WTN: Southern Hemisphere

Southern hemisphere blind tasting notes

2008 Jackson Estate Grey Ghost Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) - an instantly recognizable SB with gooseberry and notable levels of sulphur in the nose, that turned more to lime with time, and a clean representative wine. Ready now.

2007 Montes Alpha Chardonnay – this Chilean entry had more interesting things going on in the nose, and less (but not zero) sulphur. Herbal, and later with a cheesy almond overtone, and with medium length, softer with decent finish.

2003 Cullen Ephraim Clarke (Margaret River) – a Bordeaux blend of 54% Semillon and 45% SB, this had ripoe fruit in the nose, a hint of sulphur (note a consistent theme….). Sweet entry, it went a bit soft in the middle and would have been better with slightly higher acidity, but nonetheless an interesting well made wine.

2001 Plaisir de Merle Cabernet – I have been a fan of this wine since the very first vintage, but I had never experienced one with a minty element in the nose, so it threw me. It went away, but had steered me away from the Cape. The other element in the nose was oak and the wine was young and still fairtly tannic, but not bad, though probably not my favourite vintage. Must dig out my older ones to reassess them.

2001 Thelema Cabernet – this wine in older vintages has been a real favourite of mine, but I think the style may have changed and I didn’t recognize it this time. Ripe minty nose was atypical, although I do recall one other vintage in the previous decade showed a bit of this, good acidity and balance, and good length. Nice flavours and at a good place in development now.

2006 Penfolds RWT Shiraz – I guess it is OK to kill a baby as long as I am there to partake…. A crème brulée nose, ripe and spicy, lots of body, lots of tannin, and a chalky mouth feel. Needs (much) more time.

2000 Cono Sur 20 Barrel Merlot – corked but still decent fruit and a fair bit if tannin. Too bad, might have been good.

1997 Finca Flichman Dedicado – an Argentine blend of cab, merlot, Malbec and syrah. Good nose with smoke, tar and blackberry, smooth and balanced with good length. ready now. Pretty international in style and hard to peg.

2001 Saxenberg Private Collection Shiraz – from Stellenbosch, this wine showed some pepper in the nose and a sort of candied wood ash thing, undifferentiated fruit in the middle and juicy acidity. Not bad.

Valdivieso Caballo Loco #7 – cocoa fruit and oak in the nose, not too hot, well structured with reasonable tannin levels. Pretty decent. Apparently done in a sort of solera method so no vintage date, being a blend of vintages.

1999 Stonyridge Larose (Cabernet, Waiheke Island) – Hadn’t tasted this hard to find New Zealand wine before. A simple sweet fruit nose, some green, mellow and fairly soft and ready, very much in the Bordeaux idiom.

Rutherglen Estate Muscat – frankly, I think this sort of sticky would be better poured over ice cream than drunk. Browning colour, ripe figgy nose, very, very sweet and as it lacked sufficient acidity to balance it, cloyingly so.

2003 De Bertoli Noble One Botrytis Semillon – seemed more like a late harvest Riesling than a Semillon as it had some elements suggesting the former in the nose. Yellow wine, sweet but also balanced with a fair bit of caramel. Skirts being too sweet.

Bill, in May 2009 a vertical tasting of 12 Stonyridge Larose was held here in Auckland, organized by one of the members of the AusWine forum. We had vintages from 1989 to 2007. Tasting note are on Sue's Wineoftheweek.com pages. It was agreed by all that it was the best vertical tasting that anyone had attended.

Of the 12 wines the 1999 was the second favorite, behind the 2005, on a vote from those present.

Thanks for the notes.

2003 Cullen Ephraim Clarke (Margaret River) – a Bordeaux blend of 54% Semillon and 45% SB, this had ripoe fruit in the nose, a hint of sulphur (note a consistent theme….). Sweet entry, it went a bit soft in the middle and would have been better with slightly higher acidity, but nonetheless an interesting well made wine.

Interesting. I find the same consistent sulphur character with many Cullen whites, though I suspect it is their due to their reductive nature (disulphides) rather than SO2.

Rutherglen Estate Muscat – frankly, I think this sort of sticky would be better poured over ice cream than drunk. Browning colour, ripe figgy nose, very, very sweet and as it lacked sufficient acidity to balance it, cloyingly so.

That is the style I guess. But a Stanton & Killeen (or Campbells or Morris) might go down better than Rutherglen Estate.

2003 De Bertoli Noble One Botrytis Semillon – seemed more like a late harvest Riesling than a Semillon as it had some elements suggesting the former in the nose. Yellow wine, sweet but also balanced with a fair bit of caramel. Skirts being too sweet.

I tend to think De Bortoli's Noble One is overrated. I don't see it as more like late harvest Riesling, but I do see it as almost too sweet for its own good (don't recall the 2003 though). I actually think Aussie sticky (sweet) Rieslings are significantly underrated relative to the Semillons.

[Jenise]

Bill, in May 2009 a vertical tasting of 12 Stonyridge Larose was held here in Auckland, organized by one of the members of the AusWine forum. We had vintages from 1989 to 2007. Tasting note are on Sue's Wineoftheweek.com pages. It was agreed by all that it was the best vertical tasting that anyone had attended.

Of the 12 wines the 1999 was the second favorite, behind the 2005, on a vote from those present.

Neil, this was my bottle, and it was Sue's comprehensive tasting note on that event that sent me looking for Stonyridge Larose such that I found, and purchased, a stash of five bottles of the 99 in California. The bottle Bill reports on (and I'll follow up tomorrow) is the first I opened.

[Jenise]

My notes:

2008 Jackson Estate Grey Ghost Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) - Swampy sulfur nose, major gooseberry, some grapefruit, lime peel and an oily coconut thing develops on the finish. Quite tasty; would send David Bueker running for higher ground, though.

2007 Montes Alpha Chardonnay – pale yellow color. Leesy, washed-rind cheese nose suggests chardonnay right off the bat, a tiny bit smoky, sweeter than the first wine, bitter almond on the finish. When unveiled I'm surprised it's the MA, as previous versions I've had were riper, blowsier than this.

2003 Cullen Ephraim Clarke (Margaret River) – sweet apple fruit, green turkish figs, sandalwood. Kind of haunting. Interestingly, none of the woolly, lanolin notes to give the semillon away. I liked it, kept going back to it and finding more to enjoy about it. Impressive for its age.

2001 Plaisir de Merle Cabernet – Very open with jammy, California-like ripeness and mellow tannins. Very good.

2001 Thelema Cabernet – (my wine). The camphor-like element that plagued earlier bottles and relative awkwardness is gone--I guess the wine just wasn't ready to be drunk until now, as it's so much more impressive than I expected. More traditional, an interesting comparison to the Plaisir, and much more to my liking. Excellent. Kudos to Les who said "the only wine in South Africa that could be this good would be Thelema."

2006 Penfolds RWT Shiraz – obviously young but very very good. I love the RWTs.

2000 Cono Sur 20 Barrel Merlot – Really sad that this one was corked as it was a dense wine of admirable concentration and complexity--never had anything from So America like it.

1997 Finca Flichman Dedicado – words like "non-descript" and "international" were immediately bandied about. I think that came in large part from the curious blend of grapes and the dulling fog created by the syrah element. Astonishingly youthful for its age.

2001 Saxenberg Private Collection Shiraz – Big alcohol, ash. Cherries and sour milk suggest syrah, but there's a vegetal quality here too and the ash thing (not uncommon in So African reds) is omnipresent and very distasteful to me. Hated it, sorry. (And I've owned Saxenbergs myself in the past--nothing's changed.)

Valdivieso Caballo Loco #7 – Full and complex, an excellent wine.

1999 Stonyridge Larose (Cabernet, Waiheke Island) – My wine. Strangely I took no notes on it. But I don't disagree with your take on it, Bill. Very complex Bordeaux-ish, traditional nose, but a bit simpler on the palate. I wonder if more decanting would have brought it around, or if it's in a bit of a slump at present. Another bottle in a few months could show better.

Rutherglen Estate Muscat – What you said.

2003 De Bertoli Noble One Botrytis Semillon – I guessed this one. Figs, dates, banana, very ripe pear, fine acids, madeira-like. Rich but so much livelier than the Muscat. Excellent.