESOME - really gorgeous cool climate Aussies (their Cab is also fantastic), but I've never seen them even close to that price. (Yes, I'm very jealous...)

Auction, maybe six-nine months ago. I've actually visited the winery and was therefore familiar with the wines, but I presume most Americans (except you) know nothing/little about them. After all, it's not located in the Barossa or McClaren Vale, so it couldn't be good.

[Jenise]

Jenise
A good choice with the Dalwhinnie - but a no-brainer at that price (did you give them their wallet back after mugging them? ). Arguably more mainstream in Aussie circles, but compared to the Aussie fruit bomb fad in the US, yes definitely untypical.
I suspect you're right on the dill (oak influence)
regards
Ian

I thought this was pretty restrained even to the Australian palate, Ian. That said, what I'm really judging this by is a year 2000 winery visit and the two bottles of '98 I brought back. Riper than usual, I guess, though I don't think the pendulum swings that far over there from vintage to vintage.

But heck yes on the price, eh? As I told Salil, I'm sure this went begging because your average American buyer thinks the sun rises and sets by the Barossa and McClaren Vale gobsters.

Jenise
A good choice with the Dalwhinnie - but a no-brainer at that price (did you give them their wallet back after mugging them? ). Arguably more mainstream in Aussie circles, but compared to the Aussie fruit bomb fad in the US, yes definitely untypical.
I suspect you're right on the dill (oak influence)
regards
Ian

Ian

You are correct, it is more mainstream. The sad truth is that most of the "fruit bombs" that are produced for the offshore, and the US in particular, never see the light of day in Australia (thankfully). I used to grab the annual Winespectator review of Australian wines but stopped a few years ago when I realised that a vast majority of the wine I have simply never seen here on the shelves. Regretably this approach to marketing is now backfiring on the industry in general as they struggle to drop the fruitbomb perception.

Mark

[David M. Bueker]

I have a bottle of the 2003 Neil Ellis Cab in the cellar. Guess I will open it whenever with moderate expectations.

[Jenise]

David, you'll probably enjoy it well enough. I liked it, it just wasn't the amazing value I hoped it would be. And if that green streak had been any meaner I'd have had to seriously mark it down for that and most people (particularly anyone who hates green bell pepper) would object to it more than I did.