Syrah and Blends - Tasting Notes

Boukenhoutskloof - The Chocolate Block 2011 (Western Cape, South Africa)

A blend of two-thirds Syrah, with the remainder made up of Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault, and Viognier. Decanted immediately prior to serving. Clear, with deep purple colouring. Really notably long slow-running tears inside the glass. Clean nose, very open, with pronounced intensity of sweet spices and black fruits. Really attractive. Medium-plus acidity, high tannin and full-bodied on the palate. Pronounced flavour intensity with strong black fruit characters and a long finish. Excellent quality, excellent value and at least a decade of cellaring potential ahead of it. 17/20. I’ve never been disappointed by the wines from Boukenhoutskloof, and this really ought to cost more than the £20 it retails for!

Chateau de Beaucastel  Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1995 (Rhone, France)

Decanted immediately before tasting. Despite having being stood for >24 hours, there was still a very fine sediment in the wine that needed additional time to settle out after pouring. Not optimal lighting conditions, but medium garnet in colour with long tears running down inside the glass. Clean, open nose with pronounced intensity. Obvious Brett characters coming across, which obviously will appeal to some and not to others. For me it is the definition of a good Beaucastel and one of my main reasons for enjoying their wines! Not the strongest Brett character I have come across in their wines, but certainly farmyard aromas. Fully developed. The palate was dry with medium acidity and soft, rounded tannins. Medium-plus body with mature fruit characters from tertiary bottle development. Medium length finish. I think this is showing some bottle variation and not quite as good as others I have tasted. Overall this gave the impression of being at the end of its drinking plateau and tiring out.

Over the course of 1-2 hours tasting it really began to dry out. I note Parker’s original tasting note had this down as drinking RP: 2006-2025. While it is still really enjoyable, I probably won’t be keeping my remaining bottles that long on the basis of this one.

Rosemount Estate - Balmoral Syrah 1999 (McLaren Vale, Australia)

Confusing given Rosemount are based in Hunter Valley, this wine actually hails from vineyards in the McLaren Vale region. Decanted prior to drinking, this had thrown fine tannin throughout. Still holding an inky-opaque colour. Clean, open and pronounced nose still revealing some of the vanilla character of its very long (18 months+) American oak barrel aging. Black fruits, logan, white and sweet spices. Complex and really beautiful. One to just sit and smell and appreciate. The palate is similarly intense, with well balanced tannins set against a full-bodied, black fruit core. Medium acidity. Good length. Really excellent and enjoyable. 17+/20.

Over the 2-3 hours this was enjoyed it really started to lose its fruit and dry out quite quickly, suggesting to me that this is slowly coming to the end of its drinking plateau. Certainly there is enough fruit there to keep for another 3-5 years but really I think it is going to start slowly sliding downhill from here. Penfolds ‘Rewards of Patience’ have this as drinking through to 2012, hence opening now, although this is perhaps a touch conservative by a year or two (depending on how you like your wine).

The thing that gets me about these Australian Syrah wines is how the parabola of their development is rather different to what I’m used to - compared to, say, a Northern Rhone Syrah. Even at 13-years old this comes across as more youthful than the equivalent Northern Rhone – less tertiary, bottle aged character. Perhaps cleaner winemaking, yeast or Brett related? They mostly stay like this and just dry out whereas I am used to Rhone Syrah wines that evolve more first. In that way you could say that these wines have a ‘flatter’ drinking plateau whereas the Northern Rhone wines have a much more varied parabola over their life cycle – they change and evolve through more tastes and stages.

This was originally judged a 5-star wine in a Decanter tasting, and agree with every bit of that. Not the best-value given its number-one premium status in the Rosemount line-up, but really excellent wine.

German Wines from the VDP: Tasting Notes

German Wines from the VDP: Tasting Notes

Oxford University Wine Society played host to the wine-writer and historian Giles MacDonogh http://www.macdonogh.co.uk/index.htm , who provided and up-date to changes in the VDP wine classifications together with a guided tasting of representative wines.

Since its foundation in 1910 the Verband Deutscher Qualitäts- und Prädikatsweingüter (Pradikat Wine Estates), better known as the VDP, the world’s oldest wine growers association has been dedicated to the relationship between producer, site and quality.

Over the past decade the Association has developed a classification pyramid for wines, which from the 2012 vintage has changed somewhat to reflect a pyramid based on the traditional Burgundian model. This equates to:

• VDP Grosse Lage (like Grand Cru in Burgundy)

• VDP Erste Lage (like Premier Cru in Burgundy)

• VDP Ortswein (like Village in Burgundy)

• VDP Gutswein (like Bourgogne régional in Burgundy)

The terms Erste Lage and Grosses Gewächs are private brands of the VDP. To complicate things slightly, in the Rheingau they will simply be referred to as Erstes Gewächs (as this classification is a legally part of the wine law there).

The goal is to implement the “one wine principle” for dry wines bearing the name of a classified vineyard site. A dry wine from a VDP Grosse Lage is a “Grosses Gewächs”. The traditional Prädikats are reserved for all wines with natural, ripe sweetness.

It is up to each region to decide whether or not to differentiate between great sites (i.e. VDP Grosse Lage) and very good sites (i.e. VDP Erste Lage).

The Association provides a detailed over-view in English on its website:

http://www.vdp.de/en/vdp-die-praedikatsweingueter/

Wine Tasting Notes

Schlör, First Weissburgunder GG 2011 (Baden)

Weissburgunder = Pinot Blanc.

Clear, pale lemon-green and rather watery appearance. Open, medium intensity nose. Buttery malolactic notes, almost vanilla like. Herbaceous and a little grassy. Rather typical Pinot Blanc character and certainly developed. Dry and medium acidity on the palate. Quite marked high alcohol levels and hot in the mouth. Medium body and medium flavour characteristics. Medium finish. A rather medium wine, and served too warm to do it justice.

Hans Wirsching, Kroonsberg Silvaner GG 2011 (Iphöfer, Franken)

Clear, pale lemon appearance. Closed nose. Clean with light-intensity. Difficult to discern any characteristics. Off-dry palate with medium acidity. Hot alcohol. Medium intensity with marked stoney and herbaceous characters. Again, served to warm but this is only good at best.

Kruger-Rumpf Riesling Trocken 2011 (Pittersberg, Nahe)

Clear, medium lemon yellow appearance. Clean nose with medium intensity. Floral and blossom characters predominate. Rather classic young Riesling flavour profile, but not that expressive (currently). Off-dry palate with medium acidity. Medium alcohol. Full bodied with medium-pronounced flavour intensity. Very mineralic and stony with citrus characters. Long and concentrated finish. Very good quality and much to give.

Spreitzer Oestricher Lenchen Riesling 2011 (Rheingau)

Clear, medium lemon appearance. Clean and light nose – gives the impression of being very youthful and closed. Medium-plus intensity, quite aggressive in a positive way. Dry, high acidity and strong citrus flavours characters. Long finish. Very good quality and even more concentrated than the previous wine. Drinking well but will improve and develop further.

Wehrheim Kastanienbusch Riesling GG 2011 (Pfalz)

Clear, deep lemon appearance with noticeable legs inside the glass. Clean nose, medium intensity. Lemon characters and flower blossom. Developing. Very clean, delineated and focussed in character. Dry plate, medium acidity hiding behind a full body. High alcohol but again being served too warm really. Pronounced intensity. Mineralic and very Alsatian in style (southern Pfalz in origin). Long length of finish and almost a little spicy. A powerful wine and very good quality.

Grafen Neipperg Ruthe Lemberger 2010 (Württemberg)

Lemberger = Blaufränkisch

Clear, pale garnet appearance. Legs inside the glass. Clean nose with medium intensity. Earth, savoury, farmyard and animal characters. Developed. Dry palate with medium acidity and high alcohol – might be a good example of a red wine that benefits from being served cool. Medium body. Medium tannin levels. Red fruit flavour characteristics, more simple than the nose would suggest. Medium finish. Good quality, not for keeping. I note this wine is priced at quite a high point and this does not offer good value for money internationally, a curse suffered by many German red wines unfortunately.

H. Schlumberger Altenberg Spätburgunder 2010 (Baden)

Spätburgunder = Pinot Noir.

Clear, paly ruby colour with legs. Clean, open and expressive nose with medium intensity. Black cherries and also some smoky and spicy aromas which I suspect are from time in wood. Dry palate with medium-plus acidity. Medium tannin, more than the previous Lemberger. Has some balance to it but powerful in style rather than elegant. Can drink now but has some short-term potential. Long finish but really just hot rather than flavour. I would say almost slight New World in character. Good quality overall.

Prinz Jungfer Riesling Auslese 2007 (Rheingau)

Clear, medium gold in appearance. Nose is clean with medium intensity. Sweet fruits but no botrytis. Developing? Sweet palate. Low acidity – noticeable – not nearly enough.  Leave the wine a little unbalanced in the sweetness for a typical / classic Riesling Auslese. Full bodied. Perhaps a little caramel on the palate. Long, sweet finish. Good quality and drinking now. I think without the acidity this is not a keeper and better as aperitif as slightly simple without any botrytis character.