Central Otago visit in May 09 - dinner wines no 2

Dinner number 2 was held the night after dinner no 1. Some of the wines were served blind. I also have no notes of the food for the second night.

Wine 1 (blind): A quite young Riesling. Fresh and just a lick of RS here, bright fresh sherbetty white flower goodness. This is an end of line bottling of 07 Felton Road Riesling that was given by the winery to staff who worked on the bottling.

08 Felton Road Riesling: One of my favourite Kiwi reslings, well written up many times to now, and this is good. Particularly malic in its taste if anything to distinguish it from earlier bottles. Slurped this down quickly.

Wine 3 (blind): Ooh, a nose that doesn’t give up much. Nose might be Riesling, but might be something else – almost some pinot gris like fruit profile and spice? But the finish and acid characters are all Riesling in one of its more delicate forms, where the flavours are a sprinkled rather than poured onto your tongue. It’s the 07 Winstead Riesling from Tasmania, and it has the same pinot gris like character as the Heemskerk (which is fermented on pinot gris lees). There you go.

04 Bouchard Corton Charlemagne: Yep this is on song. Initially this has a nose of nuts and sesame seeds and is quite closed, only showing it savoury side above its drum tight surface. With a little bit of time this becomes creamy, some green fruits, white peach. Outstanding wine, and will live a long time.

Wine 5 (also blind): Clearly a Pinot. Sweet oaky nose. Slightly confected even? The palate is more about stalk and pinosity, but still has that same honeycomb sweet fruit and some pencil shaving oak, with some blueberries and blackberries on the finish. Fairly quickly this dies off and shows some roast meats. AB’s bet: This is Burgundy, in a very new world style. Wrong again! It’s an Australian Pinot. And a Bass Phillip it is, the 07 Crown Prince. So wrong guess but sort of right. Apparently stem tannin and lees, not loaded with oak at all. Very good wine.

03 Craggy Range Te Muna Road Block 1 Pinot Noir, Doug Wisor signature: Dark colour. Smells big and ripe and rich, cola like and chocolaty almost, with some dust and lifted redcurrant. Front palate this is sweet and rich and inviting and almost has a spritz about it. Mid palate is rich and coffee and chocolate, and very ripe, almost jammy. Muddy coffee grounds tannins. Not endearing as a pinot, and lacks any measure of prettiness.

06 Gazardiel Bethels Road Pinot Noir: A very small run wine made from Canterbury Plains fruit. White pepper, raspberry and cream nose. Palate is also raspberry, mulberry, boysenberry. Fine but plentiful tannin, and prominently boysenberry, almost liqueured. Hard to pick as pinot, lacks stalk, perfume etc. Would probably pick this as the serious end of fruity red – an Italian dolcetto or similar. Later on I learn this slightly confected fruitiness I get is derived from extended skins contact.

99 Penfolds RWT en magnum: Lovely rich chocolate plum and berry Shiraz fruit that opens nicely. Liqueured cherries. Ripe Barossa fruit. All manner of berries. Intense and good length. Leave it in the cellar for some year yet to build a little more complexity. Nice wine but not my style – at least it isn’t laced with coconutty American oak...

05 Henschke Hill of Roses: Pretty red fruits. Lovely Shiraz. Well judged oak in a lightly chocolaty and pencil shavings sort of mode. Blueberries. A hint of peppery spice. Grippy yet very fine tannin. Mid weight and lovely for it. I would buy this, but $A180 for an Australian Shiraz is pretty scary.

03 Chateau Rieussec: Ooh, rich and lush! Golden colour. Rich botrytis apricots, peaches, power and more richness, some alcohol heat??? This shows honeycomb and a touch of plasticine that I find in a lot of Sauternes. Viscous. Orange rind. Intense.

06 Schloss Lieser Niederberger Helden Auslese Langhe Goldkapsel: Yummy wine, but should have come before the Sauternes. Lovely honeyed botrytis and citrus. i think I've raved on about this wine before.

04 Weingut Eugen Muller Forster Kirchenstuck Auslese: This suffered from being served last; it should have come first of the dessert wines being much less sweet and more a traditional auslese in style.

It was also about 2am for the second night running and my note taking capability was fading fast.

Cheers

Andrew

Andrew
Fully agree on letting the 99 RWT sleep for a good few years (even in bottle, let alone magnum). Like you I'm not sure it's definitely my style, but I'm confident age will help and it might even come right into my style slot as it ages (and yes a lack of cherry-ripe oak in my reds is appreciated these days).
regards
Ian

[Jenise]

Andrew, I've really enjoyed your notes, thanks so much for taking the time to write them up and post.

And a question re the Craggy Range, as someone who owns the 05 and has some concern about how the last bottle showed vs. how I found the wine a year prior: you said "almost has a spritz about it. Mid palate is rich and coffee and chocolate, and very ripe, almost jammy. Muddy coffee grounds tannins. Not endearing as a pinot, and lacks any measure of prettiness." Was there any discussion at the table about the cause of the almost-spritz and muddy grounds? Was there some secondary fermentation going on, and were the muddy coffee ground tannins thought to be a sign of a wine not maturing well?

Nice lineup. Haven't heard of the Hill of Roses before - that's a new Shiraz cuvee I take it? Henschke's pricing these days is ridiculous - I love the wines, but I don't see myself ever paying that sort of money for an Edelstone, HOG or Cyril.

Andrew, I've really enjoyed your notes, thanks so much for taking the time to write them up and post.

And a question re the Craggy Range, as someone who owns the 05 and has some concern about how the last bottle showed vs. how I found the wine a year prior: you said "almost has a spritz about it. Mid palate is rich and coffee and chocolate, and very ripe, almost jammy. Muddy coffee grounds tannins. Not endearing as a pinot, and lacks any measure of prettiness." Was there any discussion at the table about the cause of the almost-spritz and muddy grounds? Was there some secondary fermentation going on, and were the muddy coffee ground tannins thought to be a sign of a wine not maturing well?

Hi Jenise,

Its a while ago now, but I think the "almost spritz" was a fresh, almost aspirin like quality I get in some of the brighter fruit driven pinots. The rest f the wine didnt fit that profile at all, it really was a dry red. We didn't consider it may have been faulty. Although it was probably midnight at this point!

Nice lineup. Haven't heard of the Hill of Roses before - that's a new Shiraz cuvee I take it? Henschke's pricing these days is ridiculous - I love the wines, but I don't see myself ever paying that sort of money for an Edelstone, HOG or Cyril.

Hi Salil, Hill of Roses is made from younger vines on the Hill of Grace block. Prue is replacing vines as they die (or get close - I dont have too much detail),

cheers

Andrew

Thanks Andrew. Always refreshing to know that Prue Henschke will keep making sure we consumers won't run out of monstrously priced Aussie reds to pick from...