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One from there, one from here

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2012 molitor et auslese

2012 Markus Molitor Erdener Treppchen Auslese Gold capsule ** AP 37 7.5%
Mosel, purchased from the estate in 2015 and retrieved from storage in Germany this year.

(The ** indicates something extra in the category), Light gold colour, honey, quince, raisin, herbs red apple with a lick of spices. This is ready to drink, but will hold on a plateau for another ten years. The plate is creamy, fresh and balanced with lemon verbena, honey, and stonefruit. Very similar to my note from Germany a few months ago!)

Drink to 2034, 91 points.

1998 morris vp

1998 Morris VP 18.8%
Rutherglen, 77% Shiraz, 23% Touriga, trophies and gold medals from credible wine shows over a period of several years.

BTW, I reviewed this in early 2016 and this bottle is slightly more attractive! Meagre cork, but it’s performed. Still a vibrant deep crimson/black colour, it thrills with wild scents of lavender, blueberry, red liquorice, dried herbs, and mellow spirit. The palate is all about fruit definition and texture – there’s violet, plum, redcurrant, spices and best of all, vitality and flavour persistence. It’s a terrific package with at least another decade well within its stride. Hard to resist, and I have several more bottles!

Drink to 2035, 94 points

Mid-year review – end of calendar 2024

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Now that 2024 is over, nearly all staff are on their compulsory restorative break – before resuming with renewed rigor, commitment, perseverance, resilience, and passion (my strengths). We reflect on the people that have left the embrace of Stoney Goose Ridge, having failed to meet their KPIs. It’s my way, or out the window. We are alert to any attempts to deviate from their non-compete periods and/or NDAs. I also welcome the new hires to our lean headcount. Their CVs will now be more impressive, thanks to the rigorous development and mentoring provided OTJ. Reviewing the piles of discarded multi-media EOIs provided plenty of entertainment and befuddlement before most went straight into the virtual wastebasket. Hint – be concise, and check grammar and spelling- UGH!

Despite double digit sales growth, and even better profitability, my restless nature views 2024 as a year of consolidation of our core capabilities. All our brands performed across wines, beers, spirits, RTD mixers and so on, from budget to ultra-luxe. Indeed, several performed so well, that sourcing additional materials will require exceptional diligence, creativity and cunning. Our global footprint expanded, with innovative cross-border blending, and sales now in thirty countries. Our social metrics, CSAT and NPS are phenomenal and envied. But there is much more to come in my timeframe horizon.

Another outstanding wine success for Stoney Goose Ridge was the launch of the Pub Test™ range (PT white aromatic, PT white full-flavoured, PT rosé. PT mellow red, and PT robust red). Yet another of my winning ideas, it solves the conundrum by providing quality and exceptional VFM at a pub. If any pub doesn’t stock the range, their premises should be avoided as they have failed the test. And of course, bonus QR codes on the bottles provide access to hundreds of sets of trivia questions! Truly, the Pub Test™ brand is an optimised high-margin generator that secures further bottom-line profit and value growth creation.

Other triumphs include our low-tech orangesque wine Limbo, and the Essential Cookbook for Humans, which has garnered literary and culinary acclaim, plus massive sales.

Once more, our legal team has tirelessly prosecuted breaches of our ironclad contracts, trademark infringements, garnering bountiful punitive damages and fulsome grovelling apologies. Allied to their valiant structural efforts to minimise taxation, my incisive negotiating prowess has ensured numerous outrageous bargains accumulating our proactive synergies and led to many favourable legislative tweaks and judicial interpretations across varied jurisdictions.

The virtual trophy cabinet has been extended to cater for the deluge of awards for marketing, packaging, innovation etc, but of course of legions of fanatical Stoney Goose Ridge customers are our true glory.

My personal staff have supported me heroically, responding to my calls, emails and so on even while I have been on essential conferences in Rio de Janeiro, Geneva, Singapore, Port Douglas etc plus while holidaying with my family at Hakuba and Telluride, with short stays at Broome, Hobart and Dunedin.

Impressively, several team members achieved a bonus, and while the quantum was not as fulsome as mine, they deserve recognition.

With my intuitive customer insights and stewardship, I have rescued neglected brands from competitors and realised scale, diversification, and operational leverage. Renowned for our resonating value proposition, unique offers personalise customer experience in the omni-channel environment, seamlessly folding new generations into our compelling e-commerce ecosystem.

Our assets have increased massively with certified revaluations of our IP and brand valuation metrics.

I am a proud HIPPO (Highest Paid Persons’ Opinion) with my incredible extreme hardcore creative abrasion challenging my minions. I have no time for the WOLF (Working On the Latest Fire) and their ignorance of strategy, nor the ZEBRA (Zero Evidence But Really Arrogant). Our data-mining team has been laser-focused to extract material that supports my multitudinous initiatives.

The Stoney Goose Ridge wine fashionistas have managed to avoid frosts, fires, and other agricultural tribulations, and as ever, our network is adept at sourcing distressed assets with myself as the final sensory and financial arbiter.

Another of my ongoing issues is talent development. I will be taking a one-month sabbatical in 2025 for a personal entrepreneurial project, and the aptitude of my hand- picked executive team is not yet up to the task of “minding the store”. But there is time, and I have options up my sleeve to manage the temporary transition. I’m sure the selected person or team will perform adequately in my absence, and there always the Batphone hotline. I expect copious tidying when I return. Plus, all critical decisions will be deferred.

I can characterise our rivals’ long-winded, asinine and self-congratulatory announcements as untrue in parts, evasive, disingenuous, and entirely unsatisfactory. Then there are their egregious greenwashing eco-ceptions. It’s no wonder customers vote with their wallets, migrate – and stay with the better quality, better value, better sensory offerings from Stoney Goose Ridge! There are people in commerce that I know and respect, but thankfully we run in different lanes, and types of business.

Plenty of our accomplishments are due to the derisive inadequacy of our competitors, their masterly inactivity and willingness to embrace the strategy of “cross our fingers,” all while waiting to be stabbed in the back after their next foot-in-mouth episode. Throw in aimless rebrandings, desperate “campaigns”, fixation with outside consultants, massive stock writedowns and a culture of indolence. What a blessed luxury to be a vital part of an industry riddled with such extraordinary incompetence! We forensically analyse their accounts, always alert to related-party transactions, “Director loans”, dubious and gratuitous sponsorships and we are adept at highlighting and publicising contemptable personal moral lapses of executives. And there are so many!

After such a year of positive momentum, all staff can look forward to thrills, triumphs, and creative tension.

Your magisterial, acclaimed innovator – Hector A Lannible

Three blind beauties

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2011 sauternes pair

2011 Chateau Suduiraut 13.5%
2011 Chateau Raymond-Lafon 13.5%

This pair was served blind; and I was called on to describe and assess (towards the end of a terrific EOY dinner). Both were a healthy bright gold colour, and the apricot and vanilla notes instantly took me to Sauternes.

The first wine (Suduiraut) displayed just-ripe apricot, quince, dusty botrytis with terrific presence and drama; and a touch of floor polish. Lots of vanilla on the palate, honey, ginger, and abundant fruit power from a ripe year. Very sweet (138 g/l), but balanced. (93% semillon,  7% sav blanc).
Drink to 2035, 93 points.

The second wine (Raymond-lafon) had a slightly less developed colour, with greater tropical and pineapple notes. This wine had the magic combo of florals, citrus and balance (149 g/l rs); delightfully fresh and authentic. Pressed, I went for Barsac on this one – likely Ch Coutet – I was wrong but what a nice surprise!
Drink to 2038, 94 points

2007 quinta do vale meao

2007 Quinta do Vale meao 19.5%
Portugal. Also served blind, this was a vivid deep color. Blueberry, violets, dark cherry, elegant and with vivacity. Plus a producer I don’t recall trying. Portuguese for sure, early 2000s. But hard to concentrate at the end of a long night! Quality with aplomb.
Drink to 2034 . 92 points.

Two very different Oz fortifieds (inc one fail)

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seppelt 1983 para

1983 Seppelt Para Liqueur (single vintage Tawny) 20.5%
Barossa, released around 2004, with no further improvement once bottled. Grenache, likely with Shiraz (and maybe something else). A bit of breathing helps. Gosh this is good.

In the familiar bell-shaped bottle, the colour was a deep khaki with a telltale olive green rim,  Floral and decadent, displaying very fire brandy spirit; caramel, vanilla and almond. Fresh and delicious, mocha, spices, salinity, and citrus peel, with a generous, lasting set of flavours. I have reviewed the 1976 and 1991 before – the line provides marvels of consistent pleasure, with the 2003 available on the Seppeltsfield website for $105.

Drink now (but any decent unopened bottle will safely keep).  94. points.

1977 morris VP

1977 Morris Vintage Port
Rutherglen (70% Shiraz, 30% Bastardo -aka Touriga)
Faded label, with a marginally raised cork, and the level was high shoulder but no dramas.

Still a deep red/black colour! Mocha, brandy, sweet brambles and blackberry; palate is sweet and syrupy, but defiantly fresh, sweet fruit and mellowness. Indestructible.

There were – alas – some cork artefacts present – I struggled to disentangle cork taint from corky/woodiness, and about and hour later reluctantly conceded that that very low-grade TCA was present, But very few would still resist drinking the wine. Such is life under the arbitrary hands of cork deities. Despite this “fail”, other bottles are worth seeking out.

No score but drink to 2035.

One from Rutherglen

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2004 morris VP

2004 Morris vintage (port) 19.4%
Rutherglen, Victoria. 58% Shiraz, 26% touriga, 16% durif

Gold medals at credible shows across six years. Decent cork. Twenty years old, and plentiful sediment.  Very dense youthful black/red colour; violets, plum, fig, dark cherry, sweet spices. Here’s a wine that is relatively soft and approachable, yet has all the structural elements that hold my attention and augur well for the future; high class spirit is melded with the plentiful fruit power; the palate is voluptuous, fresh, and with fine, fine tannins to encourage another taste. Hard to resist (and I still have a few bottles).

Drink to 2034 (very conservatively), and 93 points

Two from Portugal

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1975 Cockburn VP

1975 Cockburn Vintage Port

Served blind. Amber tawny colour, and clearly old (early 80s?). Roses, light mocha, sugared almond; palate less fragile than expected; spirit is holding this wine together. Unveiled – a modest VP year, a modest producer, but a triumph to have survived damn near 50 years. Certainly its been better in the past, but no shame, and no problems drinking my share!

Drink up, 91 points

2000 fonseca

2000 Fonseca Vintage Port 20.5%
Medium ruby colour; very floral with blueberry, roses and violets, spice notes too; palate is bright and crisp, very supple and civilized, dark red fruits, almond sugar, refined tannins and beautifully judged spirit. Enormous drinkability too. (This was a much better result than the bottles tasted in October 2023!)

Drink to 2035, 95 points

Just one masked wine

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2001 Peter Lehmann “the king” AD 2022 Vintage Port 18.5%
Barossa Valley, 63% Cab sav, 37% Touriga

Youthful colour; absolutely bursts from the glass- musk, raspberry, blueberry, dark cherry and red liquorice. Floral with clove notes, high quality spirit. Palate is deep and sweet with some attractive mocha notes. 2005? Comfortable, with dark fruits and abundant spices. Australian for sure with the sweetness, but with a reasonable whack of Portuguese varieties – likely Touriga. I guessed the main variety as Shiraz, but surprisingly it was Cabernet Sauvignon! Unusual, but probably included to bolster the tannic frame (sometimes the task of Durif in Australian VP styles).

The ”AD 2022” is the label’s confusing cue that the wine has the capability of maturing for 21 years (and suitable for a birthday occasion).

The wine is Just a bit straightforward for higher marks, but eminently enjoyable, and thought-provoking.

Drink to 2034, and 91 points

Catch-up on recent drinks

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2007 knebel spatlese

2007 Knebel winninger Rottgen Riesling Spatlese 11%
Mosel; 47 g/l residual sugar; gold colour honey.

Wax, apple and the surprising blackcurrant. Palate is still lively with sweetness ameliorated by acidy; palate is all about mixed apple and stonefruit (yellow peach and apricot); chewy, varietal and authentic.

Has seen better days however; drink up 90 points

2015 sauternes pair

2015 Ch Doisy-vedrines 13%
Sauternes 80% semillon, 15% sav blanc, 5% muscadelle

Light bright colour, light-weight aromatics of slightly green pineapple, vanilla bean icing sugar and preserved lemon. Palate shows almond meal, citrus nectarine. Ligher style than the next wine, but balanced and authentic. Ready for business, and will be consumed with great pleasure.

Drink to 2030, 92 points

2015 Ch Suduiraut 14%
Sauternes; 94% semillon, 6% sav blanc; 18 months in oak (50% new, 50% one year old) 138 g/l residual.

Served masked- I last tasted this wine around a year ago, and my notes are thankfully similar. Sauternes with a deeper colour than the wine above; crème brulee, quality oak, ginger spices, botrytis dustiness, light floor-polish VA present but under control; great density and integration. Cumquat and vanilla, liveliness, texture and persistence. Very decadent and pleasurable. Around ten years old?

Drink to 2037, 95 points

2007 croft vp

2007 Crofts Vintage Port 20%
Portugal

Served masked – Deep red colour with camphor, cherry and blackberry plus floral headsy spirit. Dense, with dark fruits, small berries and cocoa. Portuguese varieties for sure; and the spirit leans me to Portugal, BUT there;s not the drive, complexity or tannin for its suspected age (my guess was early 2000s). So, Australian. When revealed, this was quite a disappointing result for a  respectable VP vintage (and the other bottle I tried was similar).

Drink to 2030, 89 points

NV Morris Old premium “rare” Muscat 17%
Rutherglen.

Served masked. Luminnous dark, and very dense colour. Raisin, orange peel, roses, toffee, bitter chocolate. High-quality neutral spirit, It’s a meal in a half a glass if you are greedy. Concentrated raisins, and dried fruits with spices. It sits on the palate and the flavours dwell for ages. Not just about using old material, as the style needs the masterful touch of freshness too. Around 350 g/l residual sugar, but the acidity absolutely obliterates any cloying.

This wine is world class, and continues to be a bargain (a meagre $120 for a 500ml bottle, that will last for weeks if – unlike me – you have the will power to resist).

Drink now, 96 points

Four fortifieds

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2005 S&K vp

2005 Stanton and Killeen Fortified 18.5%
Rutherglen, VP style; 32% Shiraz, 32% Durif, 16 % tinta cao, 10% touriga, 10% tinta roriz
Vintage rated 9/10. 1 trophy and 12 gold medals on the label.

I drank this youngster, as a recent bottle from a dinner looked a bit burned/baked. Youthful colour- morello cherry, rhubarb, violets, plus juniper. Palate is raspberry, blackcurrant lavender, camphor, red liquorice. Supple, with super spirit selection and integration. Look at the range of descriptors – always a sign of quality!

Drink to 2035; an easy 95 points.

1985 morris vp

1985 Morris Vintage Port
Rutherglen, 54% Durif, 46% Cab sav

Good colour for age, dense and intensely flavoured; dark berries. Sweet, chalk, coffee, mocha and just thrilling spirit integration. Balanced and delicious.

Drink to 2035, 93 points

1980 sevenhill vp

1980 Sevenhill Vintage Port 19.4%
Clare Valley, Shiraz
I seldom see this style from the area; and I was wary despite a cheap price at a recent auction. The cork was adequate; the colour is a quite developed ruby/tawny – plus plentiful sediment; there is sweet brandy spirit overlaying mocha and some dark fruit and chewy sweet spices; but really the spirit leads the charge here. The label quaintly claims “should be bottle aged for at least eight years” and forty-four years certainly exceeded the winemaker’s intentions. Regardless, it’s alert, and while it should have been consumed many years ago it does not fall into the curio category where excuses are easy to find. It’s still a solid, drinkable wine.

Drink now (sooner if you can), 85 points

NV Kopke Ten years old Tawny 20%
Served blind; Pale colour, roses, fruitcake, spices and some rancio. Sweeter on the palate than expected; with cinnamon, light and expressive, gentle and civilized. Citrus and toffee; light on its feet. Not enough acid for Madeira, not enough aldehydes for sherry, not the sweetness for muscat or topaque, I settled on a tawny style, but without the richness for Australia. I settled on 20 y/o Portuguese. Close enough!

Kopke is not in the first rank, but this was a super example, where the blend over-delivered on the reputation.

Drink now, 93 points (and I hope pricing is reasonable)

Stoney Goose Ridge report for fiscal year 2023-2024

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Again, we had an outstanding year- albeit disappointingly, my bonus did not increase by double-digit percentages; but that’s part of my demanding role and its stringent KPIs. No other staff member has yet received a bonus in consecutive years; and clearly there are a limited quantum to award – if any.

It took a surprisingly long time for our financials to be examined– a combination of inexperienced assessors that I set straight, and the necessity to substantiate the complex corporate structure that minimises excessive taxation burdens. As a direct consequence, next financial year brings a different – and cheaper – set of official auditors.

Our assorted staff – under my rigorous and inspirational leadership have performed satisfactorily – the few failures have departed in ignominy.

Amongst our myriad new releases, I was immensely proud of our Italian blends NFI and NFT; the entire Arrogant Cane-toad range, our Molotov cocktail, the fortified Bin 666; and our new dry Sahara Rosé, which sits alongside our Brosé. Our orange-y wine Limbo has taken enormous market penetration, and deservedly driven competitors to the wall. Our debut Irish whiskey Follow your Dram already has legions of followers.

Delivering pleasure to customers is our prime objective, and both our socials and NPS provide thrilling metrics. Naturally, our existing sub- brands of beers, RTDs, mixers, spirits and wines go gangbangers, with our on-going conundrum of increasing volume without sacrificing quality. That’s merely one of my specialities – finding the right distressed assets at an acceptable margin that have a home in our array of beverages.

Our Essential cookbook for humans has been through several reprints, and has gathered numerous awards, and luminous recognition.  Our pop-up shops have been crowd-swarmed with plans for more permanent outlets in progress. The key obstacle is unimaginative bureaucrats’ myopia on providing the essential infrastructure funding to attract tourists and build the economy. We await the outcome of offers from various Government agencies in a bidding war before we commit, and we will not blink! What’s good for Stoney Goose Ridge is good for the nation!

Our formidable legal team has had a stellar year; apart from the damages we have garnisheed, their assistance in locating and exploiting tax differentials, and finessing proposed regulations has been admirable. I could not have achieved fulfilments employing my gamut of oratory and persuasive prowess without their fundamental inputs. And the train keeps a’rolling.

We are besieged by applications to join the team – whether as interns, specialists, and for the meagre vacancies we have. I have final veto on candidates, and how the selected talent can snuggle into our winning culture. We relentlessly upskill our crew through our in-house Academy, supplemented by enforced OTJ quality mentoring.

Consulting firms are eager to get their foot in the door forever, recycling their anodyne submissions for credulous corporate victims. Their strategy is to provide advice, then lever their parasites into the structure for a never-ending implementation phase, with zero knowledge transfer. Aye, there’s the rub! They underestimate the consummate skills at Stoney Goose Ridge and my unerring avoidance of their veiled phishing scams. They just waste their time!

I am in constant demand for symposiums, conferences, and media commentary on issues de jour. My personal team is adept at triage; and I only respond to the important, and urgent. Looking after commercial imperatives while nurturing subordinates is my instinct. AI has its place, but its immaturity is evident. No irrelevant shortcuts are taken at Stoney Goose Ridge.

Certainly, our competitors have delusions of adequacy; their Boards and executive ranks stuffed with interesting caricatures at excessive remuneration – only their collective amnesia and lack of a conscience prevents wholesale sackings and resignations. The combination of magisterial inertia and blatant “captain’s call” brand-trashing missteps are a marvel. You cannot make it up! We give thanks!

I blessedly continue to lead our mighty, growing organisation.

Your monumental prime mover, Hector Lannible.