Nice wines I have drunk recently - Red or White

Taming the beast....

Finally opened the bottle of 2003 Greenock Creek Alices Shiraz sent to me by Rug on Friday night and thought I'd share some tasting notes and a couple of photos taken by our in-house photographer (my son).
Oh, my lord, this wine is monumental, think of Mount Rushmore hewn from blackberries and grapes or the Sydney Harbour Bridge's iron lacework replaced with sheer vinosity and strung with black fruits and dark cooking chocolate. The colour is still as inky and dense as night, it's hard to imagine how a wine of this age can show so little evidence of the passing of time, the palate is chewy and concentrated in its cherry liqueur-like immensity, it clings and coats the sides of the glass with the legs of a supermodel or perhaps the muscular pins of Usain Bolt, the 16.5% ABV dissipated by the onrush of fruit. This wine is big without menace, swollen with purpose and is unashamedly New World in style but old school Barossan in execution, there's a lot to love!
Here's a picture of the beast in question followed by Phillip White's take on it (verbatim, it's worth it!):
Greenock1.jpgGreenock2.jpg
Greenock Creek Alices Shiraz 2003 (16.5 per cent alcohol)
Alices delivers its fourth crop like four semis colliding at a crossroad. One’s loaded with coconut and caramel chocolate bars, one with blackberry syrup, another with fine dry tannin, and a fourth loaded with pure alcohol. To be more polite, you could cut that back to two – American oak and tincture
ofBarossashiraz; or just one nuclear spontaneous combustion blast of flavour, after the smoky oak style developed by Peter Lehmann, Max Schubert and John Glaetzer, Wolf Blass’ red master, in the ‘seventies and ‘eighties. Funny thing about those guys: all grew up in smoky kitchens – Max was a blacksmith’s son – and all were/are heavy smokers. The smell of smoky wood is home to them. They judge their bacon by the degree of smoke it’s had. Which is not to say the Waughs have ever seen a whisper of stray smoke loose in their house (Michael was a stonemason who specialized in the hyper-efficient fireplaces designed by Benjamin Franklin). Better to suggest that this amazing vineyard, which was intended to be Greenock Creek’s straightforward commercial yielder, simply, audaciously, packs out more and more punch every year, and one of the obvious things to do with its mad fruit is wrap it in smoky oak. After twenty four hours it looked sweet as a pina colada, with that oak barely managing to wrap around the intensity of Alices’ cordial fruit – while the mouth’s talking to the carpenters, the juicy fruit crawls determinedly through the slats. Then comes that wave of tannin. Whoooeee! Lord knows how long it’ll take to smooth out – a decade? – but one thing’s manifestly obvious: Alices is no commercial slurper. 92 now: more glory later.
 
Re: Taming the beast....

Im going to crack an '06 tomorrow night for Father's Day

You'll love it. Had it recently at an AFF dinner, I think it was Penegal who brought it.

I suspect we purchased at the same event - I'm surprised you didn't grab some at the same time. The Rod n Spur really is a lovely drop, velvety smooth on release - but also benifits from bottle age

Happy Father's Day, loving this :D


It was me, and yes - it's a lovely drop. Aged very well and very enjoyable.
 
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Figured I should open something older than me so I feel young again...

Firstly, interesting bottle. Only 730ml originally and with ullage and a bit left in the bottle post decanting, I'll be seeing less than 700ml to consume. Also interest the bottle shape. Not actually cylindrical, but more four sides. I don't recall seeing that shape in old Bordeaux bottles previously, but have in old Rioja. Cork was soaked through and a rather long cork too. Would have been a nightmare without a Durand to extract it.

Onto the wine. Seems in good condition. Nose is slightly muted after decanting. Notes of leather, graphite, dried red berries. In the mouth there's still the remains of powdery tannins and medium acid. Sweet fruit and finishes long. Certainly on the downward slopes but still a really enjoyable wine. Alcohol is not stated on the bottle, but I'd guess at 13%.

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I had this really lovely Pinot last night from a tiny cellar door in the Tamar - I am going to get more to put away for a few years

Edit: I tried to upload a photo straight from my phone but it is to big, now I can't find a way to select thumbnail, it just tries to load it full size and fails :mad:
 
I had this really lovely Pinot last night from a tiny cellar door in the Tamar - I am going to get more to put away for a few years

Edit: I tried to upload a photo straight from my phone but it is to big, now I can't find a way to select thumbnail, it just tries to load it full size and fails :mad:

Now trying to quote and add a photo and it still doesn't give the option of a thumbnail
 
IMG_5454.JPG Bought these at a Halliday wine tasting event in Melbourne some 6 years ago. Opened one 3 months later and poured it down the sink, tannic, green, undrinkable . Now some 7 years after release, it is a superb wine, even though it's still a Merlot.
 
I had this really lovely Pinot last night from a tiny cellar door in the Tamar - I am going to get more to put away for a few years

Edit: I tried to upload a photo straight from my phone but it is to big, now I can't find a way to select thumbnail, it just tries to load it full size and fails :mad:
So which cellar door Steady?I will be working in Launceston in 2 weeks.
 
So which cellar door Steady?I will be working in Launceston in 2 weeks.
Wines for Joanie, the CD is tiny and they don't have many wines in their range but their Pinot floats my boat :)

Wines for Joanie
163 Glendale Road,
Sidmouth 7270

There are a dozen or more in the area, you drive past swinging gate vineyard to get to WfJ, swinging gate is good but wasn't quite my thing, but I see it gets some good reviews, Liora Vines and Moore's Hill are others in the immediate area I rated. I wrote up a very short 2 part report in wine lovers musings- there was one winery (I think winterbrook) I would avoid but really they are all worth dropping into.

If you are going to Pipers River, I really liked Delamere and Janz

https://www.tamarvalleywineroute.com.au/your-trip/
 
Copy of Irvine Merlot.jpg
And finally Friday night came to pass and the Irvine Grand Merlot 2005 was duly uncorked and the contents gently blended for a brief time (sans sediment) and after a 30 minute pause a portion made its way into my waiting glass. First impressions are of soft, yielding lusciousness, a creamy mouthfeel, red fruits of many kinds wash across the palate, the nose having flagged their triumphal entry, this is a meal in a glass-dessert has arrived! Cranberries, raspberries and redcurrants anoint the senses, allspice and possibly a little stewed rhubarb round out the experience of what has been a long slow delivery, the verdict?-essence of Eton Mess captured like a Genie in a bottle and utterly delicious, cheers dears!

Post script: thanks to Rug yet again and my in-house photographer (yes, that's not a stock photo!)
 

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