WTN: Capital Taster's Wine Dinner #9

This month's wine master was redstuff who delighted the group with some terrific wine as well as two shockers at a restaurant I thought was ok -> good. Red's partner Lindsay was able to make it down from Brisvegas to join us. Always great to have the full compliment along to these fun-packed nights!

First wine served was the most compelling Pol Roger Vintage 1996 - a wine that is virtually at its apogee, darkening in colour, pinhead sized beading and chock-a-block with most attractive complex yeasty bread character, a lovely touch of lees-inspired vegemite with hints of toasted grain and a melange of mellowing aged but quite gorgeous integrated secondary flavour. This sparkler improved with every moment in the glass offering a invigorating mouth feel followed by a most outstanding finish of gritty intensity and sustained pleasure. I awarded this ripsnorter 93 points. If you have any, drink it over the next several years.

Next up was a most unusual bottle of 1998 Leo Buring Special Reserve Eden Valley Riesling. From a cork-sealed closure, this browny/gold-coloured white revealed a peculiar nose of oily honeysuckle with a hint of ginger and toast and an even more unusual truncated palate that, to my taste, was neither here or there. Compartmentalised and stripped of most of what made this a quite lovely wine earlier in its life, I had difficulty awarding 80 points here. Drinkable, yes, but almost impossible to enjoy.(Later in the evening we deducted this was a deliberate act of skulduggery by Brett to lure us into a state of severe disappointment so as his next offering could be savoured with substantially increased vehemence! Nice ploy, red, but we'll be awake to your treachery if you try this again!)

The second white was my WOTN and rates as one of the best unoaked Hunter semillon's I have had the pleasure of trying. Tyrrell's 1992 Vat 1 displayed an advancing bright yellow gold colour, inspiring and magnificently melded aromatics of lemon toast, nuts, lanolin, with a little herbal/soapy twist thrown in for good measure. The palate equally stunning, reveling in its full rounded flavours with admirable balancing crisp acidity and a finish to die for. Words cannot do this beverage justice. 95 points from this happy taster! Thanks ever so much for sourcing this cracker, red.

Seppelt Dorrien Cabernet Sauvignon 1994 - corked and oxidised (another part of Brett's master plan ) 50

Seppelt St. Peters Shiraz 1998 - very luscious and impressive, improved in the glass as the evening wore on. Riddled with pyroxene at first which dissipated over much time to reveal a still dense youthful ruby-coloured wine, with an amazing "sweet" perfume of dark berries, plums, chocolate over very classy newish "biscuity" French oak. Unlike the many bottles of this I've tried over the last decade this was open for business from the word go, with relatively soft tannins and subdued acid. With extended time in the glass this wine received more and more accolades from around the table as it's lavish plushness gave way to a classier, more structured wine that just got better and better. 93

Meerea Park Alexander Munro Shiraz 1998 - savoury, quite youthful with a very European structure, yet to fully resolve but got better and better as it sat in the glass. This was a great foil to the St. Peters offering up a more developed brick red colour, almost gamy/leathery/cherry-fruited nose and palate but with a firm under structure of grippy tannins and surprisingly lively acidity. Definitely a keeper, this terrific example of Hunter Shiraz will deliver superior drinking over the next ten years. 92

Kuentz-Bas SDGN Cuvee Jeremy Tokay-Pinot Gris 1989 - luscious and, typically for this style, unusually scented and flavoured but most admirable as dessert-styled nectar. Top pinot gris from the better Alsace producer's (like Trimbach, Hugel and Zind Humbrecht) can deliver stunning exotic examples and this wine had it in spades. Although quite deeply coloured with a pinkish/brownish tinge, this sticky reeked of an unusual tropical fruit (perhaps something approaching paw paw?) with overripe green melons, was honeyed and very rich but with impressive delineation with underpinning of apricot marmalade (read botrytis). The acid cut on the palate was first rate and kept the wine focused and in keeping with the style of these remarkable Alsace wines. I enjoyed it very much indeed today but I feel this should be consumed in the relative short term. 92 points

Thanks Brett for sourcing some memorable wines.

Nice lineup David, and good to read your notes as always. The Pol Roger and the Seppelt St. Peters sound quite delicious (and I'm wondering when to open my bottle of the '00 St. Peters Shiraz). Shame about the Buring, was that wine oxidative at all due to the cork?

Nice lineup David, and good to read your notes as always. The Pol Roger and the Seppelt St. Peters sound quite delicious (and I'm wondering when to open my bottle of the '00 St. Peters Shiraz). Shame about the Buring, was that wine oxidative at all due to the cork?

More than likely. I believe storage had been first class since release. The wine, for whatever reason/s, has definitely failed in the last few years.