Two Oz Regions

Wanted to try two different Regions of similar varietal juice. Expected something different than what I got, but enjoyed the findings anyway. I believe people look at the '04 vintage as very good. I believe it to be the best since '98. However, I believe it's better with Cabs than Shiraz.

The wines:

Limb Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, Barossa, "Patterson Hill", '04
(The wine has been open for roughly one hour. ) Bright cherry fruit with some coffee and glycerin on the nose. The palate has great red fruit; The acid balance is right on; A slight green streak adds complexity. The finish is quite long and pleasant. Great example of an '04 Cab from the Barossa. Very good wine.

Houghton, Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River, '04
(first tasted after only twenty minutes of being open)
Nose is still hiding a bit. But some good fruit is here along with some spices (cinnamon mostly). The palate is showing great red fruit; will let this open a bit more -- I believe the blance will shine soon.

(Now after 1.5 hours)
Nose is still a touch hidden with a bit of black pepper over red cherries and a touch of eucalyptus. The palate, however, is screaming with unbelievable balanced fruit. This wine is both elegant and powerful at the same time.

Not often I open two wines in a night and both rock.

mark

(On 2 boards)

[Jenise]

Wanted to try two different Regions of similar varietal juice. Expected something different than what I got, but enjoyed the findings anyway. I believe people look at the '04 vintage as very good. I believe it to be the best since '98. However, I believe it's better with Cabs than Shiraz.

Though the wine press is very guilty of making sweeping generalizations about vintage, but I'd caution you against buying into that too heavily. Just consider the size of Oz, for one, where the wine growing regions are as far apart and different as, say, Baltimore and El Paso. For instance, though 98 is widely heralded as a great Australian vintage, the 98s in the hot climate Barossa were too ripe for some of us, and in the Margaret River 99 was considered a better vintage than 98. I think the one generalization that IS fair to Australia is that their climate is so temperate and consistent that there is almost no such thing as a bad vintage.

That out of the way, I've had the Houghton and you captured it very well. I think the spice you found, plus the combination of power and elegance is what makes the Margaret River wines so exceptional.

I think the one generalization that IS fair to Australia is that their climate is so temperate and consistent that there is almost no such thing as a bad vintage.

There are just some that are less good than others...

Actually Jenise, what you've said is not quite true. Take this year for example. During the harvest period in South Australia there were two weeks where the day time temperature was consistently above 35C (95 Farenheit). Any grapes taken in before that time have made very good wines I hear, but as there was a highly compressed ripening period this initial intake filled up many wineries. This led to many people adopting quick turn around times on reds (4 days on skins instead of 10 or longer) in an effort to get the fruit as quickly as possible. Sun-burn and raisining were serious problems, let alone the issues they were having with sky-rocketing sugar levels with fruit still on the vine.

First vintage I've missed in Oz in 4 years; and I think I picked the right one to duck out of!

http://www.winebiz.com.au carries very good region-by-region vintage information for Australia.

[Jenise]

Actually Jenise, what you've said is not quite true. Take this year for example. During the harvest period in South Australia there were two weeks.... First vintage I've missed in Oz in 4 years; and I think I picked the right one to duck out of!

Actually, I think you make my point more than you refute it, Nayan, which was that you can't paint all of Australia with one brush. And I didn't say that there were never issues, but would you not agree that by and large most of Australia is spared the year-to-year wide swings that plague Europe, for example?

Rereading my post, my initial point was to just compare the two regions in the same year. I also thought I was comparing like quality but clearly the Houghton was just better wine...... But a couple of bottles later and I went off topic.

The only vintage I can think of that was pretty much crap all around was '00. More so in South Australia than West.

And you're right. The country is so big with many different climates and micro-climates. Two favorite areas (Yarra and Kangaroo Island) are cooler climate.

I can't help but like the hot Barossa climate though. Those wines are just loaded with flavor. Love it. I also realize it's not for everyone. To that, I thank everyone for making a little more available. I see a lot of higher acid TNs here.

mark

Australia's wine regions certainly cannot be lumped together because the differences are so large, resulting in quite distinctive wines. You only have to compare Shiraz from the Barossa (SA) versus Mornington Pen (Vic) versus Hunter Valley (NSW).

While generalizations are never perfect I agree with Halliday's vintage charts for the Barossa in that 1999, 2000, 2003 and 2005 were not the best years but 1998, 2002, 2004 and 2006 are quite a bit better with 2002 being the best for me; some of the best young Shiraz I've had have been 2002 Barossa wines.But others like Gary Walsh of Winorama don't see 2002 as a great year. Based on my experience I'd rate 2001 less than Halliday. But the caveat there is that my experince is (mainly) limited to those wines we see here in the US while Halliday looks at pretty close to everything; so I still look for good 2001's.

The other thing which is interesting, and surprises me a little, is that if you look at how Halliday rates other regions you find that Mornington Pen rates 7-10/10 for the quality of vintages from 1997 to 2006 for both red and white wines. We see very few Mornington Pen wines here, and my only close encounter was a visit in late 2005. Wine has been made there since the 1860's but the modern era for wine there has really only been since the 1970's, and esp. the 1980's. This is a cool climate region where the most successful varieties are Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Shiraz has been successful in the warmer areas, but Cabernet has fallen from favor and Pinot Gris is thought to have a future there. In other words Mornington Pen is still trying to find its way as a wine making area. Given the difficulties in making wine from some of the varieties (Shiraz and esp. Cab) you might expect changing vintage conditons to affect the quality of the wine produced more so than the Barossa but Halliday rates the Barossa over the same period as 4-10/10 for red and 5-8/10 for white. I believe that some years in Mornington have not been adequate to ripen all varieties (but I can't find that info). I wonder if Halliday considers that when he draws up his vintage charts!

Mike

EDIT: For those interested here are the vintage notes for Kooyong - a top Mornington producer. Note the comments for 2002, a year that Halliday rates quite highly. To see how variable yields can be in Mornington check out page 4 of the newsletter by Ten Minutes by Tractor, another Mornington producer.

For another take on vintage conditions over the years in Oz here is the one from the auction house Langton's.