dow’s

One terrific recent dinner

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2011 jj prum ws spatlese

2011 JJ Prum Wehelener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese 8.5%
Mosel, AP#28

Unmistakably German. Some reduction, but still shimmering with stonefruit, tropical notes, nettles, lime and flint with residual sugar seamlessly folded into a lightweight and delicious frame, that enfolds the palate. Great maker, and a great site, displayed to advantage.

Drink to 2030, 93 points

1994 Seppelt Show Sparkling Shiraz 13.5%
Great Western, Victoria. St Peters vineyard, (late) disgorged in October 2008, 28g/l residual sugar. Crown seal, and all the better! Notes below are not from tasting “blind’.

Mature but respectable colour, plenty of bubbles; mulberry, blackcurrant, dark cherry earthiness, light mushroom, and brimming with vitality. Its hard to believe there are better examples of this indestructible style around. As a bonus, my notes and score were consistent with my 2019 tasting note.

Drink to 2035, 95 points

2004 dow bomfim

2004 Dows Quinta do Bonfim (VP) 20%
Portugal – and technically a “single quinta”.

Usually, but not always from non-declared years (a decision of the producer- with Quinta do Noval an iconoclast now declaring every year).  Some single quintas are absolutely top wines, such as Grahams Stone Terraces. Usually, the single quinta makes up a large proportion of the declared vintages.

Decent colour for its assumed 20ish-year age; with blueberry, redcurrant, red liquorice, plentiful fruit here, and plentiful chalky tannin. The alcohol and spirit suggest Portugal, but the accessibility of the fruit suggests Oz origins (and I wrongly selected this option). In any event, the single quintas represent compelling VFM with monster enjoyment at an earlier age than the declared VPs can deliver. If only these single quinta were easier to find in Australia!

Drink to 2034, and 92 points

One dinner – four masked wines

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2013 sauternes pair

2013 Ch Raymond-lafon 13.5%
Sauternes (from half bottles) 80% semillon, 20% Sauv blanc.

Bright gold colour, showing pineapple rind and guava, vanilla icing, with slight volatility that usually accompanies the style. Pear and orange blossom are evident on the fresh and creamy palate, with some attractive bitterness, and some green herbs. Oak is present but balanced. Unmistakeably Sauternes, and guessed around ten years old. Pretty similar description to that from late last year but a slightly better bottle- but I didn’t pick the producer, alas. Always good VFM.

Drink to 2030, 93 points

2013 Ch Suduiraut “Castelnau de Suduiraut” 13.5%
Sauternes (from half bottles), and the second label of Suduiraut (96% semillon, 4% Sauv Blanc, 148 g/l residual sugar).

Darker gold than the other wine. Certainly, more volatility and floor with more warmth, viscosity, melon, coconutty oak and bitterness. Attractive alpine herbs too.

Under diam, which is another big plus. Another ten y/o Sauternes? Yep. A bit blousy and plain. Others liked it more than me, maybe less critical of the bouquet.

Drink to 2027, 88 points.

2000 vp pair

2000 Stanton and Killeen vintage fortified 17.7%
Rutherglen 38% Touriga, 24% tinta cao, 18% tinta barocca, 14% Shiraz, 6% Durif.

Vintage rated 8/10 by the winemakers.

Morello cherry, redcurrant, wild raspberry fruitcake spices and some almond. VP style for sure. Palate has red and dried fruits, red fruits, milk chocolate and excellent spirit. The wine is fresh, and light on its feet. Sweetish, and around twenty years old, Australian. Touriga makes a contribution – maybe Stanton and Killeen? Very good wine!

Drink to 2035, and 93 points

2000 Dow’s Vintage Port 20%
Portugal

Drier style. Youthful dense colour. Almond, pecan, plum, violets. Power and grace. A complete, fascinating wine with many years ahead. Portuguese, vintage, maybe 2000? Or is it a single quinta?

Drink to 2040, 94 points

More recent splashes

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2014-5 doisyblanck heggies1983 vps

All served blind – it may seem premature to serve young Barsacs, but these proved wholly delicious, with enormous capacity to live and improve for many years. Cellaring estimates are conservative, but no-one is immortal.

2014 Ch Doisy-daene 13.5%
Barsac, 100% semillon 144g/l rs; The website is very detailed, and I tasted this wine a few months ago with similar notes.  Enormously aromatic; tropical fruits, pineapple rind, touch of vanilla essence, green nettle, botrytis. Exciting, fine creaminess, honeyed with lovely racy acidity, some cashew oak,  spotless.

Drink to 2030, 93 points

2015 Ch Doisy-daene 13.5%
Barsac, 100% Semillon, 136 g/l rs. A slightly greener fruit profile than the wine above, ripe pear and more stonefruit white peach (and botrytis); this wine already seems more rewarding, with impressive fine honeyed texture, greater- but still balanced-ginger-spice oak, and richer depth and mouthfeel, with supporting acidity.

Drink to 2035, 94 points (and more to come)

2005 Paul Blanck Furstentum vendanges tardives Gewurtztraminer 12.5%
Alsace, screwcap! Half-bottle, purchased at the winery, from a special site. Light gold in colour, it displays musk, roses and oiliness. The palate is moderately sweet, but its persistent, varietal with a winningly appealing citrus twang

Drink to 2025, 92 points

2007 Heggies “242” botrytis riesling 8.1%
A half-bottle located after my records showed I had none left (previously reviewed on this site). Amber/light copper coloured. The 242 refers to the amount of retained sugar, which comfortably sits at the BA level, and from a site in the Eden Valley, South Australia – where mostly dry Rieslings are produced, but often a small amount of botrytised Riesling. It’s packed with orange essence and marmalade, very decadent; on the viscous palate there are apricot and stonefruits. It’s still fresh, ultra-sweet -but still balanced-  some hardness is emerging, so drink sooner, not later.

Drink to 2022, 92 points

1983 Stanton and Killeen Vintage Port 19%
Rutherglen, and a hot dry year. A solid bricky colour, but browning only on the rim. Ripe and sweet with some raisined fruit, iron and liquorice, sweet, chalky, lively but a little warm. But it’s 35 years old, and 100% shiraz. On the evidence of this bottle, no further improvement is likely, but it’s still a satisfying and rewarding wine

Drink now, 88 points

1983 Dow’s Vintage Port 20%
Portugal of course. Paler colour than the wine above, showing a more interesting fruit expression of blue and red fruits, and milk chocolate covered almonds. The palate is fine and detailed – and medium-bodied, but also suggests the acidity will hold while the fruit recedes. At this stage, the tannin is balanced, but every bottle will be different.

Drink to 2025, 92 points

Portuguese Vintage Ports; and cork problems so far in 2019

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Many of the wines I drink are served “blind”; the wines below were briefly and typically presented as “a fortified”. The task? To describe, and determine style, age, origins and sometimes the producer. Encounters with two recent fortifieds left me confused.

I described the first as a vintage port style, showing blueberry and violet fruits, and some spicy notes. This mix of fruit aromas indicated Portuguese origins, but the relative sweetness suggested Australia, as did the spirit hotness and sweetness  The suppleness of the tannins, and a touch of chalk and almond meal however suggested Portugal. I assessed the age as 15-20 years, and the wine as very good but not excellent quality; finally the tannin descriptors made me stray from Portugal. The wine was a 2001 Taylors Quinta de Vargellas Vintage Port.  Drink to 2026, and 91 points

The second wine was a 1994 Dow’s Vintage Port– “sweet, ripe, pruney” -were my first descriptors for a wine that didn’t excite me. The lack of elegance (incorrectly) pointed me to an Australian origin. This wine is from a widely declared year in Portugal, and when revealed, I expected better. Hindsight suggests some oxidation, so I have not scored this bottle. It will have another chance!

I have updated the “hall of shame” in the page “corks and statistics” For 2019 so far, issues with TCA or oxidation of wines – under cork-  that I own and have opened unfortunately reached 9.62%.

As usual, I have had no failures with wines under screwcap, diam or crown seal.

1980 Dow’s Vintage Port 20%

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Dow’s is part of the Symington stable, with its vintage ports regarded as relatively dry for the style.

1980 is regarded as a “lesser” – but still declared – vintage in Portugal, but this wine shone – despite a pretty soaked cork.

1980 dow's vintage port
It still possesses plenty of brooding colour, with even some crimson left; camphor, dark chocolates, figs, blueberry, spices (nutmeg and cinnamon). On the palate it’s a drier, savoury style, delicate, and lively with clean spirit, very smooth and persistent; almond-meal, redcurrant, and mulberry.  “Correct” and very stylish, with fascinating melange of flavours- blue, red and back fruits; its balance will see this wine hold for many more  years – a magically impressive bottle!

Drink to 2030, 94 points.

Assorted recent drinks

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1979 DF vp2008 dow's lbvp 1970 warre's vp

David Franz AD 1979 Vintage Port 17.4%
Its terrific to see a 37-year-old fortified wine from South Australia. Made by Peter Lehmann, and tidied up and recorked by son David Franz; Barossa Shiraz with some Langhorne Creek Cab Sav.

The colour is a dark brick, and there is plenty of richness and softness, but also vitality. Mocha, liquorice, cardamon, orange rind, with a dash of camphor lift. Clean brandy spirit, plus figgy, dark caramel flavours, dried fruits and not nuttiness. The wine is not overblown, its gentle and reflective; a lovely piece of history that drinks compellingly.

Some people may prefer less bottle development, but this is a tribute to Barossa fruit longevity, its maker, sourcing and survival. And it may still be available in a few places for around $50. All up, a very welcome experience

Drink to 2020, 88 points

2008 Dow ‘s LBV (late-bottled vintage port) 20%
I don’t taste many of this style; more mellow than a vintage port, and substantially cheaper, these are bottled between 4 and 6 years after harvest, They are a “nearly” vintage port, with the decision on the style happening early. There are filtered and unfiltered versions, some sealed with a stopper, and debate about whether the wines can improve in bottle. An excellent discussion is on Roy Hersh’s (mostly paid) site.

Dense and cloudy,  light ruby/mahogany colour. Ripe dark cherry and slightly raw oak. Silky ripe mouthfeel, plum and light red liquorice flavours,  clean bright spirit. Brisk, and tastes youthful. This is a wine that won’t change much and there is no advantage with further cellaring.

Drink now, 89 points

1970 Warre’s Vintage Port
Decanted, due to a vast amount of sediment. We learned that this bottle had less than stellar cellaring conditions. Pale ruby in colour, the notes of almond meal, putty, mocha and rose-petal were sufficient to sway me to its Portuguese origins. Spirit looked plain, and a bit awkward, but the other characteristics offset this. The wine was quite sweet,  with dark jam and fig elements. Rich, but with energy and just a superfine sustained palate. A terrific year for VP’s though; the wine was consumed with gusto and hugely appreciated. A generous piece of history.

Drink to 2030, 93 points, and potentially other bottles will be better..

10 decades of (Portuguese) Vintage Port

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This turned out to be extremely educational about the longevity of this style. 10 different houses, and some great comments from the organisers and a contingent of winemakers from Rutherglen. Certainly its unusual for me try more than one VP at a session. Far from easy task locate these, and we suffer in Australia from vagaries of shipping and storage. All wines were decanted for about 3 hours, and we’re looking at single bottles as they were on the night. The oldest Portuguese VP I recall is the wonderful 1970 Fonseca, with the oldest Australian versions I’ve tried include a 1956 Hardy and a 1957 Lindemans. An observation  was made at the tasting that Australia was intent on moving to a drier, more Portuguese style with greater use of Portuguese grape varieties (rather than our traditional Shiraz). There was less agreement of whether the Portuguese had made any concessions to early drinking or more approachable VP’s.

As it happened the 3 oldest wines fared brilliantly. I had feared they might be historical curios, but they were defiantly truly alive.

2012 Quinta do Noval

Not many declared 2012 especially since 2011 turned out so well.

Dense red black with purple tints; this is highly perfumed and floral – blueberry and violets and black fruits. It surprisingly approachable, but the tannins are very fine and persistent. Red liquorice and some headsy spirit. But not the magic of 2011. Score 93+, but no doubt this will live longer than I suspect.

2000 Croft

Slightly murky colour, Slightly grubby bouquet with some cough syrup and cocoa; palate is better. The spirit holds this together, and kicks in vigorously at the finish. Score 90

1997 Fonseca

Medium red, spices, grainy tannins, sweeter style on the palate. Score 91

1983 Taylor’s

Clear ruby colour, with some floor-polish aromas, seems pretty straightforward on the palate. Score 91

1977 Grahams

Clear pale ruby. Lots of rose petal, toffee/coffee/ jersey caramel. Brisk with spirit making a terrific contribution. Graham is reputed as a sweeter style, but its not out of place. Lovely now but will keep for a long time yet, such is its balance. Score 95

1960 Warres

Looking forward to this, but TCA has made an unwelcome appearance. Kept for 55 years and ruined by cork taint.

1955 Cockburn

This was also ruined, but whether oxidation or other issues was debated by the group. Certainly faulty.

1947 Delaforce

Ruby colour with some orange tints. Starting to look like an old tokay. Citrus peel and salted mixed nuts, spirit a bit hot, but lovely drinking. Score 94

1935 Sandeman’s

Ruby colour, dried fruits and plums, vanilla, and toffee. Fleshy, subtle, singing. Score 94

1927 Dow’s

Amber colour; scents of green olive, orange peel and chocolate covered peanuts (one of my favourite indulgences). Could drink this all night. Score 96