Nice wines I have drunk recently - Red or White

Wozza said:
They are hard to come by, khussey. But you may get lucky if you keep your eye out or plead with McWilliams (by playingthe wedding card). As AC mentioned above, we clubbed together at the right time to pick up 30 bottles between 4 of us in the pre-release members sale. I joined as an 1880 club member and we got the discount prices.

I had the privilege last night of trying another of their amazing 2014 wines:

the Mount Pleasant Rosehill Shiraz 2014

View attachment 81377
My notes for this early try as follows:

http://www.vivino.com/users/warren-dav/reviews/54441198

2014 McWilliam's Mount Pleasant Wines Shiraz Rosehill, Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley, Pokolbin - CellarTracker

"Another spectacular 2014 Hunter Shiraz from Mount Pleasant. Rosehill was planted by Maurice O'Shea in 1946, and features a higher, undulating North Esat aspect that's blessed with the renowned Hunter ancient, volcanic soils.

This Shiraz is beautifully made. But for me, a shade under the Old Paddock & Old Hill 2014 at this early stage. But it's more typical of Hunter Shiraz: It's highly aromatic (it's best feature), finely balanced, and intense but med-bodied and silky smooth, with dark cherry, raspberry, cinnamon, mushroom, almond, sea salt and spice. It's very ageworthy. It's why it gets a Wozza 95.5/100 (4.3/5.0) from me."

For those interested, I did a little blog on both Mount Pleasant Wines here: http://Is the 2014 Hunter vintage w...-2014-hunter-vintage-worthy-of-the-hyperbole/
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Khussey - please see your PM. I have a (very nice) surprise for you!
 
Was in the King Valley with a few friends the other day and stumbled across the little vineyard called Francesco's - at the end of King Valley road. He's got some cracking 2003 Merlot that he's been holding back, and the best bit is the price - $15 a bottle or... wait for it, $130 a case!

Aged beautifully and ready to drink in the next year or two - no waiting.

I walked away with about 5 cases. SWMBO went through the tasting list in an attempt to knock out wines she didn't like. She didn't find a single one....

Francesco Wines
 
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Simsy85 said:
Was in the King Valley with a few friends the other day and stumbled across the little vineyard called Francesco's - at the end of King Valley road. He's got some cracking 2003 Merlot that he's been holding back, and the best bit is the price - $15 a bottle or... wait for it, $130 a case!

Aged beautifully and ready to drink in the next year or two - no waiting.

I walked away with about 5 cases. SWMBO went through the tasting list in an attempt to knock out wines she didn't like. She didn't find a single one....

Francesco Wines
Click to expand...

There are some real gems in the King Valley.
 
Simsy85 said:
2003 Merlot at $15 a bottle or... wait for it, $130 a case!

Aged beautifully and ready to drink in the next year or two - no waiting.

Francesco Wines
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads-up Simsy, had a look at the website but couldn't see any pricing for the wines and the order form drew a blank too, do you have to contact them directly for prices? ($18 postage to Tas wasn't too outrageous either!)
 
Give him a call, he's really, really, really, *REALLY* old school... i.e. I had to put the eftpos through myself (he's about 85-90).

Everything I saw was $15 a bottle or a case for $130, except Prosecco (which I had last night and was delish) for $20/bottle.

I can recommend the 03 Merlot, the 05 Cab Shiraz Merlot and the SB.
 
I'll certainly look into it but I've been throwing the money around a bit too much of late and am forcing myself to be "sensible" what a horrible word....
 
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I don't normally post about mundane issues, like white wine, but I thought this warranted an exception. This is certainly the best Chardonnay I've had this year, and maybe the best white wine.

Thomas Allen 2016 Mango Tree Chardonnay (Hunter Valley)

IMG_0908.jpg

Fresh as a daisy. A traditional Burgundian style Chardonnay. The fruit is intense and vibrant, ripe white peach, honeydew and starfruit mingle on the front palate. The wine has unusual complexity for a young chardonnay. Secondary flavours of honeysuckle, toffee and baking spice evident. The intensity is such that it leaves an almost lolly like sensation in the mouth, yet it is not overly sweet. The wine is lightly oaked with only a slight creamy malolactic mouthfeel evident. Good acid balance and a long finish the icing on the cake. Sensational. A 95 on CT from me.
 
Delectable Blue said:
I don't normally post about mundane issues, like white wine, but I thought this warranted an exception. This is certainly the best Chardonnay I've had this year, and maybe the best white wine.

Thomas Allen 2016 Mango Tree Chardonnay (Hunter Valley)

View attachment 81699

Fresh as a daisy. A traditional Burgundian style Chardonnay. The fruit is intense and vibrant, ripe white peach, honeydew and starfruit mingle on the front palate. The wine has unusual complexity for a young chardonnay. Secondary flavours of honeysuckle, toffee and baking spice evident. The intensity is such that it leaves an almost lolly like sensation in the mouth, yet it is not overly sweet. The wine is lightly oaked with only a slight creamy malolactic mouthfeel evident. Good acid balance and a long finish the icing on the cake. Sensational. A 95 on CT from me.
Click to expand...

This is a coincidence. I happen to be living temporarily in the HV at present and visited the TA winery a couple of weeks ago. At vineyard tasting, I thought the Mango Tree was quite good - but I always like to have wine with food as the ultimate test, so it was one of the bottles of a broad selection I bought to have with meals.

Had it with food last week - and was very disappointed. To me, the wine had a 'sour' and somewhat flat overtone with a heavy, somewhat cloying, mouthfeel and it lacked refinement. I certainly would not describe it as 'fresh as a daisy'. Even though it's under some bit of primitive old tree bark, it certainly was not TCA corked - but I didn't discern any obvious fault. It could well have been scalped in some way - but I don't think that would explain the heavy mouthfeel. The contrast to the vineyard tasting certainly startled me. Somehow a dodgy bottle, methinks.

Incidentally, as is my wont, while here I've tried a few local examples of 'new' or 'unusual' varities - eg. Gewurtz, Vermentino, Verdelho. I've consistently been disappointed. They are universally big, high alcohol (c. 14-15% :shock: for varieties that, even in Australia, can be kept down to 11.5-12.5% and still be eminently drinkable and stylish). To me they are rather coarse, over-ripe, dominant-flavoured expressions of these varieties compared with contemporaneous examples now being produced in other parts of Australia.

I am concluding that the Hunter experimenting outside its classics, at least in whites, is not likely to lead to glory.

I did post a couple of weeks back a 2015 Thomas Allen Shiraz Cabernet that I thought was very good!
 
Simsy85 said:
Give him a call, he's really, really, really, *REALLY* old school... i.e. I had to put the eftpos through myself (he's about 85-90).

Everything I saw was $15 a bottle or a case for $130, except Prosecco (which I had last night and was delish) for $20/bottle.

I can recommend the 03 Merlot, the 05 Cab Shiraz Merlot and the SB.
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Had a quick peek but the order form lists a 02 Merlot, not 03. Is the 03 unlisted, or did you mean the 02?
 
JohnM said:
Had it with food last week - and was very disappointed. To me, the wine had a 'sour' and somewhat flat overtone with a heavy, somewhat cloying, mouthfeel and it lacked refinement. I certainly would not describe it as 'fresh as a daisy'. Even though it's under some bit of primitive old tree bark, it certainly was not TCA corked - but I didn't discern any obvious fault. It could well have been scalped in some way - but I don't think that would explain the heavy mouthfeel. The contrast to the vineyard tasting certainly startled me. Somehow a dodgy bottle, methinks.
Click to expand...

That's disappointing. There may well be some bottle to bottle variation. The first bottle of the 2014 vintage that I tried tasted bloated and flabby, whilst the second bottle was razor sharp. So I guess these things can happen from time to time. Maybe I just got lucky this time. I've ordered another half dozen so I guess I'll find out in time.


JohnM said:
I did post a couple of weeks back a 2015 Thomas Allen Shiraz Cabernet that I thought was very good!
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I'm hoping to try the 2015 Old School later this week. I cracked a bottle of the 2013 last weekend and it was exceptional. I first tried it twelve months ago just after release, and it was quite tannic and dry. I rated that bottle an 84. The bottle I had on the weekend was superb and rated a 95 with an additional 12 months bottle age on it. It will be interesting to see how it compares with the newly released 2015 vintage.
 
Well that clears that up! I'm quite intrigued by this opportunity Simsy, I like fairly large reds what would you say was the biggest/heaviest of the reds you tasted? (The website's a bit scant on tasting info) cheers, W&D
 

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