[ Forthcoming tastings are titled in red, in approaching date order.
Past tastings below the double-rule, in past date order. ]
1982 CALIFORNIAN ...
Time: Thursday 23 November, 2023, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $240 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events (scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the Booking Conditions.
Places: 21 places. If Sold Out, please use the Wait-List, via the above email address. Really important ... there are always cancellations.
Booking Conditions: Please note there will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice.
21 years on: 1982 Bordeaux, 1982 Coleraine, 1982 Californian ...
Background: The 1982 vintage in Bordeaux is one of the great post-war vintages. In a warming world now, we tend to forget just how many vintages in the 1960s and ‘70s and even the ‘80s were pleasant enough, but not exciting. And some were modest in the extreme. Thus to taste the 1982s today allows us to time-travel … and catch a glimpse of previous now-near-mythical vintages such as 1929 and 1945, and naturally, the great 1961 vintage. Whereas now in the 2010s onwards … so many years are achieving the ripeness of 1982, that that excitement factor of those earlier times is in danger of being lost. Thus it is reassuring to read in a Farr Vintners (now the leading United Kingdom bordeaux merchant) 1982 Bordeaux article (Feb. 2022) that: “… 1982 remains a great vintage”.
At the time, the better-travelled wine commentators of the era described the 1982 Bordeaux as ‘the Californian vintage’ in Bordeaux. And it is worth recalling too, that the 1982 vintage in Bordeaux was the year that established the reputation of Robert Parker as a highly-competent wine critic ... who further, wrote as if he was on the side of the consumer, not the wine producer. Thus it is only appropriate that we include a 1982 Californian wine in our 12 samples.
In the New Zealand context, the other notable thing about the 1982 vintage is that it marked the creation of Te Mata Estate’s first vintage of their flagship Cabernet / Merlot wine Coleraine … now New Zealand’s most famous wine. We have an immaculately-cellared Wellington bottle (and spare) of this wine, so tasters are pretty-well assured of tasting a good example of it. Further, Te Mata winemaker (but not at the time) Phil Brodie will be attending the tasting, to illuminate it further. Given that it was a first vintage, and given the long history of Bordeaux wine-making, I have included a cru bourgeois in our selection, to better facilitate comparison.
This tasting also offers the rewarding opportunity to study wines reflecting pretty well the full range of cépages in Bordeaux. They span a likely 100% cabernet sauvignon (if the Californian sample is OK) and 94% for Coleraine, through roughly 50/50 wines like La Lagune and (surprisingly) La Conseillante, to the 90% merlot and no cabernet sauvignon at all in Ch Trotanoy. 1982 Ch Trotanoy is regarded as a great vintage for this chateau.
Two admin matters ... the price: The value of quality wine at auction in New Zealand has soared in the last three years. In the last 24 months, 1982 Te Mata Coleraine has been offered at Webb's Auckland 6 times only, with many bottles in less good condition (ullage) than our Wellington bottles ... yet the winning bids have averaged $443 per bottle. Well-regarded 1982 Bordeaux is (naturally) also sought-after. Thus the bottles offered in this tasting have a tangible and realisable value. Further, for wines of this age, carefully-cellared Wellington bottles are now amongst the best-preserved in the country … until the time temperature-controlled cellars became frequent. The offering: this is the last time I can offer a reasonable cross-section of 1982s, complete with a Californian reference.
Wines in this tasting:
There are ‘reserve’ wines … but depending on corks the first choice for our wines will be:
Bordeaux:
1982 Domaine de Chevalier, Pessac-Léognan = Graves
1982 Ch la Conseillante, Pomerol (highly-regarded)
1982 Ch Cos d’Estournel, Second-Growth Saint-Estephe
1982 Ch Grandis, Cru Bourgeois Haut-Medoc
1982 Ch Gruaud-Larose, Second-Growth Saint Julien
1982 Ch La Lagune, Third-Growth Haut-Medoc (Margaux)
1983 Ch Margaux, First Growth, Margaux
1982 Ch Montrose, Second-Growth Saint-Estephe
1982 Ch Pavie, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru (highly-regarded)
1982 Ch Trotanoy, Pomerol (highly-regarded)
California:
1982 Iron Horse Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley (magnum)
New Zealand:
1982 Te Mata Cabernet / Merlot Coleraine, Hawkes Bay
[[ Postscript: for the tasting, Ch Talbot was substituted for Domaine de Chevalier. ]]
Time: Thursday 24 November, 2022, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $135 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events (scroll down) primarily; or
phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the Booking Conditions.
Places: 21 places. If Sold Out, please use the Wait-List, via the above email address. Really important ... there are always cancellations.
Booking Conditions: Please note there will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice.
The 2001 vintage in Sauternes continues to be highly regarded: Michael Broadbent: “Buy, keep, and savour – unquestionably a great vintage, in a similar league to 1971, *****. The leading chateaux … will be at their best between fifteen and twenty-five years of age …”; Wine Spectator: “magnificent”, 97.
Our previous 2001 Sauternes Library Tasting was offered in July 2014. For those who plan to attend both tastings, the logic for the present offering is four-fold.
# Repeat the highest-rated (d'Yquem) and lowest-rated (Doisy-Daene) wines, to span the field;
# include all 2001s held but not tasted last time, so we have a feel for many of the (better) 2001
Sauternes offered / sold in New Zealand;
# repeat a couple which seemed forward or maybe not representative last time, in the hope this
bottle will be better;
# and for amusement's sake, include some of the name-couplings, for those who have idly
wondered what taste-relationship these similarly-named chateaux display.
The wines offered now are therefore not quite such a stellar summation of the elite among Sauternes chateaux as last time, but the current 12 still have much appeal. Quite apart from which, any formal sauternes tasting including Ch d'Yquem … let alone 2001 d'Yquem which is still considered ‘legendary’ … is a special occasion. Consider Neal Martin's assessment last year:
“Just weeks after tasting the 2001 Château d’Yquem at the estate, another bottle was served at a lunch in London and it was perfection. The aromatics are practically identical and likewise the palate, but this bottle, which had been decanted, displays a scintilla more tension, perhaps more "vibrancy" that so effortlessly counterbalances the richness. Irrespective of points, it is simply one of the most magnificent wines of any kind that can pass your lips, 100 points.”
As a seasonal gesture, the tasting is offered at the same price as the 2014 edition.
The ranking of the 2001 vintage has changed a little latterly, with global warming influencing the climate in Sauternes. There have been a number of good vintages since 2001, though it remains to be seen if they have the acid balance (so critical to longevity) of earlier, cooler times. For our last tasting, 2001 was rated as pretty well as good as any Sauternes vintage since the War. We now have the maybe equally good 2011, 2014, and 2021 vintages to consider.
While Wine Spectator yet again provides the most insightful and convincing rating of recent vintages, assessing Sauternes vintages does seem to be more a British habit. And of course they have the legacy of the inimitable Michael Broadbent, to provide depth and perspective. If it comes together, I may for interest (and novelty) provide a tabulation of earlier and recent assessments in the handout, though some lack numbers, so a rating will have to be inferred.
To offer some perspective and info for contemplation about this tasting, here is a comment I made after a first tasting of the 2001s in 2006:
“The only disappointment about the wines was the relatively advanced condition of a number of them. Since they were imported in temperature-controlled containers, that is not the issue. More I am thinking that the colour development we now see in young sauternes is a function of the flow-back of technology from the New World to the Old, in the last 15 years notably. When I cast my mind back to what young sauternes looked like in the 60s and 70s, free and total sulphurs were much higher then they are today. And techniques such as barrel fermentation were scarcely thought of. It is reasonable to expect today's sweet wines will not stay youthful in cellar for as long as those of yesteryear. Some of these already look and taste like 20-year-old wines. How they will cellar remains to be seen.”
With the wines we tasted last time tagged below, this year’s 2001 Sauternes Tasting will be along the lines:
2001 Ch Broustet, Barsac Deuxieme Cru
2001 Ch Clos Haut-Peyraguey, Sauternes Premier Cru (also 2014)
2001 Ch Doisy-Daene, Barsac Deuxieme Cru (also 2014)
2001 Ch Doisy-Vedrines, Barsac Deuxieme Cru (2 x 375 ml)
2001 Ch Guiraud, Sauternes Premier Cru (also 2014)
2001 Ch Lafaurie-Peyraguey, Sauternes Premier Cru (also 2014)
2001 Ch Lamothe, Sauternes Deuxieme Cru
2001 Ch Lamothe-Guignard, Sauternes Deuxieme Cru (2 x 375 ml)
2001 Ch Nairac, Barsac Deuxieme Cru
2001 Ch Rabaud Promis, Sauternes Premier Cru (also 2014)
2001 Ch Suduiraut, Sauternes Premier Cru (also 2014)
2001 Ch d’Yquem, Sauternes Premier Cru Supérieur (also 2014)
RESERVE WINES
2001 Ch de Malle, Sauternes Deuxieme Cru (also 2014)
2001 Ch Coutet, Barsac Premier Cru (also 2014)
Time: Thursday 20 October, 2022, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $125 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events (scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the Booking Conditions.
Places: 21 places. If Sold Out, please use the Wait-List. There are always cancellations.
Booking Conditions: Please note there will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice ... unless your place is filled.
Those who were lucky enough to share in our 1999 Chateauneuf and Gigondas Library Tasting 28 March 2019 will have mentioned just how magnificent these Southern Rhone winestyles are at 20 years of age. Clearly to continue that trend we ‘should’ have had these last year … 20 years on … but I hope we can tolerate 21 years instead ?
In writing up the 1999 Tasting, I referred to it as a “magical tasting”, and that: “Tasters commented particularly on the volume of bouquet the wines showed, the way the wines just jumped out of the glass, and spoke to you. The freshness and fragrance of many of the wines, at 20 years of age, appealed widely … as did the thought of having them with appropriate meals.”
Initially I thought this might be because 1999 was thought to be a somewhat lighter year, and maybe the alcohols were just that critical bit less, adding to the enjoyment. But in totting up the 12 wines we had in 2019, compared with our hoped-for 2001s, the 1999s averaged 14.13% … and the 2001s 14.04%. Noting two decimals places is of course a nonsense, given the French are so cavalier about stating exact alcohols, but I am just highlighting how close they are in stated ripeness / alcohol.
In general, 2001 is regarded as a pretty exciting year in the Southern Rhone Valley. Michael Broadbent notes a warm August, but then in September a cold strong Mistral, serving to concentrate and freshen the wines in the South. He rates the year up to 4 stars for reds, one star below 1999. Conversely, Wine Spectator for the Southern Rhone Valley rates 1999 at 90 points, and 2001 at 94, describing 2001 as a: “Great vintage of racy, structured reds in Chateauneuf-du-Pape that have continued to put on weight as they evolve. Best are just starting to open up now.” John Livingstone-Learmonth (the Rhone authority) is not quite so keen, noting some incomplete ripening of stalk and seed tannins, but … “a vintage that rewarded the diligent.”.
As to the wines, most of the ‘famous’ names are in the set, apart from the too-fashionable Rayas. We do lack Vieux Telegraphe. However, the increasingly-sought-after (and expensive) Mordorée Chateauneuf-du-Pape is there, along with Beaucastel and Clos des Papes. We also have the rare La Reserve wine from Le Clos du Caillou, valued at $500-plus. And who among us has not wondered how Brunel’s Les Cailloux Chateauneuf-du-Pape tastes, alongside Clos du Caillou. Or how a Chateauneuf or Gigondas would taste with and without new oak. The two Saint Cosme wines will answer that question, if corks allow. This tasting offers all these things, plus casting some light on the intriguing remark from Jean-Christophe Poizat (of Maison Vauron) when he was down a couple of weeks ago ... that he prefers Gigondas less than eight years old. All the more reason to check a couple at 21.
Pricing: those who follow wine auction prices in New Zealand will have noticed that in the last two years, price realisations for older vintages of many wines have near-doubled. Te Mata Estate Coleraine is a conspicuous example. I have to take some note of that. Likewise, premium Chateauneufs are creeping up in release price, eg Clos des Papes is now $160 and Ch de Beaucastel $180 for the 2016 and $214 for the 2020, all at RWS. Both are in this tasting. The valuation of our wines on the absolute reference site Wine-Searcher gives a per head cost for this Library Tasting of over $200. I hope therefore you will consider the offer price of $125 per head reasonable.
CHATEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE
2001 Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape, 13.5%
2001 Domaine Bois de Boursan Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée des Felix, 13.5%
2001 Vignobles Lucien & André Brunel Les Cailloux Chateauneuf-du-Pape, 14%
2001 Domaine Charvin Chateauneuf-du-Pape Non Filtré, 14.5%
2001 Paul Avril Clos des Papes Chateauneuf-du-Pape, 14%
2001 Vacheron-Pouizin Le Clos du Caillou Chateauneuf-du-Pape Reserve Non Filtré, 14.5%
2001 Domaine de la Janasse Chateauneuf-du-Pape Chaupin, 14.5%
2001 Domaine de la Mordorée Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de la Reine des Bois, 14.5%
2001 Domaine des Sénéchaux Chateauneuf-du-Pape, 14%
2001 Domaine Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape, 13.5%
GIGONDAS:
2001 Louis Barruol Chateau de Saint-Cosme Gigondas, 14%
2001 Louis Barruol Chateau de Saint-Cosme Gigondas Valbelle, 14%
Reserve Wines:
2001 Domaine de Beaurenard Chateauneuf-du-Pape Boisrenard, 14%
2001 E. Guigal Chateauneuf-du-Pape 13.5%
2001 Domaine la Bouissiere Gigondas, 14.5%
2001 Domaine des Espiers Gigondas Cuvée Tradition, 14%
Pt 1 – 26 AUGUST 2021
Time: POSTPONED due to Covid, date to be advised.
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $125 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events(scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the Booking Conditions.
Places: 21 places. If Sold Out, please use the Wait-List. There are always cancellations.
Booking Conditions: Please note there will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice ... unless your place is filled.
We need to start this Library Tasting Invitation with a caveat. Essentially there are two kinds of wine tasters: virtue seekers, and fault finders. And for this tasting we very much want the former. In the simplest terms, we don’t need to be told that the wines would have been better X years before. In the same way one does not discard older people, the goal for this tasting is to seek out the earlier beauty and strengths of these wines … as applicable. Some of the labels to be offered, we simply do not see in wine-shops any longer, in New Zealand. That particularly applies to the Selections of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, based at Clos de Vougeot.
And besides, corks willing, this is an opportunity to taste examples … only modest labels … of now near-mythical Burgundy vintages such as 1978, 1971 and 1969. Don’t worry: you won't get defective wine. Just old and maybe frail wines. I have taken out about 20 bottles … so there are plenty of spares.
The exciting thing is, there are some good addresses in the line-up, one or two grands crus, but not all the growers are so well-known today. There will be the opportunity to taste old Leroy Cote de Beaune … wines now so rare and expensive that though there is a New Zealand Importer, actual wines are very rarely offered … and lately only at the level of Bourgogne, in New Zealand. Please note: no Leroy Domaine wines, just Leroy as Negociant. Also only fair to note, Leroy then was not the firm it is now. And no Cote de Nuits from Leroy … in fact the whole Tasting is (regrettably) a bit too centred round the Cote de Beaune. I don't think I am the only one who believes that the most exciting burgundies come from the Cote de Nuits. Ah well … it is not every day that one has the chance to taste 50-year-old burgundy.
As you can imagine, pricing this tasting is near-impossible. The wines have been in near-ideal Wellington cellar conditions since original at-release purchase, but the labels are not the greatest wines for longevity – and are likely to be frail. Corks willing, here’s an indication of the wine-list. See what you think:
1966 Chateau Masson Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Pruliers Premier Cru: a Selection of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, then brokered by Maison Drouhin … original price $5.40 … at the time 24% more expensive than 1966 Ch Montrose.
1966 Domaine Paul-Yves Masson Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru: a Selection of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, then brokered by Maison Drouhin … original price $5.40 … as above.
1967 Vosne-Romanee: Selection Charles Kinloch, London
1969 Domaine du Clos Frantin Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru:
1969 Maison Joseph Drouhin Chassagne-Montrachet:
1970 Maison Louis Jadot Beaune-Boucherottes Premier Cru: original price $9.90
1971 Domaine Gouroux Echezeaux Grand Cru:
1972 Domaine Hippolyte Thevenot Corton Grand Cru:
1976 Maison Leroy as Negociant Auxey-Duresses:
1976 Maison Leroy as Negociant Beaune-Greves Premier Cru:
1976 Maison Leroy as Negociant Corton Grand Cru:
1978 Maison Drouhin Gevrey-Chambertin: original price $9.90
Reserve Wines:
1978 Maison Drouhin Clos des Mouches Premier Cru: original price $28.50
1976 Maison Chanson Pere & Fils Charmes-Chambertin Premier Cru: original price $36.44
1972 Maison Joseph Drouhin Beaune: a Selection of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, then brokered by Maison Drouhin … original price $14.10
1971 Alexis Lichine (Negociant) Nuits-Saint-Georges:
Time: Thursday 22 July, 2021, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $195 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events(scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the Booking Conditions.
Places: 21 places. If Sold Out, please use the Wait-List. There are always cancellations.
Booking Conditions: Please note there will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice ... unless your place is filled.
Hugh Johnson, 1966: For Montrose I have a special weakness. … it is one of the distinguishing marks of the wines that deserve to be called great that they impress you with a personality …
Alexis Lichine, 1982: The wines of Montrose are less inviting in their youth, but are renowned for the great class and vinosity they take on with years of bottle-aging.
What change we have seen surrounding Ch Montrose, and the wines of St Estephe generally, in the last 50 years. St Estephe being the northernmost of the famous Medoc addresses, it is also the coolest. In 1967 Andre Simon wrote: “Perhaps St Estephe, at the northern end of the Medoc, needs really ripe years to produce wines of top quality – then they can have richness, class and style, with a bouquet of great definition when mature.” Penning-Rowsell in 1969 gives the cepage in the postwar years as CS 70%, Me 15, CF 10, Pv 5. Such a high percentage of cabernet, which apart from petit verdot is the hardest of the main four to ripen, adds weight to that thought.
Speaking of Ch Montrose alone, David Peppercorn was able to write in 1982, that by virtue of having been owned by the Charmolue family since 1896: “This is probably the most traditionally-made wine among the classified growths, and the comparison with Latour does not end there. Here, there is also a high proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon; the wine is usually hard and tannic to start with and takes a long time to come round.” In 1991 Robert Parker in his defining book Bordeaux noted that as a consequence of that earlier reputation, there was a distinct lightening and softening of style from the mid-1970s through into the 1980s, with more merlot used in the blend. He also records that this was not well-received by Ch Montrose enthusiasts, and: “Since 1986, Ch Montrose appears to be returning to a more forceful, muscular style, reminiscent of pre-1975 vintages. Certainly the 1989 and 1990 vintages for Montrose produced true blockbuster wines not seen from this property since 1959.”
In Parker’s revised 2003 Edition of this marvellous book, he writes: “Since 1989, Montrose has been the most reliable St Estephe cru classé.” Naturally, that is debatable, Cos always having its protagonists. The cepage at Ch Montrose by then was more CS 65%, Me 25, CF 8, PV 2, and apart from seasonal variation has not changed much since then. And now, global warming has meant the wines of St Estephe in general, and Ch Montrose in particular, have become better and better. This trend was much reinforced by the introduction of a second wine, La Dame de Montrose, in 1984. An indication of this trend is the current en primeur campaign, where at a time when the Bordelais are trying to restrain wine prices after the folly of the 2010 vintage en primeur campaign, many wines have been released at little more than the exceptionally attractive 2019 prices. Ch Montrose however has increased 24.5%.
Also, after so many years at the helm, the Charmolue family sold Ch Montrose to the Bouygues business family in 2006. Since then there has been considerable investment, both in personnel and equipment. The cellar is no longer so traditional. The lift in quality has been dramatic, with today only 40% of the production being bottled as the grand vin … some 15,000 cases. In 1982 there were nearly 30,000 cases. This is another reason for Ch Montrose becoming considerably more expensive. Currently the trend is to organic and biodynamic viticulture.
This Library Tasting offers nearly all the well-regarded vintages of Ch Montrose in the 1966 to 2010 span, from the ‘classic’ English-style 1966, through to the American-styled 2009, and the definitive 2010. Only 1970 and 1989 are missing. In particular the tasting offers: the now somewhat fabled-year 1982 (though not a great year for Montrose); the ‘famous’ (for various reasons) 1990, now at $1,023 the highest-priced Ch Montrose of all on wine-searcher, and repeatedly marked 100 points by Robert Parker; and the other-worldly 2003 marked 99 by Parker, and in my view the only Ch Montrose to compare with the magisterial 1959 (the greatest Ch Montrose I have tasted). For the young ones, there is the 2009, consistently a 100-point wine from the American reviewers, maybe just a bit big for the English, and the 2010, better liked by UK reviewers, and considered by the Chateau as one of the all-time defining wines for the Estate. Please note that for the 2003, I have taken out two bottles, so you are pretty well assured of tasting this great wine.
If the corks permit, the preferred line-up will be: 1966, 1975, 1976, 1982, 1986, 1990 thanks to Alan Evans, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2010. Tasters have seen the 1978 and 1979 in recent Bordeaux tastings of those vintages. Reserve wines will be 1978, 1981, 2001. I am not aware of any tasting of Ch Montrose of this calibre ever having been offered in New Zealand.
Costing is problematic. Wine-searcher is unrealistic for NZ domestic values, being world-wide. That said, auction prices in New Zealand are remarkably firm. One fair approach seems to be to replace the 12 bottles at the current New Zealand en primeur offer price. Comment welcome.
Time: Thursday 17 June, 2021, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $55 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events(scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the Booking Conditions.
Places: 21 places. If Sold Out, please use the Wait-List. There are always cancellations.
Booking Conditions: Please note there will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice ... unless your place is filled.
Or to title more fully: The top 1987 New Zealand reds: does 1987 mark a turning point in the evolution of New Zealand Cabernet / Merlot winestyles ?
During the 1980s I was wine correspondent for National Business Review, at a time when it took a broad and liberal view of the ‘business’ world. In mid-1989 there were three articles I particularly enjoyed preparing, reviewing the quality of the 1987 New Zealand cabernet / merlot wines. In the June 16, 1989 article I commented:
"... the top 1987 wines show a considerable advance on those reviewed in my account of the 1985 wines (NBR, 26th of June 1987). The review was titled: "Ripe fruit needed for cabernets", and the point remains." For anyone interested, I have re-published these articles, available here
Thus the goal for our June Library Tasting will be to assess how the wines are faring, and to what extent those comments 32 years ago were at all well-informed and accurate … bearing in mind they had to be read against the woeful standards for most New Zealand red wine before the mid-1980s. Yes, there had been odd quality wines, Tom McDonald and Denis Kasza’s 1965 and 1969 McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon from Hawkes Bay, odd Cabernets from Alex Corban and Dudley Russell in Henderson, and the 1982 and 1983 Te Mata Coleraine, also Hawkes Bay. But more generally, the long shadow of hybrid reds still lingered, when cropping rates were bizarre by world standards, water addition was still widespread / had only recently been disallowed, and few New Zealand winemakers were at all familiar with how the quality red wines of the world in fact tasted. And of course, you were not allowed to say so.
This tasting will provide a now-rare opportunity to taste the best 1987 (or thereabouts) New Zealand Cabernet / Merlot or bordeaux blends, at 34 years of age. Yes, some may be frail, some may be either skinny or too oaky (or both), as was the norm then (and still is, to a degree) … but all will be interesting, and a couple are both rare and exciting. They will allow us to peer back into a very different world. And there will be a couple of foils, to calibrate the tasting.
It is doubtful any wine group in New Zealand could now offer this tasting … let alone with wines sourced from the ideal-for-cellaring temperate Wellington climate. It is the kind of tasting which the wine industry itself should have provided for, and be offering, particularly New Zealand WineGrowers.
As a bonne bouche to the tasting, note that the line-up will include arguably the finest bordeaux blend made in New Zealand in the 1980s, namely the Waiheke Island 1987 Stonyridge Larose. This wine is now rare. Bottles cellared in Auckland are much more advanced than those from cool Wellington cellars. There will be a reserve bottle of this rare wine, so you are pretty well guaranteed to taste it. The other wine that springs to mind as a contender for that title is 1982 Te Mata Coleraine, and naturally we will include the 1987, but 1987 was not a stand-out year for Te Mata.
1987 not being a noteworthy vintage year for most parts of the world, at this distance it is a little hard to put together 12 x 1987 wines. As calibration wines for the whole exercise, we will have a 1987 (or 1986) Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile, which should fit in well. At the time Chile seemed to offer the greatest export challenge to our cool-climate red wine styles. We will also include a 1986 cru bourgeois from the West Bank, Bordeaux. These wines should illuminate the concepts of appropriate cropping rate, and appropriate ripeness in the cabernet / merlot wine style, without too much overshadowing the NZ contingent.
Pricing: current auction realisations for older / better New Zealand wines of the calibre in this tasting have doubled in the last two years. It seems realistic therefore to price the tasting to partly reflect the value the bottles would achieve at auction. In the March Webb's (Auckland) sale, our exact 1987 Te Mata Coleraine sold for $300, to which must be added c.19% fees. It is quite a while since any Coleraine sold for under $150. Likewise in the May Webb’s sale our exact 1987 Stonyridge sold for $260. But surprising prices, meaning a few tens of dollars, are currently being paid even for modest wines like Montana Cabernet Sauvignon.
So join us for a visit to a bygone age, a sensory walk in New Zealand red-wine history, in one of its more exciting years. The wines will be:
1987 The Antipodean, Matakana
1987 Brookfields Cabernet / Merlot Gold Label, Hawkes Bay
1987 Goldwater Cabernet / Merlot / Franc, Waiheke Island
1986 Gressier-Grand-Poujeaux, Moulis Cru Bourgeois, Bordeaux
1987 Santa Rita Cabernet Sauvignon, Maipo Valley, Chile
1987 Stonyridge Larose, Waiheke Island
1987 Te Mata Awatea Cabernet / Merlot, Hawkes Bay
1987 Te Mata Coleraine Cabernet / Merlot / Franc, Hawkes Bay
1987 Villa Maria Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Ihumatao, Auckland District
1987 Villa Maria Cabernet / Merlot Reserve, Hawkes Bay & Ihumatao
1987 Vidal Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Hawkes Bay
1987 Vidal Cabernet / Merlot Reserve, Hawkes Bay
Reserve wines:
1986 Matua Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Hawkes Bay
1987 Matua Valley Merlot, Hawkes Bay
1986 Santa Rita Cabernet Sauvignon, Maipo Valley, Chile
1988 Wynns John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon, Coonawarra, South Australia
Time: Thursday 27 May, 2021, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $115 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events (scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. If space allows, bookings in the last 48 hours will be accepted. There are always cancellations. It is imperative therefore to please use the Waiting List, via email to: online@regionalwines.co.nz
Ch de Beaucastel is arguably the best-known Chateauneuf-du-Pape in New Zealand. Ch Rayas is more famous overseas, but many times the price, and rarely seen here.
Loosely speaking, Beaucastel has been in the Perrin family since 1909. Unlike Ch Rayas, which is 100% grenache, de Beaucastel is famous for growing all 13 varieties traditionally permitted in the Chateauneuf-du-Pape AOC, and using them. The winery is also famous for being the first in the district to introduce domaine-bottling for their grand vin, in 1970. Likewise they were pioneers in the movement to organic and biodynamic viticulture, starting 1974.
The winery is also well-known for using a much higher percentage of mourvedre than virtually any other AOC winery. This has led to one of the longest-standing misunderstandings amongst wine-lovers at all levels, including in reference books, that the grape mourvedre produces aromas reminiscent of the wild yeast Brettanomyces. This is absolute nonsense, but still ‘gospel’. Yes, the earlier years of Ch de Beaucastel often have rustic notes about the aroma, but that was solely due to the large-wood practice in the winery, not to the high percentage of mourvedre. Mourvedre when correctly vinified is darkly berried, tanniny, but absolutely free of the characteristic leathery / savoury / bacony notes by which brett is identified.
In this tasting, corks willing, we will have 12 vintages of Ch de Beaucastel ranging from 1983 to 2015, surely a first in New Zealand. The vintages are: 2015, 2010, 2005, 2001, 1998, 1995, the rare 1995 Hommage a Jacques Perrin, 1994, 1990, 1989, 1985, 1983 … all very good vintages in the district, note. In Reserve: 1997, 1988, 1986.
The tasting will include the 1989, arguably the most famous vintage in the last half-century, which Wine Spectator made their “Wine of the Year” in 1991, James Suckling making the curious comment: ‘Perhaps the greatest Beaucastel ever produced. Has the class and structure of a great vintage of Mouton-Rothschild’. Even the under-stated Jancis Robinson describes the 1989 as ‘Rather glorious’. For this vintage alone, please note I have taken out two bottles, so you will be pretty well guaranteed to taste it.
This should be a benchmark tasting. Taste 12 vintages of Ch de Beaucastel for roughly two-thirds the cost of a single bottle of the current vintage. So join us and see if a nett impression of real vinosity and wine complexity in these reds can overcome what some see as technical failings in one or other of them.
Time: Thursday 29 April, 2021, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $155 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events (scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the Booking Conditions.
Places: 21 places. If Sold Out, please use the Wait-List, via online@regionalwines.co.nz There are always cancellations.
Booking Conditions: Please note, there will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. If space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
The heart of the tasting is a comparative evaluation of the top 2004 red Bins from Penfolds Wines. Given the growing reputation of Penfolds as a winery, this is a tasting to go out of your way for, simply because 2004 was a cooler year In South Australia, and therefore (within the Penfolds context), the wines are more varietal, more aromatic, and somewhat subtler than usual.
The tasting includes some of Australia's greatest reds. Some are more expensive than Grange, which means, now that the release price for current Penfolds Grange is $850 (or more), that the tasting cannot be cheap. But the tasting is also rare, these wines rarely being seen together. The Giaconda and Clarendon Hills shiraz wines are nearly as famous as Penfolds, and rarer. They will provide a kind of calibration role.
To counterpoint the young wines, and some will still be very young, we have a 1971 Penfolds 389 which back then drew on the fruit from vineyards such as Kalimna and Magill now going into these latter-day top-end Bins, a 1972 Penfolds St Henri not often offered with age, and both the 1971 Tahbilk Cabernet and the 1971 Tahbilk Shiraz. For many years, 1971 was regarded as the absolute benchmark vintage for Tahbilk reds. It will be fun to see these wines at 50 years age exactly.
Corks willing, the hoped-for offering will be:
2004 Penfolds Cabernet / Shiraz Bin 60A, Coonawarra & Kalimna, South Australia
2004 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 42, Kalimna, South Australia
2004 Penfolds [ Shiraz ] Grange Bin 95, South Australia
2004 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 707, South Australia
2004 Penfolds Shiraz RWT, Barossa Valley, South Australia
2004 Penfolds Cabernet / Shiraz Bin 389, South Australia
2004 Giaconda Estate Shiraz Warner Vineyard, Beechworth, Victoria
2002 Clarendon Hills Syrah Astralis Vineyard, McLaren Vale, South Australia
1972 Penfolds Auldana Cellars St Henri [ Shiraz ] Claret, Magill, South Australia
1971 Penfolds Cabernet / Shiraz Bin 389, South Australia
1971 Ch Tahbilk Cabernet, Nagambie Lakes, Central Victoria
1971 Ch Tahbilk Shiraz, Nagambie Lakes, Central Victoria
Reserve wines:
1999 Torbreck Shiraz The Factor, Barossa Valley, South Australia
1994 Penfolds Shiraz Magill Estate, South Australia
1981 Ch Tahbilk Shiraz 1860 [pre-phylloxera vines], Nagambie Lakes, Central Victoria
Time: Thursday 25 March, 2021, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $30 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events (scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the Booking Conditions.
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. If space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. This tasting Sold Out in 2 hours. However, there are always cancellations. It is imperative therefore to please use the Waiting List, via email to: online@regionalwines.co.nz
Let’s start the Library Tasting year off on a frivolous and affordable note. To all but the most inveterate wine-snob, Guigal’s Cotes-du-Rhone can be said to be one of the best wines in the world … in the sense it can be found in all civilised places on Earth (but not Lower Hutt ...), it is invariably a good to very good exemplar of its appellation, with a little age it is unbelievably winey and attractive for its price-point, and it is a delight with any food one would normally have red wine with. Plus it is affordable, and cellars well … not that you’d think so, from the blinkered views of the great majority of wine-writers, who think all Cotes-du-Rhones should be drunk within a year or two of vintage. Interestingly, wine-searcher takes no notice of them, older vintages of Guigal Cotes-du-Rhone having quite a following.
The modern Guigal wine-enterprise is one of the great successes of the post-war wine world. Etienne Guigal set up his own winery in 1946, with son Marcel taking over in 1961. Yet it was many years before the winery’s profile crept over the horizon. They were still substantially unknown by the 1970s … yet in the 1980s suddenly they became a firm that could not be ignored. There were two reasons for this: their singular (for the Rhone Valley) adoption of long oak-maturation and new oak for their premium reds, and the emphasis they placed on making their everyday wine show a hint of the style of their top wines … via oak. Thus at a time when virtually all Cotes-du-Rhone were raised in concrete, Guigal from the late 1970s matured a significant proportion of his Cotes-du-Rhone in big wood … the famous foudres. And not all the oak was old. Thus their Cotes-du-Rhone became famous for its bouquet and vinosity, at a time when too many Cotes-du-Rhone were tending dark and heavy … and rather many outright reductive.
The style of the wine has changed over the years. I do not know when the first Guigal Cotes-du-Rhone appeared, but in the later 1970s and the early 1980s, it was clearly a grenache-dominant wine, as is typical in the Southern Rhone Valley. Coming from the Northern Rhone Valley, however, the Guigals wanted a little more aromatics in the wine, and the proportion of syrah increased. Plus the wine had always had mourvedre, unusual in cheaper Southern Rhone reds. By the later-1990s, however, syrah had increased to about half the wine, and thus the dominant variety. Cépage now varies around a reference-point of Sy 50%, Gr 40, Mv 10.
To counterpoint the Guigal approach, we will include another famous Cotes du Rhone, the Charvin. It is clearly grenache-dominant, and essentially raised in concrete. The tasting will be structured to try and compare and contrast these two winestyles.
The Guigals will be selected from: 1983, 1984, 1985, 1995, 1998, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2016, all but the 1984 good years, and the Charvins from 2005, 2010, and 2016, the latter two absolutely outstanding years.
Time: Thursday 26 November, 2020, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $195 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events (scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the Booking Conditions.
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions ... ... ... This tasting SOLD OUT in a couple of hours. Wait List the best approach now.
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. If space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. Sometimes tastings sell out fairly quickly. However, there are always cancellations. It is imperative therefore to please use the Waiting List, via email to: online@regionalwines.co.nz
The goal of this tasting is a sampling of the 2000 vintage in Bordeaux, including some of the very best wines (as listed below) but no First Growths, at the 20-year point. Several of the wines are now virtually never experienced in ‘public’ tastings in New Zealand. The wines should be at an early peak of perfect maturity. Corks permitting, there is one wine from each of the eight main sub-districts in Bordeaux, plus highly-regarded wines from Tuscany / Italy, Yarra Valley / Australia, and Hawkes Bay / New Zealand ... as external markers. The only district doubled up is Saint-Julien, often regarded as the source of quintessential claret. How long is it since we were in a position to taste Ch Leoville Las Cases alongside Ch Ducru-Beaucaillou ?
As to the quality of the wines being offered, using only Wine Advocate (Parker et al) or Wine Spectator in one case, scores for our 12 wines range from 90 - 99, and average 94. So that gets us off to a good start … considering that the highly regarded Te Mata Coleraine has only four times ever achieved 94, and once 95, in Wine Advocate.
To whet the appetite, here is Robert Parker on the Ch Angelus (cork willing): "Approaching perfection … the wine has great concentration, a magnificent, full-bodied mouthfeel, stunning purity, and well-integrated acidity, tannin, alcohol ... 99". All told, five of our wines qualify as ‘Super-Seconds’ – and that’s not counting Angelus ! The tasting also offers the opportunity to taste the rare and acclaimed super-Tuscan Masseto, which is 100% merlot.
Price: I acknowledge the price is higher than any before. Production is finite, demand increases, and the trend-line is upwards, particularly for wines of the ranking nearly all of ours display. The price reflects applying the Reserve Bank Inflation Calculator to the actual outlayed cost. Please bear in mind that by the time of the 2000 en primeur campaign In mid-2001, five of the above wines had already reached (or passed) $300 per bottle. Current wine-searcher value on these wines works out to a tasting cost of well over $275 per person.
Corks permitting, our wines will be:
AUSTRALIA
2000 Mount Mary Quintet, Yarra Valley
BORDEAUX
2000 Ch Angelus, Saint-Emilion
2000 Ch La Conseillante, Pomerol
2000 Ch Ducru-Beaucaillou, Saint-Julien
2000 Ch La Fleur de Bouard, Lalande de Pomerol
2000 Ch Leoville Las Cases, Saint-Julien
2000 Ch Malartic-Lagraviere, Graves
2000 Ch Montrose, Saint-Estephe
2000 Ch Palmer, Margaux
2000 Ch Pichon-Baron, Pauillac
ITALY
2000 Ornellaia Masseto, Bolgheri, Tuscany
NEW ZEALAND
2000 Te Mata Estate Coleraine, Hawkes Bay
Time: Thursday 8 October, 2020, 6.30 pm start
Venue: Sensory Lab Room E167, Eastern Institute of Technology, Gloucester Street, Taradale, Napier.
Cost: $175 per person
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking and Payment: Since the presenter is in Wellington, and the venue is in Napier, bookings to share in these tastings will be accepted only by email, and listed in strict time / date order of receipt. Please book directly with me, BY EMAIL (geoff dot kelly dot nz at gmail dot com), making clear which of the two tastings, or maybe both, you are booking for. Please include your (preferably) mobile phone number, or land-line number. Payment is by direct credit to my bank account – details will follow. There is no alternative method of payment. Credit cards are not accepted. The booking will be listed as firm only once payment is received.
Time Limit for Booking: Please book before 5pm Wed. 30 Sept. Immediate booking would be even more helpful. The organiser being in Wellington, if bookings do not reach a viable threshold, we need to cancel in good time to notify EIT.
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. A waiting-list will be made, if needed, to facilitate replacements. Late bookings will still be taken in the last 48 hours, but administrative / travel constraints mean administering the waiting list in the last 48 hours cannot be guaranteed. We will however try to action cancellations and replacements up till midday on the day of the tasting. It is therefore essential to use the waiting list, please, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place. So, PLEASE MAKE USE OF THE WAITING LIST.
Key details for GK Library Tastings:
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once. The tasting is blind. Tasters will be asked to decide (if they wish) on a favourite wine. This approach helps with a better assessment. The glasses will be XL5s – all the information is in an XL5: it is the glass winemakers use. One just has to work a little harder. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. This volume also better complies with the drink / drive regulations. Please therefore come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
Directions to locate the Wine Science Sensory Lab at EIT: Looking at the Map of the Campus (which is NOT north-oriented, north marker obscurely visible mid-right) @ https://www.eit.ac.nz/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/EIT-Taradale-Campus-A4-Map-Jul-15.pdf, enter the campus at the main gate SE of the red marker (on map only) J. At J veer right (north) through the parking, turn left-angle west to pass red marker G1 on the right, then veering left pass red marker G2 on the left and red marker F1 on right. Follow roadway now broadly W through buildings to red marker E on right, as the road swings SSW through vines. Find parking in vicinity red marker E and E2. To enter building, is paved footway to red marker E1, enter doorway there, follow corridor NW briefly, then turn left at fork, Sensory Lab Room E167 is on the right maybe 10 metres along.
Given that syrah offers so much potential in Hawkes Bay, for this year’s Hawkes Bay Library Tastings the second tasting will be syrah-based -- and again a Guigal-themed offering, but this time the more fragrant wines of Cote Rotie. Guigal is widely acknowledged as the modern master of Rhone Valley winestyles, initially in the Northern Rhone Valley (our tasting), but increasingly in the South too. Within the setting of exploring Guigal Cote Roties from 1983 to 2010, we will taste all three of the rare and sought-after Guigal 'grands crus', the so-called 'La La' Cote Roties. These now retail at nearly $700 per bottle, but are very tightly allocated, and hence vanishingly rare in New Zealand. Opportunities to taste them are rare. These ‘grand cru’ wines will be from the 1999 vintage ... an elegant and very attractive year in the Rhone Valley both North and South. The 1999s are showing beautifully now. There are no back-up bottles, however.
In New Zealand, some people have the view that syrah is not a cellar wine. This tasting spans 27 years; the oldest wine is now 37 years old. The tasting will I hope show that syrah is a delightful cellar wine, becoming ever more fragrant and food-friendly.
Geoff has been studying wine for more than 50 years. He was a senior industry judge for 35 years, and thus brings a distinctive voice to his presentations.
Our wines will be:
1983 Guigal Cote Rotie
1985 Guigal Cote Rotie
1995 Guigal Cote Rotie
1998 Guigal Cote Rotie
1999 Guigal Cote Rotie
1999 Guigal Cote Rotie Ch d’Ampuis
1999 Guigal Cote Rotie La Mouline
1999 Guigal Cote Rotie La Landonne
1999 Guigal Cote Rotie La Turque
2003 Guigal Cote Rotie
2005 Guigal Cote Rotie
2010 Guigal Cote Rotie
In Reserve:
2009 Guigal Cote Rotie
1999 Rostaing Cote Rotie Cote Blonde
2006 Yves Cuilleron Cote Rotie Terres Sombres
Time: Tuesday 6 October, 2020, 6.30 pm start
Venue: Sensory Lab Room E167, Eastern Institute of Technology, Gloucester Street, Taradale, Napier.
Cost: $150 per person
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking and Payment: Since the presenter is in Wellington, and the venue is in Napier, bookings to share in these tastings will be accepted only by email, and listed in strict time / date order of receipt. Please book directly with me, BY EMAIL (geoff dot kelly dot nz at gmail dot com), making clear which of the two tastings, or maybe both, you are booking for. Please include your (preferably) mobile phone number, or land-line number. Payment is by direct credit to my bank account – details will follow. There is no alternative method of payment. Credit cards are not accepted. The booking will be listed as firm only once payment is received.
Time Limit for Booking: Please book before 5pm Wed. 30 Sept. Immediate booking would be even more helpful. The organiser being in Wellington, if bookings do not reach a viable threshold, we need to cancel in good time to notify EIT.
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. A waiting-list will be made, if needed, to facilitate replacements. Late bookings will still be taken in the last 48 hours, but administrative / travel constraints mean administering the waiting list in the last 48 hours cannot be guaranteed. We will however try to action cancellations and replacements up till midday on the day of the tasting. It is therefore essential to use the waiting list, please, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place. So, PLEASE MAKE USE OF THE WAITING LIST.
Key details for GK Library Tastings:
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once. The tasting is blind. Tasters will be asked to decide (if they wish) on a favourite wine. This approach helps with a better assessment. The glasses will be XL5s – all the information is in an XL5: it is the glass winemakers use. One just has to work a little harder. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. This volume also better complies with the drink / drive regulations. Please therefore come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
Directions to locate the Wine Science Sensory Lab at EIT: Looking at the Map of the Campus (which is NOT north-oriented, north marker obscurely visible mid-right) @ https://www.eit.ac.nz/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/EIT-Taradale-Campus-A4-Map-Jul-15.pdf, enter the campus at the main gate SE of the red marker (on map only) J. At J veer right (north) through the parking, turn left-angle west to pass red marker G1 on the right, then veering left pass red marker G2 on the left and red marker F1 on right. Follow roadway now broadly W through buildings to red marker E on right, as the road swings SSW through vines. Find parking in vicinity red marker E and E2. To enter building, is paved footway to red marker E1, enter doorway there, follow corridor NW briefly, then turn left at fork, Sensory Lab Room E167 is on the right maybe 10 metres along.
For this year’s Hawkes Bay Library Tasting offerings, the first tasting offers the rare opportunity to taste 44 year-old claret, 11 from Bordeaux, plus one New Zealand. The wines will be fully mature, to declining, but still full of interest for those who like old wine.
There are two goals for this tasting. For the first, in the sense that the cabernet / merlots of Bordeaux (or Hawkes Bay) are cellar wines par excellence, this tasting offers the rare opportunity to see a reasonable sampling of well-known names at an age greater than most people are familiar with. Secondly, it offers the opportunity to taste the rare, in New Zealand nearly mythical, Ch Petrus (then 95% merlot, 5% cabernet franc) within an affordable context. I say affordable, because 1976 is not one of Petrus's greatest years, the season being warm and the wines tending tanniny, so we can cost Petrus into the tasting at a realistic figure. All the wines have been cellared in Wellington’s cool climate since original purchase at-release.
Geoff Kelly's Library Tastings have become well-known in other parts of the country, over the last 20 years. Geoff has been studying wine for more than 50 years. He was a senior industry judge for 35 years, and thus brings a distinctive voice to his presentations.
Our wines will be:
FRANCE:
1976 Ch Batailley, Pauillac
1976 Ch Beychevelle, Saint-Julien
1976 Ch Cantemerle, Macau / Haut-Medoc
1976 Ch Figeac, Saint-Emilion
1976 Ch Giscours, Margaux
1976 Ch Grande-Puy-Lacoste, Pauillac
1976 Ch Kirwan, Margaux
1976 Ch La Lagune, Ludon / Haut-Medoc
1976 Ch Leoville-Poyferré, Saint-Julien
1976 Ch Montrose, Saint-Estephe
1976 Ch Petrus, Pomerol
NEW ZEALAND
1976 Nobilo Cabernet Sauvignon, Huapai
In Reserve:
1976 Redman Cabernet Sauvignon (en magnum), Coonawarra
1976 Ch Meyney, Saint-Estephe
1976 Ch Petrus, Pomerol
Time: Thursday 24 September, 2020, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $165 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events (scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the Booking Conditions.
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. If space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. Sometimes tastings sell out fairly quickly. However, there are always cancellations. It is imperative therefore to please use the Waiting List, via email to: online@regionalwines.co.nz
Make no mistake, 2010 is a great year in Bordeaux. For the next 50 years, enthusiasts will argue as to whether the best wines match or surpass the 1961s … but the point is, the vintage is of that calibre. It is particularly like 1961 in that it is a year of classical restraint, needing cellaring. Thus some of the fashionistas, for whom everything has to be accessible immediately, have mocked the vintage. Disregard them.
With global warming, plus immense advances in the science and practice of wine-making, fine vintages in Bordeaux are now much more commonplace than even 20 years ago. In this century there was a tentative start with the 2000 vintage, then a great step forward with the 2005s. Jump a few years, and there are the warm-year and thus accessible 2009s appealing to the American palate, then the taut and aromatic 2010s, in a sense appealing more to the European palate. 2015 and 2016 is an exact replay of that sequence. In purchasing the 2010s, notwithstanding them being the most expensive en primeur Bordeaux vintage ever offered, I was excited by the early reports. Now, having waited the specified 10 years for good Bordeaux to reveal some its charms, how will these still-expensive wines open up for us ? Note these wines are quite rare in New Zealand.
With the passage of the years, old mentors and advisors are increasingly challenged by young and very switched-on tasters. For Bordeaux, two English palates are to the fore, Neal Martin at Vinous, and Jane Anson at Decanter. And in a more supervisory role, there is also Stephen Browett, now owner of the fabulous Farr Vintners of London, to be listened to. The above summary of the status of the 2010 vintage is abstracted from their writings.
As to our wines, and going back to established advisors, Jancis Robinson lists her top 20 wines for the 2010 Bordeaux. When you reflect she is also tasting wines of a price and calibre we never see, such as Ch Cheval Blanc, Ch Petrus, the Rothschilds etc, for us to have even four of her top 20 wines is extraordinary. When I add in that Lisa Perrotti-Brown, now the chief Bordeaux taster at RobertParker.com has given one of those four wines 100 points in her comprehensive 2020 review of the 2010 Bordeaux, and that both she and Neal Martin have given another of the four 99 points, you can see that by New Zealand standards, this Library Tasting of 2010 Bordeaux comes very close to being an opportunity to taste benchmark claret. But I have also included some affordable wines, to retain a grip on reality. It should be a very special experience.
Our wines will be:
2010 Ch Bourgneuf, Pomerol
2010 Ch Ducru-Beaucaillou, Saint-Julien
2010 Ch Giscours, Margaux
2010 Ch Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Pauillac
2010 Ch d’Issan, Margaux
2010 Ch Leoville Barton, Saint-Julien
2010 Ch Lynch-Bages, Pauillac
2010 Ch Montrose, Saint-Estephe
2010 Ch Paveil de Luze, Margaux
2010 Ch Pontet-Canet, Pauillac
2010 Ch Saintayme, Saint-Emilion
2010 Vieux Chateau Certan, Pomerol
In Reserve:
2010 Ch Calon-Segur, Saint-Estephe
2010 Ch La Lagune, Margaux
2010 Ch Langoa-Barton, Saint Julien
Time: Wednesday 11 March, 2020, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $135 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events (scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the Booking Conditions.
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. Sometimes tastings sell out fairly
quickly. However, there are always cancellations. It is imperative therefore to please use the Waiting List, via email to: online@regionalwines.co.nz
Having been tasting wines formally for over 50 years now, it is time to cast a look over my shoulder … and both revisit one or two wines that have helped set my palate, and re-taste certain wines that have given me pleasure, or seem particularly good examples of their genre. I hope you might like to join me in this retrospective Library Tasting.
Often the question arises in Library Tastings, but what did this taste like in its youth ? One tangent on answering that question is to open a young bottle of the same wine, from a vintage rated as well as the earlier one. And the better the label, the more likely is the wine to have been consistent over the years. I thought therefore I would like to show people a wine that profoundly influenced me in my early days, 1966 Ch Palmer, now regarded by many as the top bordeaux of that so-classical year, and compare it with the highly praised 2010. Ch Palmer is one of the bordeaux now nudging the First Growths … and its current price reflects that.
Then (corks willing) there will be two older wines delighting for their beauty rather than their size … and maybe frail now … 1970 Ch Ducru-Beaucaillou, and a respectable but not famous Chambertin bottling of the same year. To accompany them, it would be fun to include 1969 McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon, to reflect on where we have come from, in New Zealand. This famous wine from Tom McDonald and Denis Kasza was the first commercial red wine in the post-Prohibition era to unequivocally demonstrate that New Zealand could make international-calibre red wines. I regret the case of the 1965 (the exact wine to achieve that milestone) is exhausted … sadly … but at the time the 1969 was generally thought to be the next in-line.
We also ‘have’ to have my latter-day favourite district, some Rhone Valley wines. First my introduction to great syrah, the last bottle from a case of 1969 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, teamed again with the 2010, to get a feel for the evolution of syrah wines, over the years. The 2010 is a very highly regarded wine, now that the old Rhone wine firm of Jaboulet is owned by the Frey family, of Ch La Lagune in Bordeaux. Their highly-regarded young winemaker Caroline Frey is also in overall charge of winemaking at Jaboulet.
And in the Southern Rhone Valley, we will have the equally last lonely bottle of 1978 Jaboulet Chateauneuf-du-Pape Les Cedres, which completed my introduction to the delights of that district. With it, we must have the 2016. I say ‘must’ because John Livingstone-Learmonth says the 2016 vintage in the Southern Rhone Valley is the successor to 1978 … which (corks willing, again) allows us to contemplate arguably the two greatest post-war years in that district.
And no retrospective tasting of mine would be complete without one of the most beautiful red wines I have ever cellared (and like the 1966 Ch Palmer a constant reference-point in my subsequent wine evaluations), 1953 Bodegas Bilbainas Pomal Reserva Especial from Rioja.
I have back-up bottles for some but not all (those last single bottles), so here’s hoping, re the corks. TCA was less a problem then, than in some following decades. Two bubblies might be nice to start with. Twelve wines altogether, plus a few in reserve, as listed below.
The preferred wine list is:
1996 Deutz Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut, Ay
1990 Bollinger Grande Année Brut, Ay
1966 Ch Palmer, Margaux
1970 Ch Ducru-Beaucaillou, Saint-Julien [ magnum ]
1970 Alexis Lichine Chambertin [ magnum ]
1969 McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon, Hawkes Bay
1969 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle
2010 Ch Palmer, Margaux
2010 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle
2016 Jaboulet Chateauneuf-du-Pape Les Cedres
1978 Jaboulet Chateauneuf-du-Pape Les Cedres
1953 Bodegas Bilbainas Pomal Reserva Especial, Rioja
And the following will be in reserve:
1996 Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill Brut, Epernay
1972 A. Guyon Corton Domaine Hippolyte Thevenot
1979 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle
1976 Jaboulet Vacqueyras [ this will be frail ]
1991 Ch Tahbilk Shiraz 1860 Vines, Victoria
Time: Wednesday November 6, 2019, 6.30 pm start
Venue: Kidnapper Cliffs Room, Te Awa Winery, 2375 State Highway 50 (750m NNE of Ngatarawa Road intersection)
Cost: $115 per person
Places: 19 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Contact person: at Te Awa Winery: Brittany Turlock, mobile: 021 573 152, email: brittanyt@teawa.com
Booking and Payment: Via F.A.W.C’s website www.fawc.co.nz/events/view-events, scroll down. F.A.W.C! subscriber’s bookings open 9am Monday 23 September, and public bookings 9am Tuesday 24 September. Further information including waiting-list in Booking Conditions, below.
Booking Conditions / Waiting-List: There are no refunds for non-attendance. If circumstances prevent you attending, it is your responsibility to find a substitute. F.A.W.C ! can help in this, with their Ticket Buy and Sell facility called FAWC ! Marketplace: www.fawc.co.nz/events/fawc-marketplace (not yet operational for this season). Conversely, Marketplace can also act as a Waiting List, if the Tasting fills. Please register at the same address to buy tickets, should they become available.
Key details for GK Library Tastings:
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once. The tasting is blind. Tasters will be asked to decide (if they wish) on a favourite wine. This approach helps with a better assessment. The glasses will be Schott-Zwiesel XL5s – all the information is in an XL5: it is the glass winemakers use. One just has to work a little harder. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. This volume also better complies with the drink / drive regulations. Please therefore come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
For some years now it has been apparent that syrah is a red variety exceptionally well suited to New Zealand. The key reason is that when carefully ripened, syrah in New Zealand retains both florals and spice, as in the Northern Rhone Valley. These qualities make our syrah both rare on the world scale, and exceptionally food-friendly, being just a little bigger than pinot noir. This tasting of 1999 vintage wines will illustrate the main syrah styles from its homeland in France, together with three of Australia’s subtlest shiraz wines, and one exceptional New Zealand wine. Vintage conditions in each location were attractive – more fragrant wines than the warmer-year 1998s.
For those who love syrah, we span Cote Rotie, Hermitage, and one of the top wines of Crozes-Hermitage. Nine of our wines are marked 90 points or more, two are not marked in the sources I use. The Hermitage Les Bessards should be a benchmark experience: Jeb Dunnuck @ www.robertparker.com: a full-bodied, deeply concentrated, layered and perfectly balanced wine, 98. And the Jamet Cote Rotie sounds attractive too, Dunnuck again: Sensationally rich, concentrated and full-bodied, it reveals a classic bouquet of pepper, smoked herbs, black currants and licorice, 97.
Turning to the New World, I have deliberately selected only Australian wines which have some chance of being considered syrahs. Henschke's Mt Edelstone is a lot subtler than Hill of Grace, almost Cote Rotie to Hermitage (in a sense), but it is the rare and increasingly sought-after Torbreck Runrig that I want to see, blind, with 20 years age on: Lisa Perrotti-Brown @ www.robertparker.com: this is a very elegant wine with vibrant acid and concentrated fruit, 99. But will it in fact seem an elegant syrah, or a lumbering shiraz, in this company ? For the New Zealand wine, the 1999 Jewelstone was conspicuously one of the best in New Zealand, in those early days for syrah.
Geoff Kelly's Library Tastings have become well-known in other parts of the country over the last 20 + years. Geoff has been studying wine for more than 50 years. He was a senior industry judge for 35 years, so brings a distinctive voice to his presentations. The wines will be:
France:
1999 Domaine du Colombier Hermitage
1999 Delas Cote Rotie Seigneur de Maugiron
1999 Delas Hermitage Marquise de Tourettes
1999 Delas Hermitage Les Bessards
1999 Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage La Guiraude
1999 Guigal Cote Rotie Ch d’Ampuis
1999 Guigal Hermitage
1999 Jamet Cote Rotie
Australia:
1999 Henschke Shiraz Mount Edelstone, Eden Valley, South Australia
1999 Mount Langi Ghiran Shiraz Langi, Grampians, Victoria
1999 Torbreck Shiraz Runrig, Barossa Valley, Barossa Valley, South Australia
New Zealand:
1999 Mission Syrah Jewelstone, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
Time: Tuesday November 5, 2019, 6.30 pm start
Venue: Kidnapper Cliffs Room, Te Awa Winery, 2375 State Highway 50 (750m NNE of Ngatarawa Road intersection)
Cost: $130 per person
Places: 19 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Contact person: at Te Awa Winery: Brittany Turlock, mobile 021 573 152, email: brittanyt@teawa.com
Booking and Payment: Via F.A.W.C’s website www.fawc.co.nz/events/view-events, scroll down. F.A.W.C! subscriber’s bookings open 9am Monday 23 September, and public bookings 9am Tuesday 24 September. Further information including waiting-list in Booking Conditions, below.
Booking Conditions / Waiting-List: There are no refunds for non-attendance. If circumstances prevent you attending, it is your responsibility to find a substitute. F.A.W.C ! can help in this, with their Ticket Buy and Sell facility called FAWC ! Marketplace: www.fawc.co.nz/events/fawc-marketplace (not yet operational for this season). Conversely, Marketplace can also act as a Waiting List, if the Tasting fills. Please register at the same address to buy tickets, should they become available.
Key details for GK Library Tastings:
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once. The tasting is blind. Tasters will be asked to decide (if they wish) on a favourite wine. This approach helps with a better assessment. The glasses will be Schott-Zwiesel XL5s – all the information is in an XL5: it is the glass winemakers use. One just has to work a little harder. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. This volume also better complies with the drink / drive regulations. Please therefore come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
In this first FAWC ! tasting presented by Hawkes Bay’s Nick Stewart and Wellingtonian Geoff Kelly, we will have eight highly-regarded (but not the most expensive) 1989 Bordeaux classed growths set against four of New Zealand's best 1989 cabernet / merlot blends. One of the Bordeaux is from Pomerol, so merlot-dominant. The New Zealand wines will be the top two Waiheke Island Cabernet / Merlots of the time, and two of Hawkes Bay’s best. Vintage conditions were favourable in all three locations. A tasting like this is rare now, in New Zealand, and will be full of interest.
Robert Parker and associates have marked the eight bordeaux between 88 and 95 points. Pichon-Baron was the most exciting for Parker, in early days: The 1989 is this property's finest wine in at least three decades. … exceptional extract and super-ripeness, its aroma reminded me of essence of cassis and plums intertwined with the scent of smoky new oak. Spectacularly rich and ripe …, 95. Latterly, the Brane-Cantenac has appealed to Neal Martin, when at www.robertparker.com, though he paints a picture of a smaller and subtler wine: beautifully defined bouquet with ample red berries, cold tea, sous-bois, tobacco and mint, 94.
For the New Zealand wines, it is harder to get a clear report. Our most consistent reporter, Michael Cooper, was in the very early stages of developing a format for his admirable and continuing series Buyer’s Guide. But the impression comes through of the Esk Valley Reserve and Coleraine perhaps being fractionally riper than the two Waiheke wines. It will be fascinating to see these four wines, then and now leaders among the New Zealand Cabernet / Merlot pack, amidst varying examples of classic classed-growth bordeaux.
Geoff Kelly's Library Tastings have become well-known in other parts of the country over the last 20 + years. Geoff has been studying wine for more than 50 years. He was a senior industry judge for 35 years, so brings a distinctive voice to his presentations. The wines will be:
France:
1989 Château Beychevelle, Saint-Julien
1989 Château Brane-Cantenac, Margaux
1989 Château Gruaud Larose, Saint-Julien
1989 Château La Fleur-Pétrus, Pomerol
1989 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, Pauillac
1989 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron, Pauillac
1989 Château Prieuré-Lichine, Margaux
1989 Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Pauillac
New Zealand:
1989 Te Mata Estate Coleraine, Hawkes Bay
1989 Esk Valley Cabernet / Merlot Reserve, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
1989 Goldwater Cabernet / Merlot / Franc, Waiheke Island
1989 Stonyridge Vineyard Larose, Waiheke Island
Time: Thursday 17 October, 2019, 6.30 pm start
Venue: Board Room, Villa Maria winery (upstairs), 118 Montgomerie Rd, Mangere
Cost: $85 per person
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking and Payment: Since the presenter is in Wellington, and the venue is in Auckland, bookings to share in these tastings will be accepted only by email, and listed in strict time / date order of receipt. Please book directly with me, BY EMAIL (geoff dot kelly dot nz at gmail dot com), making clear which of the two tastings, or hopefully both, you are booking for. Please include your (preferably) mobile phone number, or land-line number. Payment is by direct credit to my bank account – details to follow. There is no alternative method of payment. Credit cards are not accepted. The booking will be listed as firm only once payment is received.
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. A waiting-list will be made, if needed, to facilitate replacements. Bookings will still be taken in the last 48 hours, but administrative / travel constraints mean administering the waiting list in the last 48 hours cannot be guaranteed. We will however try to action cancellations and replacements up till midday on the day of the tasting. It is therefore essential to use the waiting list, please, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place. PLEASE USE THE WAITING LIST.
Key details for GK Library Tastings:
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once. The tasting is blind. Tasters will be asked to decide (if they wish) on a favourite wine. This approach helps with a better assessment. The glasses will be Schott-Zwiesel XL5s – all the information is in an XL5: it is the glass winemakers use. One just has to work a little harder. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. This volume also better complies with the drink / drive regulations. Please therefore come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
The second tasting will be in dramatic contrast to the big, bold wines of 2007, in the first tasting. 1999 is an interesting year in France, a year of moderation after the hot-year and often tanniny wines of 1998. In Burgundy 1999 is rated 92 – juicy, rich and vibrant – by Wine Spectator, whereas in the Northern Rhone Valley their rating is 96 – silky vintage with stunning quality for Cote-Rotie. In the Southern Rhone Valley however, their rating is a little less than for Burgundy, 90 – Syrah- and Mourvèdre-based wines offer lovely balance and length; Grenache-based wines less successful.
For those who think the 1998s in the Southern Rhone Valley (Wine Spectator, 97) are a bit big and ripe, or tanniny, then the lighter, more supple 1999s should have much appeal. The only caveat to mention is, at that time, a measure of brett was frequent in many of the wines of these districts, so if you are hypersensitive to the savoury, fragrant qualities of even a light brett component, this tasting might not be for you. Happily, many people find a little brett part of the wonderfully food-friendly appeal of Southern Rhone Valley wines. To add interest, as in Pt 1, there will be an Australian version of these Southern Rhone blends, too.
There is a certain symmetry in checking out the 1999s at their 20-year point … an age when most Chateauneuf-du-Pape wines are considered to be approaching maturity. But we can add to that symmetry by having nearly half the tasting from the second great appellation of the Southern Rhone Valley, Gigondas, to match the six wines from Chateauneuf-du-Pape. For most Gigondas wines, 20 years should be clearly full maturity. In effect this will mean that the red (and some black) berry characters and hints of aromatic garrigue complexity of youth will now be fully melded into complex, savoury, mouth-watering wines with some mellow autumnal hints, wines crying out for protein-rich meals. Our wines will be:
GIGONDAS:
1999 Domaine La Bouissiere Gigondas
1999 Domaine La Bouissiere Gigondas Le Font du Tonin
1999 Ch de Saint Cosme Gigondas
1999 Domaine Santa Duc Gigondas
1999 Domaine Santa Duc Gigondas Prestige des Hautes Garrigues
CHATEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE:
1999 Domaine Charvin Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1999 Domaine de la Janasse Chateauneuf-du-Pape Chaupin
1999 Domaine de la Mordorée Chateauneuf-du-Pape La Reine des Bois
1999 Clos des Papes Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1999 Domaine du Pegau Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1999 Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape
AUSTRALIA:
1998 Penfolds Shiraz / Grenache / Mourvedre Bin 138, Barossa Valley
Reserve wines:
1999 Maison Guigal Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1999 Domaine Saint-Benoit Chateauneuf-du-Pape Grande Garde
1999 Tardieu-Laurent Chateauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes
1999 Ch L’Horte Corbieres Vieilles Vignes
Time: Tuesday 15 October, 2019, 6.30 pm start
Venue: Board Room, Villa Maria winery (upstairs), 118 Montgomerie Rd, Mangere
Cost: $95 per person
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking and Payment: Since the presenter is in Wellington, and the venue is in Auckland, bookings to share in these tastings will be accepted only by email, and listed in strict time / date order of receipt. Please book directly with me, BY EMAIL (geoff dot kelly dot nz at gmail dot com), making clear which of the two tastings, or hopefully both, you are booking for. Please include your (preferably) mobile phone number, or land-line number. Payment is by direct credit to my bank account – details to follow. There is no alternative method of payment. Credit cards are not accepted. The booking will be listed as firm only once payment is received.
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. A waiting-list will be made, if needed, to facilitate replacements. Bookings will still be taken in the last 48 hours, but administrative / travel constraints mean administering the waiting list in the last 48 hours cannot be guaranteed. We will however try to action cancellations and replacements up till midday on the day of the tasting. It is therefore essential to use the waiting list, please, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place. PLEASE USE THE WAITING LIST.
Key details for GK Library Tastings:
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once. The tasting is blind. Tasters will be asked to decide (if they wish) on a favourite wine. This approach helps with a better assessment. The glasses will be Schott-Zwiesel XL5s – all the information is in an XL5: it is the glass winemakers use. One just has to work a little harder. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. This volume also better complies with the drink / drive regulations. Please therefore come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
The first tasting in our Chateauneuf Celebration centres on the ripe and generous 2007 vintage. It also coincides with the point when Robert Parker had achieved the zenith of his influence on world wine matters. The 2007 Chateauneufs were big, and he liked them. Parker, 2008: “It is the vintage of my lifetime for this region, and I don’t say that lightly. These 2007s will also be very long-lived given their extraordinary balance.” and Parker, 2009: “This is a truly historic and profoundly great vintage.”
Jeb Dunnuck reviewed the 2007 Southern Rhone Valley wines at the 10-year point, 2017 (in www.robertparker.com, and makes some useful points (paraphrased):
# … in their infancy, both from barrel, and then from bottle the following year … they showed a huge amount of fruit, concentration and textural richness ... they also possessed singular aromatics (which is one of the hallmarks of the vintage), incredible complexity and a purity of fruit that was hard to believe.
# 2007 was a cooler than normal vintage that featured warm days and cool nights.
# There were no heat spikes, with only 34 days above 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 Celsius).
# 2016 was one of the driest vintages since 1871.
# 2016 was an exceptionally sunny vintage … in the same ballpark as 2010.
And we must remember that Parker is on record as saying that when it comes to wine for drinking at home, the Southern Rhone Valley is his favourite district. He added a postscript to Dunnuck’s 2017 article (paraphrased):
“In my 39 years of tasting, three vintages stand out for their greatness and singularity … 1982 Bordeaux, 1990 Barolo and Barbaresco, and 2007 Chateauneuf-du-Pape. I bought as much of these vintages as I could afford … and how steady and reassuringly the greatest 2007 Chateauneufs have evolved. … characterized by great opulence and plush textures that often hid significant structure and tannin.”
In contrast to a degree, Wine Spectator takes a quite clinical view of the wine world in their Vintage Charts. They have revised their view of the 2007 Southern Rhone vintage a little, so that 2007 at 95 is now fractionally less than 2016, 2015, 2010, 2005, 1998, 1989, and is now matched with 1990 (for recent years). They summarise the vintage as: Ripe, rich, powerful reds thanks to long Indian summer at harvest-time. Grenache is heady and rich; Mourvèdre and Cinsault are key for balance. Best are hedonistic delights; though some are over-the-top.”
The tasting includes Clos des Papes, regarded by many as now the definitive Chateauneuf, if one favours elegance. Another feature of the tasting is the opportunity to evaluate the three tiers of quality, from the well-regarded Domaine Grand Veneur. Any tasting of a Vieilles Vignes Chateauneuf is of interest. The Charles Melton wine is included for fun, for interest, and maybe to illustrate some differences in the Australian approach to wine-making. I have used the 2006 because Halliday, in his Vintage Chart for Australia, regards 2006 as a ‘perfect’ vintage 10/10 for the Barossa Valley, vs 2007 at 7. Our wines will be:
FRANCE:
2007 Domaine Les Aphillanthes Cairanne L’Ancestrale
2007 Clos des Papes Chateauneuf-du-Pape
2006 Domaine Giraud Chateauneuf-du-Pape Les Gallimardes
2007 Domaine Grand Veneur Chateauneuf-du-Pape
2007 Domaine Grand Veneur Chateauneuf-du-Pape Les Origines
2007 Domaine Grand Veneur Chateauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes
2007 Maison Guigal Chateauneuf-du-Pape
2007 Domaine Montirius Gigondas Terres des Aines
2007 Domaine Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape
2007 Domaine Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf-du-Pape
2007 Domaine de la Mordorée Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de La Reine des Bois
AUSTRALIA:
2006 Charles Melton Nine Popes, Barossa Valley
Reserve wines
2007 Domaine Giraud Chateauneuf-du-Pape
2007 Domaine de la Vieille Julienne Chateauneuf-du-Pape
2007 Domaine de la Janasse Chateauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes
Time: Thursday 26 September, 2019, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $85 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events (scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the Booking Conditions.
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. Sometimes tastings sell out fairly quickly. However, there are always cancellations. It is imperative therefore to please use the Waiting List, via email to: online@regionalwines.co.nz
Twenty years is an agreeable time to evaluate good pinot noir … where ‘good’ means grapes cropped at a sufficiently low rate for the wine to have enough dry extract to mature attractively in bottle, over that time span.
The germ for this tasting arose in a letter I recently received. This was from the New Zealander I regard as having the best palate and best feel for quality in pinot noir as a winestyle. He said: “Enjoyed Martinborough Pinot Noir Reserve 1998 last weekend … blitzed the Jadot Clos Saint-Jacques and Bonnes Mares served blind alongside.”
That is some statement … . Tasters will recall that in 2011 this same 1998 Martinborough Pinot Noir Reserve was in the headlines (small) for winning a pinot noir judging in Pasadena, California, against all-comers … the other wines including 1990 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tache. As a consequence the winery offered to buy in the wine, from good cellars, offering $500. The same wine sold for $915 at Webb’s Auctions, in Auckland, in July 2013. Thus … we immediately have a tasting. The slight vintage mis-match is hardly pivotal.
The New Zealand wines represent each of the quality pinot noir districts in New Zealand. Opportunities are rare to see these districts alongside each other, in maturity.
The French wines offer a microcosm of the world of pinot noir (for ordinary mortals). From the light and fragrant Volnay and Chassagne styles of the Cote de Beaune through richer Le Corton to the more aromatic and exciting wines from Gevrey-Chambertin, there should be a pinot noir here to please all but the most fastidious. Note that the tasting includes three Premier Cru wines and one Grand Cru. And Clos Saint-Jacques is a Grand Cru in all but name. Opportunities to taste these upper-quality burgundies have become rare, in recent years in New Zealand. Let alone examples with appropriate age.
There are back-up bottles for some, and ‘in reserve’ wines for the others.
New Zealand
Martinborough: 1998 Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir Reserve (exception)
Marlborough: 1999 Wither Hills Pinot Noir (Air NZ Trophy wine)
Nelson: 1999 Greenhough Pinot Noir
Canterbury: 1998 Kaituna Valley Pinot Noir Kaituna Vineyard (exception)
Otago: 1999 Felton Road Pinot Noir Block 3 Bannockburn Vineyard
Otago: 1999 Quartz Reef Pinot Noir Mount Pisa Vineyard
France
Cote de Beaune: 1999 Nicolas Potel Volnay Taille Pieds Premier Cru
Cote de Beaune: 1999 Jean-Claude Belland Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeot Clos Charreau Premier Cru
Cote de Nuits: 1999 Geantet-Pansiot Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes
Cote de Nuits: 1999 Claude Dugat Gevrey-Chambertin Non Filtré
Cote de Nuits: 1999 Sylvie Esmonin Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Saint-Jacques Premier Cru
Cote de Beaune: 1999 Bonneau du Martray Corton Grand Cru
Time: Thursday 29 August, 2019, 2019, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $130 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events (scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the Booking Conditions.
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. Sometimes tastings sell out fairly quickly. However, there are always cancellations. It is imperative therefore to please use the Waiting List, via email to: online@regionalwines.co.nz
Hindsight now tells us that in Bordeaux there were no great years in the entire decade of the 1970s … though the 1970 vintage comes closest – by modern standards on a par with say 1996 or 2011. 1978 and 1979 were a kind of two-some, 1978 great in Burgundy and the Rhone Valley, and initially praised in Bordeaux … but now seen more as just pleasantly ripe, and 1979 very similar, but a little less … though one or two 1979s out-performed. One of our First Growths is such a wine. In addition to two First Growths, we have two of the undoubted Super-Seconds, Palmer and Leoville Las Cases. How many Super-Seconds there are depends on who you talk to, but these two are on everybody’s list. Bordeaux list below.
To add interest we have Italy's top bordeaux-blend, Sassicaia, initiated by the Marchesi Rocchetta in the late 1940s, and commercialised in the early 1970s. Because it did not comply with the regulations (for chianti), it had to be marketed as Vino da Tavola. It took the authorities till 1994 however, to recognise its quality and merit, and grant it the first single-vineyard DOC. Sassicaia now tends to be more expensive than all but the better Second Growths. And then we have three Napa Valley wines, to compare and contrast. To better understand the role of cabernet sauvignon and merlot in Bordeaux blends, we have varietal bottlings from the same winery, same year. The other outsider in the tasting is a pioneering ‘cool-climate’ nearly-Bordeaux blend from inland and montane Victoria … a wine trying to break the Australian mould of over-ripened, over-oaked, overly alcoholic reds that prevailed at the time.
This is an unrepeatable tasting. Calling all 40-year-olds ! Our wines will be:
1979 Ch Lafite Rothschild, Pauillac First Growth
1979 Ch Margaux, Margaux First Growth
1979 Ch Leoville Las Cases, Saint-Julien Second Growth (undoubted Super-Second)
1979 Ch Pichon-Lalande, Pauillac Second Growth (many think a Super-Second)
1979 Ch Palmer, Margaux Third Growth (undoubted Super-Second)
1979 Ch Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Pauillac Fifth Growth
1979 Ch Figeac, Saint Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classé 'B'
1979 Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia, Bolgheri, Tuscany, Italy
1979 Dry Creek Cabernet Sauvignon, Healdsburg, Sonoma County, California
1979 Keenan Cabernet Sauvignon, Spring Mountain district, Napa Valley
1979 Keenan Merlot, Spring Mountain district, Napa Valley
1979 Virgin Hills, Kyneton district, Victoria ( CS dominant, Shiraz )
Reserve Wines:
1979 Ch Montrose, Saint Estephe Second Growth
1979 Antinori Tignanello, Val di Pesa, Tuscany, Italy (Sa dominant, CS, CF)
1979 Clos du Val Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, California
1979 Clos du Val Merlot, Napa Valley, California
CHATEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE
Time: Thursday 18 July, 2019, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $95 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events (scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the Booking Conditions.
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. Sometimes tastings sell out fairly quickly. However, there are always cancellations. It is imperative therefore to please use the Waiting List, via email to: online@regionalwines.co.nz
Concluding our series of tastings on the (at best) wonderfully aromatic and exciting wines of the Southern Rhone Valley, this tasting will complement the recent Worth Cellaring tasting of the young wines from the 2016 vintage. This time we will look at wines solely from 2005, a year for which the vintage rating is creeping up and up. The wines are regarded by Wine Spectator, who have the best vintage summaries, as: “Wines show concentration, purity, and structure. Great cellaring potential, 97/100.” They are therefore scored higher than 1990, but fractionally less than 2010 and 2016. At 14 years of age, they are perhaps halfway through their evolution: they should be very exciting. The more alcoholic 2007s we will defer.
One highlight for me in our set of wines will be to compare the three bottlings of Domaine de la Janasse, one of the more highly regarded wineries, but not yet so sought-after as to be unaffordable. The standard Domaine Janasse was the top wine of our 2016 Worth Cellaring review: we will have Domaine Janasse Chateauneuf-du-Pape, a blend, the more expensive Domaine Janasse Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Chaupin, a 100% grenache bottling, and as well, Domaine Janasse Chateauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes, now a very rare wine. Few people have tasted all three cuvées of Domaine Janasse together.
But the tasting also includes what are now regarded as some of the key or benchmark Chateaneufs: Clos des Papes (now hard to buy in New Zealand), Marcoux Vieilles Vignes both rare and very valuable, Mordorée Cuvée de la Reine, and Vieux Telegraphe. Plus three Gigondas, to compare and contrast, including the rare Saint Cosme Gigondas Hominis Fides, also 100% grenache. Three Vieilles Vignes wines, as on the label, but in fact most of the wines to be offered are old-vine wines.
The second key attraction in this tasting is the inclusion of two wines marked by John Livingstone-Learmonth as 6-stars out of 5. He is more sparing in applying this accolade than Robert Parker has been with 100-point rankings. For either person, these wines are exciting, reflecting as they do the view that this wine is for all practical purposes 'perfect'. All in all therefore, a tasting not to be missed. Our wines are:
2005 Saint Cosme Gigondas Valbelle
2005 Saint Cosme Gigondas Hominis Fides
2005 Santa Duc Gigondas Prestige des Hautes Garrigues
2005 Clos des Papes Chateauneuf-du-Pape
2005 Domaine de la Janasse Chateauneuf-du-Pape Tradition
2005 Domaine de la Janasse Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Chaupin
2005 Domaine de la Janasse Chateauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes
2005 Domaine Marcoux Chateauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes
2005 Domaine de la Mordorée Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de la Reine
2005 Tardieu-Laurent Chateauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes
2005 Domaine Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape
2005 Domaine Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf-du-Pape
Time: Thursday 30 May, 2019, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $75 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events (scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the Booking Conditions.
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. Sometimes tastings sell out fairly quickly. However, there are always cancellations. It is imperative therefore to use the waiting list, please, via email to: online@regionalwines.co.nz
For many years, Dr Neil McCallum (PhD Oxford, then Chemistry Division, DSIR, founder of Dry River Wines in 1979 – one of the founding four wineries ie Ata Rangi, Chifney, Dry River and Martinborough Vineyard), was regarded as the leading New Zealand wine industry technical guru ... not least because of the erudite and sometimes lofty manner he could adopt with tiresome questioners.
In his heyday there was about Neil a certain conviction that his way of doing things is the right way ... an innate confidence which he shared with the late Dr John Middleton, of Mount Mary vineyard, Yarra Valley. Accordingly, in this country where the wine-writing fraternity is rather much inclined to take wine industry dicta as gospel, Neil was relatively easily able to convince the wine public that his wines and notably his pinot noir were top-shelf. There was the odd murmur of doubt, from those who sought their wine inspiration from further afield than New Zealand, but by and large, the reputation of Neil McCallum and Dry River stands firm even today, notwithstanding that Neil is no longer involved, and the vineyard as a whole is now owned (in a low-profile way) by the American Julian Robertson, also owner of Kauri Cliffs Lodge, Matauri Bay, and other lodges.
One of the features of the Dry River website in Neil's day was the column labelled: Musings. These make for interesting though sometimes hard reading. Amongst much else, they document Neil's conviction that: "Nevertheless, for fine wine, there is one common goal which all will strive for and that is the need for a long-lived wine to allow the development of the virtues and flavours of the classic varietal(s) in the bottle." Neil always emphasised his wines were built for the long haul.
This tasting will examine the extent to which the Dry River wines live up to that claim and intention. The tasting will also seek to establish a feeling for the quality of Dry River Pinot Noir, and Dry River Syrah (though there are no outside wines, to calibrate the exercise). This will be of acute interest, since Martinborough is a climate where in some years it is easy to over-ripen pinot noir. At the same time, it can be damnably difficult to coax syrah to perfect ripeness. Which variety therefore, in Neil’s hands, will turn out to be the most highly-rated by our tasters ?
The wines will ideally be as below, matched vintage for vintage, and presented blind. Cost is less than one bottle of the current vintage Dry River Pinot Noir, closer to one bottle of the Syrah. In the event of cork-taint striking, if possible a closely allied vintage will be substituted:
1999 Dry River Pinot Noir Amaranth
1999 Dry River Syrah Arapoff Vineyard
2000 Dry River Pinot Noir
2000 Dry River Syrah Arapoff Vineyard
2001 Dry River Pinot Noir
2001 Dry River Syrah Arapoff Vineyard
2002 Dry River Pinot Noir
2002 Dry River Syrah Lovat Vineyard
2005 Dry River Pinot Noir
2005 Dry River Syrah Lovat Vineyard
2006 Dry River Pinot Noir
2006 Dry River Syrah Amaranth Lovat Vineyard
Time: Thursday 18 April 2019, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $55 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events (scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the Booking Conditions.
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. Sometimes tastings sell out fairly quickly. However, there are always cancellations. It is imperative therefore to use the waiting list, please, via email to: online@regionalwines.co.nz
I suggest a reflective / contemplative approach, to best enjoy this tasting. In the 1960s, the wine world in Australia and New Zealand was dramatically different from now. Australia however had the immense advantage of always having had a vinifera wine industry, so Australian winemakers did not suddenly have to learn what proper wine tasted like, unlike New Zealand.
In the 1950s and 1960s, some of the most famous names in Australian wine were still practising wineries. The near-destruction of the long-established 100-year-old artisan side of the wine industry by profit-seeking corporates had not yet started. But even so, it was a different world. Like Europe, big old wood still played an important role in red-wine elevation. New small oak had been experimented with since the earliest 1950s, but for the first decade it was American white oak almost entirely, it being much cheaper.
At that time, as in New Zealand, cabernet sauvignon was almost unknown, except at Coonawarra. Shiraz, then called Hermitage, was the mainstay of the Australian red wine industry. But in the early 1950s, some progressive winemakers were planting cabernet, and by the later 1950s and early 1960s, cabernet sauvignon reds started to appear. And then followed the excitement of realising that the Bordeaux model for cabernet sauvignon was raised solely in French oak. Progressively throughout the 1960s, more and more labels proudly spoke of ‘new French oak’.
Our wines date from 1967 through to 1969, so they are all 50 years old, or older. They include some of the most famous wine-names of the day, long before the plethora of specialist boutique winegrowers appeared. We do not have the rarest and finest wines of the era: by and large they did not reach New Zealand. [I have put aside a Penfolds Grange in our timespan, for a Penfolds retrospective tasting.] And there were not the specialist wine importers, then. The best wines then tended to come from the established wineries.
Among our wines, perhaps the very highly regarded Lindeman’s 4-figure Bin wines from the long-established and then-famous Hunter Valley region were at the time the most famous, and are amongst the most sought-after now (after Grange). Some of our other labels had had brilliant pre-cursor wines, when they were small-production almost experimental wines, but within 10 years, as production volumes increased, the wines never quite re-captured their early reclame. Both the Hardys C-series Cabernet Sauvignons and the Mildara Coonawarra labels come into this category. But ours are still a clear pointer to the winestyles of the times.
The standard reference for the famous Australian wines of the 1960s is: Lake, Max, 1966: Classic Wines of Australia. The Jacaranda Press, 134 p. (Reprinted 1967, twice.)
As in New Zealand, public interest in these older wines has suddenly picked up, at auction. Prices are firming markedly. At the same time, corks then in both countries were both short, and of indifferent quality. Once these wines reach 35 – 40 years old, the corks are on their last legs. Some of our bottles show some ullage, but in my experience should still be workable. There are back-up bottles for some.
My desired tasting is listed first, to sample a better range of then styles, with fallback wines below.
1968 Hardy’s Cabernet Sauvignon Bin C779, McLaren Vale (or 1967, C711)
1967 Kaiser Stuhl Shiraz Individual Vineyard Bin T65, Barossa Valley
1967 Lindeman’s Hunter River Burgundy Bin 3603, Hunter River (back-up bottle)
1969 McWilliam’s Philip Hermitage, Hunter Valley (back-up bottle)
1968 Mildara Cabernet Sauvignon, Coonawarra (the then top label)
1969 Orlando Cabernet, Barossa Valley (the then top label)
1969 Orlando Hermitage (a special Bin wine), Barossa Valley
1969 Seppelt Hermitage / Cabernet Bin EC4, Great Western & Barossa Valley (back-up bottle)
1968 Saltram Cabernet / Shiraz Mamre Brook, Barossa Valley (the then top label)
1968 Stonyfell Cabernet / Shiraz Metala, Langhorne Creek (the then top label , back-up bottle)
1969 Chateau Tahbilk Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 52, Nagambie Lakes, Victoria
1968 Wynns Cabernet Sauvignon Black Label, Coonawarra
Fall-back wines:
1968 Mildara Cabernet / Shiraz / Malbec, Coonawarra
1969 Seppelt Cabernet Sauvignon Bin GW160, Barooga, New South Wales
1969 Seppelt Hermitage Bin BW6, Great Western
1969 Chateau Tahbilk Cabernet, Nagambie Lakes, Victoria
1969 Chateau Tahbilk Shiraz, Nagambie Lakes, Victoria
1967 Wynns Hermitage White Label, Coonawarra
GIGONDAS AND CHATEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE AT 20 YEARS: THE 1999 VINTAGE …
Time: Thursday 28 March, 2019, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $70 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events (scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the booking conditions.
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. Sometimes tastings sell out fairly quickly. However, there are always cancellations. It is imperative therefore to use the waiting list, please, via email to: online@regionalwines.co.nz
1999 is an interesting year in France, a year of moderation after the hot-year and often tanniny wines of 1998. In Burgundy 1999 is rated 92 – juicy, rich and vibrant – by Wine Spectator, whereas in the Northern Rhone Valley their rating is 96 – silky vintage with stunning quality for Cote-Rotie. In the Southern Rhone Valley however, their conclusion is a little less than Burgundy, 90 – Syrah- and Mourvèdre-based wines offer lovely balance and length; Grenache-based wines less successful.
So for all those who think the 1998s in the Southern Rhone Valley (Wine Spectator, 97) are a bit big and ripe, or tanniny, then the lighter, more supple 1999s should have much appeal. The only caveat to mention is, at that time, a measure of brett was frequent in many of the wines of these districts, so if you are hypersensitive to the savoury, fragrant qualities of even a measured brett component, this tasting might not be for you. Happily, many people find a little brett part of the wonderfully food-friendly appeal of Southern Rhone Valley wines.
There is a certain symmetry in checking out the 1999s at their 20-year point … an age when most Chateauneuf-du-Pape wines are considered to be approaching maturity. But we can add to that symmetry by having half the tasting from the second great appellation of the Southern Rhone Valley, Gigondas, to match the six wines from Chateauneuf-du-Pape. For most Gigondas wines, 20 years should be clearly full maturity. In effect this will mean that the red (and some black) berry characters and hints of aromatic garrigue complexity of youth will now be fully melded into complex, savoury, mouth-watering wines with some mellow autumnal hints, wines crying out for protein-rich meals.
Our wines will be:
GIGONDAS:
1999 Domaine La Bouissiere Gigondas
1999 Domaine La Bouissiere Gigondas Le Font du Tonin
1999 Domaine du Cayron Gigondas
1999 Ch de Saint-Cosme Gigondas
1999 Domaine Santa Duc Gigondas
1999 Domaine Santa Duc Gigondas Prestige des Hautes Garrigues
CHATEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE
1999 Domaine Charvin Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1999 Domaine de la Janasse Chateauneuf-du-Pape Chaupin
1999 Domaine de la Mordorée Chateauneuf-du-Pape La Reine des Bois
1999 Clos des Papes Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1999 Domaine du Pegau Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1999 Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape
Reserve wines:
1999 Domaine Saint-Benoit Chateauneuf-du-Pape Grande Garde
1999 Domaine Brusset Cairanne Hommage a André Brusset
Time: Thursday 22 November, 2018, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $55 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events (scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email:
online@regionalwines.co.nz
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. IMPORTANT: if this tasting sells out, and because there are always cancellations, please contact Regional Wines, contact details as given above, and ask to be wait-listed.
Old sweet wines can develop quite deep colours, yet still be gloriously exciting to taste and drink. Its a bit like our old chardonnay tasting: accustomed as we are to lemongreen hues - one just needs to adjust the set. Notwithstanding the more mature flavours, provided the wine still smells and tastes fresh and fragrant, with an appropriate acid balance, there is much pleasure to be had. As with our old chardonnay Library Tasting, more bottles will be opened than are presented, so there should be no duds.
There are several goals in this tasting: since we have looked at German rieslings in depth in the last couple of years, in this tasting we will (I hope, corks willing) compare sweet / dessert rieslings from Australia, California, and New Zealand. At the same time we will check one of the first / perhaps the first botrytised riesling commercialised in New Zealand, a wine panned in its day by local wine critics unaccustomed to natural sweet wines. It is 1983, matching two other wines. We will have a sweet muller-thurgau too, a modest grape now much-patronised, to see if its subtle charms have survived 30 years. It was made by Larry McKenna, so it got off to a good start.
We will also have three vintages of sweet chenin blanc, spanning 32 years, to see if that (like muller-thurgau, modest) grape can in fact produce wines of excitement – other than very occasionally in the Loire Valley. We have new-world wines.
And then there is one of Australia's rare wines, a 1983 Lindeman's Hunter River Porphyry 4-number Bin wine, back when Lindemans was a noble name on the Australian wine scene. Being semillon, it is matched vintage for vintage with 1983 Ch Rieussec, regarded by some as second to d'Yquem in the Sauternes hierarchy. And to conclude, a 1970 Ch Coutet from Barsac, next door to Sauternes, to add perspective to the whole exercise.
The wines will be:
CHENIN BLANC:
2013 Esk Valley Chenin Blanc Late-Harvest, Hawkes Bay
1993 Esk Valley Chenin Blanc Botrytis Bunch Selection Reserve, Hawkes Bay
1981 St Leonard's Chenin Blanc Late-Harvest, Victoria
RIESLING / RHINE RIESLING / MULLER-THURGAU:
1984 Seville Estate Riesling Beerenauslese, Yarra Valley
One of the following two:
1979 Felton Empire White Riesling, Santa Barbara
1979 Joseph Phelps Vineyard Johannisberg Riesling Selected Late-Harvest, Napa Valley
1987 Martinborough Vineyard Muller-Thurgau Late-Harvest, Martinborough
1986 Millton Vineyard Rhine Riesling Late-Harvest Individual Bunch Selection, Gisborne
1983 Saint Helena Rhine Riesling Late-Harvest Botrytised Selection, Canterbury
1994 Villa Maria Noble Riesling Botrytis Selection Reserve, Hawkes Bay
SEMILLON or SEMILLON / SAUVIGNON:
1970 Ch Coutet, Barsac
1983 Lindemans Hunter River Porphyry Bin 6680, New South Wales
1983 Ch Rieussec, Sauternes
Reserve wines:
1986 Peter Lehmann Botrytis Semillon Sauternes, Barossa Valley
2008 Riverby Estate Noble Riesling, Marlborough
1987 Rongopai [ Muller-Thurgau & Riesling ] Late-Harvest, Te Kauwhata
Time: 6.30 pm, Thursday 8 November, 2018
Place: Kidnapper Cliffs Room, Te Awa Winery, 2375 State Highway 50 (750m NNE of Ngatarawa Road intersection)
Cost: $170. Please see Booking Conditions.
Booking and Payment: Visit www.fawc.co.nz/events/view-events/event/519408 F.A.W.C ! subscriber's bookings open 9am Monday 27 August, and public bookings 9am Tuesday 28 August. Further information including the waiting-list in Booking Conditions, below.
Limit: 19-only places
Contact person: at Te Awa Winery: Lisa Chambers, mobile 027 910 0019, email: lisac@teawa.com
Booking Conditions / Waiting-List: There are no refunds for non-attendance. If circumstances prevent you attending, it is your responsibility to find a substitute. F.A.W.C ! can help in this, with their Ticket Buy and Sell facility called FAWC ! Marketplace: www.fawc.co.nz/events/fawc-marketplace. Conversely,
since this tasting sold out in 45 minutes from opening on the Monday, if you wish to be on the Waiting List, please register at the same address to buy tickets, should they become available.
The Tasting
For those of us fortunate enough to live in a temperate viticultural climate ... places like Bordeaux, Northern Rhone Valley, Waiheke Island, Hawkes Bay, the world's greatest syrahs without question are: Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle (traditionally), J L Chave Hermitage (latterly), Guigal individual vineyard 'La La' Cote Roties, Guigal Hermitage Ex Voto (very recently), and maybe Jamet Cote Rotie
This tasting will present exactly the above wines from these producers (NB but only the Ex Voto from Guigal), from the great 2010 vintage. Two of these wines are rated 100-points, on the Robert Parker website, which makes them both rare and more valuable. For the quality of the vintage, Wine Spectator maintains the best Vintage Chart in the business, and their summary of 2010 in the Northern Rhone Valley is: Cool, wet spring resulted in historically low yields, but excellent growing season ... a late harvest of terrific quality. Reds are racy and loaded with minerality; even better defined than '09. Additionally, there will be two other vintages of the rare J L Chave Hermitage, to secure a feel for that wine both younger, and with a little more bottle age, plus Jaboulet's La Petite Chapelle Hermitage.
My observation is that very few New Zealand winemakers have ever tasted these wines, and fewer still have tasted several Hermitages of this calibre together. Yet these are the greatest syrahs on Earth. Added to them will be five of New Zealand's top syrahs, all in a blind tasting.
The cost is due to most of the French wines being $400 – $500 bottles, and most of the NZ ones $100 bottles. So to taste 12 wines of this calibre for $170 is more than reasonable, not even counting their rarity.
Interest in syrah among switched-on winemakers is currently high. Syrah is arguably the most critical and exciting new variety in New Zealand, precisely because on the world stage, it is hard for us to challenge the long-established reputation of Bordeaux, or the mystique and rarity of Burgundy.
Whereas the delimited zone for great syrah is so small, Hermitage, Cote Rotie, and maybe Cornas and Saint-Joseph, and the wines are so rare, there is real scope for New Zealand to make an impact on the syrah world wine stage.
Because these wines are so rare, and so rarely offered in comparative blind public tastings in New Zealand, it is possible the tasting will fill very quickly.
Our wines will be (subject to the corks):
France:
2010 J L Chave Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
2010 Guigal Hermitage Ex Voto, Northern Rhone Valley
2010 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley
2010 Jaboulet Hermitage La Petite Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley
2010 Jamet Cote Rotie, Northern Rhone Valley
2014 J L Chave Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
2005 J L Chave Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
New Zealand:
2010 Bilancia Syrah La Collina, Hawkes Bay
2010 Cable Bay Syrah Reserve, Waiheke Island
2010 Craggy Range Syrah Le Sol, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
2010 Mission Syrah Huchet, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
2010 Trinity Hill Syrah Homage, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
Three things to note about GK Library Tastings: Please see the first Summer FAWC ! Tasting, 2009 & 2010 Pinot Noir, above.
About the presenter: Please see the first Summer FAWC ! Tasting,
2009 & 2010 Pinot Noir, above.
Time: 6.30 pm, Tuesday 6 November, 2018
Place: Kidnapper Cliffs Room, Te Awa Winery, 2375 State Highway 50 (750m NNE of Ngatarawa Road intersection)
Cost: $70. Please see Booking Conditions.
Booking and Payment: Visit www.fawc.co.nz/events/view-events/event/519359 F.A.W.C ! subscriber's bookings open 9am Monday 27 August, and public bookings 9am Tuesday 28 August. Further information including the waiting-list in Booking Conditions, below.
Limit: 19-only places
Contact person: at Te Awa Winery: Lisa Chambers, mobile 027 910 0019, email: lisac@teawa.com
Booking Conditions / Waiting-List: There are no refunds for non-attendance. If circumstances prevent you attending, it is your responsibility to find a substitute. F.A.W.C ! can help in this, with their Ticket Buy and Sell facility, called FAWC ! Marketplace: please see www.fawc.co.nz/events/fawc-marketplace. Conversely, if the event sells out, and you wish to be on the Waiting List, please register at the same address to buy tickets, should they become available.
The Tasting
Seven or eight years is a sweet spot in cellaring for reputable New Zealand pinot noir. The 2009 and 2010 vintages are pretty good in most of our pinot districts. It will be good therefore to see the wines around full maturity, in a market-place more accustomed to current-release-vintage wines. For this tasting, our wines are from Martinborough, Nelson, and a majority from Central Otago.
The other aspect I am looking forward to is a quizzical one. The tasting will include two of the so-called 'trophy' New Zealand pinot noirs, which are so expensive few people ever taste them. In a blind tasting, will we be able to recognise their quality ? Are they worth the money, or do they simply appeal to people easily seduced by the quality of the oak, rather than the absolute quality of the wine itself ?
We will have one sound burgundy in the mix, to see to what extent New Zealand examples of pinot noir capture the essence of pinot noir the grape.
I am deliberately using a straightforward and available French wine of good repute (Jancis Robinson, 17), and around the $100 mark,
to benchmark the complete batch of wines, rather than just the premium-priced ones.
This should be a fun tasting, but of considerable interest too. For background reading on a similar tasting, but not exactly the same wines, please see here:
Our wines will be:
2009 Bannock Brae Pinot Noir Barrel Selection, Bannockburn, Central Otago
2010 Drouhin Clos des Mouches Premier Cru, Beaune, Burgundy
2009 Escarpment Pinot Noir, Martinborough
2009 Escarpment Pinot Noir Kupe, Te Muna Road, Martinborough
2009 Felton Road Bannockburn, Bannockburn, Central Otago
2010 Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir Marie Zelie, Martinborough
2009 Mt Difficulty Pinot Noir, Bannockburn, Central Otago
2010 Mt Difficulty Pinot Noir Pipeclay Terrace, Bannockburn, Central Otago
2009 Neudorf Pinot Noir Home Vineyard, Moutere Hills, Nelson
2009 Peregrine Pinot Noir Pinnacle, 75% Bendigo and 25% Pisa, Central Otago
2009 Pisa Range Pinot Noir Black Poplar, Cromwell Basin, Central Otago
2009 Rockburn Pinot Noir, Cromwell Basin & Gibbston, Central Otago
Three things to note about GK Library Tastings:
# This tasting will be presented blind, so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited,
if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
# Cork taint / TCA / oxidation: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of defective bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. The glasses will be XL5s – all the information is in an XL5, it is the glass winemakers use. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), for several reasons: to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles; to lower the entry price; and to better comply with alcohol / driving legislation. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
About the presenter:
Geoff Kelly is a former DSIR scientist / ecologist. He has studied wine since the mid-1960s, originally setting his palate more via the wines of Europe and Australia than the then-embryonic local wine industry. He published the first comprehensive account of Pinot Noir in New Zealand in 1982, and was founding wine-writer for National Business Review and then Cuisine magazines, later that decade. At that stage he contributed to viticulture and oenology research in both the Department of Agriculture, Te Kauwhata, and the Oenology group at Lincoln University,
Canterbury, and continued as a visiting lecturer at Lincoln until 2016. He has judged at the Air New Zealand and Royal Easter Show national wine competitions, acting as a senior judge for 35 years. He is now a wine consultant concentrating on wine evaluation, publishing at: www.geoffkellywinereviews.co.nz)
Time: Thursday 25 October, 2018, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $125 per person
Bookings: on-line via https://www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events (scroll down) primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please see the booking conditions.
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. IMPORTANT: This tasting sold out fairly quickly. However, there are always cancellations, but because people will not use the waiting list, for the last superlative tasting we had an empty place. Please use the waiting list, contact details as given above, and ask to be wait-listed.
The 1970s were dire times in Bordeaux. 1970 itself was quite good, but for the rest of the decade, every half-decent vintage was heralded with feverish enthusiasm, as in a drowning man clutching at straws. Michael Broadbent, the ultimate arbiter for those times, allows the best vintage in the 70s four stars, and 1978 three. A cool and late season was miraculously rescued by beautiful weather in later September and October. But looking back from the warmer and riper times of this century, the wines are 'classic', aromatic, firm bordeaux, fragrant but rarely plush or generous on the palate. But we do have some of the best labels from the Medoc, so join us for a little time-travel, and to answer the question: what does claret taste like at 40 years of age.
Pricing this tasting is hard. On the one hand, wines like Ch Latour, Ch Palmer, Ch Leoville Las Cases are so expensive now, that to replace these 1978s with current 2015s, which in one sense is the logical basis on which to price the tasting, works out at around $250 per person. On that basis, tasting Bordeaux labels such as these is going to become rare in the future.
So while this 1978 selection presents labels now hard to taste, on the other hand there is the thought that some of the wines may now be waning. So the proposal is, half that 2015 vintage cost seems reasonable. Let us know your thoughts.
The final selection may vary slightly from the list. Corks willing, the Bordeaux and the Sassicaia are definite.
Bordeaux
1978 Ch d'Angludet, highly rated cru bourgeois
1978 Ch Grand Puy Lacoste, Fifth Growth, Pauillac
1978 Ch Latour, First Growth, Pauillac
1978 Ch Leoville Barton, Second Growth, Saint Julien
1978 Ch Leoville Las Cases, Second Growth, St Julien
1978 Ch Montrose, Second Growth, Saint-Estephe
1978 Ch Palmer, Third Growth, Margaux
1978 Ch Pichon Lalande, Second Growth, Pauillac
1978 Ch Pontet Canet, Fifth Growth, Pauillac
Italy:
1978 Pio Cesare Barolo, Piedmont
1978 Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia Bolgheri, Tuscany
California:
1978 Pine Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford, Napa Valley
Time: Thursday 27 September, 2018, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $105 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/wine-content.aspx/wine-tastings primarily; or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz
Places: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. NB: If this tasting fills on the electronic booking list, please ring Regional Wines Tastings 385 6952, and ask to be wait-listed, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
To mark the death of Auguste Clape of Cornas on 13 July at the age of 93, we need a vertical tasting of his top wine. The Northern Rhone Valley syrahs of Auguste Clape have long been the most famous of the Cornas district. Eric Asimov, writing at the time of his death in The New York Times, says:
Mr. Clape was one of a pantheon of midcentury winegrowers in the northern Rhone whose wines, though made initially for the local market, were eventually celebrated internationally as among the most profound expressions of the syrah grape. It was Mr. Clape's wines, with their chewy textures and savory, smoky flavors, that compelled people to take tiny Cornas seriously.
The famed Kermit Lynch, wine merchant extraordinaire of Berkeley, says of Auguste Clape:
In the world of wine, there are many good winegrowers. However, there are only a very select few who are truly great, and Auguste Clape is among them. Critics and connoisseurs alike all agree that he is one of the greatest upioneers of the Northern Rhone, and his Syrahs from the cru of Cornas are among the most celebrated wines of France. Auguste was the first [in the district] to bottle his own wine ... Though the Clapes farm only eight hectares, the challenge presented by the rough, tightly stacked terrace vineyards of Cornas is largely enough to handle by anybody's standards. ... All work must be done by hand. ... The vineyards sit on granite subsoil, behind the village, with optimal sun exposure.
We will consider the following 12 vintages of Clape Cornas: 1979,
1983, 1985, 1990, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2015, with a couple of other vintages in hand, in case of TCA. This top label is made only from vines more than 30 years of age.
The listed 12 vintages score 87 through to 99+ in robertparker.com, with most in the 90s. Their values on wine-searcher range from $NZ165 – $NZ864. This will therefore be a memorable tasting, particularly since it includes virtually all the best vintages (i.e. warmer, in this district) in the Northern Rhone Valley, over the interval represented.
Only fair to comment that a few people find the wines of Cornas in general, and Clape in particular, a little rustic. Latterly winemaking has passed to his son Pierre-Marie, and grand-son Olivier is now in the winery too. Therefore we can expect to see subtle changes in the later vintages. This is an unprecedented opportunity (in Wellington) for wine-lovers to form their own opinion on this matter. Note the wines are tightly rationed in New Zealand, so such opportunities are rare.
Date: Thursday 30 August, 2018, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $65 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events primarily (scroll down); or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz
Seats: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. NB: If this tasting fills on the electronic booking list, please ring Regional Wines Tastings 385 6952, and ask to be wait-listed, since there is all-too-often a last-minute place.
The incomparable Hugh Johnson on chardonnay, in his book Wine, 1966:
A friend of mine is a typical grower in Meursault ... I once asked him about the keeping
qualities of Meursault. Before I could stop him he had found a bottle of his wine of 1929,
unthinkably old from a commercial point of view ... Time had done nothing but round off
its formidable qualities into a beautifully polished prism of scent and taste ...
This is a special tasting, not so much of great bottles but of interesting ones. It is designed for genuine wine-lovers, those who love old wine as much as young ones, those who approach a wine seeking virtues, rather than faults.
Happily there are quite a number of such people, perhaps more overseas, for wine-searcher indicates values exceeding $500 for one of the older bottles, and over $100 for quite a number – wines which as Hugh Johnson notes above, are impossibly old in a conventional market sense. But yet, there is this thought, that the hallmark of really good wine is that it ages gracefully.
A point to note for the Australian wines (which include their best) is that some (but not all) see no MLF – which keeps them fresher. But even without the MLF fermentation, the extended lees contact for the good ones should produce satisfying aromas and flavours reminiscent of oatmeal, cashew and brazil nuts, and in wines that have darkened a little, maybe hazelnut and sometimes even a touch of walnut flavours, where oak use has been too enthusiastic.
So join us for a little adventure in wine, for, given the price of present-day quality chardonnays, you only need to find one wine that is memorable for you, for the tasting to be justifiable. Worth commenting that the Giaconda Chardonnay from Beechworth, Victoria, was $160 at release on the shelf, in NZ, so not many will have tasted that. I will open more than 12, since old chardonnays sadly are easily affected by cork taint, and present the best ones. They will be selected from:
1975 Cuvaison Chardonnay, Napa Valley, California, 13.7%
1979 Haraszthy Cellars Buena Vista Chardonnay Heritage, Sonoma, California, 13%
1980 McWilliams Chardonnay, Hawkes Bay, – % (Gold Medal)
1982 Domaine Comtes Lafon Meursault-Charmes Premier Cru, 12.8%
1982 Domaine Comtes Lafon Meursault Clos de la Barre, 12.8%
1984 Mount Mary Chardonnay, Yarra Valley, Victoria, 13.2%
1984 Yarra Yering Chardonnay, Yarra Valley, Victoria, – %
1985 Tyrrell's Pinot Chardonnay Vat 47, Hunter Valley, NSW, 13%
1994 Penfolds Chardonnay Bin 94A, 'cool districts', 13.5%
1994 Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay, Margaret River, WA, 13.5%
1995 Eyrie Vineyards Chardonnay Reserve, Willamette Valley, Oregon, 13%
1996 Bannockburn Chardonnay, Geelong, Victoria, 14%
1998 Kumeu River Chardonnay Maté's, Kumeu, 13.5%
2000 Morton Estate Chardonnay Coniglio, Hawkes Bay, 14.5%
2001 Giaconda Chardonnay, Beechworth, Victoria, 13.5%
2001 Dry River Chardonnay Amaranth, Martinborough, 13%
DU-PAPES TASTE IN 2018 ?
Date: Thursday 26 July, 2018, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $85 per person
Bookings: on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events primarily (scroll down); or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz
Seats: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. NB: If this tasting fills on the electronic booking list, please ring Regional Wines Tastings 385 6952, and ask to be wait-listed, since there is all-too-often a last-minute place.
There is some debate about how good the Southern Rhone Valley wines from 1998, a sunny year, are nowadays.
Robert Parker's vintage chart in 2018 continues to rate the vintage 98 and "Early maturing and accessible", and likewise Wine Spectator, producers of the most thoughtful vintage chart in the business, currently says of the 1998 vintage: 97, Dense and rich; superb Grenache harvest led to blockbuster reds with ripe tannins. The American Wine Enthusiast magazine in its on-line vintage chart updated 2017, rates the vintage 96 and Superb. Antonio Galloni of Vinous considers: In the South, the '98 vintage was a great one, a year in which the area mainstay grape, grenache, could reach glorious ripeness despite the hefty crop size.
Across the Atlantic in London, Steven Spurrier, the highly-regarded British wine authority, is currently offering a tasting of certain 1998 Chateauneuf-du-Papes vs 2007 (at £350, and fewer wines than the tasting below), for which he says: Since the immense vintage of 1998 - which was the best of the 1990s ... , and later Spurrier is happy to quote Robert Parker thus: 1998 stands out as one of the great vintages of the last 30 years in Chateauneuf-du-Pape ... And for another English voice, Neal Martin has this to say on the 1998 Vieux Donjon: the Vieux Donjon '98 is a scintillating wine ...
Can they all be wrong ? As has been the case before, the dissenting voice is Jancis Robinson, based on an article she presented in 2005, titled: 1998 Rhones - not so glorious, alas. The selection of wines she tasted for the article was good, but not exactly comprehensive. But nonetheless those who derive most of their wine knowledge from labels and books rather than critical blind tasting now like to damn the vintage – despite the continuing almost universal approval for the 1998 Chateauneuf-du-Papes elsewhere in the world.
Here is your chance to disregard the experts, and make up your own mind. Where else in New Zealand (or indeed many other places) could you be offered a tasting of ten 1998 Chateauneuf-du-Papes, plus two 1998 Gigondas ? The point of the two Gigondas is to have one with traditional large old oak elevation, and one with small new oak, in the modern way. This will help us understand the Chateauneufs. Incidentally, many now rate 1998 Domaine de la Mordorée Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de la Reine des Bois the wine of the vintage. It is included.
Corks willing , our wines will be:
1998 Ch de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1998 Domaine de Beaurenard Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1998 Domaine du Caillou Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1998 Brunel Les Cailloux Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1998 Domaine Charvin Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1998 Domaine de la Mordorée Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de la Reine des Bois
1998 Ch la Nerthe Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1998 Domaine du Pegau Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Reservée
1998 Domaine Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1998 Domaine du Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1998 Ch de Saint Cosme Gigondas
1998 Ch de Saint Cosme Gigondas Valbelle
Date: 6.30 pm, Thursday 5 July,
2018
Place: Board Room, Villa Maria winery, 118 Montgomerie Rd, Mangere
Cost: $145. Please see Booking Conditions
Booking and Payment: Since the presenter is in Wellington, and the venue is in Auckland, bookings to share in these tastings will be accepted only by email, and listed in strict time / date order of receipt. Please book directly with me, BY EMAIL (geoff dot kelly at xtra dot co dot nz), making clear which of the two tastings you are booking for. Please include your (preferably mobile) phone number, or land-line number. You will be advised details to pay me by direct credit to a bank account. There is no alternative method of payment. Credit cards are not accepted. The booking will be listed as firm only once payment is received.
Seats: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. A waiting-list will be made, if needed, to facilitate replacements. Bookings will still be taken in the last 48 hours, but administrative / travel constraints mean administering the waiting list in the last 48 hours cannot be guaranteed. We will however try to action cancellations and replacements up till 11 am the day of the tasting. It is therefore worth trying, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place. So – PLEASE USE THE WAITING LIST.
Details to note about GK Library Tastings:
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines.
If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one. [ However, for this tasting, I will bring reserve bottles of the 2009 Chave and 2009 La Chapelle, since they are so important to the tasting. ]
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once. The tasting is blind. Both these factors enable more accurate assessment. The glasses will be Schott-Zwiesel XL5s – all the information is in an XL5, it is the glass winemakers use – one just has to work a little harder.
Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking..
The Tasting
For wine-people in a viticultural climate such as New Zealand, which in terms of results closely approximates the Northern Rhone Valley, then arguably the two greatest syrahs in the world are J L Chave's Hermitage, and the newly-restored Jaboulet Hermitage la Chapelle, now it is owned by the Frey Family of Ch La Lagune, Bordeaux.
But how many people in New Zealand, even winemakers, have tasted the two wines together ? Our tasting will be centred on the 2009 vintage, a very good vintage in the Northern Rhone. It is rated 96 points, 'Reds are rich and polished', by Wine Spectator (who have the best vintage charts in the business).
We will compare 2009 J L Chave Hermitage (a Parker 100-point wine) with 2009 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle (Parker 98 points), 2009 Jaboulet Hermitage La Petite Chapelle (92), 2009 Yann Chave Hermitage (94) and his top Crozes-Hermitage Le Rouvre (91 +), and the now rare and sought-after 2009 Clape Cornas. There will be New Zealand 2009 syrahs too, including 2009 Trinity Hill Syrah Homage (arguably New Zealand's most highly-regarded syrah), then two older J L Chave Hermitages, to see how they age. This is a rare opportunity to come to grips with the very essence of syrah the grape, at a cost of less than half the price of one bottle of J L Chave Hermitage.
Our wines will be (subject to the corks):
2009 J L Chave Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
2009 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley
2009 Jaboulet Hermitage La Petite Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley
2009 Yann Chave Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
2009 Jaboulet Crozes-Hermitage Le Rouvre, Northern Rhone Valley
2009 Clape Cornas, Northern Rhone Valley
2009 Trinity Hill Syrah Homage, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
2009 Craggy Range Syrah, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
2009 Villa Maria Syrah Reserve, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
2009 Esk Valley Syrah, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
2004 J L Chave Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
1999 J L Chave Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
About the presenter: Please see the first Auckland tasting, Syrah round the World, above.
Date: 6.30 pm, Tuesday 3 July,
2018
Place: Board Room, Villa Maria winery, 118 Montgomerie Rd, Mangere
Cost: $60. Please see Booking Conditions
Booking and Payment: Since the presenter is in Wellington, and the venue is in Auckland, bookings to share in these tastings will be accepted only by email, and listed in strict time / date order of receipt. Please book directly with me, BY EMAIL ( geoff dot kelly at xtra dot co dot nz ), making clear which of the two tastings you are booking for. Please include your (preferably mobile) phone number, or land-line number. You will be advised details to pay me by direct credit to a bank account. There is no alternative method of payment. Credit cards are not accepted. The booking will be listed as firm only once payment is received.
Seats: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. A waiting-list will be made, if needed, to facilitate replacements. Bookings will still be taken in the last 48 hours, but administrative / travel constraints mean administering the waiting list in the last 48 hours cannot be guaranteed. We will however try to action cancellations and replacements up till 11 am the day of the tasting. It is therefore worth trying, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place. So ... PLEASE USE THE WAITING LIST.
Details to note about GK Library Tastings:
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines.
If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one. [ However, for this tasting, I will bring a reserve bottle of the Guigal, since it is a kind of yardstick ]
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once. The tasting is blind. Both these factors enable more accurate assessment. The glasses will be Schott-Zwiesel XL5s – all the information is in an XL5, it is the glass winemakers use – one just has to work a little harder.
Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
The Tasting
Twelve syrahs from nine countries: This tasting should be both fun and instructive. It is not intended to be a great syrah tasting, more a curious / interesting one. Have syrahs from nine different countries ever been offered for comparison in Auckland before ? The emphasis will be more on the Syrah end of the syrah / shiraz spectrum than Shiraz, with several reputable labels to help illustrate the style of this fragrant and exciting grape (when not over-ripened). They can't all be from much the same vintage, some countries being scarcely (or not) represented in New Zealand, but we've got them all within a 16-years span.
There will be twelve wines from nine countries, including America, Argentina, Australia (Western Australia, South Australia), Chile, France, Italy, New Zealand (Waiheke Island, Hawkes Bay, Otago), Portugal, and Spain. If West Australia, South Australia, Waiheke Island, Hawkes Bay, and Central Otago are regarded as different countries (from the point of view of grape varietal expression), then we have 12 syrahs from 12 countries.
Our wines will be (subject to the corks):
America, California: 2004 Foxen Syrah Williamson-Doré Vineyard, Santa Ynez Valley, Santa Barbara County
Argentina: 2008 Bodegas San Polo Syrah Auka, Uco Valley, Mendoza
Australia, South Australia: 1996 Penfolds Bin 128, Coonawarra
Australia, Western Australia: 1996 Cape Mentelle Shiraz, Margaret River
Chile: 2000 Montes Alpha Syrah, Apalta Valley
France, Northern Rhone: 1999 Guigal Cote Rotie
Italy: 1999 d'Allesandro Syrah Il Bosco, Tuscany
New Zealand, Waiheke Island: 2007 Awaroa Syah
New Zealand, Hawkes Bay: 1999 Mission Syrah Jewelstone, Gimblett Gravels
New Zealand, Central Otago: 2009 Aurora Syrah The Legacy, Bendigo Terraces
Portugal: 1994 Quinta da Lagoalva de Cima Syrah, Tejo
Spain: 2009 Dos Dedos de Frente Syrah, Calatayud
About the presenter:
Geoff Kelly is a former DSIR scientist / ecologist. He has studied wine since the mid-1960s, setting his palate more via the wines of Europe and Australia than the then-embryonic local wine industry. He published the first comprehensive account of Pinot Noir in New Zealand in 1982, and was founding wine-writer for National Business Review and then Cuisine magazines, later that decade. At that stage he contributed to viticulture and oenology research in both the Dept. of Agriculture / Te Kauwhata and Lincoln University, Canterbury, and was a visiting lecturer at the latter. He has judged at the Air New Zealand and Royal Easter Show national wine competitions, acting as a senior judge for 35 years. He is now a wine consultant concentrating on wine evaluation, publishing at: www.geoffkellywinereviews.co.nz
Date: Thursday 28 June, 2018, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $95 per person
Bookings: [ This tasting sold out early – please use the wait-list capability under Booking Conditions ] on-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events primarily (scroll down); or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04; or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz
Seats: 21 places – please note Booking Conditions
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. NB: If this tasting fills on the electronic booking list, please ring Regional Wines Tastings 385 6952, and ask to be wait-listed, since there is all-too-often a last-minute place.
A few years ago, Robert Parker said: ... for today's generation of wine enthusiasts, 1982 is what 1945, 1947, and 1949 were for an earlier generation of winelovers ... Even in Bordeaux the 1982s are now placed on a pedestal and spoken of in the same terms as 1961, 1949, 1945, and 1929.
The Tasting
The wines of Bordeaux remain the model for New Zealand's Hawkes Bay (and Waiheke Island) blends. Do we however give enough thought to how time will deal with the wines we are so proud of today ? Good examples of Bordeaux blends develop for ten, twenty and sometimes many more years. All too often in New Zealand, however, we can only read about tastings of mature fine cabernet / merlot blends held in other countries.
Here is an opportunity to not only taste, but also assess a cross-section of quality-levels of mainly Bordeaux wines, all from the 1982 vintage. It does not pretend to be a great tasting, the values of the first growths would make it inaccessible. But three of the wines are valued above $500 by wine-searcher, so there are good wines in the batch, including some now regarded as fine examples of the 1982 vintage in Bordeaux. And we have both high-cabernet and high-merlot wines amongst the good ones.
To add to the interest, we have one of the great wines of Australia, the Dry Red No 1 from the late Bailey Carrodus of Yarra Valley, surely one of Australia's greatest post-war winemakers, but a quiet and retiring man who (unlike many Australian wine people) abhorred publicity. His wines are now valued above many bordeaux. And there is a Coonawarra wine, since that district was at one time regarded as Australia's premier bordeaux-blends district.
Finally there is a great syrah from the Northern Rhone Valley, not only to remind us that in the 1800s, much fine Northern Rhone syrah was used to add backbone to claret, but also to see if this grape can in maturity be confused with cabernet sauvignon, when grown in an optimal climate.
Corks willing, the wines will be along these lines:
1982 Cos d'Estournel, Saint-Estephe Second Growth
1982 Ch Giscours, Margaux Third Growth
1982 Ch Haut-Marbuzet, St Estephe
1982 Les Hauts Conseillants, Lalande de Pomerol
1982 Jaboulet Hermitage la Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley
1982 Katnook Cabernet Sauvignon, Coonawarra
1982 Ch Montrose, St Estephe Second Growth
1982 Ch Mouton Cadet, Medoc
1982 Ch Nenin, Pomerol
1982 Ch Talbot, Saint-Julien Fourth Growth
1982 Ch Trotanoy, Pomerol (one of the top)
1982 Yarra Yering Dry Red No 1, Yarra Valley.
AND RELATED ...
Date: Sunday 17 June, 2018, 6:30pm start
Place: Kidnappers Cliffs Room, Te Awa Winery, 2375 State Highway 50 (750m NNE of Ngatarawa Road intersection)
Cost: $125 per person
Bookings: www.fawc.co.nz F.A.W.C ! subscriber's bookings open 9am Monday 23 April, and public bookings 9am Tuesday 24 April. Further information including the waiting-list in Booking Conditions, below.
Limit: 19-only places
Contact person at Te Awa Winery: Lisa Chambers, mobile 027 910 0019, email: lisac@teawa.com
Booking Conditions / Waiting-LIst: There are no refunds for non-attendance. If circumstances prevent you attending, it is your responsibility to find a substitute. F.A.W.C ! can help in this, with their Ticket Buy and Sell facility: http://www.fawc.co.nz/events/fawc-marketplace Conversely, if the event sells out, and you wish to be on the Waiting List, please register at the same address to buy tickets, should they become available.
The second F.A.W.C ! tasting seeks to remedy the fact that New Zealand being a young wine country, the opportunity to share in vertical tastings rarely arises. In this tasting we span 26 years of the same village-Hermitage bottling from Maison Guigal, via 7 different vintages. Additionally, for the 2003 vintage, a great year in the Northern Rhone, there are wines from two other Hermitage producers, and one Hawkes Bay, to assist with better understanding of the syrah winestyle. Finally, there is a taste of the rare Guigal Hermitage Ex Voto, a $500+ bottle. Our vintage is rated 100 points by Robert Parker.
The reputation of the Guigals, grandfather Etienne, father Marcel, and son Philippe grows year on year. Robert Parker first recognised the extraordinary skills of the Guigals, and thus has a clearer view of their achievements than anybody. In his pioneering Rhone book of 1987 he said: ... the house of Guigal ... has emerged as the dominant producer of outstanding Rhone wines ... he is the Rhone's greatest exponent of the judicious use of new oak barrels for aging his wines ... wines that have impeccable balance and aging potential. Note however that Guigal Hermitage is a village-level wine, not an individual vineyard wine, such as the Guigal 'grand cru' Cote Roties. The tasting would be unaffordable, if there were seven of those.
The opportunity to assess a Hawkes Bay syrah alongside three wines of the same vintage from the famous Hermitage appellation in the Northern Rhone Valley (the home of syrah) presents a challenge. Tasters must accept the risk of corked wines, just as with your own cellared wines. There will be reserve wines, so you still receive 12 samples, but maybe not a hoped-for one.
There are twelve wines, presented blind, via 30-ml pours in XL5 glasses (Schott-Zwiesel). They are presented blind, so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited, if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
The Tasting:
1983 Guigal Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
1985 Guigal Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
1998 Guigal Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
1999 Guigal Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
2003 Guigal Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
2003 Yann Chave Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
2003 Tardieu-Laurent Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
2003 Craggy Range Syrah Block 14, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
2005 Guigal Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
2009 Guigal Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
2009 Guigal Hermitage Ex Voto, Northern Rhone Valley
2010 Guigal Crozes-Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
Date: Friday 15 June,
2018, 6:30pm start
Place: Kidnappers Cliffs Room, Te Awa Winery, 2375 State Highway 50 (750m NNE of Ngatarawa Road intersection)
Cost: $85 per person
Bookings: www.fawc.co.nz F.A.W.C ! subscriber's bookings open 9am Monday 23 April, and public bookings 9am Tuesday 24 April. Further information including the waiting-list in Booking Conditions, below.
Limit: 19-only places
Contact person at Te Awa Winery: Lisa Chambers, mobile 027 910 0019, email: lisac@teawa.com
Booking Conditions / Waiting-LIst: There are no refunds for non-attendance. If circumstances prevent you attending, it is your responsibility to find a substitute. F.A.W.C ! can help in this, with their Ticket Buy and Sell facility: http://www.fawc.co.nz/events/fawc-marketplace Conversely, if the event sells out, and you wish to be on the Waiting List, please register at the same address to buy tickets, should they become available.
The first F.A.W.C ! tasting samples the highly regarded 2000 vintage, a year of moderation with elegant wines in both Hawkes Bay and Bordeaux, and at least good in Waiheke Island and Coonawarra. At 18 years of age, the wines should now be showing a pleasing harmony, yet not be too old for those who are more accustomed to current-vintage wines.
The 2000 Vintage: In New Zealand, 2000 was a La Nina vintage (slight tendency to prevailing nor'easters). Spring was promising apart from 80 mm rain 28 / 9 November in Hawkes Bay. For reds, as in Bordeaux, not a perfectly dry season, but a settled summer / autumn except for 70 mm rain 8 – 10 April, again in Hawkes Bay. Where viticulture was good and cropping rates were conservative, a plentiful and stylish vintage with good wines resulting. Reasonable alcohols, and Bordeaux style in the best blends too – so much so that 2000 Te Mata Coleraine was in 2003 judged in the top 10 reds at VinExpo, in Bordeaux ! Waiheke Island fared somewhat better, without marked rainfall days. For Bordeaux, the vintage is generally rated highly, though not everyone agreed with Wine Spectator's initial 99 rating. They have subsequently reduced that to 95, but maintained their assessment of the vintage: Racy tannins and very delineated reds now hitting their stride. Parker rates the vintage from 94 – 97 depending on the commune. St Julien, Pauillac and St Estephe are 96 and T for tannin, indicating cellar wines. Michael Broadbent rates the vintage 5 stars for many wines, and comments: The millennium vintage largely lived up to expectations, the best for reds since 1990. The wines are developing well, and their original promise is amply justified. ... The more serious right and left bank wines are clearly in for a long, satisfactory life. A highly recommended vintage.
The wines include a cross-section of cabernet / merlot styles, including a couple of well-regarded classed growths rated 97 points by Robert Parker. One of them is described as: one of the great wines of the vintage. The opportunity to assess Hawkes Bay wines alongside similar Waiheke Island, Coonawarra, and Bordeaux examples will be a delight. Tasters must accept the risk of corked wines, just as with your own cellared wines. There will be reserve wines, so you still receive 12 samples, but maybe not a hoped-for one.
There are twelve wines, presented blind, via 30-ml pours in XL5 glasses (Schott-Zwiesel). They are presented blind so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited, if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
The Tasting:
New Zealand and Australia:
2000 Alpha Domus Aviator, Hawkes Bay
2000 Mills Reef Merlot Elspeth, Hawkes Bay
2000 Ngatarawa Alwyn, Hawkes Bay
2000 Petaluma Coonawarra Cabernet / Merlot, Coonawarra
2000 Stonyridge Larose, Waiheke Island
2000 Te Mata Coleraine, Hawkes Bay
France:
2000 Ch Angludet, Margaux
2000 Ch Lanessan, Cussac (Haut Medoc)
2000 Clos René, Pomerol
2000 Ch Grand Corbin-Despagne, St Emilion
2000 Ch Leoville Poyferre, St Julien
2000 Ch Pichon-Longueville-Baron, Pauillac
1977 AND 1963 VINTAGE PORTS, TWO OTHERS
Time: Thursday 24 May, 2018, 6.00 pm start
Venue: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $90 per person
Bookings: Please book on-line via BUY NOW at: www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events ... primarily, scroll down if need be. Or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 (Wellington prefix 04); or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz Please note Booking Conditions
Places: 24 places
Booking Conditions / Waiting-LIst: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. NB: If this tasting fills on the electronic booking list, please ring Regional Wines Tastings 04 385 6952, and ask to be wait-listed, since there is all-too-often a last-minute place.
In preparing the notes for this tasting, we have to bear in mind transatlantic differences in the approach to wine. As with red wines, the American taste in vintage port tends to the larger, riper, and sweeter. Which years constitute 'classic' vintage port years will therefore differ, either side of the Atlantic. I have preferred to use the European approach. I have therefore made extensive use of the information on the website of The Vintage Port Shop, Hampshire. The shop maintains a cellar stock of over 10,000 bottles of port. Their website has at least a little information for every single port vintage from 1912 to the present day.
For 1977 they rate it a five star vintage, one of 12 only since 1900: 1917, 1927 1945, 1948, 1955, 1960, 1963, 1966, 1970, 1977, 1994, 2011. They describe the 1977s thus: ... a classic Port vintage that was declared by all the major port houses. Even after more than thirty years, the ports are only just becoming approachable. They will last for many more decades. The port wines are concentrated, complex, well structured and balanced. Marked by strong tannins, these wines have great finesse and staying power. They have 18 1977 vintage ports in stock, the prices ranging from £85 to £375 per bottle. Note we have their three most expensive in our tasting.
For 1963, The Vintage Port Shop describes the vintage in these terms: 1963 vintage ports are the benchmark against which others are compared. The Vintage is considered to be legendary! Nearly all the shippers produced supremely balanced well-structured wines ... 1963 vintage ports never fail to impress with their essential three components of fruit, tannin and elegance. They have 22 1963 vintage ports in stock, with prices ranging from £130 to £325 for regular vintage ports, and £4,900 for Quinta do Noval's very rare Nacional. Note they rate the two in our tasting as among the eight: standing out amongst a uniformly excellent field.
The chances of being able to buy any 1963 or 1977 vintage (Portuguese) port in New Zealand are vanishingly rare. The opportunity to taste six 1977 wines, and two 1963, including most of the famous names, is therefore rare beyond description. Corks willing, the wines will be:
1963 Dow's Vintage Port
1963 Fonseca's Finest Vintage Port
1972 Stonyfell Metala Vintage Port
1975 Delaforce Finest Vintage Port
1977 Croft Vintage Port
1977 Dow's Vintage Port
1977 Fonseca's Finest Vintage Port
1977 Graham's Vintage Port
1977 Taylor's Vintage Port
1977 Warre's Vintage Port
Reserve wine: 1997 Quinta do Noval Silval Vintage Port
Pours will be 25mls. 10 wines at 20% average alcohol and 25 ml pours achieves parity with 12 table wines at 14% and 30ml.
SYRAH ROUND THE WORLD: 9 COUNTRIES,
12 WINES
Time: 6pm, Thursday, 29 March, 2018
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines and Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $45 per person
Bookings: Please book on-line at: www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events, scroll down if need be. Or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz, particularly for the wait-list.
Booking Conditions: [ The tasting Sold Out in a few hours. Please make use of the waiting list via the above email address, and include a phone number. ] There are 21 places only. A wait-list will be made, if needed. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. If space allows, bookings after that time will still be accepted – right up to, say, 5pm on the day of the tasting. If the tasting fills, please use the wait-list, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
Three points to note about GK Library Tastings:
# The tastings are presented blind, so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited,
if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. For some bottles, there is only the one. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of the other wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines,
but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price.
Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
The Tasting:
This tasting should be both fun and instructive. Have syrahs from nine different countries ever been offered for comparison in New Zealand before ?
The emphasis will be more on the Syrah end of the syrah / shiraz spectrum than Shiraz, with several definitive labels to help illustrate the style of this fragrant and exciting grape (when not over-ripened). They can't all be from much the same vintage, some countries being scarcely (or not) represented in New Zealand, but we've got them all within a 16-years span. Perhaps the American examples are the rarest for us in New Zealand, so I have matched their years with a top New Zealand, and a Trophy-winning West Australian.
Hopefully Guigal Hermitage will serve as a kind of benchmark for syrah itself, but it is an older vintage to bridge back to the Italian and Portugese examples. There will be back-up bottles of the Guigal and Craggy Range Le Sol, to guarantee a taste of those, plus Reserve wines, if needed.
The wines will be (corks willing):
America, California: 2004 Lewis Cellars Syrah, Napa Valley
America, Washington: 2003 Basel Cellars Syrah, Walla Walla Valley
Argentina: 2008 Bodegas San Polo Syrah Auka, Uco Valley, Mendoza
Australia, Victoria: 2002 Shadowfax Shiraz Pink Cliffs,
Heathcote
Australia, Western: 2004 Xabregas Shiraz Show Reserve,
Mount Barker
Chile: 2001 Montes Alpha Syrah Folly, Apalta Valley
France: 1999 Guigal Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
Italy: 1999 d'Allesandro Syrah Il Bosco, Tuscany
New Zealand, Hawkes Bay: 2004 Craggy Range Syrah Le Sol, Gimblett Gravels
New Zealand, Central Otago: 2009 Aurora Syrah The Legacy, Bendigo
Portugal: 1994 Quinta da Lagoalva de Cima Syrah, Tejo
Spain: 2009 Dos Dedos de Frente Syrah, Calatayud
DOES RIESLING AGE: THE NEAR-MYTHICAL 1971 VINTAGE IN GERMANY – INCLUDING TWO TROCKENBEERENAUSLESEN, AND ONE 1967 ...
Time: 6pm, Thursday, 30 November, 2017
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines and Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $145 per person ... a tasting almost impossible to 'price' ... the 1971s seem to have disappeared ...
Bookings: This tasting was 'sold out' within two hours of announcement. Even so, I urge you to contact Regional Wines, to be on the waiting list. Almost invariably there are last-minute cancellations. Phone 04 3856952, or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. If space allows, bookings after that time will still be accepted – right up to, say, 5pm on the day of the tasting.
Three points to note about GK Library Tastings:
# The tastings are presented blind, so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited,
if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. There are no back-up bottles. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price.
Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
The Tasting
Some idea of the rarity of the wines being offered in this unrepeatable and unprecedented tasting (in New Zealand) can be gleaned from the fact that NOT ONE of the 1971 German wines is listed in www.wine-searcher.com – despite this being arguably the greatest German vintage since the war. Simply unbelievable. In fact, not one of the 12 wines is listed exactly as to vintage and label – shows how much the world thinks about riesling.
The basic layout of the tasting will be: since 2001 is considered perhaps the best year In Germany since 1971, we will have a spatlese from the famous producer Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt as a sighter for young riesling, then from 1971 two spatlesen, five auslesen, two beerenauslesen one 1971, one 1967 (50 years !), and two trockenbeerenauslesen, both 1971. To highlight the fully sweet wines, we will also have a 1971 sauternes, not an oaky one, to satisfy all of us who have wondered how fully-sweet wines from the two districts compare.
Most of the producers and the vineyards represented are (or were) well-known at the time. Nine of the wines can be 'guaranteed' in the sense they have been cellared in my near-perfect conditions since original purchase at the time of release. Three are from auction, so there is a question mark there (though they are from Wellington). Some of the colours are fabulous, for the age, but do not expect the fully sweet wines to be pale. The ratio
of laccase in the highly botrytised wines means the colours may be quite golden or even darker – honeyed, even caramel – but so long as they smell fresh.
The rarity of the wines in this tasting cannot be over-emphasised. We must hope for no cork-taint, as there are no duplicates. As always, the risk is the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. There are reserve German wines, 1971 and 1975, the latter not so exalted.
The Wines: corks willing our wines will be:
GERMANY
2001 Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spatlese QmP, Mosel
1971 J Lauerburg Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese QmP, Mosel
1971 P J Prum Erben Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese QmP, Mosel
1971 Julius Kayser Waldracher Krone-Ehrenberg Auslese, QmP, Ruwer
1971 Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Josephshofer Auslese, QmP, Mosel
1971 Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Oberemmeler Scharzberg Auslese QmP, Saar (grosslage)
1971 Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Piesporter Goldtropfchen Auslese 'Domklausenhof', QmP, Mosel
1971 Schloss Schonborn Geisenheimer Schlossgarten Riesling Beerenauslese, QmP, Rheingau
1971 Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Josephshofer Trockenbeerenauslese, QmP, Mosel
1971 Schloss Schonborn Marcobrunner Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese, QmP, Rheingau
1967 Reichsgraf von Plettenberg Schloss Bockelheimer Kupfergrube Riesling Beerenauslese, Upper Nahe
(no QmP, before 1971 German Wine Laws, but presumably equivalent since carries German Gold Medal)
FRANCE
1971 Ch de Malle, Sauternes
Reserve Wines:
1971 Hohe Domkirche Dom Scharzhofberger Spatlese, QmP, Saar (ullaged, to be evaluated)
1971 Jakob Hoffman Neumagener Engelgrube Auslese, QmP, Mosel
and three 1975s.
VERTICAL TASTING OF TE MATA ESTATE CABERNETS / MERLOT COLERAINE, 1982 – 2015
Time: 6.30 pm, Thursday 2 November, 2017
Place: Board Room, Villa Maria winery, 118 Montgomerie Rd, Mangere
Cost: $110. Please see Booking Conditions
Booking and Payment: Since the presenter is in Wellington, and the venue is in Auckland, bookings to share in these tastings will be accepted only by email, and listed in strict time / date order of receipt. Please book directly with me, BY EMAIL ( geoff dot kelly at xtra dot co dot nz ), making clear which of the TWO tastings you are booking for. Please include your (preferably mobile) phone number, or landline number. You will be advised details to pay me by direct credit to a bank account. There is no alternative method of payment. Credit cards are not accepted. The booking will be listed as firm only once payment is received.
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. A waiting-list will be made, if needed, to facilitate replacements. Bookings will still be taken in the last 48 hours, but administrative / travel constraints mean administering the waiting list in the last 48 hours cannot be guaranteed. We will however try to action cancellations and replacements up till 11 am the day of the tasting. It is therefore worth trying, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place. So – PLEASE USE THE WAITING LIST.
Three things to note about GK Library Tastings:
# For this tasting, the wines will be presented from youngest to oldest, not blind, to better follow the evolution of the wine with time. Rankings will still be requested by simple vote once the wines have been assessed, and before comments and discussion are invited, if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one. [ However, for this tasting, I will bring reserve bottles of the 1982, 1983, and 1991, since they are the rarest. ]
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. The glasses will be XL5s – all the information is in an XL5, it is the glass winemakers use. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
The Tasting
Te Mata Estate Cabernets / Merlot Coleraine is arguably New Zealand's most famous / best known red wine. It is now 35 years since the first vintage of Coleraine was made, the first being 1982, three years before the first Stonyridge Larose. In that time 31 vintages have been released, the latest being 2015. For this tasting, we have both the first vintage, and the latest, and pretty well all the best years in-between. Coleraine was not made in 1992 and 1993, consequent on global cooling from the Mt Pinatubo eruption June 15, 1991 in the Philippines, and again in the coldest year since, 2012. The proprietors' preparedness to not release the wine in such years is a measure of how serious they are about making a wine which will show New Zealand's bordeaux blends at their best. To add a fillip of interest, one of the precursor wines, 1980 or 1981 Te Mata Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, will be included too.
To the best of my knowledge, very few vertical tastings of Te Mata Coleraine have ever been offered in Auckland, over the years. The key thing about this offering is that the wines have been cellared in Wellington since release. The wines from the 1980s will therefore be in totally different condition from the same-age bottles cellared in Auckland, since air-conditioned cellars were rare in the 1980s and 1990s. This is therefore a rare opportunity to become familiar with the way Coleraine evolves and matures in ideal cellaring conditions, over the years.
There will not be too many future opportunities to taste a vertical of Coleraine from year one. For background reading about a similar tasting, please see: www.geoffkellywinereviews.co.nz/index.php?ArticleID=284
Our wines will be (subject to the corks):
2015 Te Mata Estate Cabernets / Merlot Coleraine
2013 Te Mata Estate Cabernets / Merlot Coleraine
2009 Te Mata Estate Cabernets / Merlot Coleraine
2005 Te Mata Estate Cabernets / Merlot Coleraine
2000 Te Mata Estate Cabernets / Merlot Coleraine
1998 Te Mata Estate Cabernets / Merlot Coleraine
1995 Te Mata Estate Cabernets / Merlot Coleraine
1991 Te Mata Estate Cabernets / Merlot Coleraine
1985 Te Mata Estate Cabernets / Merlot Coleraine
1983 Te Mata Estate Cabernets / Merlot Coleraine
1982 Te Mata Estate Cabernets / Merlot Coleraine
1980 or 1981 Te Mata Estate Cabernet Sauvignon (whichever the more attractive)
RESERVE WINES
1986 Te Mata Estate Cabernets / Merlot Coleraine
1987 Te Mata Estate Cabernets / Merlot Coleraine
About the presenter: Please see the first tasting, 2009 / 2010 New Zealand Pinot Noir, below.
LIBRARY TASTING: 2009 & 2010 NEW ZEALAND PINOT NOIRS: ARE TROPHY WINES WORTH THE COST ?
Time: 6.30 pm, Wednesday 1 November, 2017
Place: Board Room, Villa Maria winery, 118 Montgomerie Rd, Mangere
Cost: $70. Please see Booking Conditions.
Booking and Payment: Since the presenter is in Wellington, and the venue is in Auckland, bookings to share in these tastings will be accepted only by email, and listed in strict time / date order of receipt. Please book directly with me, BY EMAIL ( geoff dot kelly at xtra dot co dot nz ), making clear which of the TWO tastings you are booking for. Please include your (preferably mobile) phone number, or landline number. You will be advised details to pay me by direct credit to a bank account. There is no alternative method of payment. Credit cards are not accepted. The booking will be listed as firm only once payment is received.
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. A waiting-list will be made, if needed, to facilitate replacements. Bookings will still be taken in the last 48 hours, but administrative / travel constraints mean administering the waiting list in the last 48 hours cannot be guaranteed. We will however try to action cancellations and replacements up till 11 am the day of the tasting. It is therefore worth trying, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place. So – PLEASE USE THE WAITING LIST.
Three things to note about GK Library Tastings:
# This tasting will be presented blind, so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited, if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
# Cork taint / TCA / oxidation: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of defective bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. The glasses will be XL5s – all the information is in an XL5, it is the glass winemakers use. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
The Tasting
Seven or so years is a sweet spot in cellaring for reputable New Zealand pinot noir. The 2009 and 2010 vintages are pretty good in most of our pinot districts. We will have at least one wine from each major pinot zone, except Waipara. Instead there will be the chance to see how a Waitaki Valley wine (the Otago outlier, just over the river from Canterbury) stacks up, in a strictly blind format. There may even be a Golden Bay wine, a Nelson rarity.
But the other aspect I am looking forward to is the quizzical one: are these c. $180 New Zealand pinots worth the money, or do they simply appeal to people easily seduced by the quality of the oak, rather than the absolute quality of the wine ?
We will have one sound burgundy in the mix, to see to what extent New Zealand examples of pinot noir capture the essence of pinot noir the grape. I am deliberately using a straightforward and available French wine of good repute (Jancis Robinson, 17), and around the $100 mark, to benchmark the complete batch of wines, rather than just the premium-priced ones.
This should be a fun tasting, but of considerable interest too. For background reading on a similar tasting, please see:
www.geoffkellywinereviews.co.nz/index.php?ArticleID=258
Our wines will be:
2009 Akarua Pinot Noir Reserve, Bannockburn, Central Otago (screwcap)
2010 Drouhin Clos des Mouches Premier Cru, Beaune, Burgundy (natural cork)
2009 Escarpment Pinot Noir Pahi, Te Muna Road, Martinborough (supercritical Diam 'cork')
2010 Felton Road Pinot Noir, Bannockburn (screwcap)
2010 Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir Marie Zelie Reserve, Martinborough Terrace (screwcap)
2010 Misha's Vineyard Pinot Noir Verismo, Bendigo district, Central Otago (screwcap)
2009 Mount Difficulty Pinot Noir Target Gully, Bannockburn, Central Otago (screwcap)
2009 Neudorf Pinot Noir Home Block Vineyard, Moutere Hills, Nelson (screwcap)
2010 Ostler Pinot Noir Caroline's, Waitaki Valley, Otago (screwcap)
2009 Peregrine Pinot Noir Pinnacle, 75% Bendigo and 25% Pisa, Central Otago (screwcap)
2010 Pisa Range Pinot Noir Black Poplar Block, Cromwell Basin, Central Otago (screwcap)
2010 Villa Maria Pinot Noir Southern Clays Single Vineyard, Ben Morven Valley, Marlborough (screwcap)
RESERVE WINES:
2009 Bannock Brae Pinot Noir, Bannockburn, Central Otago (screwcap)
2010 Greywacke Pinot Noir, Southern Valleys, Wairau Valley (screwcap)
2010 Waiwera Estate Pinot Noir, Golden Bay, Nelson (screwcap)
About the presenter:
Geoff Kelly is a former DSIR scientist / ecologist. He has studied wine since the mid-1960s, setting his palate more via the wines of Europe and Australia than the then-embryonic local wine industry. He published the first comprehensive account of Pinot Noir in New Zealand in 1982, and was founding wine-writer for NBR and then Cuisine magazines, later that decade. At that stage he contributed to viticulture and oenology research in both the Dept. of Agriculture / Te Kauwhata and Lincoln University, Canterbury, and continues as a visiting lecturer at the latter. He has judged at the Air New Zealand and Royal Easter Show national wine competitions, acting as a senior judge for 35 years. He is now a wine consultant concentrating on wine evaluation, publishing at: www.geoffkellywinereviews.co.nz
LIBRARY TASTING: DO PENFOLDS REDS INCLUDING GRANGE CELLAR FOR 50 YEARS ... RARE BINS ... MAX SCHUBERT WINES ... ONE OF A KIND TASTING
Time: 6pm, Thursday, 14th September, 2017
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines and Spirits,
Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $165 per person
Bookings: Please book on-line at: www.regionalwines.co.nz/collections/events, scroll down if need be. Or email: online@regionalwines.co.nz, particularly for the wait-list.
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. A wait-list will be made, if needed. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. If space allows, bookings after that time will still be accepted – right up to, say, 5pm on the day of the tasting. If the tasting fills, please use the wait-list, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
Three points to note about GK Library Tastings:
# The tastings are presented blind, so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited,
if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. For some bottles, there is only the one. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of the other wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines,
but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price.
Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
Our Wines:
Thanks to Ray Martin, this tasting will feature three vintages of Penfolds Grange, Australia's most famous red wine, initially Hermitage, then Shiraz, the 1967 made by Max Schubert himself. To match it we have 1967 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 707, likewise a Schubert wine. There will be a third 1967, Penfolds Shiraz / Oulliade, Bin 426 – a rare wine now [ strictly, Oeillade ].
There is no doubt that Schubert's vision of the wine world was dramatically transformed by his visit to Bordeaux in 1949. He came back committed to the notion of making an equivalent quality wine from Australia's great grape shiraz, since there were old-vine sources available to him. To judge from the style that Grange adopted, Schubert was mightily impressed with Ch Latour – but despite searching I seem to have no old ones left. So instead we will have 1970 Ch Leoville Las Cases, at times quite a 'big' claret. To match the vintage of that wine there will be 1970 Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet / Shiraz, and the Shiraz Bins 28 and 128 from the great year 1971. Bear in mind that in those days, Bin 28 was all Kalimna fruit, that is, of a quality that Penfolds RWT aspires to now. Then on to a set of 1990 wines totally new in my experience, so I hope in yours too: 1990 Grange Shiraz, 1990 Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 707, 1990 Cabernet / Shiraz Bin 920 (rarer than Grange), and 1990 Cabernet / Shiraz Bin 90A, a rarer than rare wine. The latter follows in the footsteps of 1962 Penfolds Cabernet / Shiraz Bin 60A, thought by many to be Australia's greatest red wine ever. Finally, 1991 Penfolds Grange.
The tasting cannot be cheap: the current shelf price of 2012 Grange in New Zealand ranging from $750 up to $900. The rarer-than-Grange Bin wines such as 920 and 90A are only made every 10 years or so, and are dearer still. If you cost out the wines below on wine-searcher, the cost per head works out to over $400 per person. I hope therefore that the chosen price, having regard to New Zealand wine auctions realisations (which I monitor) seems realistic and fair.
1967 Penfolds Hermitage Grange Bin 95, Magill, 6% CS
1967 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 707, Kalimna (no Coonawarra)
1967 Penfolds Shiraz / Oulliade Bin 426, Clare Valley, Kalimna (for the Oeillade)
1970 Ch Leoville Las Cases, Saint-Julien
1970 Penfolds Cabernet / Shiraz Bin 389, Barossa Valley,
Magill
1971 Penfolds Shiraz Bin 28, Kalimna
1971 Penfolds Shiraz Bin 128, Coonawarra
1990 Penfolds Shiraz Grange Bin 95, Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, Coonawarra, 5% CS
1990 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 707, Coonawarra,
Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale
1990 Penfolds Cabernet 65% / Shiraz 35% Bin 920, all Coonawarra
1990 Penfolds Cabernet 68% / Shiraz 32% Bin 90A,
Coonawarra / Barossa Valley
1991 Penfolds Shiraz Grange Bin 95, Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, 5% CS
Reserve wines:
1968 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 707
1971 Penfolds Cabernet / Shiraz Bin 389
1990 Penfolds Shiraz Grange Bin 95
2013 VINTAGE REVIEW: A COMPARATIVE TASTING OF THE TOP NEW ZEALAND 2013 SYRAH WINES, PLUS 2013 LANGI GHIRAN SHIRAZ LANGI, AND 2013 YANN CHAVE HERMITAGE
Time: 6.30 pm, Thursday 22 June, 2017
Place: Board Room, Villa Maria winery, 118 Montgomerie Rd, Mangere
Cost: $75. Please see Booking Conditions
Booking and Payment: Since the presenter is in Wellington, and the venue is in Auckland, bookings will be accepted only by email, and listed in strict time / date order of receipt. Please book directly with me, BY EMAIL ( geoff dot kelly at xtra dot co dot nz ), and include your (preferably mobile) phone number, or landline number. You will be advised details to pay me by direct credit to a bank account. There is no alternative method of payment. Credit cards are not accepted. The booking will be listed as firm only once payment is received.
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. A waiting-list will be made, if needed, to facilitate replacements. Bookings will still be taken in the last 48 hours, but administrative / travel constraints mean administering the waiting list in the last 48 hours cannot be guaranteed. We will however try to action cancellations and replacements up till 11 am the day of the tasting. It is therefore worth trying, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
Three things to note about GK Library Tastings:
# The tastings are presented blind, so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited,
if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines.
If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. The glasses will be XL5s. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles,
and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
The Tasting
2013 was a benchmark vintage in Hawkes Bay, and Waiheke Island. Whether it is the best vintage so far in the modern era in New Zealand will be debated for years to come, because the wines have great cellar potential. The second tasting will be a study of syrah, in some ways the most exciting emerging winestyle in New Zealand. There seems little doubt that in Hawkes Bay and Waiheke Island (at least) we can make wines to match the classical syrah appellations of the Northern Rhone Valley. We will take the country's leading syrah wines, and assess their absolute achievement against one of Australia's most famous syrah styles (as opposed to shiraz), 2013 Langi Ghiran Shiraz Langi, and a straight Hermitage from one of the younger growers, 2013 Yann Chave Hermitage.
Our wines will be:
AUSTRALIA
2013 Mount Langi Ghiran Shiraz Langi, Grampians district, West Victoria
FRANCE
2013 Yann Chave Hermitage, Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
NEW ZEALAND
2013 Bilancia Syrah La Collina, Roy's Hill, Hawkes Bay
2013 Church Road Syrah Tom, The Triangle, Hawkes Bay
2013 Craggy Range Syrah Le Sol, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
2013 Elephant Hill Syrah Airavata, Gimblett Gravels (mainly), Hawkes Bay
2013 Expatrius Syrah, Waiheke Island, Auckland District
2013 Sacred Hill Syrah Deerstalkers, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
2013 Te Mata Syrah Bullnose, The Triangle, Hawkes Bay
2013 Trinity Hill Syrah Homage, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
2013 Villa Maria Syrah Reserve, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
2013 Wairau River Syrah Reserve, Wairau Valley, Marlborough
RESERVE WINES
2013 Coopers Creek Syrah Reserve, Havelock North district, Hawkes Bay
2013 Matua Syrah Matheson Vineyard, The Triangle, Hawkes Bay
About the presenter: Please see the first tasting, Cabernet / Merlot, below
2013 VINTAGE REVIEW: AN UNPRECEDENTED TASTING OF THE TOP NEW ZEALAND 2013 CABERNET / MERLOT WINES, PLUS 2013 BABICH CABERNET 100-YEAR, 2013 DOMINUS (Napa V.), 2013 MOSS WOOD (WA), 2013 Ch LEOVILLE-BARTON.
Time: 6.30 pm, Tuesday 20 June, 2017
Place: Board Room, Villa Maria winery, 118 Montgomerie Rd, Mangere
Cost: $125. Please see Booking Conditions.
Booking and Payment: Since the presenter is in Wellington, and the venue is in Auckland, bookings will be accepted only by email, and listed in strict time / date order of receipt. Please book directly with me, BY EMAIL ( geoff dot kelly at xtra dot co dot nz ), and include your (preferably mobile) phone number, or landline number. You will be advised details to pay me by direct credit to a bank account. There is no alternative method of payment. Credit cards are not accepted. The booking will be listed as firm only once payment is received.
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. A waiting-list will be made, if needed, to facilitate replacements. Bookings will still be taken in the last 48 hours, but administrative / travel constraints mean administering the waiting list in the last 48 hours cannot be guaranteed. We will however try to action cancellations and replacements up till 11 am the day of the tasting. It is therefore worth trying, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
Three things to note about GK Library Tastings:
# The tastings are presented blind, so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited,
if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines.
If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. The glasses will be XL5s. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles,
and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
The Tasting
2013 was a benchmark vintage in Hawkes Bay, and Waiheke Island. Whether it is the best vintage so far in the modern era in New Zealand will be debated for years to come, because the wines have great cellar potential. The first tasting will assemble New Zealand's finest cabernet / merlot and related wines from the 2013 vintage, including the first public tasting of the 2013 Babich 100 Years Cabernet Sauvignon ($399). The absolute achievement of the New Zealand wines will be assessed against 2013 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon from the Margaret River (one of Australia's most famous wines), 2013 Moueix Dominus from the Napa Valley (regarded as one of the top 12 wines of the vintage, Parker 100-points, nearly as expensive as the Babich), and 2013 Ch Leoville-Barton, one of the most reliable classed-growth bordeaux.
Our wines will be:
AUSTRALIA
2013 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River, West Australia
CALIFORNIA
2013 Moueix [CS / PV / CF] Dominus, Napa Valley, California
FRANCE
2013 Ch Leoville Barton, Saint-Julien, Bordeaux
NEW ZEALAND
2013 Babich Cabernet Sauvignon 100-Year, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
2013 Church Road Cabernet / Merlot Tom, The Triangle (mainly), Hawkes Bay
2013 Elephant Hill [CS / Ma / Me] Hieronymous, Gimblett Gravels (mainly), Hawkes Bay
2013 Esk Valley [Ma / Me / CF] The Terraces, Bay View, Hawkes Bay
2013 Puriri Hills [Me / CF / Ca / Ma] Pope, Clevedon, Auckland District
2013 Sacred Hill [Me / Ma / Sy / CS / CF] Brokenstone, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
2013 Stonyridge [CS / PV / Ma / Me / CF] Larose, Waiheke Island, Auckland District
2013 Te Mata [CS / Me / CF] Coleraine, Havelock Hills, Hawkes Bay
2013 Villa Maria Cabernet Sauvignon Ngakirikiri, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
RESERVE WINES
2013 Craggy Range [ Me / CS / CF / 18 / PV] Sophia, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
2013 Mills Reef [Sy / CF / Me / CS] Elspeth One, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
About the presenter:
Geoff Kelly is a former DSIR scientist / ecologist. He has studied wine since the mid-1960s, setting his palate more via the wines of Europe and Australia than the then-embryonic local wine industry. He published the first comprehensive account of Pinot Noir in New Zealand in 1982, and was founding wine-writer for NBR and then Cuisine magazines, later that decade. At that stage he contributed to viticulture and oenology research in both the Dept. of Agriculture / Te Kauwhata and Lincoln University, Canterbury, and continues as a visiting lecturer at the latter. He has judged at the Air New Zealand and Royal Easter Show national wine competitions, acting as a senior judge for 35 years. He is now a wine consultant concentrating on wine evaluation, publishing at: www.geoffkellywinereviews.co.nz
THE FABULOUS 2010 VINTAGE IN CHATEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE, INCLUDING THREE OF THE TOP WINES
Time: 6pm, Thursday, June 8,
2017
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines and Spirits,
Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $85 per person
Bookings: To secure tickets (while the Regional Wines website is being re-built), please email john@regionalwines.co.nz, stating how many tickets, and leaving a contact number. Or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz, particularly for the wait-list.
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. A wait-list will be made, if needed. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. If space allows, bookings after that time will still be accepted – right up to, say, 5pm on the day of the tasting. If the tasting fills, please use the wait-list, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
Three points to note about GK Library Tastings:
# The tastings are presented blind, so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited,
if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. For some bottles, there is only the one. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of the other wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines,
but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price.
Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
Our Wines:
2010 Ch de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape *, Southern Rhone Valley, France
2010 Domaine Charvin Chateauneuf-du-Pape *, Southern Rhone Valley, France
2010 Le Clos du Caillou Chateauneuf-du-Pape Les Safres, Southern Rhone Valley, France
2010 Le Clos du Caillou Chateauneuf-du-Pape Les Quartz, Southern Rhone Valley, France
2010 Le Clos du Caillou Chateauneuf-du-Pape La Reserve, Southern Rhone Valley, France
2010 Brunel Les Cailloux Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Southern Rhone Valley, France
2010 Maison Guigal Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Southern Rhone Valley, France
2010 Domaine de la Janasse Chateauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes, Southern Rhone Valley, France
2010 Clos des Papes Chateauneuf-du-Pape *, Southern Rhone Valley, France
2010 Domaine du Pegau Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Southern Rhone Valley, France
2010 Saint Cosme Cotes-du-Rhone Les Deux Albion, Southern Rhone Valley, France
2010 Tardieu-Laurent Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Speciale, Southern Rhone Valley, France
Reserve Wines:
2010 Saint Cosme Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Southern Rhone Valley, France
2010 Ch la Nerthe Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Southern Rhone Valley, France
The wines of the Southern Rhone Valley are wonderful with larger-scaled savoury food. And there is little doubt that the 2010 vintage in Chateauneuf-du-Pape is arguably the top vintage of our lifetime, or at least since the 1978 vintage. And the wines are relatively rare due to a reduced crop. This is an opportunity to taste not only some of the most famous wines of the district, but also three of John Livingstone-Learmonth's six-star wines (* above). There are nine others, including one from a related appellation to add focus. Plus a study of the tiers of quality some proprietors offer, now. I am not aware of any tasting of the 2010 Chateauneufs having been presented in New Zealand before.
Here are the views of the authorities:
Jancis Robinson: Due to an average yield of 27 hl/ha (35 hl/ha being the maximum yield authorised by the appellation regulations) the vintage 2010 will be remembered as one of the lowest in terms of quantity, and one of the best in terms of quality. [ 27 hl/ha = 3.5 t/ha = 1.4 t/ac; 35 hl/ha = 4.55 t/ha = 1.84 t/ac ] ... Summer rainfall in 2010 was one of the lowest since 1871. ... As in 2009, this vintage's quality and characteristics are due to the climatic conditions: a rainy springtime and a dry summer enabled the grapes to be healthy and have an interesting tannic structure. On the other hand, cool nights allowed the synthesis of anthocyanins and polyphenols ... Finally, there is no doubt that this vintage offers a very strong ageing potential.
Robert Parker: This is a great vintage that comes close in quality to 2007 in the southern Rhone. Some producers think 2010 eclipses 2007 because of the wines' vivid freshness and focus. Throughout the southern Rhone, the hallmarks of the vintage are ... very dense purple, sometimes even blue/black colors as well as higher acid levels that have not been seen since 2004 and 2001. In fact, 2010's paradox is that I can't remember a vintage so concentrated, powerful and rich that also has such zesty acidity. The pHs are lower across the board than in 2009 and 2007, and the acids are higher. ...The 2010s will have significant aging potential, which is obvious in the level of tannins, but the tannins are sweet with exceptional elegance and finesse.
Robert Parker Vintage Chart: 98 and Tannic [ 98 only awarded three times since 1970, the other two Early ]
Wine Spectator Vintage Chart and text: 98 [ the highest score allocated to any vintage in the period 1988 – 2015: ] Cool, windy spring led to a drastically reduced crop; growing season marked by warm days and cool nights, with a late harvest stretching into October, resulting in beautifully ripe, racy, terroir-driven wines for aging. The spine of '05 with extra flesh.
John Livingstone-Learmonth: [ And finally, the last word to now the leading authority on the wines of the Rhone Valley, John Livingstone-Learmonth ]: I place 2010 in the top three of my 40 years covering the Rhone, alongside the 1978 and the 1990, ... the wines are ripe, harmonious, with gentle tannins and a depth of fruit that means they will develop evenly for many years. [It is] close to the legendary 1978 at the same stage of its life.
UNPRECEDENTED GUIGAL RETROSPECTIVE: 1983 – 2010 GIGONDAS, 1983 – 2010 COTE ROTIE BRUNE & BLONDE, ALL FOUR GRANDS CRUS FROM 2003, EACH A 100-POINT WINE, A GREAT VINTAGE ...
Time: 6pm, Thursday, May 4, 2017
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines and Spirits,
Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $145 per person
Bookings: On-line via https://regionalwines.co.nz/events?event_id=148 primarily. Or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz, particularly for the wait-list.
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. A wait-list will be made, if needed. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. If space allows, bookings after that time will still be accepted – right up to, say, 5pm on the day of the tasting. If the tasting fills, please use the wait-list, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
Three points to note about GK Library Tastings:
# Blind ? For this tasting, where the maturity sequence is also of great interest, the four grands crus will be the only wines presented blind. Since they vary in cepage, and one is Hermitage vs three from Cote Rotie, it will be fun to see which is preferred. We will still seek rankings etc, not just assume the expensive wines are the best, since the more affordable wines have their own charm.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. For some bottles, there is only the one. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of the other wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines,
but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price.
Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
The Wines:
1983 Guigal Gigondas, Southern Rhone Valley, France
1998 Guigal Gigondas, Southern Rhone Valley, France 2010 Guigal Gigondas, Southern Rhone Valley, France1983 Guigal Cote Rotie Brune & Blonde, Northern Rhone Valley, France
1985 Guigal Cote Rotie Brune & Blonde, Northern Rhone Valley, France
1998 Guigal Cote Rotie Brune & Blonde, Northern Rhone Valley, France
2003 Guigal Cote Rotie Brune & Blonde, Northern Rhone Valley, France
2010 Guigal Cote Rotie Brune & Blonde, Northern Rhone Valley, France
2003 Guigal Cote Rotie La Landonne, Northern Rhone Valley, France
2003 Guigal Cote Rotie La Mouline, Northern Rhone Valley, France
2003 Guigal Cote Rotie La Turque, Northern Rhone Valley, France
2003 Guigal Hermitage Ex Voto, Northern Rhone Valley, France
Reserve wines:
2003 Guigal Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley, France
1983 Guigal Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Southern Rhone Valley, France
The Invitation
Our tasting offers three Guigal Gigondas spanning 27 years, to show both the Guigal style with Southern Rhone blends, and the fact they age exquisitely. Then turning to the Northern Rhone, there will be five examples of Cote Rotie Brune & Blonde, the wine that sets the standard for the appellation, and amounts to c.30% of the entire appellation's production. They also will span 27 years. These eight wines are all from very good years. Then there will be the four grands crus, all 2003, a very highly-rated Northern Rhone vintage: Cote Rotie La Mouline first made in 1966, and the most burgundy-like of the three, Cote Rotie La Landonne (the all-syrah one) first made in 1978, and Cote Rotie La Turque, first made in 1985. Parker, 2011: The three single vineyard Cote Roties are among the world's top fifty wines ever made. Their differences become apparent around age 8-10 and are dramatically different by age 15. So ours at 14 years age should be good. They will be joined by Hermitage Ex Voto, all syrah, first made in 2001. These four wines are virtually never offered for tasting all together, in New Zealand. In 2003, each of the four grands cru wines has been rated 100 points by Parker, making this tasting even more rare.
The reputation of the Guigals, grandfather Etienne, father Marcel, and son Philippe grows year on year. Rather like J L Chave, you get the impression this is because the same two or three sets of taste-buds have assessed every wine, over the last 70 years. Robert Parker first recognised the extraordinary skills of the Guigals, and thus has a clearer view of their achievements than anybody. In his pioneering Rhone book of 1987 he said: ... the house of Guigal ... has emerged as the dominant producer of outstanding Rhone wines ... both a negociant and a significant vineyard owner. It was founded only in 1946 [by Etienne]. Since the early seventies, his son, the bespectacled, bereted, birdlike Marcel, has taken charge. The result has been the transformation of very good wines to not only spectacular wines, but some of the finest in the world ...
Guigal's style of winemaking is unique not only in Cote Rotie, but in all of the Rhone Valley. First, he is the Rhone's greatest exponent of the judicious use of new oak barrels for aging his wines ... his single-vineyard Cote Roties sojourn 30 – 36 months in new oak [42 months now]. Second, because ... Guigal's red wines spend spend such a long time in both small oak and large oval foudres, his wines rarely have to be fined or filtered ... The results are wines that have ... impeccable balance and aging potential.
At the close of 2012, Parker's view (website) had not changed much:
... The three single vineyard Cote Roties are consistently among the world's greatest wines. ... The Guigal family may be the modern world's greatest testament to a family-run winery with impeccably high standards, integrity and an uncompromising vision of the future. They continue to push the envelope of quality to greater and greater heights. Marcel Guigal learned it all from his father, Etienne, a legend in the Northern Rhone. Over my three decade plus career, it has been a noteworthy story to watch Marcel's son, Philippe, take full responsibility for the future direction of this incredible enterprise. I have almost unlimited admiration for the Guigals and their ability to produce millions of bottles of inexpensive Cotes du Rhones that are among the finest of the entire Rhone Valley, as well as their portfolio of exquisite whites, reds and roses from the most prestigious appellations in the Rhone. After more than three decades of tasting here, I never cease to be amazed by what they accomplish.
Pricing: The Guigal grands crus are rare in the world, and even rarer in New Zealand, their production being less than a tenth of any of the Bordeaux First Growths (Petrus excepted). They are allocated / rationed at release in New Zealand. At one point they moved almost to parity in price with the Bordeaux First Growths. They have not fallen, but the latter have departed to a new level. Please check the wine-searcher values for the four 2003 Guigal grands crus (a great vintage in the Northern Rhone Valley) this hard-to-match tasting offers. You will find their value alone divided by the number of tasters is significantly greater than the fee asked to share our 12 bottles.
AUSTRALIAN SHIRAZ THEN AND NOW, TWO TASTINGS: (1) LIBRARY TASTING: THE BEST OF 1996 AUSTRALIAN SHIRAZES, plus JABOULET'S HERMITAGE LA CHAPELLE ...
Time: 6pm, Thursday, March 30, 2017
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines and Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $60 per person
Bookings: On-line via https://regionalwines.co.nz/events?event_id=112 primarily. Or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz, particularly for the wait-list.
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. A wait-list will be made, if needed. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. If space allows, bookings after that time will still be accepted – right up to, say, 5pm on the day of the tasting. If the tasting fills, please use the wait-list, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
Three points to note about GK Library Tastings:
# The tastings are presented blind, so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited, if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. For some bottles, there is only the one. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of the other wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines,
but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price.
Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
The Wines:
AUSTRALIA
1996 d'Arenberg Shiraz Dead-Arm, McLaren Vale, South Australia
1996 Bannockburn Shiraz, Geelong, Victoria
1996 Barossa Valley Estates E&E Shiraz Black Pepper, Barossa Valley, South Australia
1996 Jim Barry Shiraz McRae Wood, Clare Valley, South Australia
1996 Burge Shiraz Meschach, Barossa Valley, South Australia
1996 Cape Mentelle Shiraz, Margaret River, West Australia
1995 Coriole Shiraz Lloyd's Reserve, McLaren Vale, South Australia
1996 Henschke Shiraz Mount Edelstone, Eden Valley, South Australia
1996 McWilliams Shiraz Mount Pleasant Maurice O'Shea, Hunter Valley, NSW
1997 Mount Langi Ghiran Shiraz Langi, Grampians, Victoria
1996 Seppelt Shiraz Mount Ida, Heathcote, Victoria
FRANCE
1996 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley
Reserve wines:
1996 Sevenhill Cellars Shiraz, Clare Valley, South Australia
1996 Tatachilla Shiraz Foundation, McLaren Vale, South Australia
The mid 1990s – and for red wine in Wellington, all anybody wanted was Australian. A few wanted French, fewer Spanish, and when it came to New Zealand reds – that was still the time when the Air New Zealand judging results created acute interest in anything that really looked exciting amongst New Zealand reds – but few did, and not much sold.
How different the world is now: New Zealand reds outsell all others. But before we forget totally, let's recollect that 1996 was a particularly attractive year climatically in nearly all the Australian red wine districts. It was one of the cooler years, making wines of much greater varietal interest to New Zealanders. So let's look at a dozen 1996s (mainly) at their 20-years-on point. They should be at full flowering.
Our wine list is shiraz only (being Australia's most famous red grape), and covers many of the noteworthy Australian names of the era. However greater emphasis has been placed on showing the geographic range, from West Australia right across to the Hunter Valley, via the Clare Valley, Eden Valley, Barossa Valley, and McLaren Vale in South Australia, the Grampians and Geelong in Victoria, and the Hunter Valley in New South Wales. Just to make the varietal part a little bit more focussed, there will be a classic French syrah from the Northern Rhone Valley, 1996 Jaboulet's Hermitage La Chapelle. All blind, naturally.
No good, you say, no Penfolds – patience please: we will have an evening dedicated to Penfolds later in the year, some 1996, a number older, and that tasting will include the rare-as-hen's-teeth 1996 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Kalimna Block 42. It is worth more than Grange. So look forward to that,
and in the meantime come and enjoy these nicely-mature Australian shirazes. Many consider Henschke's Mount Edelstone and Langi Ghiran's Langi shirazes the subtlest and most interesting of all the great Aussie shirazes, being much less oaky than the famous ones. We have both of them.
One detail: these 1996s are not any old Australian reds – they were selected as the best of the crop then available in New Zealand, that is, both a good year, and the wines not too oaky or too euc'y, at a point when I had already been assessing and cellaring Australian wine for 30 years.
[ Tasting 2: Ten days later, Tuesday, April 11, 2017, we will look at 11 current Australian shiraz wines including 2012 Penfolds Grange ($892.50), and one New Zealand syrah, in the light of the 20 years-old wines, to see which are worth cellaring. Details at: https://regionalwines.co.nz/events?event_id=137 ]
ANNIVERSARY TASTING: 1916 MOUTON ROTHSCHILD, 1953 BODEGAS BILBAINAS RESERVA ESPECIAL – AND ODDS ...
Time: 6pm, Thursday, October 20, 2016
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines and Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $150 per person
Bookings: On-line via https://regionalwines.co.nz/events?event_id=104 primarily. Or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz, particularly for the wait-list.
Booking Conditions: There are 20 places only. At the point of posting this, the tasting is fully booked. A wait-list will be made, now the tasting is full. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. If space allows, bookings after that time will still be accepted – right up to, say, 4pm on the day of the tasting. If the tasting fills, please use the wait-list, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
Three things to note about GK Library Tastings:
# The tastings are presented blind, so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited,
if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. For some bottles, there is only the one. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of the other wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines,
but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price.
Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
The Wines:
BORDEAUX
1916 Ch Mouton (now Ch Mouton Rothschild), Pauillac then Second Growth
1962 Ch Gruaud-Larose, Saint-Julien Second Growth
1966 Ch Mouton Baron Philippe (now Ch d'Armailhac), Pauillac Fifth Growth
1966 Ch Pontet-Canet, Pauillac Fifth Growth
1967 Ch Haut-Brion, Pessac First Growth
1967 Ch Lynch Bages, Pauillac Fifth Growth
1972 Ch Haut-Brion, Pessac First Growth
SPAIN – RIOJA
1953 Bodegas Bilbainas Reserva Especial, Rioja
1955 Bodegas Bilbainas Vieja Reserva, Rioja
1966 Bodegas Bilbainas Vina Pomal, Rioja
AUSTRALIA
1966 Hardy's Cabernet Sauvignon Bin C626, McLaren Vale & Coonawarra
1969 Ch Tahbilk Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 52, Nagambie Lakes, Central Victoria
A word of explanation about such a wine-list. First, how do you price it. The wine-searcher valuation on the old Mouton alone is $4,382 – and some of the others are not insignificant. Secondly there is a risk the bottle will be corked or otherwise defective. Cork issues were much less common then, when handwork and pride in workmanship were still the norm. Thirdly, what do you put alongside it. Some 1966s seem the obvious first thought, being exactly a 50-year stepping stone. And Mouton-Baron-Philippe is closely related.
To counter-balance the corked risk, the tasting will include probably the finest wine in my cellar, 1953 Bodegas Bilbainas Reserva Especial. Those who have tasted this wine agree it is is astonishing. Should both those disappoint, I have taken out 1970 Ducru-Beaucaillou, an exquisite wine, but frail now. It will not be part of the tasting, if the 1953 is good. So one way or another, there should be something memorable.
1916 was not a great vintage, so for the other wines, it seems appropriate to collect some lesser-year oddments from the cellar, and present those too. So – three first growths (though a careful member of our tasting group has reminded me that Mouton was not a first growth, in 1916 !), 7 Bordeaux all told, the youngest 1972, and 3 Riojas the youngest 1966. And then, a couple of old Aussies, from the dawn of straight cabernet wines in Australia, again the youngest 1966.
The logistics of preparing old bottles with corks in variously difficult (and time-consuming) states are such that I must decant them at leisure, at home.
My decanting approach is extraordinarily conservative, compared with what I have seen others do, but there is still the risk such old wines may have over-aired by the time of the tasting. Conversely ... I also clearly recollect that the sister bottle of the 1916, tried about 1986, was much better the next day. So as always, it is damnably hard to know how much air to give a wine.
Over to you. I hope this tasting will intrigue you – hope to see you there.
LIBRARY TASTING AT THE NELSON MARLBOROUGH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: 2005 BURGUNDY, TWO NEW ZEALAND
Time: Tuesday 11 October, 2016, 6:30pm start
Place: Sensory Room, Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, 85 Budge St, Blenheim
Cost: $100 per person
Booking and Payment: Since the presenter is in Wellington, and the venue is in Marlborough, bookings will be accepted only by email, and listed in strict time / date order of receipt. Please book with Sue Blackmore, at the Institute, email: sue.blackmore@nmit.ac.nz, and include your (preferably mobile) phone number. You will be advised details to pay GK by direct credit to his bank account. There is no alternative method of payment. Credit cards are not accepted. The booking will be listed as firm only once payment is received.
Booking Conditions: There are 19 places only. A wait-list will be made, if needed. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. If space allows, bookings after that time will still be accepted – right up to, say, 4pm on the day of the tasting. If the tasting fills, please use the wait-list, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
Three things to note about GK Library Tastings:
# The tastings are presented blind, so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited, if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. The glasses will be XL5s, or better. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
__________________________________________
The Tasting – 2005 Burgundy:
Burgundy is still the home of the finest pinot noirs on earth. And most agree that the 2005s are the finest wines from that district in our lifetime. The vintage was difficult to purchase in New Zealand. Tim Atkin MW a few years ago wrote an article for the The Guardian titled: Is 2005 the best ever year for Burgundy?, and quoted Jasper Morris MW (author of the now 'standard text' Inside Burgundy: as saying: 'This is the most uniformly successful vintage I have seen in my career.' Tastings so far indicate the wines are backward to say the least, but this is an opportunity to check a key vintage in Burgundy.
The 12 wines include one grand cru, 4 premiers crus, and two New Zealand. They provide a cross-section of workaday Burgundy winestyles, rather than a luxury tasting. The cost reflects that.
Our wines will be:
BURGUNDY:
2005 Domaine Denis Bachelet Bourgogne Non-Filtré
2005 Domaine Denis Bachelet Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes,
Cote de Nuits
2005 Domaine Chandon de Briailles Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru, Cote de Beaune
2005 Maison Drouhin Beaune-Greves Premier Cru, Cote de Beaune
2005 Domaine Sylvie Esmonin Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Saint-Jacques Premier Cru, Cote de Nuits
2005 Dom Jean Grivot Vosne-Romanee, Cote de Nuits
2005 Domaine Gros Frere & Soeur Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Nuits, Cote de Nuits
2005 Domaine Maume Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru, Cote de Nuits
2005 Domaine de Montille Pommard Les Pezerolles Premier Cru,
Cote de Beaune
2005 Nicolas Potel Santenay, Cote de Beaune
NEW ZEALAND:
2005 Felton Road Pinot Noir, Bannockburn, Central Otago
2005 Pisa Range Pinot Noir Black Poplar Block, Pisa district, Cromwell Basin, Central Otago
About the presenter: Geoff Kelly is a former DSIR scientist / ecologist. He has studied wine since the mid-1960s, setting his palate more via the wines of Europe and Australia than the then-embryonic local wine industry. He published the first comprehensive account of Pinot Noir in New Zealand in 1982, and was founding wine-writer for NBR and then Cuisine magazines, later that decade. At that stage he contributed to viticulture and oenology research in both the Dept. of Agriculture / Te Kauwhata and Lincoln University, Canterbury, and continues as a visiting lecturer at the latter. He has been a senior judge in the New Zealand wine industry for 35 years. He is now a wine consultant concentrating on wine evaluation, publishing at: www.geoffkellywinereviews.co.nz
LIBRARY TASTING TWO AT TRINITY HILL: 6 MATCHED VINTAGES OF TRINITY HILL SYRAH HOMAGE AND CRAGGY RANGE SYRAH LE SOL, 2002 – 2010
Time: Thursday 8 Sept., 2016,
6:30pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Trinity Hill Winery, 2396 State Highway 50 (500m north of Ngatarawa Road)
Cost: $95 per person
Booking and Payment: Since the presenter is in Wellington, and the venue is in Hawkes Bay, bookings will be accepted only by email, and listed in strict time / date order of receipt. Please book with Janine Bevege, at Trinity Hill, email: janine@trinityhill.com , and include your (preferably mobile) phone number. You will be advised details to pay GK by direct credit to his bank account. There is no alternative method of payment. Credit cards are not accepted. The booking will be listed as firm only once payment is received.
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. A wait-list will be made, if needed. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. If space allows, bookings after that time will still be accepted – right up to, say, 4pm on the day of the tasting. If the tasting fills, please use the wait-list, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
Three things to note about GK Library Tastings:
# The tastings are presented blind, so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited,
if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. The glasses will be XL5s. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles,
and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
The Tasting
Syrah is quietly emerging as perhaps the most exciting red wine in New Zealand. Our best examples combine the beauty and varietal excitement of the wines of Cote Rotie, with just a suggestion of being from a slightly warmer climate – as for example found on the Hill of Hermitage, just down the road. It is going to be a long struggle to achieve recognition though, because the Old World cannot see past the best of those lovely Northern Rhone examples, despite the long-standing achievements of the (also at best) exquisite Te Mata Bullnose Syrah, and the New World tends to be obsessed with size and power, and thus rewards the wines of Washington on the one hand, and South Australia on the other.
So in this gap in received wine wisdom, two New Zealand wineries (in particular) have set out to not only create fine Northern-Rhone styled syrahs, but also to create New Zealand icon wines. For both Craggy Range, and Trinity Hill, their top syrahs, Le Sol and Homage respectively, are their highest-priced wines (though Craggy aim to have their top pinot noir matching it very soon). For Trinity, Homage is proudly their top wine. This tasting will take 6 vintages in the decade 2000 – 2010 where both wineries made this top wine, and present them blind. Neither winery makes this top syrah every year, but Craggy Range have made more than Trinity. It is not practical to have a back-up set of wines, so in the case of a corked wine, the Reserve wine will be Craggy Range's maiden wine (in this context), the 2001 Le Sol.
I am not aware of this matched-vintage evaluation of these two becoming-famous wines being offered publicly before. This tasting therefore presents a rare opportunity to share in the first steps of an emerging classic New Zealand wine story. The wines will be presented blind, from youngest to oldest.
Our wines will be:
2010 Craggy Range Syrah Le Sol, Gimblett Gravels
2009 Craggy Range Syrah Le Sol, Gimblett Gravels
2007 Craggy Range Syrah Le Sol, Gimblett Gravels
2006 Craggy Range Syrah Le Sol, Gimblett Gravels
2004 Craggy Range Syrah Le Sol, Gimblett Gravels
2002 Craggy Range Syrah Le Sol, Gimblett Gravels
2010 Trinity Hill Syrah Homage, Gimblett Gravels
2009 Trinity Hill Syrah Homage, Gimblett Gravels
2007 Trinity Hill Syrah Homage, Gimblett Gravels
2006 Trinity Hill Syrah Homage, Gimblett Gravels
2004 Trinity Hill Syrah Homage, Gimblett Gravels
2002 Trinity Hill Syrah Homage, Gimblett Gravels
Reserve wine:
2001 Craggy Range Syrah Le Sol, Gimblett Gravels
About the presenter: Geoff has been studying wine for 50 years,
and has been a senior industry judge for 35 years, so brings a distinctive voice to his presentations. His study of syrah started with a case of 1969 Jaboulet Hermitage la Chapelle. It is to Gerard Jaboulet that Trinity's Syrah Homage is dedicated.
LIBRARY TASTING ONE AT TRINITY HILL:
2002 HAWKES BAY VINTAGE REVIEW, WITH FAMOUS BORDEAUX AND SOUTH AUSTRALIAN YARDSTICKS ...
Time: Tuesday 6 Sept., 2016,
6:30pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Trinity Hill Winery, 2396 State Highway 50 (500m north of Ngatarawa Road)
Cost: $90 per person
Booking and Payment: Since the presenter is in Wellington, and the venue is in Hawkes Bay, bookings will be accepted only by email, and listed in strict time / date order of receipt. Please book with Janine Bevege, at Trinity Hill, email: janine@trinityhill.com , and include your (preferably mobile) phone number. You will be advised details to pay GK by direct credit to his bank account. There is no alternative method of payment. Credit cards are not accepted. The booking will be listed as firm only once payment is received.
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. A wait-list will be made, if needed. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. If space allows, bookings after that time will still be accepted – right up to, say, 4pm on the day of the tasting. If the tasting fills, please use the wait-list, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
Three things to note about GK Library Tastings:
# The tastings are presented blind, so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited,
if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. The glasses will be XL5s. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles,
and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
The Tasting
The 2002 vintage was successful in Hawkes Bay, being seen as a successor to 1998, with some bigger and riper wines. It was good though warmer in South Australia, and satisfactory in most winemaking districts elsewhere in the wine world. For the cabernet / merlot and related wines, we will use 2002 Ch Cos d-Estournel as a style reference, though it will not be weighty, with other Hawkes Bay wines and a highly-regarded South Australian wine. Additionally, since the year allowed malbec to ripen fully in Hawkes Bay, there will be an Argentinian malbec (2003, unfortunately) of repute to calibrate the Hawkes Bay example.
In the syrah / shiraz group, the range of styles presented will be stimulating. We will span the range from lighter and hopefully more elegant New Zealand reds, through medium-sized examples to two famous South Australian wines, one Clarendon Astralis having quite a reputation, and being very much a wine in contention. This doesn't affect its price to buy in Australia, which averages $A450. The cabernet-oriented wines and the syrah-oriented wines will not be separated into two flights. Instead we will have the fun of seeing if we can assess which class each wine falls into.
Our wines will be:
ARGENTINA:
2003 Trapiche Malbec Vina José Blanco Individual Vineyard, Mendoza
AUSTRALIA
2002 Clarendon Hills Syrah Astralis, McLaren Vale
2002 Penfolds Cabernet / Shiraz Bin 389, South Australia
2002 Penfolds Shiraz RWT, Barossa Valley
FRANCE – BORDEAUX
2002 Ch Cos d'Estournel, Saint-Estephe 2nd Growth, CS dominant
NEW ZEALAND
2002 Craggy Range Syrah Block 14, Gimblett Gravels
2002 Dry River Syrah, Martinborough
2002 Esk Valley Syrah Reserve, Gimblett Gravels
2002 Newton-Forrest CS / Me / Ma Cornerstone, Gimblett Gravels
2002 Sacred Hill Brokenstone, Gimblett Gravels, Me dominant
2002 Te Mata Syrah Bullnose, Bridge Pa Triangle
2002 Villa Maria Malbec Omahu Single Vineyard, Gimblett Gravels
Reserve Wines:
2002 Vidal Syrah Soler, Gimblett Gravels
2002 Villa Maria CS / Me Reserve, Gimblett Gravels
About the presenter: Geoff has been studying wine for 50 years,
and has been a senior industry judge for 35 years, so brings a distinctive voice to his presentations.
COMPARISON FIVE MATCHED PAIRS 1978 / 1979 NOTABLE MEDOC CLASSED GROWTHS, PLUS TWO FIRST GROWTHS
Time: 6 pm, Wednesday 31 August
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines and Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $160 per person
Bookings: On-line via https://regionalwines.co.nz/events?event_id=92 primarily. Or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz, particularly for the wait-list.
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. A wait-list will be made, if needed. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. If space allows, bookings after that time will still be accepted – right up to, say, 4pm on the day of the tasting. If the tasting fills, please use the wait-list, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
Three things to note about GK Library Tastings:
# U>The tastings are presented blind, so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited, if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price.
Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
The Tasting
Once upon a time, in the days before wines came to be rated on their size and weight, tasters were greatly intrigued by the two vintages 1978 and 1979 in Bordeaux. The 1960s and 1970s after the benchmark 1961 vintage had been variable, shall we say, with commentators desperately (it seems now) trying to find virtues in any half-decent year. And the better years were so widely spaced, for example 1970, then modest indeed till the tannic 1975s and hot-year 1976s. So the pleasantly ripe and 'typical' pair of back-to-back vintages in 1978 and 1979 attracted quite a lot of interest. Nowadays they are seen as being a bit on the small side, but the best showing charm.
This tasting will provide the rare even then, and much rarer now, opportunity to compare five of the best-known classed growths of the Medoc, in matched pairs, 1978 vs 1979. This should give a great feel for the similarities and differences between the two years. To make up the 12, as a treat, we will have two first growths, 1979 Ch Margaux and 1978 Ch Latour. This makes the tasting more expensive (but, I assure you, valued well below wine-searcher), yet provides an opportunity to check two of our wines which even then were aspiring to be super-seconds (or near-first-growths), namely Ch Palmer and Ch Leoville Las Cases, and see how they measure up against the real thing.
Our wines will be:
1978 Ch Grand-Puy-Lacoste, 5th Growth Pauillac, then CS 70%, Me 25, CF 5, now CS 75%, Me 20, CF 5
1979 Ch Grand-Puy-Lacoste, 5th Growth Pauillac, then CS 70%, Me 25, CF 5, now CS 75%, Me 20, CF 5
1978 Ch Latour, 1st growth Pauillac, then CS 80%, Me 10, CF 10, now CS 74%, Me 24, CF 2, trace PV
1978 Ch Leoville Las Cases, 2nd Growth Saint-Julien, then CS 67%, Me 17, CF 13, PV 3, now CS 66, Me 24, CF 9, PV 1
1979 Ch Leoville Las Cases, 2nd Growth Saint-Julien, then CS 6%7, Me 17, CF 13, PV 3, now CS 66, Me 24, CF 9, PV 1
1979 Ch Margaux, 1st growth Margaux, then CS 75%, Me 20, CF 5, now CS 75%, Me 20, PV 3, CF 2
1978 Ch Montrose, 2nd Growth Saint-Estephe, then CS 65%, Me 25, CF 10, now CS 60, Me 32, CF 6, PV 2
1979 Ch Montrose, 2nd Growth Saint-Estephe, then CS 65%, Me 25, CF 10, now CS 60, Me 32, CF 6, PV 2
1978 Ch Palmer, 3rd Growth Margaux, then CS 55%, Me 40, CF 5, now Me 47, CS 47, PV 6
1979 Ch Palmer, 3rd Growth Margaux, then CS 55%, Me 40, CF 5, now Me 47, CS 47, PV 6
1978 Ch Pichon Lalande, 2nd Growth of Pauillac, then CS 50%, Me 35, PV 8, CF 7, now CS 61%, Me 32, CF 4, PV 3
1979 Ch Pichon Lalande, 2nd Growth of Pauillac, then CS 50%, Me 35, PV 8, CF 7, now CS 61%, Me 32, CF 4, PV 3
Reserve wines:
1978 Ch Leoville Barton, 2nd Growth of Saint-Julien, then CS 70%, Me 20, CF 8, PV 2, now CS 72%, Me 20, CF 8
1978 Clos Rene, Pomerol, then Me 60%, CF 30, Ma 10, now Me 70%, CF 20, Ma 10
About the presenter: Geoff has been studying wine for 50 years, and has been a senior industry judge for 35 years, so brings a distinctive voice to his presentations.
THE GLORIOUS WINES OF THE SOUTHERN RHONE VALLEY, 1998
Geoff Kelly's Library Tastings have become well-known in other parts of the country over the last 20 years. Geoff has been studying wine for 50 years, and has been a senior industry judge for 35 years, so brings a distinctive voice to his presentations. Villa Maria headquarters at Mangere, Auckland, will be hosting two of these Library Tastings, in August. The second will sample the fine ripe 1998 vintage in the Southern Rhone Valley. There will be twelve wines, presented blind, spanning the range from Cotes du Rhone to Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The highly-regarded American wine critic Robert Parker is famous for having more Chateauneuf-du-Pape in his cellar, than any other winestyle. This is an opportunity to find out why. The tasting will include two of the most famous long-established Chateauneufs of the district, Beaucastel and Vieux Telegraphe, and the newly-famous top wine of Domaine Mordorée. Other well-known names will be included, and yes, there will be a little brett - the district's hallmark.
The wine-list is:
1998 Tardieu-Laurent Cotes-du-Rhone Guy Louis
1998 Domaine d'Andezon Cotes-du-Rhone-Villages
1998 Ch des Tours Vacqueyras Reserve
1998 Domaine de la Bouissiere Gigondas
1998 Ch de Saint Cosme Gigondas
1998 Domaine Santa Duc Gigondas Prestige des Hautes Garrigues
1998 Ch de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1998 Brunel Chateauneuf-du-Pape Les Cailloux
1998 Domaine Charvin Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1998 Domaine de La Mordoree Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee Reine des Bois
1998 Domaine de Nalys Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1998 Domaine du Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf-du-Pape La Crau
RESERVE
1998 Ch Pesquie Cotes du Ventoux Cuvée des Terrasses Reservée
1998 Domaine de La Charbonniere Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Vielles Vignes
1998 Domaine de Beaurenard Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1998 Ch La Nerthe Chateauneuf-du-Pape
When: 6.30 pm,
Thursday 18 August, 2016
Where: The Board Room, Villa Maria winery, 118 Montgomerie Rd, Mangere
Seat price: $75. Please see Booking Conditions.
Booking and Payment: Since the presenter is in Wellington, and the venue is in Auckland, bookings will be accepted only by email, and listed in strict time / date order of receipt. In the first instance please book with Mark Polglase (markp@villamaria.co.nz) or Bonnie McKenzie (bonniem@villamaria.co.nz), BY EMAIL, and include your (preferably mobile) phone number. You will be advised details to pay GK by direct credit to his bank account. There is no alternative method of payment. Credit cards are not accepted. The booking will be listed as firm only once payment is received.
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. A wait-list will be made, if needed. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. If space allows, bookings after that time will still be accepted. If the tasting fills, please use the wait-list, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
Three things to note about GK Library Tastings:
# The tastings are presented blind, so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited, if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
1986 BORDEAUX AND RELATED 1986 AND 1987 CABERNET / MERLOTS
Geoff Kelly's Library Tastings have become well-known in other parts of the country over the last 20 years. Geoff has been studying wine for 50 years, and has been a senior industry judge for 35 years, so brings a distinctive voice to his presentations. Villa Maria headquarters at Mangere, Auckland, will be hosting two of these Library Tastings, in August. The first will sample the highly-regarded 1986 vintage in Bordeaux, and seek comparisons with some new world cabernet / merlots. At 30 years of age, the tannin this vintage was famous for should be softening. There will be twelve wines, presented blind, including First-Growths Chx Margaux and Mouton-Rothschild, and some other classed growths. The new world wines will include the lovely 1987 Stonyridge Larose, one of the most remarkable New Zealand cabernet / merlots of the era, Antipodean from Matakana, an Australian, and a Californian cabernet. The wine-list is:
AUSTRALIA
1986 Vasse Felix Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River, WA
CALIFORNIA
1986 Simi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Alexander Valley
NEW ZEALAND
1987 The Antipodean, Matakana
1987 Goldwater Cabernet / Merlot / Franc, Waiheke Island
1987 Stonyridge Larose, Waiheke Island
1987 Villa Maria Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot Reserve,
Mangere & Hawkes Bay
FRANCE – BORDEAUX
1986 Ch L'Arrosée, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classé
1986 Ch Grand-Puy-Lacoste, 5eme Cru Classé Pauillac
1986 Ch Gruaud-Larose, 2eme Cru Classé Saint-Julien
1986 Ch La Lagune, 3eme Cru Classé, Haut-Medoc, Ludon / Margaux
1986 Ch Margaux, 1er Cru Classé Margaux
1986 Mouton Rothschild, 1er Cru Classé Pauillac
IN RESERVE
1986 Oakridge Cabernet Sauvignon, Yarra Valley
1986 Te Mata Cabernet / Merlot Coleraine, Hawkes Bay
1986 Ch Lagrange, Saint-Julien
1986 Ch Talbot, Saint-Julien
When: 6.30 pm,
Tuesday 16 August, 2016
Where: The Board Room, Villa Maria winery, 118 Montgomerie Rd, Mangere
Seat price: $125. Please see Booking Conditions.
Booking and Payment: Since the presenter is in Wellington, and the venue is in Auckland, bookings will be accepted only by email, and listed in strict time / date order of receipt. In the first instance please book with Mark Polglase (markp@villamaria.co.nz) or Bonnie McKenzie (bonniem@villamaria.co.nz), BY EMAIL, and include your (preferably mobile) phone number. You will be advised details to pay GK by direct credit to his bank account. There is no alternative method of payment. Credit cards are not accepted. The booking will be listed as firm only once payment is received.
Booking Conditions: There are 21 places only. A wait-list will be made, if needed. There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. If space allows, bookings after that time will still be accepted. If the tasting fills, please use the wait-list, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
Three things to note about GK Library Tastings:
# The tastings are presented blind, so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited, if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
# Cork taint / TCA: In sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. It is not practicable to have back-up bottles for each of 12 wines. If a wine is clearly corked at the decanting stage, a reserve wine will be substituted. Tasters receive 12 wines, but maybe (luck of the draw) not a key / expensive one.
# The presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
2009 & 2010 New Zealand Pinot Noir, including –are Trophy Wines worth the cost ?
Time: Thursday 30 June, 2016, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $65 per person
Bookings: On-line via https://regionalwines.co.nz/events?event_id=58 primarily. Or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz.
Limit: 21-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. NB: If this tasting fills on the electronic booking list, please ring the Regional Wines Office 385 6952, and ask to be wait-listed, since there is all-too-often a last-minute place..
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Six years (or seven) is a sweet spot in cellaring for reputable New Zealand pinot noir. The 2009 and 2010 vintages are pretty good in most of our pinot districts. We will have at least one wine from each major pinot zone, except Waipara. Instead there will be the chance to see how a Waitaki Valley wine (nearly Canterbury) stacks up, in a strictly blind format.
But the other aspect I am looking forward to is the quizzical one: are these ~ $180 New Zealand pinots worth the money, or do they simply appeal to people easily seduced by the quality of the oak, rather than the absolute quality of the wine ?
We will have one sound $100 burgundy in the mix, to see to what extent New Zealand examples of pinot noir capture the essence of pinot noir the grape. I am deliberately using a straightforward and available French wine of good repute (Jancis Robinson, 17), and around the $100 mark, to benchmark the complete batch of wines, rather than just the premium-priced ones.
This should be a fun tasting, but of considerable interest too.
Our wines will be:
2010 Carrick Pinot Noir Excelsior, Bannockburn (screwcap)
2010 Drouhin Clos des Mouches Premier Cru, Beaune (natural cork)
2009 Escarpment Pinot Noir Kupe, Te Muna Road, Martinborough (supercritical cork)
2009 Felton Road Pinot Noir, Bannockburn (screwcap)
2010 Greywacke Pinot Noir, Southern Valleys, Wairau Valley (screwcap)
2010 Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir Marie Zelie Reserve, Martinborough Terrace (screwcap)
2010 Misha's Vineyard Pinot Noir Verismo, Bendigo district,
Central Otago (screwcap)
2009 Mount Difficulty Pinot Noir Target Gully, Bannockburn,
Central Otago (screwcap)
2009 Neudorf Pinot Noir Home Block Vineyard, Moutere Hills, Nelson (screwcap)
2010 Ostler Pinot Noir Caroline's, Waitaki Valley, Otago (screwcap)
2009 Peregrine Pinot Noir Pinnacle, 75% Bendigo and 25% Pisa, Central Otago (screwcap)
2009 Pisa Range Pinot Noir Black Poplar Block, Cromwell Basin, Central Otago (screwcap)
In Reserve:
2009 Akarua Pinot Noir Reserve, Bannockburn, Central Otago (screwcap)
# For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. The wines will be presented blind, so our assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out.
Does Vintage Champagne Age – A Definitive Tasting 1966 – 1996 ...
Time: Wednesday 4 May, 2016, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits,
Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $145 per person
Bookings: On-line via https://regionalwines.co.nz/events?event_id=32. Or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: richard@regionalwines.co.nz
Place Limit: 21-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows,
bookings after that time will be accepted. NB: If this tasting fills on the electronic booking list, please ring the Regional Wines Office 385 6952, and ask to be wait-listed, since there is all-too-often a last-minute place.
# Please note that in sharing in this tasting, tasters accept the risk of corked bottles. That is just the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself. There are no back-up bottles. If a wine is profoundly corked (for it can happen even with compound champagne corks) one of the reserve wines above will be substituted. So 12 wines, but maybe not a key one.
# For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml), both to enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
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Michael Broadbent, 2002: I cannot think of any other wine which automatically, unconsciously, conjures up such a variety of (mainly) happy associations. It is, par excellence, the wine of celebration; it has an almost unassailable position in the hierarchy of wine.
Why would I say a 'Definitive' tasting ? Presumptuous surely. It simply is, that for any person whose appreciation of wine is not set by snob values or advertising / PR criteria, any tasting including Pol Roger's Cuvée Winston Churchill tells us all that needs to be known about the beauty of the champagne style. And the more so, if the example is from a great year, as ours is. Cork permitting, this wine should be sensational.
But we could also hope that any tasting that includes a wine which wine-searcher values at $NZ1408 (at the moment of writing) is also worth tasting. Even if it is 1976 Bollinger RD (Recently Disgorged) in fact disgorged in 1987. Frankly ... the valuation seems nuts. And then there is Bollinger vintage. This wonderful bolder style of champagne is now so rare in NZ, it currently is not available anywhere in the country. The tasting includes THREE vintages from 1966 to 1990, all well-rated vintages. Who has tasted a 50-year old champagne ? And there is the nv Bollinger bought at the same time as the 1982, to answer the question: how well do non-vintage champagnes keep ?
The tasting also includes two examples of the beautiful 1996 vintage, the second best vintage of the last 40 years, according to Wine Spectator, whose vintage charts are arguably the most thoughtful around. The exquisite 1996 Pol Roger Chardonnay (Blanc de Blancs) will be set against the 1975 of the same label, to further illuminate the question: how does champagne age. And we have Bollinger Vintage from 1990, the best vintage of them all, according to that source.
So study the list, and ask how such a tasting could be assembled today (in New Zealand). Then ask, how on earth does one value the tasting, and the tasting fee ? A single bottle of vintage Bollinger is approx. $NZ210 today. A single bottle of Taittinger Comtes or Bollinger RD is over $400 today, for the current vintage. The total wine-searcher valuation for the set is $5780.
This is a unique opportunity to compare some of the great labels of (the less pretentious side of) the Champagne world, and see how they age. Provided the 1966 has a sound cork, and just trace pressure, it should at the least be a lovely old (loosely speaking) grand cru Chablis style. And Lechere was famous in his day. The Ayala should serve as a foil to some of the better-known labels.
On this occasion, it is too hard to present the wines blind, when coupled with the complications old champagne corks may provide, and the impracticability of decanting bubbly.
The wines will be presented in the following sequence:
nv Champagne Lechere Premier Cru Brut Venice Simplon Orient Express, Avize
1982 Champagne Ayala Brut, Ay
1982 Champagne Bollinger Grande Année Brut, Ay
nv Champagne Bollinger Special Cuvée Brut, Ay
1980 Champagne Lechere Blanc de Blancs Premier Cru, Avize
1996 Champagne Pol Roger Chardonnay Extra Cuvée de Reserve Brut, Epernay
1990 Champagne Bollinger Grande Année Brut, Ay
1976 Champagne Bollinger RD Extra Brut, Ay
1975 Champagne Pol Roger Chardonnay Cuvée de Reserve, Epernay
1975 Champagne Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Chardonnay Blanc de Blancs, Reims
1966 Champagne Bollinger Vintage Brut, Ay
1996 Champagne Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill Brut, Epernay
In Reserve:
1996 Champagne Deutz Blanc de Blancs Brut, Ay
1986 Champagne Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial, Epernay
Library Tasting: 1990 Ch Petrus and other 1990s – in memory of Ken Kirkpatrick ...
Time: Thursday 22 Oct, 2015, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $110 per person
Bookings: On-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/wine-content.aspx/wine-tastings primarily. Or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz.
Limit: 21-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. NB: If this tasting fills on the electronic booking list, please ring the Regional Wines Office 385 6952, and ask to be wait-listed, since there is all-too-often a last-minute place.
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Five years have passed since Wellington wine-man of note Ken Kirkpatrick died. Ken was a highly accomplished and highly qualified PhD-level individual. He was the kind of man who gave you his full attention, and if you made a mistake, not only did he notice, but almost invariably he quickly made constructive suggestions about remedy. In his career he made great innovations in the researching and marketing of New Zealand dairy products, for the New Zealand Dairy Board. He went on to a Professorship in this area at Massey University, followed by time with The Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. His penetrating approach to issues then led to appointment as a policy advisor in the Prime Minister's Department.
At his funeral, a colleague described how working with Ken often produced: 'the slightly disconcerting sense that somehow Ken's enormously talented brain is taking your conversation somewhere unexpected. I remember many a meeting briefly flummoxed by a lateral Ken connection – inevitably a relevant one, even if the rest of us didn't always appreciate that straight away.'.
On the wine front the great thing about Ken Kirkpatrick was that he was totally devoid of the snobbery and pretension that characterises so much wine talk, and so many wine people. He was a keen wine options player, for example, an approach which focusses on the wine rather than the label, and is thus anathema to the snobbish. His interest in wine was completely catholic, and the assessing of quality of achievement his primary concern. His cellar therefore ranged widely, from benchmark wines from the old European classics to many wines from emerging producers in the new world. The goal of this tasting is to offer a sampling of that approach, from wines he entrusted to me.
The wines are (bar one) all from the 1990 vintage, one variously considered good to great round the world. It was a time when the old world had still not quite woken up to the new technological understanding about wine in the new world, and at the same time the new had not yet clearly achieved understanding of wine style and a sense of place, though California was rapidly closing in on that approach.
The lead-wine of the tasting is 1990 Ch Petrus. It seems safe to say this wine has never before been offered in a 'public' tasting in New Zealand. It is one of those wines now featuring on the lists of a certain class of journalist, under titles along the lines: 100 wines to try before you die. Current wine-searcher valuation is over $6,000 per bottle, so after a glance at the other labels, you will quickly see this tasting is a gift. It is only fair to note that the 1990 vintage coincides more-or-less with the consolidation on the world wine-scene of American Robert Parker as a key influencer. This is a Parker 100-point wine, which immediately doubles its wine-searcher value. By the same token, it may be a bigger and bolder wine than European palates prefer. This is your opportunity to find out. And relative to the tasting fee: there IS a second bottle of the Ch Petrus, so you are pretty-well assured of a good sample.
Our wines will be:
Cabernet / Merlot etc – Bordeaux:
1990 Ch Angelus, Saint-Emilion
1990 Ch Petrus, Pomerol
1990 Ch Pichon Longueville Baron, Pauillac
Cabernet / Merlot etc – Elsewhere:
1990 Henschke Me / CS Abbott's Prayer, Lenswood (550m), SA
1991 Kanonkop Cabernet Sauvignon Paul Sauer, Stellenbosch
1990 Clos Pegase Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley
1990 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 407, South Australia
1990 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 707, South Australia
1990 Stonyridge [ CS / Me ] Larose, Waiheke Island
Syrah / Shiraz:
1990 Clape Cornas, Northern Rhone Valley
1990 A Graillot Crozes-Hermitage La Guiraude, Northern Rhone Valley
1990 Hardy's Shiraz Eileen Hardy, South Australia
Reserve wines:
1990 Ch Pichon-Lalande, Pauillac
1990 Villa Maria Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Hawkes Bay
1990 Jaboulet Gigondas Pierre Aiguille, Southern Rhone Valley
# For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. The wines will be presented blind, so our assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out.
Library Tasting in Central Otago: Reflecting on Australasian Chardonnay – the 1986 vintage ...
Time: Tuesday 15 Sept,
2015, 5.30 pm start
Place: Lake Dunstan Boat Club building, Cromwell, at the end of Partridge Road, via Shortcut Road, c. 1 km north of town.
Cost: $40 per person, plus GST (since booking through COWA) = $46
Bookings: to Natalie Wilson please, preferably via email (to provide a sequence of interest): info@cowa.org.nz, or mobile:
021 104 2513; COWA, PO Box 271, Cromwell; or Or Vikki Kircher, 021 056 7336.
Limit: 21-only places. A waiting list will be made, if needed. Please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. If space allows, bookings after that time will still be accepted. If the tasting fills, please use the wait-list, and leave a mobile number, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
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Old Chardonnay: Please don't summarily ignore / write-off this tasting ! The chances are good that (corks willing) at least one of the wines will be remarkable, if last year's bottles, opened alongside older Latour Corton-Charlemagne and Chevalier- Montrachet wines, are any guide. And please note two things: the price for tasting all 12 bottles is the same as one current good bottle (current-vintage Tyrrell's Vat 47 $AU60); and: I stood up all remaining bottles of each wine in front of a well-illuminated bright white card, and this tasting uses the very best (palest) bottle.
The mid-1980s were an interesting time in New Zealand winemaking, as we made a start on catching up with Australia. The best vinifera-based table wines really started to meet international standards for wine. Though there were a couple of chardonnays in the 1970s, and McWilliams had an impressive 1980 and 1981, the advent of more complex / modern examples of the grape started in the early '80s, via Mission Vineyards, and John Hancock followed by Larry McKenna at Delegats. John Hancock moved to Morton Estate, and his famous barrel-fermented Black Label Chardonnay first appeared in 1984. In Marlborough, Kevin Judd was at Cloudy Bay, and Tony Jordan (Australia) was helping put Hunters on the map. At Kumeu River, Michael Brajkovich made New Zealand's first consciously-MLF-complexed chardonnay in 1985. By 1986 Kym Milne at Villa Maria wanted part of this action, and their first Reserve Chardonnays arrived in 1986.
So this 1986 retrospective is truly a chance to taste a slice of New Zealand wine history. One reason some of the wines have lasted so remarkably well is the absence of an MLF component. This is particularly the case for the Australian ones.
Admittedly, winemakers have the (not always deserved) reputation for liking only young wines, and, if you absolutely hate cashew nuts, and think all chardonnays should be lemon in hue, preferably with a green wash, please don't come, in case you spoil it for the others. But most people adore cashew nuts, and I hope you will be able to both enjoy these wines, and maybe, be pleasantly surprised.
Background for the Tasting:
2012: New Zealand Chardonnay comes of age – some top wines and a little history:
www.geoffkellywinereviews.co.nz/index.php?ArticleID=194
Our wines will selected from:
AUSTRALIA:
1986 Bannockburn Chardonnay, Gary Farr, Geelong, Vic
1986 Mountadam Chardonnay, High Eden, SA
1986 Mount Mary Chardonnay, Yarra Valley, Vic
1986 Rosemount Chardonnay Reserve, Hunter Valley,
NSW
1986 Tyrrell's Pinot Chardonnay Vat 47, Hunter Valley,
NSW
NEW ZEALAND:
1986 Babich Chardonnay Irongate, Hawkes Bay
1986 Cloudy Bay Chardonnay, Marlborough
1986 Cooks Chardonnay Hawkes Bay Winemakers Reserve, Hawkes Bay
1986 Dry River Chardonnay, Martinborough
1986 Hunter's Chardonnay, Marlborough
1986 Kumeu River Chardonnay, Kumeu
1998 Martinborough Vineyard Chardonnay, Martinborough, Larry McKenna
1986 C J Pask Chardonnay, Hawkes Bay
1986 Hunter's Chardonnay, Marlborough
1986 Te Mata Chardonnay Elston, Hawkes Bay
1986 Vidal Chardonnay Reserve, Hawkes Bay
1986 Villa Maria Chardonnay Gisborne Reserve, Gisborne
About the Tastings: Please see the 2005 burgundy tasting, below.
About the presenter: Please see the 2005 burgundy tasting, below.
Library Tasting in Central Otago: A First Taste of the Benchmark 2005 Burgundies ...
Time: Thursday 17 Sept, 2015, 5.30 pm start
Place: Lake Dunstan Boat Club building, Cromwell, at the end of Partridge Road, via Shortcut Road, c. 1 km north of town.
Cost: $120 per person, plus GST (since booking through COWA) = $138
Bookings: to Natalie Wilson please, preferably via email (to provide a sequence of interest): info@cowa.org.nz, or mobile:
021 104 2513; COWA, PO Box 271, Cromwell
Limit: 21-only places. A waiting list will be made, if needed. Please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. If space allows, bookings after that time will still be accepted. If the tasting fills, please use the wait-list, and leave a mobile number, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
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2005 Burgundy: Burgundy is still the home of the finest pinot noirs on earth. And most agree that the 2005s are the finest wines from that district in our lifetime.
Jasper Morris, MW, in the now 'standard text' Inside Burgundy: For years I used to discuss the potential of a good new red burgundy vintage with Dominique Lafon, and we would say 'yes, that's good, but not as good as 1978'. However there was no such question over 2005 – clearly of greater potential than 1978 or anything else since – or indeed any vintage for many years before. Possibly 1959 ? The reds will be magnificent over the long term.
Elsewhere Tim Atkin MW wrote an article for the The Guardian titled: Is 2005 the best ever year for Burgundy?, and quoted Morris as saying: This is the most uniformly successful vintage I have seen in my career. Across the water, the Wine Advocate (R Parker) vintage chart rates the Cote de Nuits 98 and Tannic, the Cote de Beaune 96 and Tannic. No other vintage in the span covered (from 1970) compares. Wine Spectator is similar.
There seem few if any voices dissenting from these evaluations. Jancis Robinson in an article on her website titled:
Burgundy 2005 - background to the vintage, says: The 2005 summer was quite exceptionally dry but the vines coped well ... Temperatures and sunshine hours on the other hand were generally lower than average ... so 2005 was no repeat of the heatwave vintage of 2003. ... Thanks to the lack of water, the grapes may have been pea-sized with thick skins full of flavour, tannin and colour, but for most red wines anyway, yields were relatively respectable. Domaine Armand Rousseau managed an average of just over 40 hl/ha [ 5.2 t/ha = 2.1 t/ac ] which seems pretty general for Gevrey Chambertin. "It's quite exceptional to have this combination of ripeness, fullness and quantity," Eric Rousseau told me.
Fred Mugnier of Domaine J F Mugnier, sees a contradiction in the 2005s because they have both the freshness of a cool vintage and the richness and texture more reminiscent of an overripe vintage. "This makes the wines very interesting," he assured me, "because they have great current appeal but also real potential for ageing. ... If there is one dominant characteristic of these wines it is their thrilling combination of ripeness and acidity. In general all the wines are charming, truly succulent and they faithfully express their origins. Can one ask for more?
Our tasting will include 3 grands crus and 3 premiers crus, 5 wines from the Cote de Nuits, 4 from the Cote de Beaune, and 3 from New Zealand, for perspective. One of the grands crus is the highly-regarded Hubert Lignier Clos de la Roche, one of the greatest vineyards in Burgundy. The New Zealand allocation was 6 bottles. The current wine-searcher valuation is $NZ839. For this bottle (alone) there will be a back-up bottle.
Otherwise, there will be reserve bottles. Our wines will be along the lines:
BURGUNDY:
2005 Chandon de Briailles Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru, Cote de Beaune
2005 Geantet-Pansiot Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru, Cote de Nuits
2005 Hubert Lignier Clos de la Roche Grand Cru, Cote de Nuits
2005 Denis Bachelet Gevrey-Chambertin Les Corbeaux Vieilles Vignes Premier Cru, Cote de Nuits
2005 Drouhin Beaune-Greves Premier Cru, Beaune, Cote de Beaune
2005 Montille Pommard Les Pezerelles Premier Cru, Pommard, Cote de Beaune
2005 Sylvie Esmonin Cote de Nuits-Villages, Cote de Nuits
2005 Gros Frere & Soeur Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Nuits, Cotes de Nuits
2005 N Potel Volnay Vieilles Vignes, Volnay, Cote de Beaune
NEW ZEALAND:
2005 Dry River Pinot Noir, Martinborough
2005 Gibbston Valley Pinot Noir Reserve, Gibbston Valley, Central Otago
2005 Peregrine Pinot Noir, multi-district, Central Otago
About the Tastings: For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. I use smaller samples which both allows more wines to be reviewed, and reduces the cost. Please note therefore the pours are only 30ml, which can easily be consumed before the wine is even tasted. The logistics of bringing the wines from Wellington are such that I cannot have duplicate bottles for each wine.
For some, there is not one. So it will be just like a wine in your cellar: in paying for the tasting, participants accept the risk of corked bottles. I will bring some reserve bottles, so you will get 12 wines, but the exact wines listed cannot be guaranteed.
About the presenter: Geoff Kelly is a former DSIR scientist / ecologist. He has studied wine since the mid-1960s, setting his palate more via the wines of Europe and Australia than the then-embryonic local wine industry. He published the first comprehensive account of Pinot Noir in New Zealand in 1982, and was founding wine-writer for NBR and then Cuisine magazines, later that decade. At that stage he contributed to viticulture and oenology research in both the Dept. of Agriculture / Te Kauwhata and Lincoln University, Canterbury, and continues as a visiting lecturer at the latter. He has judged at the Air New Zealand and Royal Easter Show national wine competitions, becoming a senior judge in 1981, and continues in this role with the Easter Show. He is now a wine consultant concentrating on wine evaluation, publishing at: www.geoffkellywinereviews.co.nz
Library Tasting at Trinity Hill: The remarkable 1998 vintage in Hawkes Bay, two bordeaux to calibrate ...
Time: Tuesday 1 Sept., 2015, 6:30pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Trinity Hill Winery, 2396 State Highway 50 (500m north of Ngatarawa Road)
Cost: $65 per person
Bookings: Bookings open August 1. Bookings (and a waiting-list) will be handled by Janine Bevege, at Trinity Hill, Ph: 06 879 7778 ext. 700, email: janine@trinityhill.com. Direct credit payment will be sought directly to the presenter's account, details from Janine preferably by email.
Limit: 20-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, UNLESS the place is filled. There will be a waiting list, to facilitate this. Note that if space allows, bookings will be accepted right up to, say, 4pm on the day of the tasting, since there are often unforeseen late cancellations.
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The 1998 vintage was warm in Hawkes Bay, as elsewhere in the wine world. While some producers revelled in the warm conditions, and felt their wines were the best they had made to date, others expressed doubt about the long-term prospects for such big soft wines. Certainly the vintage is exciting, simply because it heralded both the advent of properly-ripe red wines in New Zealand, and the generally warmer decade to follow, after many modest years in the late '80s and '90s. This is an opportunity to see 10 well-regarded 1998 Hawkes Bay reds in the context of a couple of 1998 bordeaux, one of which is very well-regarded, and decide how you feel about mature New Zealand reds.
Our wines will be:
BORDEAUX:
1998 Ch Leoville-Barton, Saint-Julien 2nd Growth, CS dominant
1998 Ch Bourgneuf, Pomerol, Me dominant
HAWKES BAY:
1998 Esk Valley The Terraces, Ma dominant
1998 Mills Reef Syrah Elspeth
1998 Mission Estate Syrah Jewelstone
1998 Newton-Forrest Cabernet Sauvignon, CS dominant !
1998 Pask Winery Merlot Reserve, Me dominant
1998 Sileni Merlot / Cab. Franc EV (Exceptional Vintage), Me dominant
1998 Te Awa Me / CS / CF Boundary, Me dominant
1998 Te Mata Coleraine, CS & CF dominant
1998 Vidal Estate Cabernet / Merlot Reserve, CS dominant
1998 Villa Maria Merlot / Cabernet Reserve, Me dominant
About the Tastings: For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on all the wines (12 for this event) out at once, so comparisons can be made. Glasses are XL5s. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. The wines will be presented blind, so our assessment is not affected by either the considerable difference in price between the wines, or by the views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out.
About the presenter: Please see the 2005 tasting, below.
Library Tasting at Trinity Hill: The famous 2005 vintage – how exactly do our best Hawkes Bay blends compare with good Bordeaux ?
Time: Thursday 3 September, 2015, 6.30 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Trinity Hill Winery, 2396 State Highway 50 (500m north of Ngatarawa Road)
Cost: $105 per person
Bookings: Bookings open August 1. Bookings (and a waiting-list) will be handled by Janine Bevege, at Trinity Hill, Ph: 06 879 7778 ext. 700, email: janine@trinityhill.com. Direct credit payment will be sought directly to the presenter's account, details from Janine preferably by email.
Limit: 20-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, UNLESS the place is filled. There will be a waiting list, to facilitate this. Note that if space allows, bookings will be accepted right up to, say, 4pm on the day of the tasting, since there are often unforeseen late cancellations.
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Many commentators, particularly the highly-regarded Steven Spurrier (of Decanter magazine, London, noted for his bordeaux palate) have said that the Hawkes Bay climate, and the best Hawkes Bay blends, closely approximate good bordeaux in style. And equally certainly, some New Zealand proprietors have sought to establish that their wines achieve exactly that. The Gimblett Gravels Association in 2009 even took some of their best wines to London, in a somewhat muddled exercise where they set up six top 2006-vintage Hawkes Bay blends against six top 2005 Bordeaux blends. Unwisely, they used First Growths amongst others, for the Bordeaux side.
Our goal for this tasting is to match six good 2005 Hawkes Blends with six 2005 Bordeaux blends, this time however choosing wines of good repute, but not such lofty status. This seems far more realistic and informative. Four of them will be classed growths, or equivalent, a worthy goal to aim for. Two however should be crus bourgeois, to better reflect the range of better wine in Bordeaux. Two of the bordeaux will be cabernet-dominant, three merlot-dominant, one more 50/50, to show the range of styles encompassed in the concept 'bordeaux-blend'. The New Zealand wines are nearly as well-divided, but one is in fact nominally syrah-dominant. This is not a totally silly idea: the concept Hawkes Bay blend could well include some syrah, to make it 'unique' in the world wine scene, and give our top wines a place in the sun, in the same way Italy has achieved with discreet use of sangiovese in some of their top (and highly sought-after) bordeaux blends.
Our wines will be:
BORDEAUX
2005 Ch Leoville-Barton, CS dominant
2005 Ch Montrose, CS dominant
2005 Ch Potensac, CS & CF dominant, just
2005 Ch Haut-Carles, Me dominant
2005 Ch Hosanna, Me dominant
2005 Ch Trotanoy, Me dominant
HAWKES BAY
2005 Church Road Tom, Me dominant
2005 Craggy Range Sophia, Me dominant
2005 Craggy Range The Quarry, CS dominant
2005 Mills Reef Elspeth One, Sy dominant, just
2005 Sacred Hill The Helmsman, CS dominant
2005 Te Mata Estate Coleraine, CS & CF dominant
About the Tastings: For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on all the wines (12 for this event) out at once, so comparisons can be made. Glasses are XL5s. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. The wines will be presented blind, so our assessment is not affected by either the considerable difference in price between the wines, or by the views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out.
About the presenter: Geoff Kelly is a former DSIR scientist / ecologist. He has studied wine since the mid-1960s, setting his palate more via the wines of Europe and Australia than the then embryonic local wine industry. He published the first comprehensive account of Pinot Noir in New Zealand in 1982, and was founding wine-writer for NBR and then Cuisine magazines, later that decade. At that stage he contributed to viticulture and oenology research in both the Dept. of Agriculture / Te Kauwhata and Lincoln University, Canterbury, and continues as a visiting lecturer at the latter. He has judged at the Air New Zealand and Royal Easter Show national wine competitions, becoming a senior judge in 1981, and continues in this role with the Easter Show. He is now a wine consultant concentrating on wine evaluation, publishing at: www.geoffkellywinereviews.co.nz
Library Tasting: The Great 2005 Vintage in Bordeaux: Pts I and II
Time: Pt I, Wednesday 3 June, 2015, 6.00 pm start; Cost $60 per person
Time: Pt II, Thursday 4 June, 2015, 6.00 pm start; Cost $200 per person
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: Pt I, $60, Pt II, $200
Bookings: On-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/wine-content.aspx/wine-tastings primarily (scroll down). Or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz.
Limit: 21-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. NB: If this tasting fills on the electronic booking list, please ring the Regional Wines Office 385 6952, and ask to be wait-listed, since there is all-too-often a last-minute place.
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In Bordeaux, the 2000s have had more great vintages than ever before. 2005 is one of them. Wine Spectator, the most thoughtful vintage rating source, says of 2005 Bordeaux simply: Fabulous aromas and great length; wines with depth, structure and finesse, and rates the vintage 98.
We are offering two tastings, on consecutive nights, to really get a feel for the vintage. Both tastings will have as their central theme, the offering of wines ranging from high cabernet sauvignon right through to merlot / cabernet franc wines with no cabernet sauvignon. This mimics exactly what thoughtful winemakers are doing in Hawkes Bay, and should be of the utmost interest. A subsidiary theme will be the inclusion of two New Zealand wines in each tasting, to see where we stand. The tastings will needless to say be blind.
The more expensive tasting includes wines rarely offered for public tasting in New Zealand. Since few in New Zealand can now afford to buy or taste First Growths, the tasting will include several second wines from the First Growths -- wines which are rarely seen. With modern standards of selection, these have become sought-after in their own right. 2005 Les Forts de Latour is currently valued at $340NZ for example, and 2005 Carruades de Lafite at $526, per bottle.
Because it is such a great vintage, the wines were expensive to start with. The cost therefore has to be high. We ask you to check wine-searcher, and then reflect that is the cost in London or somewhere similar, and the further costs involved in getting the wines to New Zealand. The less expensive tasting should also be great fun. Again there will be high cabernet sauvignon through to no cabernet sauvignon wines, and two New Zealand.
I have to mention the peril of TCA-affected bottles, though 'corked' wines were less common in 2005 than 10 years earlier. Attending is exactly the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself: the risk simply has to be accepted. For Pt II there will be a back-up bottle of my standard 'reference' wine Ch Montrose, only, but there are other wines, so you will get 12 samples. The New Zealand wines will have back-ups.
Please note the lists here differ in detail from the Regional Wines lists, and will take precedence, due to finding Carruades de Lafite. Values are similar. Pt II includes examples from all the great Bordeaux locations, whereas Pt I has several upcoming wines from outlier districts.
Pt I, Wed. 3 June: will cost $60, and the wines will be:
FRANCE
Ch d'Aiguilhe, Cotes de Castillon: Me 80%, CF 20
Ch Cantemerle, Macau (near Margaux): CS 50%, Me 40, CF 5, PV 5
Ch Chasse Spleen, Moulis: CS 73%, Me 20%, PV 7
Clos des Jacobins, Saint-Emilion: Me 75%, CF 23, CS 2
La Dame de Montrose, Saint Estephe: CS 65%, Me 25, CF 10
Ch Haut-Batailley, Pauillac: CS 65%, Me 25, CF 10
Ch Malartic-Lagraviere, Pessac-Leognan: CS 45%, Me 45, CF 8, PV 2
Ch Potensac, St Yzans: CS 60%, Me25, CF 15, trace carmenere
Ch Roc de Cambes, Cotes-de-Bourg: CS 75%, Me 25, CF 5
Ch Talbot, Saint-Julien: CS 67%, Me 27, PV 4.5, CF 1.5
NEW ZEALAND
Stonyridge Larose, Waiheke Island: CS 44%, Ma 21, Me 15,
PV 15, CF 5
Te Mata Coleraine, Havelock North: Me 45%, CS 37, CF
Reserve wine: Ch Gigault Cuvée Viva, Cotes de Blaye: Me >90, CF <10
CANCELLED Pt II, Thurs 4 June: will cost $200, and the wines will be:
FRANCE
Ch Angelus, Saint Emilion: Me 51%, CF 47, CS 2
Bahans Haut-Brion = Le Clarence de Haut-Brion, Pessac: Me 45%, CS 44, CF 10, PV 1
Carruades de Lafite, Pauillac: CS 70%, Me 25, CF 3, PV 2
Ch l'Evangile, Pomerol: Me 85%, CF 15
Les Forts de Latour, Pauillac: CS 70%, Me 30
Ch La Mission Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan: CS 48%, Me 45, CF 7
Ch Leoville-Barton, Saint-Julien: CS 72%, Me 20, CF 8
Ch Montrose, Saint-Estephe: CS 65%, Me 25, CF 10
Ch Palmer, Margaux: CS 47%, Me 47, PV 6
Pavillon de Margaux, Margaux: CS 75%, Me 20, CF & PV 5
NEW ZEALAND
Craggy Range The Quarry, Gimblett Gravels: CS 93%, Me 7
Sacred Hill Helmsman, Gimblett Gravels: CS 77%, Me 22,
CF 1
Reserve Wine: Ch Lynch-Bages, Pauillac: CS 73, Me 15, CF 10, PV 2
# For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. The wines will be presented blind, so our assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out.
Library Tasting: The 1975 Vintage: and a more modest Part II follow-up, for fun ...
Time: Thursday 16 April, 2015, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $40 per person
Bookings: On-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/wine-content.aspx/wine-tastings primarily. Or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz.
Limit: 21-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. NB: If this tasting fills on the electronic booking list, please ring the Regional Wines Office 385 6952, and ask to be wait-listed, since there is all-too-often a last-minute place..
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There has been approval for the concept of a 1975 wine tasting, but with one of the key wines in the Pt I tasting ending up less than impressive, the cost of that tasting now looks on the high side. Let's therefore do a bit of penance in the pricing of a Pt II, which will be strictly for people whose primary interest is in wine per se, not wine labels.
The 1975 vintage: can New Zealand cabernet sauvignons from way back then, before the advent of the pivotal 1980 regulations (grapes needed in wine), even last 40 years ? And how will they compare with some 1975 petit bordeaux ? We'll have five pleasantly reputable minor Bordeaux (though some are actually classed), to see. And then to make sure there is some meat in the tasting, there is a quite famous-in-its-day Hunter shiraz, two very reputable South Australian blended wines from then leaders, and a straight cabernet sauvignon from McLaren Vale.
The actual wines presented on the night might not be quite these. I'll open about 16 wines, and show you the best of them – while trying to retain the geographic spread. See Pt I (below) for a bit more background.
The wines will be:
AUSTRALIA
1975 Elliots Oakvale Dry Red Private Bin, Hunter Valley (noteworthy in its day)
1975 Richard Hamilton Cabernet Sauvignon, McLaren Vale
1975 Stanley Leasingham Cabernet / Malbec Bin 56, Clare Valley
1975 Wolf Blass Cabernet / Shiraz Grey Label, Langhorne Creek
FRANCE - BORDEAUX
1975 Ch Cantemerle, Macau, Haut-Medoc 5th growth (modestly so, then)
1975 Ch Liversan, Saint-Sauveur, Haut-Medoc (cru bourgeois)
1975 Ch Moulinet, Pomerol
1975 Ch Talbot, St Julien 4th growth
1975 Ch La Tour Carnet, Haut-Medoc 4th growth (modestly so, then)
NEW ZEALAND
1975 Montana Cabernet Sauvignon, mostly Mangatangi then
1975 Nobilo Cabernet Sauvignon, Huapai
1975 Penfolds (NZ, then !) Cabernet Sauvignon, Hawkes Bay
# For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. The wines will be presented blind, so our assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out.
Library Tasting: The 1975 vintage: Heitz Martha's Vineyard Cabernet, Lafite Rothschild, Leoville Las Cases ...
Time: Wednesday 11 March, 2015, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $145 per person
Bookings: On-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/wine-content.aspx/wine-tastings primarily. Or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz.
Limit: 21-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. NB: If this tasting fills on the electronic booking list, please ring the Regional Wines Office 385 6952, and ask to be wait-listed, since there is all-too-often a last-minute place..
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Most keen wine people have heard of Heitz Martha's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. For quite a long interval, it was California's (and hence America's) most famous and expensive red wine. But it bespoke an earlier more classical-in-style era, before the advent of latterday richer wines now even more famous, such as Screaming Eagle.
Very few people in New Zealand have however tasted Martha's Vineyard. This tasting provides the opportunity (corks willing) to evaluate the 1975, a great year, alongside 1975 Lafite Rothschild, 1975 Leoville Las Cases, 1975 Ch Montrose, and some other reasonably reputable labels of the era. All the wines are of impeccable provenance.
1975 is an interesting vintage. It has never had a great press, yet for Bordeaux, if you study the literature, it almost reluctantly emerges as perhaps the second best vintage of the 1970s, after 1970 itself. It was a stern and tannic year, which is not so appealing to modern palates, but that tannin has enabled the good / rich ones to live.
With the tasting of necessity in a higher price range, and 40 years on, I have to mention the peril of TCA-affected bottles, though 'corked' wines were less common then than two decades later. Attending is exactly the same as if you had cellared the wine yourself: the risk simply has to be accepted. There are no back-up bottles, but there are other wines, so you will get 12. But, for the two 'key' wines, they will be presented irrespective, so that keen people can examine the underlying character of the wine, which they may otherwise never taste. It IS possible to 'see' through faults – but the will to do so has to be there.
The wines will be:
AUSTRALIA
1975 Leasingham Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 49, Clare Valley
1975 Tyrrell Cabernet Sauvignon Vat 70, Hunter Valley
CALIFORNIA
1975 Heitz Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Martha's Vineyard, Napa Valley
1975 Sonoma Vineyards (now Rodney Strong) Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma Valley
FRANCE – BORDEAUX
1975 Ch Branaire (now Branaire-Ducru), St Julien
1975 Ch Lafite Rothschild, Pauillac
1975 Ch La Lagune, Haut-Medoc (near Margaux)
1975 Ch Leoville Barton, St Julien
1975 Ch Leoville Las Cases, St Julien
1975 Ch Lynch Bages, Pauillac
1975 Ch Montrose, St Estephe
1975 Ch Pontet-Canet, Pauillac
Any replacement wine needed will be selected from: 1975 Ch Cantemerle (Haut-Medoc), 1975 Ch Lascombes (Margaux), 1975 Ch Moulinet (Pomerol), 1975 Ch Prieure-Lichine (Margaux), 1975 Ch Talbot (St Julien, 1975 Ch La Tour Carnet (Haut-Medoc).
# For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. The wines will be presented blind, so our assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out.
The famous 2003 vintage in Bordeaux, including Ch Pavie and Ch Montrose ...
Time: Tuesday 4 November, 2014, 6:30pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Trinity Hill Winery, 2396 State Highway 50 (500m north of Ngatarawa Road)
Cost: $135 per person
Bookings: https://www.fawc.co.nz/buy-tickets/ticket-payment?eid=259783 NB: If sold out, secure a place on the waiting-list, as below ...
Trinity Hill contact person Janine Bevege, Ph: 06 879 7778 ext. 700, email: janine@trinityhill.com
Limit: 20-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There are no refunds for non-attendance. If circumstances prevent you attending, it is your responsibility to find a substitute. Trinity Hill will help in this, by keeping a waiting-list of people who wish to attend, for you to contact and arrange the details of transfer. Contact as above.
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The 2003 vintage in Bordeaux is famous for two things. it was a wonderfully warm year, so that some of the best wines came from the northern villages such as St Estephe, which in typical seasons are sometimes a little cool. Secondly it was the year in which the highly regarded but modern-in-style St Emilion Ch Pavie produced a wine which provoked a war-of-words between America's best-known winewriter Robert Parker and British authority and MW Jancis Robinson. It is well-known that Parker likes big modern wines, and Robinson seeks more traditional values in Bordeaux, including 'refreshment' in the wine.
In essence, Robinson's first report on the wine described it as: Completely unappetising overripe aromas. Why? Porty sweet. Oh REALLY! Port is best from the Douro not St Emilion. Ridiculous wine more reminiscent of a late harvest Zinfandel than a red bordeaux ... 12 / 20. Parker's first report said: a wine of sublime richness, minerality, delineation ... It traverses the palate with extraordinary richness as well as remarkable freshness and definition ... one of the three greatest offerings of the right bank in 2003. 96 - 100 / 100. Parker then criticised Robinson's view, leading to a war of words (and some insults) in which by the time it evaporated most USA and UK critics had a say.
Form your own view 10 years later by tasting 2003 Ch Pavie along with some other fine classed growths of the vintage, including 2003 Ch Montrose from Saint-Estephe, regarded at one point as the wine of the vintage, and all three Leovilles from Saint-Julien. Who has ever tasted all three Leovilles together ? Both Pichons too. No first growths, but SIX wines rated 95 or more by Robert Parker, 10 all told.
Our wines will be:
BORDEAUX, WEST BANK:
2003 Ch Leoville-Barton, St-Julien 2nd Growth (CS 72%, Me 20, CF 8)
2003 Ch Leoville-Poyferre, St-Julien 2nd Growth (CS 65%, Me 25, PV 8, CF 2)
2003 Ch Leoville-Las Cases, St-Julien 2nd Growth (CS 65%, Me 19, CF 13, PV 3)
2003 Ch Montrose, St-Estephe 2nd Growth (CS 65% Me 25, CF 10)
2003 Ch Pichon-Longueville Baron, Pauillac 2nd Growth ( CS 60%, Me35, CF 4, PV 1)
2003 Ch Pichon-Longueville Lalande, Pauillac 2nd Growth (CS 45%, Me 35, 12 CF, PV 8
2003 Ch Pontet-Canet, Pauillac 5th Growth (CS 60%, Me 33, PV 5, CF 2)
2003 Ch Potensac, Medoc Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel (2003) (CS 60%, Me 25, CF 15)
BORDEAUX, EAST BANK
2003 Ch d'Aiguilhe, Cotes de Castillon (Me 80%, CF 20)
2003 Ch Pavie, St. Emilion 1er Grand Cru Classé (Me 55%, CF 25, CS 20)
About the Tastings: For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on all the wines (10 for this event) out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. The wines will be presented blind, so our assessment is not affected by either the considerable difference in price between the wines, or by the views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out.
About the presenter: Please see the syrah tasting, below.
A definitive Syrah Tasting, including J L Chave, Guigal and Jaboulet Hermitage
Time: Thursday 6 November, 2014, 6.30 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Trinity Hill Winery, 2396 State Highway 50 (500m north of Ngatarawa Road)
Cost: $135 per person
Bookings: [ Sold Out, but see below.] http://www.fawc.co.nz/programme/events/event-details?eid=259785
Trinity Hill contact person Janine Bevege, Ph: 06 879 7778 ext. 700, email: janine@trinityhill.com
Limit: 20-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There are no refunds for non-attendance. If circumstances prevent you attending, it is your responsibility to find a substitute. Trinity Hill will help in this, by keeping a waiting-list of people who wish to attend, for you to contact and arrange the details of transfer. Contact as above.
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Who, we wonder, has tasted the great Hermitage syrahs of J L Chave, Guigal, and the resurrected Jaboulet, all together ? Not many, we suspect, for these are rare (and expensive) wines. The hill-slope above the village of Hermitage is the absolute spiritual homeland of the world's greatest syrahs, but it is tiny. We are offering three of them, all from the great 2009 or 2010 vintages. They are rated 100, 99 and 96+ points by Robert Parker. Rare indeed, and probably a tasting never before offered in New Zealand.
Syrah grown in a temperate climate such as the northern Rhone Valley, or Hawkes Bay (where it excels, but it is thriving in a number of other places in New Zealand too) is a wonderfully fragrant and aromatic grape. At varying points in its ripening profile it shares aromas and tastes with pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, and merlot. Good syrah can even be described as pinot noir on steroids.
The range of styles which are legitimate has however led to both debate and confusion as to the real nature of the grape. This tasting will assemble several great syrahs of the world, which still means from the Northern Rhone Valley of France, with three New Zealand examples which have become very highly regarded. There will also be an old syrah, 1983 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, to show the variety in full maturity.
There will be some discussion of the ripening curve for syrah, meaning the sequence of smells and flavours the grape passes through in achieving perfect maturity, and then over-maturity. Participants will receive a photocopy of a paper on this topic I recently published in the London-based The World of Fine Wine.
Our wines will be:
NORTHERN RHONE VALLEY, FRANCE
2010 J L Chave Hermitage
2010 Cuilleron Cote Rotie La Madiniere
2009 Guigal Hermitage Ex Voto
2010 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle
2010 Jaboulet Hermitage La Petite Chapelle
1983 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle
2010 Jamet Cote Rotie
NEW ZEALAND
2010 Obsidian Syrah, Waiheke Island
2009 Te Mata Syrah Bullnose, Bridge Pa Triangle, Hawkes Bay
2010 Trinity Hill Syrah Homage, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
About the Tastings: For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on all the wines (10 for this event) out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. The wines will be presented blind, so our assessment is not affected by either the considerable difference in price between the wines, or by the views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out.
About the presenter: Geoff Kelly is a former DSIR scientist / ecologist. He has studied wine since the mid-1960s, setting his palate more via the wines of Europe and Australia than the then embryonic local wine industry. He published the first comprehensive account of Pinot Noir in New Zealand in 1982, and was founding wine-writer for Cuisine magazine, later that decade. At that stage he contributed to viticulture and oenology research in both the Dept of Agriculture / Te Kauwhata and Lincoln University, Canterbury, and continues as an occasional visiting lecturer at the latter. He has judged at the Air New Zealand and Royal Easter Show national wine competitions, becoming a senior judge in 1981, and continues in this role with the Easter Show. He is now a wine consultant concentrating on wine evaluation, publishing at: www.geoffkellywinereviews.co.nz
Library Tasting: Vertical of the great Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, 1969 – 2010 ... unprecedented in New Zealand
Time: Thursday 18 Sept, 2014, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $165 per person
Bookings: On-line via www.regionalwines.co.nz/wine-content.aspx/wine-tastings primarily. Or phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz.
Limit: 21-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. NB: If this tasting fills on the electronic booking list, please ring the Regional Wines Office 385 6952, and ask to be wait-listed, since there is all-too-often a last-minute place..
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When it comes to syrah, for many years since the war Jaboulet's Hermitage La Chapelle was regarded as the pre-eminent example of the grape in the world, fully ranking with the top grands crus from Bordeaux and Burgundy. Only with the untimely death of Gerard Jaboulet in 1997, and the decline of the house of Jaboulet thereafter, did that reputation pass to J L Chave, also in Hermitage. But now, with the purchase of Jaboulet by the Frey family, owners of Ch La Lagune in Margaux (and linked with champagne-house Billecart-Salmon too), there is every sign with the 2009 and 2010 vintages, that La Chapelle will soon be restored to top or top-equal billing.
This Library Tasting offers 11 vintages of La Chapelle, and one of J L Chave's Hermitage, the wines spanning 41 years. So the first thing to say is, you would almost certainly need to go to London, if you wanted to find a tasting like this. We have never heard of anything like it in New Zealand or Australia. And the second key point is, check the price, then pause and consider you are tasting 12 examples of a famous wine for a price equal to half a bottle. One of the older vintages in this tasting has a wine-searcher valuation of over $NZ1,000 a bottle. The current shelf price of the recent vintages is around $345. Colleague Linden Wilkie, who used to attend Regional Wines tastings but is now based in London, and presents tastings rather like mine there, advises this tasting would be priced at around ₤250 in London, "and would sell out instantly".
Another compelling aspect to this tasting is, it includes 1990 La Chapelle, a 100-point Robert Parker wine, and along with the 1978, the only La Chapelle in recent decades considered to approach the 1961. Jaboulet's 1961 Hermitage La Chapelle is widely regarded as one of the greatest red wines of any type made since the war – in the top 10. It remains the ultimate syrah. This tasting should give an inkling of what it is like.
Finally, there will be one fine syrah in the tasting that is not La Chapelle. What better wine to calibrate Hermitage La Chapelle than 1999 J L Chave Hermitage, a great year there. How many of us have been in a position to ever compare these two great syrahs, alongside each other. This will be a tasting to remember.
Our wines will be:
1969 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley, France
1979 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley, France
1982 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley, France
1983 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley, France
1985 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley, France
1989 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley, France
1990 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley, France
1996 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley, France
1999 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley, France
2009 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley, France
2010 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley, France
1999 J L Chave Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley, France
# For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. The wines will be presented blind, so our assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out.
Library Tasting: Does Syrah Age: An introduction to some classical examples, 1979 - 2004
Time: Monday 29 Sept, 2014, 5.30 pm start
Place: Lake Dunstan Boat Club building, Cromwell
Cost: $105 per person, (GST not applicable)
Bookings: Natalie Wilson, 03 445 4499, info@cowa.org.nz, COWA, PO Box 271, Cromwell
Limit: 21-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. If space allows, bookings after that time will still be accepted. If the tasting fills, please request a wait-list, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place.
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My goal in this tasting is to highlight how very beautiful the syrahs of the classical Northern Rhone appellations Cote Rotie, Hermitage and Cornas can be, as illustrated through a diversity of producers. The sub-theme will be that syrah can perhaps be regarded as pinot noir on steroids, aromatic pinot noir maybe, and the winestyle in maturity has much in common with pinot noir. But then, a claret lover would point out that in the later 1800s, it was exactly the cassis-like aromatics of perfectly ripe syrah which allowed it to be used to reinforce the great wines of bordeaux: hence Lafite-Hermitagé.
Syrah as it ripens displays a consistent sequence of bouquet and flavour characters, which develop in complexity with increasing ripeness in much the same way pinot noir does. I published an account of this sequence in The World of Fine Wine, London, a couple of years ago, and will include a photocopy with the notes at the tasting. And like pinot noir, with over-ripening there is loss of florality, beauty and complexity in syrah, and increase in weight. It can be argued that for syrah in Australia, in a climate often too hot for the grape to retain these attributes, they made the mistake of seeking to restore aromatics in the wine via oak. And like pinot noir, too much oak obliterates beauty in syrah. Thus we have no Australian wines in the tasting (though syrah-like examples do exist). I hope the wines will amplify these viewpoints.
Our wines will be:
1979 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley
1979 Jaboulet Cote Rotie Les Jumelles, Northern Rhone Valley
1984 H Sorrell Hermitage Le Greal, Northern Rhone Valley
1985 Guigal Cote Rotie Brune & Blonde, Northern Rhone Valley
1985 Domaine Clape Cornas, Northern Rhone Valley
1985 Delas Hermitage Marquis de la Tourette, Northern Rhone Valley
1986 Jasmin Cote Rotie, Northern Rhone Valley
1995 Chapoutier Cote Rotie La Mordorée, Northern Rhone Valley
1998 Tardieu-Laurent Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
2003 Yann Chave Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
2003 Craggy Range Syrah Block 14, Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
2004 J.L. Chave Hermitage, Northern Rhone Valley
About the Tastings: For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. I use smaller samples which both allows more wines to be reviewed, and reduces the cost. Please note therefore the pours are only 30ml, which can easily be consumed before the wine is even tasted. The logistics of bringing the wines from Wellington are such that I cannot have duplicate bottles for each wine. For some, there is not one. So it will be just like a wine in your cellar: in paying for the tasting, participants accept the risk of corked bottles. I will bring some reserve bottles, so you will get 12 wines, but the exact wines listed cannot be guaranteed.
About the presenter: Please see the pinot noir tasting, below.
Library Tasting: Does Pinot Noir Age: An eclectic selection of wines, some famous, 1969 - 2001
Time: Wednesday 1 Oct, 2014, 5.30 pm start
Place: Lake Dunstan Boat Club building, Cromwell
Cost: $145 per person, (GST not applicable)
Bookings: Natalie Wilson, 03 445 4499, info@cowa.org.nz, COWA, PO Box 271, Cromwell
Limit: 21-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice, unless the place is filled. If space allows, bookings after that time will still be accepted. If the tasting fills, please request a wait-list, since all-too-often there is a last-minute place. .
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The goals for the pinot noir tasting are a little different, when one is bringing coals to Newcastle. Otago being a young wine district, I hoped some older wines would be of interest, even though some may be frail, and will require close attention to retrieve their former beauty. I also thought that since in my writings I sometimes have outlined a view of pinot noir out-of-line with the then contemporary wisdom in New Zealand, for example pinot quality is not assessed by depth of colour, that I would show some wines which illustrate my idea of pinot noir. I have not tasted them all, however.
Thus I thought Otago people might like to taste the first real international-quality pinot noir made in New Zealand (post-Prohibition), the 1982 St Helena wine, which is now a vanishingly rare bottle. And in a similar vein, I wanted to show you the first grand cru pinot noir I thought worth cellaring a case - a 1969 wine. It seemed back then to exemplify nearly all one read about the magic in pinot noir. I hope you will find it (the last bottle of the case) still of interest, 45 years later. Then there is a Californian wine, as a reminder we are not the first on the scene, and a wine made in Victoria by a devotee of Jacques Seysses.
From France we will have (I hope, see caveat) five grands crus and two premiers, plus a village wine. Since nowadays ordinary mortals can scarcely buy grands crus at all, let alone by the case, I hope these wines though older will both appeal, and illustrate the beauty of pinot noir.
Our wines will be:
New Zealand:
1982 St Helena Pinot Noir, Kaituna Valley (mostly), Canterbury
2001 Neudorf Pinot Noir, Moutere Hills, Nelson
California:
1981 Chalone Vineyard Pinot Noir, montane (and limestone) Monterey County
Australia:
1986 Bannockburn Pinot Noir, Geelong, Victoria (Garry Farr, re Domaine Dujac, below)
France:
1969 Maison Drouhin Clos de la Roche Grand Cru, Morey-Saint-Denis, Cote de Nuits
1976 Domaine Leroy Auxey-Duresses, Cote de Beaune
1976 Domaine Leroy Corton Grand Cru, Cote de Beaune
1980 Domaine Lafon Volnay Santenots-du-Milieu Premier Cru, Cote de Beaune
1985 Domaine Dujac Clos la Roche Grand Cru, Morey-Saint-Denis, Cotes de Nuits
1985 Domaine Rion Nuit-St-Georges Premier Cru Les Vignes Rondes, Cote de Nuits
1995 Domaine de Vogue Musigny Grand Cru, Chambolle-Musigny, Cote de Nuits
1996 Domaine de Vogue Bonnes Mares Grand Cru, Chambolle-Musigny, Cote de Nuits
About the Tastings: For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. I use smaller samples which both allows more wines to be reviewed, and reduces the cost. Please note therefore the pours are only 30ml, which can easily be consumed before the wine is even tasted. The logistics of bringing the wines from Wellington are such that I cannot have duplicate bottles for each wine. For some, there is not one. So it will be just like a wine in your cellar: in paying for the tasting, participants accept the risk of corked bottles. I will bring some reserve bottles, so you will get 12 wines, but the exact wines listed cannot be guaranteed.
About the presenter: Geoff Kelly is a former DSIR scientist / ecologist. He has studied wine since the mid-1960s, setting his palate more via the wines of Europe and Australia than the then embryonic local wine industry. He published the first comprehensive account of Pinot Noir in New Zealand in 1982, and was founding wine-writer for Cuisine magazine, later that decade. At that stage he contributed to viticulture and oenology research in both the Dept of Agriculture / Te Kauwhata and Lincoln University, Canterbury, and continues as an occasional visiting lecturer at the latter. He has judged at the Air New Zealand and Royal Easter Show national wine competitions, becoming a senior judge in 1981, and continues in this role with the Easter Show. He is now a wine consultant concentrating on wine evaluation, publishing at: www.geoffkellywinereviews.co.nz
Deferred: Library Tasting: 1998 Hawkes Bay reds – how do they compare ?
Time: To be confirmed
Place: To be confirmed
Cost: To be confirmed
Bookings: To be advised
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Boy-oh-boy, those who didn't share in our 2001 Sauternes tasting (see below) missed an experience to be treasured. You should have seen the room with 264 glasses of variously golden ambrosia glinting in the light. And the smell in the room was incredible. The tasters were very happy.
So this month we have something much more down-to-earth / closer-to-home. 1998 was a hot and ripe year in Hawkes Bay, producing bigger and riper wines than we are used to. It was so hot in fact that grenache ripened sufficiently for one winemaker at least to bottle an individual release.
Let's take 10 of the best 1998 Hawkes Bay reds, then add one from Bordeaux (merlot dominant) and one from the northern Rhone (syrah dominant, though there weren't many syrahs in Hawkes Bay in 1998) ... chosen to perhaps illuminate them. Interesting to note that as New Zealand wine prices creep up, the two rarest Hawkes Bay wines in our collection are around 50% more expensive than the reputable French. The wines will be presented blind, our usual small pours but 12 of them. It should be a lot of fun to see which wines we like best, and if we can recognise the different grape varieties.
It can be argued that this tasting will include New Zealand's two rarest and most highly-regarded red wines, The Terraces and Church Road Tom, from this excellent vintage. In effect, the tasting offers a taste of 12 good wines for the price of one bottle - more or less, averaged out. RRP on the these top two reds is now more like $150 per bottle.
Our wines will be:
France, Bordeaux
1998 Ch Faugeres, Saint Emilion
France, Northern Rhone
1998 Guigal Cote Rotie Brune & Blonde
New Zealand, Hawkes Bay
1998 Church Road Merlot / Cabernet Tom
1998 Esk Valley Merlot / Malbec / Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
1998 Esk Valley Malbec / Merlot / Cabernet Franc The Terraces
1998 Matua Valley Grenache Innovator
1998 Mission Estate Syrah Jewelstone
1998 Pask Merlot Reserve
1998 Sileni Merlot / Cabernet Franc Exceptional Vintage
1998 Te Mata Cabernet / Merlot Coleraine
1998 Te Mata Syrah Bullnose
1998 Villa Maria Merlot Reserve
# For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. The wines will be presented blind. There is a considerable difference in current price between the most and least valuable, in this tasting. It is therefore much more instructive to decide which wine one likes best, before the price is known.
Library Tasting: 2001 Sauternes, a Great Year, 12 Top Wines including d'Yquem
Time: Thursday 31 July, 2014, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $135 per person
Bookings: Phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington (prefix 04), or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz
Limit: 22-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted. NB: If this tasting fills on the electronic booking list, please ring the Regional Wines Office 385 6952, and ask to be wait-listed, since there is all-too-often a last-minute place.
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The great Sauternes years are few. Broadbent says 2001 is exquisite, like 1971. Few years are as good since the war, but considering the improvements in technical control, Jancis Robinson simply says 2001 is: "Perhaps the greatest Sauternes vintage in modern times."
From the 1855 classification we will have Ch d'Yquem, 9 of the 11 premiers crus, and 2 others Robert Parker rates their equals. The d'Yquem alone is priced at $1500.00 and more ($2,265 at one outlet !). On the Robert Parker scale, 2 @ 100 points, 1 each @ 99, 98, 97, 96, 94, 3 @ 93, none below 90.
We believe this tasting is unprecedented as a public offer in New Zealand. It should be memorable.
Our wines will be:
2001 Ch Climens, Barsac Premier Cru
2001 Ch Coutet, Barsac Premier Cru
2001 Ch Doisy-Daene, Barsac Deuxieme Cru
2001 Ch Guiraud, Sauternes Premier Cru
2001 Ch Haut-Peyraguey, Sauternes / Bommes Premier Cru
2001 Ch Lafaurie-Peyraguey, Sauternes / Bommes Premier Cru
2001 Ch La Tour Blanche, Sauternes / Bommes Premier Cru
2001 Ch de Malle, Sauternes / Preignac Deuxieme Cru
2001 Ch Rabaud-Promis, Sauternes / Bommes Premier Cru
2001 Ch Rieussec, Sauternes / Fargues Premier Cru
2001 Ch Suduiraut, Sauternes / Preignac Premier Cru
2001 Ch d'Yquem, Sauternes Premier Cru Superieur
# For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. The wines will be presented blind. There is a considerable difference in current price between the most and least valuable, in this tasting. It is therefore much more instructive to decide which wine one likes best, before the price is known.
Library Tasting: some 2003 Bordeaux, mainly Medocs
Time: Thursday 26 June, 2014, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $110 per person
Bookings: Phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington (prefix 04), or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz
Limit: 21-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
Wait-List: If this tasting fills on the electronic booking list, please ring the Regional Wines Office 04 385 6952, and ask to be wait-listed, since there is all-too-often a last-minute place.
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2003 was a wonderful warm summer in Europe, and in Bordeaux in particular. The Brits are funny about these things, however, and have spent the last 10 years saying how awful and feeble the wines are, and they are destined for early collapse. Meanwhile people from happier climates just love these beautifully soft ripe wines.
19th September 2012 we looked at some 2003 Bordeaux from the northernmost and hence coolest quality commune of the Medoc, St Estephe. We styled that tasting: Understanding Bordeaux: the coolest district in the hottest year ...
For this month's Library Tasting, since we have had very old whites and old reds lately, let's have young Bordeaux, namely a taste of some of the other Bordeaux districts in 2003. To add interest and appeal, and as a yardstick, we will however include one St Estephe, 2003 Ch Montrose. This is one of the great wines of the vintage, and that wine alone makes attending this tasting essential for anybody who wants to learn about and understand the Cabernet - Merlot / Bordeaux / Hawkes Bay blend winestyle. Opportunities to taste 2003 Ch Montrose in New Zealand will henceforth be exceedingly rare.
But there are some other wines included below which one should not sniff at. Since it was a warm year, my selection is based on the West Bank, where the higher ratio of cabernet sauvignon is likely to maintain better freshness and aromatic complexity in the wine. There is however one high-merlot wine for learning purposes. There are a couple of smaller-scale wines, to add perspective to the sensory experience (and lower the cost). And just for fun, we will put in one wild card, from Hawkes Bay. Not a 2003, which wasn't such a good year there, but a 2002, a similarly ripe year. Since the Villa Maria Reserve Cabernet/Merlot is likely to be a bit oaky, we'll use the 2002 Cellar Selection.
Our wines will be:
BORDEAUX, WEST BANK:
2003 Ch d'Armailhac, Pauillac 5th growth (CS 53%, Me 34, CF 11, PV 2)
2003 Ch Lanessan, (Medoc Cru Bourgeois Supérieur (2003) (CS 60%, Me 30, PV 5, CF 5)
2003 Ch Leoville-Barton, St-Julien 2nd Growth (CS 72%, Me 20, CF 8)
2003 Ch Leoville-Poyferre, St-Julien 2nd Growth (CS 65%, Me 25, PV 8, CF 2)
2003 Ch Leoville-Lascases, St-Julien 2nd Growth (CS 65%, Me 19, CF 13, PV 3)
2003 Ch Montrose, St-Estephe 2nd Growth (CS 65% Me 25, CF 10)
2003 Ch Pichon-Longueville Baron, Pauillac 2nd Growth ( CS 60%, Me35, CF 4, PV 1)
2003 Ch Pichon-Longueville Lalande, Pauillac 2nd Growth (CS 45%, Me 35, 12 CF, PV 8
2003 Ch Pontet-Canet, Pauillac 5th Growth (CS 60%, Me 33, PV 5, CF 2)
2003 Ch Potensac, Medoc Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel (2003) (CS 60%, Me 25, CF 15)
BORDEAUX, EAST BANK
2003 Ch d'Aiguilhe, Cotes de Castillon (Me 80%, CF 20)
HAWKES BAY
2002 Villa Maria Merlot/Cabernet Cellar Selection, Gimblett Gravels (Me 80, CS 20)
Can fine chardonnay cellar for 30 or 45 years – a nutty tasting for dinkum chardonnay lovers ...
Time: Thursday 15 May, 2014, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $50 per person
Bookings: Phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington (prefix 04), or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz
Limit: 21-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
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This is a tasting for people who love the smells and flavours of good oatmeal, cashews, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, and even a touch of walnut maybe. It is not a tasting for those who derive their pleasure in finding faults in wines, where other more positive people would see complexity.
One of the wine problems in living in a young wine country is that wine assessment, commentary and judging is too much influenced by winemakers. Generalising, winemakers like young wines, and speak most highly of fresh and fruity smells and flavours in wine. How else can they sell their young wines. Consequently, it is quite rare to find New Zealand winemakers who enjoy really old wines, or attend tastings of them. In contrast, in countries like Britain, where public wine appreciation is lead by long-established wine merchants and wine-writers, there is a quite different view on the merits of old wine.
Thus, in New Zealand the conventional wisdom is that chardonnay can be cellared for 3 – 5, maybe 8 years at the outside. In this tasting we will explore whether really good chardonnay can in fact cellar for longer. The youngest wine will be 28 years old, so there will be no florals, and precious little stonefruit. Instead, the good ones will smell and taste more of those attributes listed earlier, and will show physical fruit which you can savour in mouth. Such wines can be wonderful with food, and very satisfying, if they have the body to be sustaining.
If you look at the list, there are some pretty good wine names there, including evocative names and grands and premiers crus from Burgundy, Australia's best 30 years ago, one of the great pioneer New Zealand chardonnays, and a highly regarded Californian wine of the era. Accordingly pricing has been difficult. The replacement cost of these wines is high. Knockers however would say these older wines have no value.
It is astonishing if you take out half a dozen of the same old chardonnay, and examine them in a good light against a white background, that no two bottles are the same colour – the wine that is. This reflects the physical / structural variability of cork as a closure, quite apart from cork taint. For this tasting, where possible I have selected the bottle showing the very best / lightest colour. I showed New Zealand wines of similar vintage to the judges at the Easter Show last year, partly to counter the thought expressed above, and they were both astonished, and some even (to their surprise) enchanted. I hope therefore you will find some pretty exciting smells and flavours in this tasting, and will take this opportunity to embark on a little wine adventure.
Our wines will be:
AUSTRALIA
1986 Bannockburn Chardonnay Geelong, (Gary Farr), Victoria, 13.2%
1986 Mountadam Chardonnay High Eden, (600 m.), South Australia, 13.5%
1986 Rosemount Estate Chardonnay Show Reserve, Hunter Valley, NSW, 13%
1986 Tyrrell's Wines Pinot Chardonnay Vat 47, Hunter Valley, NSW
CALIFORNIA
1979 Sterling Vineyards Chardonnay, Napa Valley, 13.6%
FRANCE – Burgundy
1969 Drouhin Puligny-Montrachet Clos du Cailleret Premier Cru (great vintage)
1969 Lichine Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru (great vintage)
1971 Lichine Meursault Genevrieres Premier Cru (great vintage)
1972 Latour Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru
1974 Moreau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur
1976 Latour Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru Les Demoiselles
NEW ZEALAND
1986 Morton Estate Chardonnay Black Label, (John Hancock), 13%
Notes:
# Around 1970, Alexis Lichine was at the height of his powers, his selections at best stellar.
# Tyrrell's can lay claim to creating Australia's first international-calibre chardonnay, having adopted the barrel-ferment approach in 1973.
# Likewise, Morton's Black Label Chardonnay was then (1984-on) the great wine of the day, John Hancock along with Paul Mooney (Mission Vineyards) being the first to adopt barrel ferment in New Zealand.
# Sterling Vineyards was founded in 1964 by an Englishman, influencing the wine-styles sought.
# Background: an introduction to chardonnay in New Zealand can be found at: www.geoffkellywinereviews.co.nz/index.php?ArticleID=194
# For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. The wines will be presented blind. There is a considerable difference in current price between the most and least valuable, in this tasting. It is therefore much more instructive to decide which wine one likes best, before the price is known.
1978 Red Wines, France mainly including Ch Margaux:
Time: Thursday 10 April, 2014, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $135 per person
Bookings: Phone Tastings @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz
Limit: 22-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
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This is a special tasting. 1978 was a glorious vintage in the Rhone Valley, and Burgundy. The year is still held up as a model, scarcely surpassed. The wines themselves are now rare, and any opportunity to taste even a couple should be seized. In lieu of burgundy, we have three elegant southern Rhones, one of which Jancis Robinson marks 19. Such a mark is more than rare from her.
For Bordeaux, the vintage was good rather than great. Since then, we have all marvelled when First Growths passed $500 per bottle, but now the better second growths are this figure. To illustrate, another merchant in New Zealand has 2008 Ch Palmer at $531 and the 2009 at $1125, 2008 Ch Margaux at $1395, and the 2009 at $4499 per bottle, believe it or not. Few can afford such wines, any more. Therefore the opportunity to taste several older examples of these wines in this Library Tasting is attractive. [ I have used 2008 for the price comparison since it is a better comparison with 1978 than the outstanding 2009 and 2010 vintages.]
Also, ANY opportunity to taste Ch Margaux and Ch Palmer alongside each other is rare. Let us hope the silky fragrant beauty of the Margaux district shows through.
Our wines will be:
CALIFORNIA
1978 Cuvaison Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley
FRANCE – Bordeaux
1978 Ch Leoville Las Cases, Second Growth, St Julien
1978 Ch Margaux, First Growth, Margaux
1978 Ch Montrose, Second Growth, St Estephe
1978 Ch Palmer, Third Growth, Margaux
1978 Ch Pichon Lalande, Second Growth, Pauillac
1978 Ch Trotanoy, top few of Pomerol
FRANCE – Burgundy
1978 Drouhin Gevrey-Chambertin
FRANCE – Southern Rhone Valley
1978 Guigal Gigondas
1978 Jaboulet Chateauneuf-du-Pape Les Cedres
1978 Dom. Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf-du-Pape (JR: 19)
ITALY
1978 Pio Cesare Barolo, Piedmont
Reserve wines will include Ch Leoville-Barton, no second bottles this time. The Rhone wine component of this tasting can not be repeated. A matching 2008 vintage tasting of these wines could not be done for the fee suggested. And 2009 would be at least twice the price.
For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. The wines will be presented blind. There is a perhaps 20-fold difference in current price between the most and least valuable, in this tasting. It is therefore much more instructive to decide which wine one likes best, before the price is known.
Does Riesling Age – Including Historic Australian Wines:
Time: Thursday 13 March, 2014, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $50 per person
Bookings: Phone Ian @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz
Limit: 22-only places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
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Introduction to the Library Tastings:
Welcome to the 2014 Regional Wines & Spirits Library Tasting series, presented by Geoff Kelly. After a quiet couple of years, the mood is right for resumed activity in this interesting subject. The first thing to say is: these Library tastings are NOT designed primarily for wine aficionados. They are instead intended to be of broader interest, and particularly for people who, having realised they do in fact like the smells and tastes of wine quite a lot, would then like to go on and find out what older or rarer wines taste like – wines which on one's own can be difficult to locate, or to justify the cost of a whole bottle just for one's own curiosity. Shared among 20 people however, it is more than affordable.
In our Library Tastings, the emphasis is on the wine, on smelling and tasting the liquid in the bottle, and on discussing how the wine came to be this way, and what it might have been like when younger. The label, and the price of the bottle, are quite secondary. Thus we will have some curious but highly interesting bottles, which might be disparaged by wine elitists. The first tasting provides a perfect example.
To optimise the tasting and learning experience, we have 12 different wines, but only 30 mls of each. This is enough to provide a good sample, and to become familiar with the wine. Clearly though, we must be mindful of present and pending drink / driving legislation. Multiplied up, 12 x 30 mls over 2 + hours for these riesling wines is approx. 3.5 standard drinks, if all the wine is consumed. Though individuals vary, that is in general compatible with the 80mg / 100ml current legislation for both males and females. Note however that for the forthcoming 50 mgm legislation, lighter females may not comply. Therefore increased spitting will be desirable and will become more commonplace – there is no case at all for feeling 'indelicate' about this. And care in another way is needed, for 30 mls is not a lot, and it is easy enough to in fact consume the wine before one has tasted it properly. As always, the emphasis must be on extracting the maximum information from the bouquet of the wine, before sipping.
But of course we will have some lovely bottles of high repute too, and price will be mentioned occasionally, inevitably, perhaps where there is a need to add gravitas, or hint at value where that might not be apparent. In particular, later in the year, even though the wines are still young, we will look at the spectacular 2001 vintage in Sauternes with a tasting of a quality (in the sense of completeness) which has rarely been presented in New Zealand. I mention this simply to tantalise. There are many red wines of greater age which it will be fun to taste too.
Another factor in estimating whether you might find these Library Tastings worthwhile is track record. Most of the wines I present were bought by me at release, and where possible on comparative taste evaluation. My cellaring conditions are considered excellent. Further, I have been an industry senior judge for over 30 years. For all these reasons therefore, there is a reasonable chance my selections will be technically sound and please you. I do have to buy some bottles from overseas on other people's say-so, but have developed some skill at reading between the lines of those I feel some rapport with, in the hope of securing wines that please me. Additionally, I do buy some bottles at auction, to achieve tastes of things otherwise rare or unprocurable. Here there is greater risk, naturally, but when the risk is divided by 20 tasters, it costs a lot less than risking buying one yourself. So it seems worthwhile. But you can't win them all.
Some may have noticed that I think it amusing or enjoyable to have tastings commemorating round decades of the original vintage. For this year, years ending in 4 have generally not been too great, in most places. South Australia in 1994 is an intriguing exception, and 20 years might be a good interval at which to check a few of them. Otherwise we will have to make do with years of interest for themselves. For those interested in birth-year tastings, 1978 / '79 and 1983 are tempting this year. We'll see.
Our wines for the first Library Tasting this year will be:
ALSACE
1989 F Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste Hune Vendanges Tardives, Hunawihr, Central Alsace
AUSTRALIA
1984 Jeffrey Grosset Rhine Riesling Polish Hill, Clare Valley, South Australia
2002 Jeffrey Grosset Rhine Riesling Polish Hill, Clare Valley, South Australia
2004 Howard Park Riesling, Great Southern, West Australia
1962 Penfolds Minchinbury Rhine Riesling, Rooty Hill, Sydney, NSW
GERMANY
2001 Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett QmP, Mosel Valley
1975 Rudolf Muller Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese QmP, Mosel Valley
NEW ZEALAND
2001 Dry River Riesling, Martinborough
2001 Felton Road Riesling Dry, Bannockburn, Central Otago
2002 Felton Road Riesling Block 1, Bannockburn, Central Otago
2005 Glover's Riesling Dry Moutere, Moutere Hills, Nelson
2007 Escarpment Riesling, Martinborough
1953, '60, '62 and '86 Ch Margaux, a special 1953 Rioja, and others:
Time: Thursday 28 November, 2013, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $145 per person
Bookings: Phone Ian @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz
Limit: 20-only places (sediment and ullage) – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
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1953 was one of the great post-war European vintages. And in particular, it is considered the last great Ch Margaux of the previous ownership, as the place ran down under the Ginestets, until the takeover by the Mentzelopoulos family in 1976. We have four vintages of Ch Margaux, including one young one to illustrate the latterday changes.
This tasting is particularly oriented to people who love wine for itself, and wish to explore the charms of old and in some cases frail wine. Sixty years is quite a haul, for any red wine. The 1953 Rioja may be nearly as exciting as the Ch Margaux – I have never since found a Spanish wine to match it in its beauty, when younger. Needless to say, it dates from the reign of tempranillo and graciano, with no bold interlopers and no excess of oak pandering to coarse new-world tastes. Because the key wines are older, I have chosen wines from lighter vintages to accompany the main players. This also helps to make the cost more reasonable. Please check the current price for 1953 Ch. Margaux on www.winesearcher.com, and some of the others too. In contrast the 1986 Ch Margaux should need no help, and thus I have included 1976 Ch Montrose as a kind of good reference bordeaux in appropriate maturity, to calibrate the whole exercise.
This tasting will also include an example of the great 1961 Bordeaux vintage. Some say it is the greatest Bordeaux vintage since the war. Clos René was reliable rather than well-regarded in those days, but any taste of a 1961 is pretty rare now.
For the others, the two Aussies are wines from perhaps the two greatest (and greatly outspoken) pioneers of genuine cabernet sauvignon / bordeaux styles in Australia, as opposed to the horde of Aussie thumpers. Both Max Lake and John Middleton were medicos, both now sadly deceased. And rather than the usual New Zealand wine I tend to put into such exercises, let's put in a highly-regarded Chilean winery which sails under the radar in New Zealand. And of course it is always nice to have a burgundy in an old claret tasting, especially when we have some burgundian riojas.
Please note that buying into this tasting is the same as buying a rare bottle yourself. I'm afraid you have to accept the risk that one may be corked. I do have back-up bottles of the 1953 and 1955 Riojas, so you will taste a good 1953. And likewise for the 1986 Ch Margaux and the 1976 Montrose. The other French are sole bottles, I'm afraid. There are other bottles some French standing up, so you will get 12 wines, but let's hope they are the ones listed.
Our wines will be:
1953 Ch Margaux, Margaux Premier Cru, Bordeaux
1953 Bodegas Bilbainas Vina Pomal Reserva Especial, Rioja
1955 Bodegas Bilbainas Vieja Reserva, Rioja
1960 Ch Margaux, Margaux Premier Cru, Bordeaux
1961 Close René, Pomerol
1962 Ch Margaux, Margaux Premier Cru, Bordeaux
1971 Dom Gouroux Grands-Echezeaux, Cote de Nuits, Burgundy
1972 Lakes Folly Cabernet Sauvignon, Hunter Valley
1976 Ch Montrose, St Estephe Deuxieme Cru, Bordeaux
1983 Mount Mary Cabernets, Yarra Valley
1985 Santa Rita Cabernet Sauvignon, Maipo Valley
1986 Ch Margaux, Margaux Premier Cru, Bordeaux
For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. The wines will be presented blind. There is a perhaps 60-fold difference in current price between the most and least valuable, in this tasting. It is therefore much more instructive to decide which wine one likes best, before the price is known.
Some Top 2003 New Zealand Pinot Noirs, One French Marker:
Time: Thursday 14 November, 2013, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $55 per person
Bookings: Phone Ian @ 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz
Limit: 22 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations with less than 48 hours prior notice. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
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New Zealand 2003-vintage pinot noirs were the subject of special tastings in both the 2007 and 2010 Pinot Noir Conferences. In the latter the wines did not come across as well as I would have hoped, perhaps because they were over-handled. Most New Zealand pinot noirs are best between five and eight years after vintage, but the good ones will run a little longer. When our pinots achieve something of the longevity of the wines of Burgundy, we will know that pinot noir has really arrived in New Zealand. Increasing vine age will help that goal.
Meanwhile, 10 years later, here is a selection of some of the best New Zealand pinot noirs from the vintage, including some from the Conferences, and some others so we have a sampling from all the main districts. I have back-up bottles of all those not sealed with screwcap, so tasters will receive what is listed. Note that in several cases the vineyard's top wine, or the one I consider their top for the year, is presented, not the standard wine. This makes it tougher for wineries putting all their efforts into one representative label, but should give us a more exciting tasting:
Our wines will be:
NEW ZEALAND
2003 Dog Point Pinot Noir, Marlborough
2003 Dry River Pinot Noir, Martinborough
2003 Escarpment Pinot Noir Kupe, Martinborough
2003 Felton Road Pinot Noir Block 3, Bannockburn, Central Otago
2003 Greenhough Pinot Noir, Waimea Plains, Nelson
2003 Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir Marie Zelie, Martinborough
2003 Mt Difficulty Pinot Noir Target Gully, Bannockburn, Central Otago
2003 Neudorf Pinot Noir Home Paddock, Moutere Hills, Nelson
2003 Pegasus Bay Pinot Noir Prima Donna, Waipara, North Canterbury
2003 M Richardson Pinot Noir, Cromwell and Gibbston Valleys, Central Otago
2003 Schubert Pinot Noir, Wairarapa
FRANCE
2003 J Drouhin Pommard, Cote de Beaune, Burgundy
For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. The wines will be presented blind. It is much more instructive to decide which wine one likes best, before the price is known.
Library Tasting: 2002 Pinot Noirs from New Zealand and France
Time: Thursday 25 October, 2012, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $70 per person
Bookings: Phone 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz
Limit: 22 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Thursday. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
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Oops, slight change of plan, let's be predictable and taste the wines on their tenth anniversary. That gives us a couple of French wines this year including one exciting (and expensive) one, and the top New Zealand 2003s to look forward to next year. There are a couple of New Zealand 2001s included in this first batch, since they were wines which impressed me at the time. Note that for the 2002 Clos de Tart, the conservative Jancis Robinson rates it 18/20, and Stephen Tanzer 95, commenting "a great burgundy". Once you have checked the current price of this wine on .winesearcher.com, hopefully the tasting fee will seem attractive !
The goal will be to find fragrant expressions of full pinot noir varietal character at full maturity in the case of the New Zealand wines, and at early maturity in the case of the French. So you can be fairly confident I will have cellared wines where the variety is to the fore, and oak and artefact are subdued. 2002 was a good vintage in Burgundy, and likewise for New Zealand. Some of the Central Otago wines seemed overly rich, dark and over-ripe in their early days, but those seen recently have settled down well. It will be good to see them at ten years of age.
Our wines will be:
NEW ZEALAND
2002 Akarua Pinot Noir, Bannockburn, Central Otago
2002 Dry River Pinot Noir, Martinborough
2002 Escarpment Pinot Noir, Martinborough
2002 Felton Road Pinot Noir, Bannockburn, Central Otago
2002 Felton Road Pinot Noir Block 3, Bannockburn, Central Otago
2002 Mt Difficulty Pinot Noir, Bannockburn, Central Otago
2002 Neudorf Pinot Noir Moutere, Nelson
2001 Neudorf Pinot Noir Home Paddock, Moutere Hills, Nelson
2001 Pisa Range Pinot Noir Black Poplar, Pisa district, Cromwell Basin
2000 D F Schuster Pinot Noir Omihi, Waipara
FRANCE
2002 Girardin Chassagne-Morgeot Premier Cru, Cote de Beaune
2002 Mommessin Clos de Tart Grand Cru Monopole, Morey-Saint-Denis, Cote de Nuits
For my Library Tastings the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. For this tasting, the wines will be presented blind, since the most expensive wines are valued at up to 11 times the price of the cheapest. It is much more fun to decide which wine one likes best, before the price is known.
Library Tasting: Bordeaux blends in New Zealand & France (one Australian), vintage 2000 ...
Time: Wednesday 3 October, 2012, time to be confirmed, probably 6.00 pm start
Place: Room and venue to be confirmed, probably Old Government House, Auckland University Campus, Waterloo Quadrant area
Cost: $65 per person
Bookings: Slightly complicated. Booking and payment need to be made electronically to Geoff Kelly: geoff dot kelly at xtra dot co dot nz Please contact me for details. There may be a delay in me replying, due to travel, but hang in there, bookings will be accepted strictly in order of receipt.
Limit: 22 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 pm Tuesday 2.
Cancellation of Tasting: If numbers are insufficient by 9pm Tuesday 2, the tasting will be cancelled and you will be notified by email. Refunds will follow.
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Bordeaux blends are enjoying a real renaissance in the Auckland district, following on from the lead set by the Goldwaters and Stephen White on Waiheke Island, plus Tim Harris at Kumeu.
But with established labels such as Te Mata Coleraine and Ngatarawa Alwyn now costing around $80 per bottle, and Stonyridge and Puriri Hills (Clevedon) significantly more, it is worth reflecting that for the Bordeaux 2011 en primeurs (now they have settled back to a more sustainable price), one can buy a very wide selection of recognised Bordeaux up the level of, say, the highly desirable Ch Giscours or Ch Branaire-Ducru for the same money.
Stephen Spurrier not so long ago said that looking around the world, Hawkes Bay had the climate and wines that most closely matched Bordeaux. And since the Bordelais used to say that it was a sin against the spirit of the bottle to open Bordeaux before it was 10 years old, we thought, wouldn't it be fun to put up half a dozen 2000 vintage Bordeaux against a matching number of New Zealand ones. The goal would be to see the how the winestyles compared, and where the value lay. Then we had a tinge of guilt, that we couldn't completely ignore the elephant next door, so one of the kiwi wines is now Australian. It is just so damnably hard to find Australian reds that don't scream eucalyptus rather more than saying anything interesting about their grapes.
A couple of the French wines are east bank merlot dominant / cabernet franc blends to illustrate a style becoming popular in the Auckland district, as opposed to the many cabernet sauvignon-lead wines from Hawkes Bay. We hope that will add to the appeal of this tasting for Auckland-district winemakers. Otherwise the Bordeaux span the range from bourgeois cru through to one of the emerging super-seconds from the famous Pauillac district, considered by many to be the very heart of Bordeaux. They have been chosen to allow the New Zealand wines a fair contest, while still
including one wine of high repute (and price) to add interest. The New Zealand Bordeaux blends are those most frequently encountered in the market-place (in 2000).
One factor to consider when deciding whether to come to one of my Library Tastings is that where possible, the wine has been cellared on taste, and that 'taste' is based on more than 40 years experience. With any luck, therefore, there won't be many duds.
For my Library Tastings, the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are very small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. For this tasting, the wines will be presented blind, since the most expensive wines are up to 5 times the price of the cheapest. It is much more fun to decide which wine one likes best, before the price is known.
The wines will be:
New Zealand and Australia:
2000 Alpha Domus Aviator, Hawkes Bay
2000 Mills Reef Merlot Elspeth, Hawkes Bay
2000 Ngatarawa Alwyn, Hawkes Bay
2000 Petaluma Coonawarra Cabernet / Merlot
2000 Stonyridge Larose, Waiheke Island
2000 Te Mata Coleraine, Hawkes Bay
Reserve: 2000 Pask Merlot Reserve
France:
2000 Ch Angludet, Margaux
2000 Ch Lanessan, Cussac (Haut Medoc)
2000 Clos René, Pomerol
2000 Ch Grand Corbin-Despagne, St Emilion
2000 Ch Leoville Poyferre, St Julien
2000 Ch Pichon-Longueville-Baron, Pauillac
Reserve: 2000 Ch Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Pauillac
We look forward to seeing you. Gerard Logan in the Oenology Group at Auckland University has volunteered to field any local Auckland calls seeking info. All payment queries as above, though, please.
Library Tasting: The Glorious Wines of the Southern Rhone Valley, 1998
Time: Thursday 27 September, 2012, 7 pm start
Place: Tasting Room, Decant Vintners & Epicures, 61 Mandeville St, Riccarton, Christchurch
Cost: $70 per person
Bookings: To Decant please, phone (03) 343 1945, or email: decant@decantwine.co.nz
Limit: 22 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Thursday. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
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Chateauneuf du Pape is Robert Parker's favourite wine with food – and this guy has the world to choose from. The reason I think is the soft savoury sensuous nature of the wine, more like strong slightly spirity pinot noir than anything else. And the good thing from the wine-lovers point of view is, so many of the red wines of the satellite villages in the Chateauneuf du Pape district are essentially similar to the grand wine, and made from the same varieties, but are perhaps not as big, and certainly not as expensive. And this trend continues right down to the everyday red wine of the district, Cotes du Rhone, again made from the same varieties, but less rich, less oaked (or not oaked), and in some ways even more food-friendly. The best of the Cotes du Rhones come from the label Cote du Rhone-Villages or the more restricted Cotes du Rhone Villages-named Village (18-only).
Our tasting will present a sampling of several of the main appellations of the southern Rhone district in the 1998 vintage, from Cotes-du-Rhone through to an emphasis on the great wine of the district, Chateauneuf-du-Pape. This was a warm vintage, which initially had a fantastic reputation. Latterly, some critics have found them a bit too hot-year: a lack of aromatics, and an excess of alcohol. I suspect this was a ''phase" thing, for some showed beautifully in Wellington in April this year. I am quite sure some of our wines will be of great interest and appeal.
One factor to consider when deciding whether to come to one of my Library Tastings is that where possible, the wine has been cellared on taste, and that 'taste' is based on more than 40 years experience. With any luck, therefore, there won't be many duds. We will include both "traditional" wines, which essentially means concrete vats or big old oak only, and the "modern" approach using some 225-litre new oak barrels. To clarify this factor, contrasting wines from the highly-regarded producers Santa Duc will be shown.
For my Library Tastings, the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are very small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. For this tasting, the wines will be presented blind, since the most expensive wines are up to 5 times the price of the cheapest. It is much more fun to decide which wine one likes best, before the price is known.
1998 Brunel Chateauneuf-du-Pape Les Cailloux
1998 Domaine Brusset Cotes du Rhone-Villages Cairanne
1998 Domaine de La Charbonniere Chateauneuf-du-Pape Vielles-Vignes
1998 Domaine Charvin Chateauneuf-du-Pape
1998 Domaine Gramenon Cotes-du-Rhone La Sargesse
1998 Domaine de La Mordoree Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee de la Reine des Bois
1998 Ch Pesquie Cotes du Ventoux Les Terrasses
1998 Ch de Saint Cosme Gigondas
1998 Domaine Santa Duc Cotes du Rhone Les Quatre Terres
1998 Domaine Santa Duc Gigondas
1998 Domaine Santa Duc Gigondas Prestige des Hautes Garrigues
1998 Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape
Reserve wines: 1998 Domaine d'Andezon Cotes du Rhone-Villages and
1998 Domaine Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf-du-Pape
Library Tasting: UNDERSTANDING BORDEAUX: St Estephe 2003, the coolest district in the hottest year ...
Time: Wednesday 19 September, 2012, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $75 per person
Bookings: Phone 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz
Limit: 22 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Thursday. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
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For Bordeaux, the 2003 vintage was challenging. For over fifty successive days during the summer, the temperature exceeded 30 degrees. In August temperatures exceeded 40 degrees some days. These are South Australian numbers. Yet for some communes, both Robert Parker's Wine Advocate and the Wine Spectator rate the vintage 95, putting some of the wines in the top league. For the best wines, the commonest comparisons are with 1959, which though overshadowed by 1961, included some breathtakingly beautiful wines.
Since St Estephe to the north and with its clays is the coolest of the grand cru vineyard appellations in the Haut-Medoc, it therefore makes a lot of sense to study the wines of this commune alone, in such a hot year. The case is augmented by some commentators considering 2003 Ch Montrose is one of the very top wines of Bordeaux in that year. Robert Parker for example: This superb, huge, ripe wine is one of the vintage's most prodigious offerings. 97 +. The usually much more reserved Jancis Robinson has marked 2003 Montrose up to 19. Cos d'Estournel is not far behind, Robert Parker again: The prodigious, fantastic 2003 Cos d'Estournel is a candidate for wine of the vintage. 98 Robinson has marked it it up to 18.5. This exact wine is currently on the shelf in one New Zealand wine merchant for $633.60 (reduced !), which gives some idea of the value in this tasting.
Our tasting will include both these benchmark wines, and Calon Segur, the northernmost classed growth which becomes more exciting with every passing recent vintage, and should be particularly interesting in this hot year. In fact our tasting list is almost a roll-call of the most desirable labels in St Estephe, even though it is hard to get them all, on this side of the world.
Studying these wines across a price range of roughly $40 to $325 landed en primeur cost will provide a good insight into desirable ripening parameters for cab / merlot blends in New Zealand, now that we have the prospect of over-ripe merlot in the warmest years on the Gimblett Gravels.
Our wines will be 12 from:
Ch Le Boscq, Cru Bourgeois
Ch Calon-Segur, Third Growth
Ch Cos d'Estournel, Second Growth
Ch Cos Labory, Fifth Growth
Ch Haut-Marbuzet, Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel
Ch Lafon-Rochet, Fourth Growth
Ch Meyney, Cru Bourgeois Superieur
Ch Montrose, Second Growth
Dame de Montrose, (second wine of ...)
Ch Ormes de Pez, Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel
Ch Phelan-Segur, Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel
Ch Segur de Cabanac, Cru Bourgeois
Ch Tour de Pez, Cru Bourgeois Superieur
For my Library Tastings, the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. For this tasting, the wines will be presented blind, since the most expensive wine is valued at around 8 times the price of the cheapest. It is much more fun to decide which wine one likes best, before the price is known.
Library Tasting: DO SWEET WINES AGE, including 1966 Ch d'Yquem
Time: Thursday 23 August, 2012, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $75 per person
Bookings: Phone 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz
Limit: 22 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Thursday. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
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The youngest wines will be two New Zealand botrytised
chardonnays with less or no oak influence, from 2000 and
1987, to introduce the aromas and flavours of botrytis.
Wines from the 80s and 70s follow, including several historic
bottles. The original and famous multiple gold-medal winning
wine 1982 de Bortoli Sauternes Botrytis Semillon (later re-named
Noble One) is now highly sought after in Australia. The 1981
St Leonards Chenin Blanc Late Harvest from NE Victoria also
won gold medals in its day, but is looking a little dark in bottle
now.
We have 1983 Ch Rieussec, a famous year for the sweet wines
of Bordeaux, and 1975 Filhot. The local 1976 McWilliams Tuki
Tuki Semillon Sauternes is extremely rare, and included as a
complete gamble for its historical interest.
From 1970 there is Ch de Malle from Sauternes complemented by
Ch Coutet from Barsac, and a rare McWilliams Mount Pleasant
Hunter Valley Semillon Sauterne (sic). The tasting concludes with
1966 Ch d'Yquem, a typical rather than outstanding year in Sauternes,
colour looking promising. 12 wines in all.
The wines will be:
2000 Dry River Chardonnay Botrytis Berry Selection, Martinborough
1987 Rongopai Chardonnay Botrytised, Te Kauwhata
1983 Ch Rieussec, Sauternes
1982 de Bortoli Sauternes Botrytis Semillon, Riverina, NSW
1981 St Leonards Chenin Blanc Late-Harvest, near Corowa, NE Victoria
1976 McWilliams (NZ) Semillon Sauternes Tuki Tuki, Hawkes Bay
1970 McWilliams (Aust) Sauterne Mount Pleasant, Hunter Valley
1975 Ch Filhot, Sauternes
1975 Ch de Rolland, Barsac
1970 Ch de Malle, Sauternes
1970 Ch Coutet, Barsac
1966 Ch d'Yquem, Sauternes
Reserve wines:
1975 B & G Sauternes
1979 Orlando Semillon Spaetlese Gold Medal
For my Library Tastings, the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. For this tasting, the wines will be presented blind, since the most expensive wines are valued at up to 14 times the price of the cheapest. It is much more fun to decide which wine one likes best, before the price is known.
LIBRARY TASTING: A DIVERSITY OF AFFORDABLE '76s, 8 REGIONS, including NOBILO ...
Time: Thursday 26 July, 2012, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $55 per person
Bookings: Phone 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz
Limit: 22 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Thursday. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
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This is a workaday tasting for people who simply love wine, and are eager to know what all sorts of wines taste like 35 years later. There should be some lovely bouquets among them, and the better the palates are, the more of a bonus that will be.
We have wines from France, Australia and New Zealand and California, and within France from Bordeaux, Burgundy and both ends of the Rhone. One or two pretty attractive labels, but nothing elite.
1976 wasn't a great vintage pretty well anywhere, better in Australasia than Europe. The heatwave in Europe upped the tannins, and the rain in Bordeaux upset the concentration. But last month's 76s gave a lot of pleasure, and most still had`delightful typicité. Wine doesn't have to be the flashest, to still be a lot of fun and enjoyment. In Europe the Southern Rhone might be the least of the districts, but we will see. Might match the burgundies nicely.
On that note, the bordeaux have been picked to hopefully be fragrant, even if light. That should allow better parity with the Australasian wines. One of the burgundies is from a great proprietor and a not inconsequential appellation, but both will be light - I imagine.
Nick Nobilo's three 1976 vinifera reds were famous in their day, along with his 1970s. This will provide an opportunity to reflect on two of them, now historic New Zealand wines, to a younger generation only knowing them by repute. I regret the Cab Sauv is ullaged to half-shoulder, but my experience is that such bottles often still speak surprisingly well. Likewise both McWilliams and the Redman are now historic bottles. Redman are still extant, though you don't hear much about them now. Both will be very light.
The wines will be:
1976 McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon, Hawkes Bay
1976 Nobilo Cabernet Sauvignon, Kumeu, Auckland district
1976 Nobilo Pinotage, Kumeu, Auckland district
1976 Redman Cabernet Sauvignon, Coonawarra (magnum)
1976 Tahbilk Shiraz, Central Victoria
1976 Rutherford Hill Zinfandel, Napa Valley
1976 Ch Lanessan, Cussac Cru Bourgeois Supérieur, Medoc
1976 Ch Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Pauillac Fifth Growth, Medoc
1976 Jadot Aloxe-Corton, Cote de Beaune
1976 Leroy Corton, Cote de Beaune
1976 Jaboulet Chateauneuf-du-Pape Les Cedres, Southern Rhone Valley
1976 Jaboulet Cote Rotie Les Jumelles, Northern Rhone Valley
Reserve wines:
1976 Penfold [ Shiraz / Cabernet ] Claret Koonunga Hill (historic, first vintage)
1976 Ch Meyney, St Estephe
For my Library Tastings, the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. For this tasting, the wines will be presented blind, since the most expensive wines are valued at up to 17 times the price of the cheapest. It is much more fun to decide which wine one likes best, before the price is known.
LIBRARY TASTING: DEFINITIVE (FOR NZ) 1976 BORDEAUX TASTING - PETRUS, LATOUR, MOUTON, GRANGE, 8 OTHERS
Time: Thursday 21 June, 2012, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $140 per person
Bookings: Phone 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz
Limit: 22 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Wednesday. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
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This tasting provides an unparallelled and scarcely repeatable opportunity to experience the kind of wine event normally only available in London, or maybe San Francisco. All the wines have been cellared in near-perfect conditions since purchase around 1979.
Cost: I ask tasters to consider carefully what recent price movements in the sale of red Bordeaux mean to us in New Zealand. In the simplest terms, public tastings with first growths like this one will scarcely be offered in future. They will be the preserve of the very wealthy.
Now that this season's en primeur prices are available, to replace this tasting of 12 wines with the reasonable-quality 2011 vintage would cost about $NZ5300. To replace them with the highly-rated 2009 or 2010 vintage would be around $NZ9800. Given good attendance, for a tasting in my format (below) that would work out to a per head cost of $295 for the 2011s, or $545 for the two very good vintages. Makes you think.
For these 1976s, a vintage welcomed at the time for its heat in the cold 1970s era, but now considered middling and a little old, the fee is $140. I imagine in London it would be of the order of £200. Please check the current values on www.winesearcher.com. 1976 Grange averages $1397 per bottle, second to 1976 Petrus at $1828. Note 1976 Grange is the only Grange Robert Parker has marked 100 points. I think the price is attractive, therefore.
The wines span: St Estephe, Pauillac, St Julien, Margaux, Graves (a lesser one) St Emilion and Pomerol. Note there are no back-up bottles, the risk of a corked bottle (re the tasting fee) is exactly as if you had cellared the wine yourself. The wines are:
Cabernet or Merlot-dominant wines:
1976 Ch Carbonnieux Rouge (Graves)
1976 Ch Ducru-Beaucaillou (St Julien)
1976 Ch Giscours (Margaux)
1976 Ch Latour (Pauillac)
1976 Ch Leoville-Barton (St Julien)
1976 Ch Lynch-Bages (Pauillac)
1976 Ch Magdelaine (St Emilion)
1976 Ch Montrose (St Estephe)
1976 Ch Mouton-Rothschild (Pauillac)
1976 Ch Petrus (Pomerol)
1976 Vieux Chateau Certan (Pomerol)
Shiraz dominant:
1976 Penfolds [ Shiraz ] Bin 95 Grange (South Australia)
[ Reserve: 1976 Ch La Lagune, Margaux-Ludon ]
For my Library Tastings, the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. For this tasting, the wines will be presented blind, since the most expensive wines are valued at up to 17 times the price of the cheapest. It is much more fun to decide which wine one likes best, before the price is known.
LIBRARY TASTING: 1992 – 1994 CABERNET AND SHIRAZ REDS FROM SEVERAL COUNTRIES
Time: Thursday 17 May, 2012, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $50 per person
Bookings: Phone 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz
Limit: 22 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Wednesday. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
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This Library Tasting offers the rare opportunity to compare mature premium cabernet wines from the Napa Valley, South Africa and Australia. They were cellared on the basis of measuring up in taste evaluations. Half the wines are cabernet blends, and half shiraz, grown variously in mainland Australia, Western Australia, South Africa, California, and one French. The tasting includes some of the top wines of the time, but no Trophy wines. At the time they were selected to show varietal quality rather more than oak or weight, hence the favouring of the cooler year 1994. In general, it is true to say that only 20 years ago, Australians had not realised that their finest wines were made in the cool years. Big wines were more the goal then. So there should be plenty to discuss.
This will also be the first chance to taste a couple of the late Ken Kirkpatrick's wines. This keenly critical wine man is much missed at Regional tastings, for little escaped his attention. Before his death he arranged for Geoff Kelly to hold certain of his wines, specifically to add depth and points of interest / detail to the Library Tastings series. For this tasting, Ken's wines include one from the Diamond Creek Vineyard, Napa Valley. It was established in 1967, and was one of the first of the later "cult" Napa cabernets. In his overseas travels, Ken took pleasure in bringing back select wines unobtainable here which he thought would add interest to New Zealand tastings.
For my Library Tastings, the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are very small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. For this tasting, the wines will be presented blind, since the most expensive wines are up to 7 times the price of the cheapest. It is much more fun to decide which wine one likes best, before the price is known.
Cabernet dominant wines:
1992 Diamond Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Red Rock Terrace, Napa Valley (KK)
1994 Henschke Cabernet Sauvignon Cyril Henschke, Barossa Valley
1993 Kanoncop Cabernet Sauvignon Paul Sauer, Stellenbosch (KK)
1994 Leeuwin Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Art Series, Margaret River
1994 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 407, South Australia – various
1993 Peter Lehmann Cabernet-dominant Mentor, Barossa Valley
Reserve wine: 1994 Wynns Cabernet Sauvignon, Coonawarra
Shiraz dominant:
1992 Barossa Valley Estates E&E Shiraz Black Pepper, Barossa Valley (KK)
1994 David Wynn Shiraz Patriarch, Eden Valley
1992 Elderton Shiraz Command, Barossa Valley
1994 Penfolds Shiraz / Cabernet Bin 389, Barossa Valley mainly
1994 Penfolds Shiraz Magill, Adelaide district
1994 Rene Rostaing Cote Rotie La Landonne (syrah), Northern Rhone Valley
Reserve wine: 1992 Orlando Shiraz Lawson's, Padthaway
LIBRARY TASTING: THE GLORIOUS WINES OF THE SOUTHERN RHONE VALLEY: 1998
Time: Thursday 19 April, 2012, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $50 per person
Bookings: Phone 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz
Limit: 22 places – please note Booking Conditions ...
Booking Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Wednesday. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
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Chateauneuf du Pape is Robert Parker's favourite wine with food – and this guy has the world to choose from. The reason I think is the soft savoury sensuous nature of the wine, more like strong slightly spirity pinot noir than anything else. And the good thing from the wine-lovers point of view is, so many of the red wines of the satellite villages in the Chateauneuf du Pape district are essentially similar to the grand wine, and made from the same varieties, but are perhaps not as big, and certainly not as expensive. And this trend continues right down to the everyday red wine of the district, Cotes du Rhone, again made from the same varieties, but less rich, less oaked (or not oaked), and in some ways even more food-friendly. The best of the Cotes du Rhone come from 16 named villages, and have the label Cote du Rhone-Villages
Our tasting will present a sampling of the main appellations of the southern Rhone district in the 1998 vintage. This was a warm vintage, which initially had a fantastic reputation. Latterly, some critics have found them a bit too hot-year: a lack of aromatics, and an excess of alcohol. I am quite sure some of our wines will be of great interest and appeal, all the same. The anchor wine will be the familiar Guigal Cotes du Rhone 1998.
One factor to consider when deciding whether to come to one of my Library Tastings is that where possible, the wine has been cellared on taste. With any luck, therefore, there won't be many duds, though for reasons of both age and wine-making some may not be to your taste. We will include both "traditional" wines, which essentially means concrete vats or big old oak only, and the "modern" approach using some 225-litre new oak barrels. To clarify this factor, contrasting wines from the highly-regarded producer Santa Duc will be shown.
For my Library Tastings, the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are very small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking. For this tasting, the wines will be presented blind, since the most expensive wines are up to 6 times the price of the cheapest. It is much more fun to decide which wine one likes best, before the price is known. The wines will be:
1998 Dom. d'Ameillaud Cotes du Rhone-Villages Cairanne
1998 Brusset Cotes du Rhone-Villages Cairanne
1998 Dom. Charvin Chateauneuf du Pape
1998 Dom du Gramenon Cotes du Rhone Sargesse
1998 Guigal Cotes du Rhone
1998 Dom de Mordoree Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee de la Reine
1998 Ch Pesquie Cotes du Ventoux Cuvee des Terrasses
1998 Dom Santa Duc Cotes du Rhone
1998 Dom Santa Duc Gigondas
1998 Dom Santa Duc Gigondas Hautes Garrigues
1998 Ch des Tours Vacqueyras
1998 Dom Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf du Pape
Reserve wine: 1998 Ch Saint Cosme Gigondas
GERMAN RIESLING IN 1975 & 1976
Time: Thursday 15 March, 2012, 6.00 pm start
Place: Upstairs Tasting Room, Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $45 per person
Bookings: Phone 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz
Limit: 20 places – please note Conditions ...
Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on
the Wednesday. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
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1975 and 1976 in Germany were contrasting years. Both were rated 4-star vintages by the conservative Michael Broadbent, who only allows three 5-star years in the 40 years from 1961 to 2001. 1975 was firmer, more acidic and less showy in youth, and thus was rather over-looked in comparison with the "gloriously ripe" (Broadbent) 1976s. Remember this was in the days long before global warming, and seasons were dire in many years then.
With an ideally (and infinitely) stocked cellar, one would show 6 exactly matching pairs of wine, vintage for vintage. We have one such exact pair to set the scene, then a range of wines from the Saar, Mosel and Rheingau districts (though mostly Mosel), and a Nahe just to see if the district's reputation for not being cellar wines holds true even in a firmer year. All wines will be Qualitatswein mit Pradikat (QmP - the highest German quality level), and sweetness levels will range from Kabinett to Auslese, noting that in a ripe year such as 1976 many wines are downgraded to the ranking below. There are no trophy wines - this is more a working tasting for people who like old wines. Perhaps one or two will be no longer ideally fresh - a couple are a little ullaged - and one or two may be past it.
In those days the Germans were more frugal, and bottle size was 700 ml, so we can only accommodate 20 people. For my Library Tastings, the presentation is based on 12 wines all out at once, so comparisons can be made. Note however the pours are very small (30 ml) to both enable more to share sometimes rare bottles, and to lower the entry price. Please come prepared to sniff and sip and savour rather more than initially drinking. Such a small volume can very easily be consumed, without thinking.
The wines will not on this occasion be blind, and will be ranged approximately from drier to sweeter. Not all the notional pairings can sit alongside each other, and we didn't quite manage 6 of each vintage. The wines will be:
1975 Bergweiler Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Spatlese QmP (Mosel)
1976 Bergweiler Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Spatlese QmP (Mosel)
1975 Staat Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Spatlese QmP (Saar)
1976 Sichel Ayler Kupp Riesling Spatlese QmP (Saar)
1975 Staat Steinberger Riesling Kabinett QmP (Rheingau)
1975 Mumm Johannisberger Holle Riesling Spatlese QmP (Rheingau, goldenepreis)
1975 Anheuser Kreuznacher Krotenpfuhl Riesling Spatlese QmP (Nahe)
1975 Muller Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese QmP (Mosel)
1976 Prum-Erben Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese QmP (Mosel)
1976 von Schorlemer Wiltinger Sandberg Riesling Auslese QmP (Mosel)
1976 Schloss Vollrads Riesling Auslese (white capsule) QmP (Rheingau)
1975 Tobias Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling Auslese QmP (Mosel)
Reserve wine: 1975 Schonborn Rauenthaler Wulfen Riesling Kabinett QmP (Rheingau)
1970 BORDEAUX STYLES – FORTY YEARS ON: 2 first growths, two super-seconds, 10 France, 1 Australia, 1 NZ
Time: Thursday 11 March 2010, 6 pm
Place: Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $95 per person
Bookings: Phone 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz
Limit: 21 places – please note Conditions
Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Wednesday. However, if space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
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Broadbent: * * * * An imposing vintage, combining quality with quantity, though in my opinion, not as uniformly excellent as 1966.
Two of the wines offered have been described loosely as one of the top wines
of the vintage. These are wines in the "classic" lighter French style, well before the more hefty wines of today. Hence the Americans don't rate 1970 as highly. Coupled with age, tune your tasting expectations, please.
This tasting cannot be repeated, so 'last chance !'
1970 Ch Ducru-Beaucaillou, St Julien
1970 Ch Lascombes, Margaux
1970 Ch Latour, Pauillac
1970 Ch Leoville-Las-Cases, St Julien
1970 Ch Margaux, Margaux
1970 Ch Pape-Clement, Pessac-Leognan (northern Graves)
1970 Ch Rauzan-Segla, Margaux
1970 Ch St-Pierre, St Julien
1970 Ch Talbot, St Julien
1970 Chambertin (magnum - Lichine)
1970 McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon (Hawkes Bay)
1970 Tahbilk Cabernet (Victoria, the standard wine)
Reserve wine (bit out of style) 1970 Penfolds Cabernet / Shiraz Bin 389
A TASTE OF HISTORY: 1965 & 1966 McWILLIAMS CABERNET SAUVIGNON, 1966 CH PALMER, 8 OTHER 1966 BORDEAUX, AND A 1965 AUSTRALIAN
Wednesday 5 November, 2008, 6.00 pm (the evening before Hawkes Bay Winegrowers' Cabernet / Merlot Forum at Hastings)
Venue: Sensory Lab, Eastern Institute of Technology, Gloucester Street, Taradale, Napier [ Room E167, Building E1, at the rear of the campus, as shown on the map: http://www.eit.ac.nz/Doc_Library/Documents/Colour_campusMapA4_70.10.05.pdf . The campus is 1.4 km SSW of the intersection of Meanee Road with Gloucester Street. ]
Cost: $95 per person
Limit: 22 places (please note booking conditions)
Bookings: To book please email me, with the name of the tasting in the subject line. Publishing my email address in plain language has had undesirable results, so please 'translate' the following into the standard format – geoffdotkellyatxtradotcodotnz Once numbers are sufficient, pre-payment will then be requested by direct electronic payment (or cheque). Since I am not in Hawkes Bay, logistics demand that a final decision on whether the Tasting proceeds will be made at 6pm Monday 3 November. Please book before then. Cancellations for refund will not be accepted after that time and date. If space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
In August 1969 I wrote to Tom McDonald, seeking a case of the soon-to-be-released 1965 Cabernet Sauvignon. This was the successor to his McDonald's Cabernet Sauvignons, certain of which were much praised. In many ways it is THE critical post-war wine in New Zealand, demonstrating to all those with the wine experience to recognise it that truly international red wine could be made in New Zealand. That was a fairly way-out thought, at the time.
It seems appropriate that the last bottle of my case should come back to Hawkes Bay, in the hope it will be of interest to a later generation of winemakers who will have heard of this legendary wine. We can only hope it is not corked. [ More info on the McWilliams wine in my recent article: The Evolution of Bordeaux and Hawkes Bay Blends in New Zealand, to 2005, 16 Jul 2008 ]. To accompany it, we will have a wine close to Tom McDonald's heart, not the Ch Margaux he much admired, but the "next best", Ch Palmer. In fact, 1966 Ch Palmer (Robert Parker: one of the greatest examples of Palmer I have ever tasted – 96) is now regarded as the superior wine of the two, and one of the top 3 wines of the entire 1966 vintage (Ch Margaux – 83).
The 1966 vintage in Bordeaux is usually referred to as a classic vintage, meaning Bordeaux the way it used to be, lighter than current taste, more aromatic, slightly austere, but in youth the best wonderfully fragrant and varietal. Broadbent rates the vintage 4-stars (out of 5). Parker does not go back that far.
Palmer aside, these wines are old and frail, but of great interest. This offering of the legendary 1965 McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon with the 1966, and 9 x 1966 Bordeaux and a similarly-aged and equally pioneering South Australian Cabernet Sauvignon is unlikely to ever be repeated. With the inclusion of the Palmer, it provides a rare opportunity to taste history.
Pricing: Hard to get this right. Please check the wines on the international reference point: www.wine-searcher.com , noting those prices do not include the additional freight, duty, and GST costs incurred in importing the wines to New Zealand. For Ch Palmer alone, four of the quotes are more than NZ$1000, the highest $NZ1560 per bottle. This gives some idea of the reputation (and rarity) of the wine.
The 12 wines will be presented all at once, blind. Before the main tasting, just for fun and to also see where we have come from, 25 years later, we will check six or so 1983 Australasian chardonnays, in the hope there will still be pleasantly mature flavours in one or two.
1983 Cooks Chardonnay (Hawkes Bay, gold medal and highly regarded in its day)
1983 Corbans Chardonnay (Marlborough)
1983 Esk Valley (Glenvale) Chardonnay (Hawkes Bay)
1983 Matawhero Chardonnay (Gisborne, early use of MLF)
1983 Jeffrey Grosset Chardonnay (Clare Valley, SA)
1983 Lindemans Chardonnay (Padthaway, SA)
1983 Lindemans Chardonnay Bin 6282 (Hunter River, NSW)
and then suitably enlivened or saddened as the case may be, proceed to the main event:
1965 McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 65/3 Hawkes Bay
1966 McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon Hawkes Bay [ back-up bottle ]
1965 Hardy's Cabernet Sauvignon Bin C546 McLaren Vale & Coonawarra
1966 Ch Palmer Margaux 3rd growth [ now rated a 'super-second' – back-up bottle ]
1966 Ch Gruaud-Larose St Julien 2nd growth
1966 Ch Lascombes Margaux 2nd growth
1966 Ch Branaire-Ducru St Julien 4th growth
1966 Ch Grand Puy Lacoste Pauillac 5th growth
1966 Ch Mouton-Baron-Philippe Pauillac 5th growth [ now d'Armailhac, since 1989 ]
1966 Ch Pontet Canet Pauillac 5th growth
1966 Ch Chasse Spleen Moulis cru bourgeois exceptionnel
1966 Ch Meyney St Estephe cru bourgeois exceptionnel
In reserve: 1966 Ch Leoville-Poyferre St Julien 2nd growth
NB: There are back-up bottles of the Palmer and 1966 McWilliams, so (barring calamity) these key wines will be tasted.
I look forward to meeting you in the EIT Sensory Lab.
1982 BORDEAUX – THE BEST VINTAGE SINCE 1961 ?
Thursday 25 September, 2008, 7.00 pm
Venue: Lincoln University, Horticulture Tasting Lab [ via Gate 2, first road to right – the single-story buildings immediately to right of 'tennis courts', as shown @ www.lincoln.ac.nz/story_images/2802_campusmaphalls_s8231.pdf ]
Cost: $125 per person
Limit: 22 places (please note booking conditions)
Bookings: To book please email me, with the name of the tasting in the subject line. Publishing my email address in plain language has had undesirable results, so please 'translate' the following into the standard format – geoffdotkellyatxtradotcodotnz Once numbers are sufficient, pre-payment will then be requested by direct electronic payment (or cheque). Since I am not in Canterbury, logistics demand that a final decision on whether the Tasting proceeds will be made at 6pm Monday 22. Please book before then. Cancellations for refund will not be accepted after that time and date. If space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
Robert Parker (before the 2005s arrived)
... for today's generation of wine enthusiasts, 1982 is what 1945, 1947, and 1949 were for an earlier generation of winelovers ... Even in Bordeaux the 1982s are now placed on a pedestal and spoken of in the same terms as 1961, 1949, 1945, and 1929. Moreover, the marketplace ... continues to push prices for the top 1982s to stratospheric levels.
The wines of Bordeaux remain the model for New Zealand's 'Hawkes Bay blends'. Do we however give enough thought to how time will deal with the wines we are so proud of today ? Good examples of Bordeaux blends develop for ten, twenty and sometimes more years. All too often in New Zealand, however, we can only read about tastings of mature fine Cabernet / Merlot blends held in other countries.
Here is an opportunity to not only taste, but also assess a cross-section of quality-levels of mainly Bordeaux wines, from one of the great recent vintages. To keep costs reasonable, and increase relevance, there are no First Growths. Several of the wines are nonetheless considered amongst the vintage's best. And we have both high-Cabernet and high-Merlot wines amongst the good ones.
The Medocs range from Second Growths to Cru Bourgeois. The St Emilion and the two Pomerols are highly-ranked chateaux. If you are concerned about the price for the tasting, I request you price the wines on the international reference point: www.wine-searcher.com , noting those prices do not include the additional freight, duty, and GST costs incurred in importing the wines to New Zealand. This will reveal the asking price is modest, considering such a tasting can generally only be found nowadays in places like London or San Francisco. This tasting in London would cost roughly £165, according to ex-Cantabrian but now London-based Linden Wilkie, of www.finewineexperience.com .
The 12 wines will be along the lines of the following, presented all at once, blind.
1982 Ch Bonalgue, Pomerol
1982 Ch Giscours, Margaux 3rd Growth
1982 Ch Grandis, Haut Medoc
1982 Ch Gruaud-Larose, St Julien 2nd Growth
1982 Ch Haut-Marbuzet, St Estephe
1982 Ch La Lagune, Margaux 3rd Growth
1982 Ch Latour a Pomerol, Pomerol
1982 Ch Montrose, St Estephe 2nd Growth
1982 Ch Pavie, St Emilion
1982 Ch Trotanoy, Pomerol
1982 Jaboulet Hermitage la Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley
1982 Te Mata Coleraine, Hawkes Bay
IN PRAISE OF SYRAH – THE 1998 VINTAGE IN THE NORTHERN RHONE, HAWKES BAY, AND WEST AUSTRALIA
Monday 15 September, 2008, 6.30 pm
Venue: upstairs meeting room, Trinity Hill Winery
Cost: $95 per person
Limit: 22 places (please note conditions)
Bookings: to book please email me (as above), with part of the name of the tasting in the subject line. Pre-payment will then be requested by cheque or direct electronic payment. Cancellations / refunds will only be permitted up to 48 hours before the start of the tasting.
Hermitage and Cote Rotie in the Northern Rhone Valley are the definitive appellations for fine syrah. The 1998 vintage in the northern Rhone was warm and dry, even hot. Some of the wines therefore lost to a degree the classical floral beauty which typifies great syrah grown in optimal climates, but are nonetheless highly rated – simply because many years are fractionally too cool. This district is much cooler than the Southern Rhone, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, etc. Parker rates the year 90 in the north, and Tannic. Broadbent is more enthusiastic: unequivocally a great vintage, 5-stars. New Zealand was similar climatically, but it was early days for syrah.
The 12 wines will be presented all at once, blind.
1998 Cape Mentelle Shiraz Margaret River WA
1998 Guigal Hermitage
1998 Guigal Cote Rotie Brune & Blonde
1998 Guigal Cote Rotie la Turque
1997 Jaboulet Hermitage la Chapelle
1998 Mission Estate Syrah Reserve Gimblett Gravels
1998 Rostaing Cote Rotie Cote Blonde
1998 Saint Cosme Cote Rotie
1998 Sorrel Hermitage le Greal
1998 Stonecroft Syrah Gimblett Gravels
1998 Tardieu-Laurent Cote Rotie
1998 Te Mata Syrah Bullnose Ngatarawa Triangle
10 YEARS ON – 1998 NEW ZEALAND REDS
Monday 7 July 2008, 6.00 pm, @ Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $55.00 pp, Limit 22 places – please note conditions
Contact: Wellington = 04 385 6952; office@regionalwines.co.nz
Note: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Monday.
1998 will be remembered as the hot year of the 1990s. It was a strange decade for red wines, ranging from the post-Pinatubo chilled years of the early 90s, through several good vintages, to this by local standards very hot one. In Hawkes Bay, discussion at the time speculated that such warmth would catch some winemakers off-guard. By the same token, in more southerly districts, the warmth allowed exceptional opportunities for marginal varieties.
So let us sample as complete a cross-section of both the wine styles and the geography of New Zealand's red wine world as 12 bottles will allow, by looking at the following wines. They should give a marvellous insight into how these varieties mature in New Zealand, in a warmer year (which, given global warming, may give us a peep into the future). We may also gain some insight into the question: does the traditionally heavy-handed use of oak in our red wines ultimately marry in ?
The wines will include, give or take:
1998 Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir Reserve (Martinborough).
1998 Daniel Schuster Pinot Noir Omihi (Waipara)
1998 Te Awa Pinotage Longlands (Hawkes Bay)
1998 Mission Vineyard Syrah Reserve (Hawkes Bay)
1998 Benfield & Delamare Merlot / Cabernet (Martinborough)
1998 Pegasus Bay Merlot / Cabernet Maestro (Waipara)
1998 Chateau Magdelaine (St Emilion)
1998 Esk Valley Merlot / Malbec / Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve (Hawkes Bay)
1998 Pask Merlot Reserve (Hawkes Bay)
1998 Sileni Merlot / Cabernet Franc Exceptional Vintage (Hawkes Bay)
1998 Te Mata Cabernets / Merlot Coleraine (Hawkes Bay)
1998 Villa Maria Merlot / Cabernet Reserve (Hawkes Bay)
Several quite famous (in New Zealand) wines are listed there: the first $100 pinot, the first latterday gold medal merlot, a remarkable Bordeaux blend from the South Island, and others which seemed hellish pricey at the time. Then of course we must have in a Frenchman for external comparability / reference / reality purposes, and 1998 was very good on the east bank, too. Should be good !
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1995 CRU BOURGEOIS, 1995 TOM AND TE AWA
Wednesday 11 June 2008, 6 pm, 6.00 pm, @ Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $45.00 pp, Limit 22 places – please note conditions
Contact: Wellington = 04 385 6952; office@regionalwines.co.nz
Note: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Monday.
This material first appeared on www.regionalwines.co.nz, here slightly amended.
After a year's break, we will start the 11th year of Library Tastings at Regional Wines & Spirits with an affordable reminiscence on the 1995 vintage in Bordeaux. Classically, the dictum about better Bordeaux reds was: it is a sin against the spirit of the bottle to open one under 10 years of age. Since we are checking out cru bourgeois only, some of the wines should now be showing pleasing maturity.
1995 was an attractive vintage in Bordeaux, the better wines having a soft round plumpness of fruit which even on release, was delightful. Wine Spectator rates the vintage 94 – 96, depending on the district. Robert Parker is less enthusiastic, at 88 – 92.
Our dozen wines will be along the lines of:
1995 Ch Beaumont (Haut Medoc)
1995 Ch Croizet Bages (Pauillac)
1995 Ch Gressier Grand Poujeaux (Moulis)
1995 Ch Angelique de Monbousquet (St Emilion)
1995 Ch St Paul de Dominique (St Emilion)
1995 Ch Clementin du Pape Clement (Graves)
1995 Ch de Pez (St Estephe)
1995 Ch Senejac (Haut Medoc)
1995 Ch Potensac (Medoc)
1995 Ch Fourcas Hostein (Listrac)
1995 Te Awa Merlot Boundary (Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay)
1995 Church Road Tom [ Merlot / Cabernet / Malbec ] (Hawkes Bay)
Most of these are well-regarded petits chateaux, some of them wines one frequently thinks of, in assessing New Zealand reds. A check alongside a couple will be good, therefore. Tom was twice the cost of any other wine. It will be interesting to see to what extent the then management of Montana Group understood the concept of quality in the Bordeaux wine style, relative to the wine quality in bottle and the (then amazing) price originally set.
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Tenth Anniversary Library Tasting: 1966 – Forty Years On
Monday 16 October, 2006, 6.00 pm, @ Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $90.00 pp, Limit 22 places – please note conditions
Contact: Wellington = 04 385 6952; office@regionalwines.co.nz
Note: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Monday.
This material first appeared on www.regionalwines.co.nz , here slightly amended / more specific.
It is the time for a little anniversary – two actually. One more general, one more personal.
It is hard to believe that Regional Wines & Spirits has been presenting my Library Tastings for 10 years, come mid-October. Like so many good things about Regional Wines, the whole concept sprang from founder Grant Jones' lively imagination, and ability to then put thoughts into deeds. Grant's immediate idea was: if it catches on, we'll call it 'Adventures in Geoff Kelly's Cellar'. Initially, that seemed a flattering idea. However a few days later, I had to go back to Grant, and suggest we take a lower-key approach, being mindful of security.
So here we are, 10 years later, sadly without Grant. But the most exciting thing for me in presenting these tastings, has been to see people come to them perhaps because the chosen wine-year marks their birthday or other personal anniversary, or for other quite personal reasons. At the last, one taster shyly admitted the wines were older than they were. It really gives me a buzz to be able to facilitate that kind of experience.
So the second more personal anniversary is, in this year 2006, to present a tasting based on the year 1966. That was the first year I invested in fine Bordeaux quite significantly, and those 1966s have formed the measuring stick for my entire subsequent wine life. It was a good year, a very 'classic' year. That means the wines had all the bouquet and aromatics and vinosity of the berries themselves, shaped by oak, but not dominated by it, as so many over-ripe Austro-American-styled wines are these days. To modern tasters, the 1966s at release would mostly have seemed austere, but then, remember, that was in the days when the dictum was: It is a sin against the spirit of the bottle to open fine Bordeaux before its tenth birthday. Not a thought the instant-gratification generation readily identifies with.
The highlight of the tasting will be 1966 Ch Palmer. I will never forget my first tasting of it, in assessing these wines for cellaring, in a caravan in Canterbury (for those were the days when Christchurch was the hub of fine wine importing in New Zealand). It smelt of violets and cassis, and tasted like velvet. It was beautiful from day one, as so many great wines are. Few young clarets have seemed better to me, over the years. And it is not all the romanticism of fuzzy memory. 1966 Palmer is now rated (in Parker's definitive 2003 edition of his text Bordeaux) as: a great Palmer, one of the three or four best wines of the vintage. Elsewhere he says: When Palmer has a great vintage, no other left bank growth is as aromatically seductive to the nose and palate ... . Palmer consistently made the best wine of the Margaux appellation between 1961 and 1977, but with the resurgence of Ch Margaux in 1978 ... it is now often runner-up. The style of Palmer's wine is characterised by a sensational fragrance ... the richness of great Pomerol but the complexity of a Margaux.
There will be 11 other claret-styled wines accompanying the Palmer, 6 of them Bordeaux, and 4 from Australia, all now rare. From New Zealand there will be Tom McDonald's 1966 McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon, the follow-up vintage to the 1965 wine which started the modern era of quality winemaking in New Zealand.
1966 Chasse-Spleen, Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel, Moulis
1966 Gruaud-Larose, Second Growth, St Julien
1966 Ch Mouton-Rothschild, First Growth, Pauillac
1966 Ch Palmer, Third Growth, Margaux
1966 Pontet-Canet (then less good), Fifth Growth, Pauillac
1966 Prieure Lichine (back when it was good), Fourth Growth, Margaux
1966 Ch Talbot, Fourth Growth, St Julien
1966 Hardy's Cabernet Sauvignon Bin C626, McLaren Vale & Coonawarra
1966 Ch Reynella Cabernet Sauvignon, McLaren Vale
1966 Stonyfell Metala, Langhorne Creek (back when it was the company's top wine)
1967 Yalumba Rudi Kronberger Cabernet / Shiraz, Barossa Valley
1966 McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon, Hawkes Bay
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Evolution of New Zealand Pinot Noir: 1964 – 2003
Monday 25 September, 2006, 6.00 pm, @ Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $40.00 pp, Limit 21 places – please note conditions
Contact: Wellington = 04 385 6952; office@regionalwines.co.nz
Note: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Monday.
With the imminent debut of not one but two $150 New Zealand pinots, it seems timely to pause for a moment, and reflect on where we have come from with this quietly exciting variety. I have been interested in pinot since first purchases of the 1964 Burgundy vintage from the then Fletcher Humphreys in Christchurch, and cellared my first case of Grand Cru burgundy from the fabled 1969 vintage. Since then I have watched with alternating degrees of enthusiasm the various interpretations of this great grape pinot noir which have been launched in New Zealand. Our review will sample a few of those, over 40 years.
The wines will be presented in two flights. Flight One will be historic wines spanning the first 25 years, say 1964 to 1990 or so, including key wines which acted as New Zealand scene-setters. For these I will ask you to note their age, and see them more as souvenirs of an exciting evolution. The goal will be to rejoice we can actually taste such historic items, and to see if we can find some residual varietal quality and charm. I don't want to be told they are too old. But, incidentally, a 1978 Nobilo Pinot Noir quite recently was in its lightly roseéd way as pleasant as many a faded minor Beaune wine. Appreciating old wine merely requires a little lateral thinking on the part of the taster, a preparedness to dream a little, and try to be romantic.
These wines will include: 1964 or thereabouts Mission Reserve Pinot (cost $1.15, probably meuniere); the two remarkable wines which launched the modern pinot era, 1976 Nobilo Pinot Noir and 1982 Danny Schuster's St Helena Pinot Noir; perhaps an incredibly rare 1982 Seville Estate Pinot Noir from the Yarra, to match the latter; Larry McKenna's 1986 Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir which put Martinborough on the map, and perhaps the matching 1986 Coldstream Pinot Noir Yarra Valley wine to show where James Halliday was at that point of his pinot evolution (along with Larry); of necessity an early 80s Babich Pinot Noir for they moved the market along a good deal towards the goal of lighter, fragrant (if stalky) pinots; and maybe we should have a Montana as well, just to acknowledge key players at both ends of the market.
Flight Two will touch on one or two wines of the early 90s ( thanks to Rob Bishop & Shelley Hood), reflecting the rise of Ata Rangi and maybe Neudorf as key players, a 1995 Rippon from Otago to introduce the remarkable rise of that district, then two of the key wines of the 1998 dry year, Martinborough Vineyard Reserve and Danny Schuster's Omihi Selection. From 1999 on, the picture starts to gel, and the pendulum swings more towards Central Otago. We will have wines from Felton Road, Greenhough, Neudorf, Ata Rangi and others, including McKenna's 2003 Escarpment Kupe – designed to be New Zealand's finest pinot yet. I have not been able to secure either of the two (Peregrine, Martinborough Vineyard) super-premium pinots not yet quite ready for release, sadly. The Flight Two wines will be presented blind, to cast a little more light on the actual achievement of pinot quality. If space allows, a little frog may be slipped in somewhere, too.
Needless to say, this tasting will by virtue of its historic / museum wines, be unique and unrepeatable. It is the kind of tasting the industry should do, but doesn't. The first flight of wines will be charged at a token value only. I hope the theme will appeal greatly.
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Germany in 1976 – 30 Years On
Monday 14 August, 2006, 6.00 pm, @ Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $75.00 pp, Limit 21 places – please note conditions
Contact: Wellington = 04 385 6952; office@regionalwines.co.nz
Note: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Monday.
In his absolute reference work Vintage Wine (2002), Michael Broadbent describes 1976 in Germany as:
A gloriously ripe vintage with soft, fleshy, extremely attractive wines, the only handicap being a certain lack of acidity in some of them. This was a year of great heat and drought throughout the summer in northern Europe. However ... the sort of year that brings out the best in the Mosel, and in particular the Saar and Ruwer, which normally produce fairly acidic wines. Although in terms of quality 1976 ranks below the firmer, greater, all-round 5-star 1971, there are few German vintages which have given me more pleasure ****.
Seven of our wines are from the Mosel, 3 from Saar - Ruwer, and two from the Rheingau. All are Qualitatswein mit Pradikat. Notwithstanding German wine law first allowing acidification for the (hotter than 1976) 2003 vintage, several wines have overt tartaric acid crystals in them !
The chance to taste 12 x 1976 German rieslings is unlikely to be available again in New Zealand. Our wines will be (though I don't guarantee my deciphering of the archaic script in one case):
1976 Ayler Kupp Riesling Spaetlese (Sichel)
1976 Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Spaetlese (Licht-Bergweiler)
1976 Geisenheimer Schlossgarten Riesling Spaetlese (von Schornborn)
1976 Maximin Grunhauser Abstberg Riesling Spaetlese (von Schubert)
1976 Niederberg Belden Riesling Spaetlese (Liesen)
1976 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese (von Schorlemer)
1976 Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Auslese (von Schorlemer)
1976 Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling Auslese (Tobias)
1976 Schloss Vollrads Auslese (white capsule)
1976 Wehlener-Sonnenuhr Auslese (Prum-Erben)
1976 Wiltinger Sandberg Riesling Auslese (von Schorlemer)
1976 Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling Beerenauslese (Tobias)
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The Top 1986 Bordeaux, Part 2
Tuesday 20 June, 2006, 6.00 pm, @ Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $175.00 pp, Limit 22 places – please note conditions
Contact: Wellington = 04 385 6952; office@regionalwines.co.nz
Note: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Tuesday.
Robert Parker (in his 2003 book, Bordeaux) says of the 1986 vintage: The year 1986 is without doubt a great vintage for the northern Medoc, particularly for St Julien and Pauillac. This tasting will offer three First Growths among ten classed Bordeaux. The First Growths include 1986 Mouton Rothschild, considered by most informed commentators to be (Decanter, May 2006): the star of the vintage, with some claiming it could be a 1945 in the making ... Parker has time and again given it a perfect 100-point score, not to mention a drinking window up to 2096. Other strong performers include ... Margaux and Las Cases. All three of these wines will be in our Library Tasting. It is therefore an incredibly rare opportunity to taste mature wines considered as fine as Bordeaux can produce.
How of course one costs such a tasting is open to debate. The price for 1986 Mouton has increased by 50% in the last 12 months alone, in London and New York. All the predictions for the 2005 Bordeaux releases en primeur this month are that the First Growths will exceed $500.00 per bottle. Retail might be nearly twice that. In addition to the three First Growths, the tasting includes four 'super-seconds'. For interest, I asked 'The Fine Wine Experience', London, to cost the tasting below, as if they were presenting it in London. They replied: £140.00, which is about $420.00. Whereas, we are offering the opportunity to taste ten classed 1986 Bordeaux and two Australasian cabernets for $175.00. The least of the French wines is worth that, per bottle.
The wines, their classification, and their Parker score will be: 1986 Ch Mouton Rothschild (1st, 100), 1986 Ch Leoville-Las-Cases (2nd, 98), 1986 Ch Margaux (1st, 96), 1986 Ch Gruaud-Larose (2nd, 94), 1986 Ch Cheval Blanc (=1st, 92), 1986 Ch Ducru-Beaucaillou (2nd, 92), 1986 Ch Montrose (2nd, 91), 1986 Ch Grand-Puy-Lacoste (5th, 91), 1986 Ch Pavie (=2nd or 3rd, 90), 1986 Ch Palmer (3rd, 88), 1985 Mt Mary Cabernets (***** JH) Victoria, and 1987 Stonyridge Larose (***** GK) Waiheke Island. Note the Grand-Puy-Lacoste is in both Pt I and Pt II, to calibrate the tastings. I regret I don't have 1986 Mt Mary (but the label is regarded as one of Australia's most Bordeaux-like wines), and the 1987 from N.Z. is simply to provide a better match, it being Waiheke's first high-quality red.
If that list is not tantalising enough, here are Robert Parker's (paraphrased) thoughts on 1986 Mouton: In most tastings where a great Bordeaux is inserted with California Cabernets the Bordeaux comes across as drier, more austere, and not nearly as rich and concentrated (California wines are inevitably fruitier and more massive). To put it mildly, [in the 1986 flight] the 1986 Mouton-Rothschild held its own (and then some), in a flight that included the Caymus Special Selection, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cask 23, Dunn Howell Mountain, and Joseph Phelps Eisele Vineyard. Clearly the youngest looking, most opaque and concentrated wine of the group, it tastes ... of creme de cassis in abundance, exhilarating purity, and awesome layers of finish ... impeccably made. Anticipated maturity till 2096.
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