rutherglen

Two countries, two styles

~ Richard ~ Leave a comment

1986 chambers VP

1986 Chambers Vintage Port 18.5%
Rutherglen, Victoria.

This wine had substantial sediment, so decant very, very carefully. The colour is aged and bricky, but solid. Red liquorice, cherry, mocha, malt and beautiful spirit. The palate is very sweet, but such is life. The rest of the package is the spirit integration, the freshness and tannin elegance. Made by the legendary Bill Chambers, likely Shiraz – but who knows? – a terrific tribute to a winery renowned for its ancient muscats and topaques, but akos with a monster range of reliably underpriced table wines.

Drink to 2033, and 93 points

2008 fonseca crusted

2008 Fonseca Crusted Port 20%
Portugal.

Similar in style to a late-bottled vintage Port, this fortified wine spent four years in large oak, and was bottled unfiltered, thus having a (heavy) crust and demanding decanting.

Deep in colour – and served masked- I instantly leapt to Portugal as its origin, the florals including roses, blueberry and violets. The palate was savoury, laden with cherry, plum plus fruitcake spices and super-supple, an elegant, youthful fresh and lively style with delicious spirit integration. My only question was whether the wine was a VP (did it have enough “stuffing”) or an LBVP, or a single quinta? I wrongly settled on a young VP, perhaps 2007. Regardless, a lovely drink with many years ahead.

Drink to 2033, 94 points

Two styles, two hemispheres

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1990 Marc Bredif Grande Annee 12%
Vouvray, Chenin Blanc

The Grand Annee is the selection destined for aging. With their high natural acidity, Loire Chenin Blanc can age a long time. Domaine Huet, and Marc Bredif are particularly well known for their range of Vouvray wines. Australia has been less successful with Chenin Blanc – although I had a soft spot for some of the age-worthy Houghton “white burgundies” of the 1980s, and a thrilling botrytised 1981 St Leonards! I have tasted some startling South African Chenins across several styles too.

Presented blind, this wine was pale gold, but had some distracting cheesy/waxy notes. Fortunately,  this dissipated and the wine motored along improving with each taste showing honey, plenty of acidity and some residual sugar (50 g/l?) melded with spices made this wine a terrific, showstopping adventure. Just a marvel. When revealed, the freshness for its age was dramatic.

Drink to 2035, and 95 points

1994 Stanton and Killeen Vintage Port 19%
Rutherglen, est 95% Shiraz, 5% Touriga

“Will mature in the bottle for up to 20 years” claims the back label, but truly there is no need to rush, despite this being rated an “average” vintage with only a few silver medals listed.

Syrupy, almost jammy, dark-fruited, huge sweetness, dark cherry, plum, liquorice, chewy and still bright-tasting. A powerful flavour-bomb that doesn’t quite scale the heights of some other vintages. It’s in an enjoyable holding pattern. But that’s the vagaries and mysteries of the season, and this wine was heartily appreciated.

Drink to 2030, and 91 points.

Three countries, two curios

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2007 vinoptima gwt noble

2007 Vinoptima Noble 11%
Gewurztraminer, Gisborne, New Zealand

From a half-bottle served blind. Orange/copper colour, very floral grapey muscat characters and sweet spices; extremely sweet palate with botrytis plus apricot marmalade, herbs and mixed spice. Not Sauternes, and not fortified. Not Riesling, but the botrytis confuses the variety. Not oaked. Gewurztraminer, Muscat, Pinot Gris – or something less common from Austria or Hungary? Alsace? Ten years old? But the reveal was New Zealand and Gewurztraminer– abetted by around 180 g/l residual sugar. A surprise!

Drink now, 90 points and one to baffle punters obsessed with options.

1987 buller vp

1987 Buller Limited Release Vintage Port 18.3%
Rutherglen, Victoria 70% Durif, 30% touriga

Deep colour with some bricking; mocha, swiss chocolate, sweet for style with spices, soft balanced spirit and almond. One astute taster commented “Australian, with a significant Touriga impact, possibly a third variety”. In any case, a terrific wine with superfine tannins drinking remarkably well for its age (and most had never seen this label).

Drink to 2030, and 93 points

2000 warre's vp

2000 Warre’s vintage port 20%
Portugal.
From two half-bottles (a third half- bottle was corked, alas)

Short corks but in good condition, and a lot of sediment. My main takeaway was that despite the smaller packages, this wine has a long time ahead! Good colour for age; complex mix of blue, red and dark fruits – figs, and a touch of almond. Succulent, fresh, sweet and mouthfilling – but deserves much more time to uncoil. Super integration of fruit and spirit, but it’s just a baby. Warre’s seems to like this wine.

Leave this alone or give it a long decant. Drink to 2040, 95 points.

mixed sweets

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I’ve posted about fortifieds recently, so its time for some sweet wines! All tasted “blind” except the Fighting Gully Road.

2002 baumard

2002 Domaine des baumard Clos de sainte Catherine 13%
Coteaux du layon, Loire Valley (chenin blanc)

Citrus peel and oranges, apple and pear, Light bodied but fleshy, honey and tropical fruits on the palate, and some residual sugar (40g/l?). Although chenin blanc has naturally high acid, this one looks a little underfruited.

Drink now, 90 points

2003 Marcel Deiss Schoenenbourg 11.5%
Alsace (grand cru), France. The label is traditional/retro, but under time pressure, I forgot the photo.

Musk and sultana, honey and kerosene, youthful but soft.

Identifying the origin as Alsace was straightforward – but varietal composition was a challenge, My guess was Riesling, but its a  field blend; with apparently 50-60 g/l, residual sugar, close to my assumed 45g/l). Deiss makes a number of field blends, and I’ ve had a mix of wonderful and awful from this producer. 2003 was the Euro heatwave, when some clever folk in Alsace picked ahead the official notice (if they had pickers and staff)..

Bravo! Drink soon, 92 points

2012 Jones botrytis Muscat 9.2%
Rutherglen, Victoria
Roses, floral herbs, vaguely like a vermouth! No problem, interesting little wine.

Drink now, 90 points

2017 fighting gully road

2017 Fighting Gully Rd Petit Manseng moelleux 12%
Beechworth, Victoria
Bright gold colour; mango, bruised apple, just ripe pineapple, and pear drops. This is sweet (60g/l?) , but acidity propels the wine along. Almond flavours and mixed tropical fruits. I liked this wine a lot, but the mix of scents and flavours won’t please all. Yet I kept nudging the score upwards with each taste. I recently revelled in their 2021 Sangiovese –  a label to search out.

92 points, drink to 2025

Another batch of rushed (mostly blind) impressions

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2007 jjchristoffel uw spatlese

2007 JJ Christoffel Erben Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling spatlese Ap#5 7.5%
Mosel.

Deep gold colour- wax, lime, lanolin, assorted sweet spices. Texture. A dash more acidity would have been welcome, but no mistaking its origin or variety, and merrily consumed over several days. But drink up!
90 points, drink to 2025

2011 Zilliken Saarburger Rieling Kabinett 8% AP#6
Mosel, from two half-bottles, one better than the other, but not by much.

59.9 g/l residual sugar (no wonder I assumed spatlese). Great colour for age; minerals, limes, texture and rampant tropical fruits.

91 points, drink to 2027

1995 Ch Coutet
Barsac. Deep gold colour; orange blossom, dusty botrytis notes, icing sugar and patisserie. Apricot and cumquat flavours. Altogether lovely, and absolutely ready to drink

93 points, drink to 2027

NV Campbells Merchant Prince Muscat
Rutherglen. An old bottling, suspected late 1970s.

Deep dense khaki colour with an olive rim. Rum ‘n raisins and the pungency of age. Very viscous, very ripe, and very sweet. Muscat certainly, Rutherglen probably. Maker??? There is no doubt the material was old, but I kept thinking that a tweak of freshening would have raised enjoyment to another level. But that’s what happens when the wine has been busy resting in bottle for forty years,

Drink now, 92 points

2004 grahams malvedos vp

2004 Graham’s quinta dos malvedos 20%
Cork very hard to extract (I broke it) – and plentiful sediment – decanting recommended. Malvedos provides the core when Graham’s declares a vintage port, so hopes were high. This wine has a ridiculously youthful dense crimson/black colour; blueberry, blackberry, minerals, spices and pepper. Palate is dark cherry and other dark fruits; good intensity but ultimately less complex than the initial promise. But a good advertisement for the quality of single quinta styles,

92 points; wait three years, then drink to 2030

1951 hardy's show port

1951 Hardy’s reserve bin show port bin M127
McLaren Vale, Shiraz.

Rancio, vanilla, superior brandy spirit. Tawny style, no doubt. 20yo? Mellow, lingering, satisfying. Label states aged in oak for over twenty years. Curiously bottled under screwcap, likely in the mid-late 1970s, so this is another curio that has been resting in bottle for nearly fifty years.

Drink now, 92 points.

One spectacular (Oz) fortified

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1992 S&K Vp

1992 Stanton and Killeen Jacks block Vintage Port 19%
Rutherglen; 90% Shiraz, 5% Durif, 5% Touriga

From a special year in North-east Victoria, the back label shows 3 trophies and 12 Gold medals from credible wine shows. The (late) winemaker Chris Killeen rated that year’s vintage fortified wine as 10/10.

This wine is amazingly fresh for its age, and beautifully balanced. Cork and level in terrific form. It absolutely deserved its decant to remove the plentiful sediment. Very floral – dark cherry and some blackberry, red berry, toffee apple, lavender, mocha, fruitcake nut and spices are all present. The palate is dry (for Australia) and the persistence is exemplary. An absolute treasure, drinking amazingly well, but with power in reserve. Skimpy notes, as the group (and myself) tucked in, leaving nothing for a next-day retaste!

Drink to 2037, 96 points (I was very tempted to give 97 points)

One local, one “near-local”

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2013 felton

2013 Felton Road Riesling 9.5%
Bannockburn, Central Otago, New Zealand. Screwcap, 62 g/l residual sugar.
Still a youthful lemon colour; lime and grapefruit with a tropical fruit basket and Germanic petroleum; the palate has plenty of vitality, with a flinty, mineral twang rolling along with apple, talc and lime. Super fun.

Drink to 2030, 92 points

2000 morris vp

2000 Morris Vintage Port 19%
Rutherglen, Victoria
Served blind, no trouble nailing this as Australian, albeit drier than most. Blackcurrant, chalk, fine cocoa, abundant spices and quality spirit.  With a significant proportion of Portuguese grape varieties, I settled on the mid-late 1990s, with Rutherglen as the likely origin…. except the unveiling showed 100% Shiraz. Its label was adorned with credible Australian wine show gold and trophy bling. Delicious, persistent, and no hurry here.

Easily 93 points, and drink to 2032

One big bottle – 1990 Buller Vintage Port 20.8% (magnum #310)

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Rutherglen Shiraz, but possibly with some Swan Hill fruit and perhaps some Portuguese varieties too! Who would know? What crazy person buys a magnum of a fortified (guilty) – yet 10 people over a long lunch left only perhaps 400ml, which is a hearty recommendation of the wine’s drinkability.

Buller’s was an obligatory first stop when visiting Rutherglen – its bird park an irresistible and unfailing attraction for my children, and a welcome chance to stretch out after a long car journey.

1990 bullers vp

The wine was a  bit advanced for its age – and a very ordinary cork- but forgiven for its deliciousness factor. Ultra-clean, likely neutral (SVR) spirit, there’s a wisp of mint/menthol/wintergreen; it’s very sweet and soft and densely packed with mocha and blackberry. Just the wine to soothe over a winter fire with witty conversation or a sparkling comedy.

Drink to 2030, 91 points

1971 All Saints Vintage Port

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Australia has a prolific number of wineries and wines with “saint” embedded in their names; St Hallett, St Hugo, St Huberts, and St Leonards are merely some that I have purchased. All Saints (established in the 1860s) is an old winery near Rutherglen that went through complex ownership, marketing and labelling upheavals (it’s now owned independently by members of the Brown family.  Visiting as a youngster, I prowled through the enormous hall where barrels of fortified matured (since mostly sold off), the castle-style main building, and the vast estate grounds full of numerous buildings.

This wine was served blind, and my impressions ran “mocha/toffee/coffee, cherry, then very dense, obviously old, sweet blackberry, traditional in style, but still fresh, lively and delicious”. My conclusions- “Australian vintage Port, likely early 1980’s, and unable to guess origin – if pushed, South Australia”,.

Regardless, it’s special occasion when I taste a wine over fifty years old.

Drink to 2030, with 91 points (higher if history nudges wine appreciation more).

2000 Pfeiffer Christopher’s VP 18%

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Rutherglen, Victoria, 100% Touriga

Pfeiffer is making one of – and arguably-  the best Australian VP style with the amazing 2015 carting away numerous gold medals on the Australian wine circuit, and available on their website  for a surreal bargain price $30.

2000 pfeiffer vp

This was a recent auction purchase. The back label advises “will continue to improve for at least 21 years”, so it was expected to be ready (or near enough with the conservative winemaker predictions that allow for imperfect cellaring).

Good cork, and the sediment was easily removed with decanting

Deep ruby colour with some harmless bricking on the meniscus. There’s plentiful cinnamon spices, dark roses, cherry, and red liquorice with a faint touch pf prune. The palate is bright and fresh, and drier than most Oz VP efforts. High quality brandy spirit makes more of an impression here, overall; it’s succulent with mixed red and black fruits. There’s fine tannin, and this is another wine that provides complete satisfaction for a meagre price.

Drink to 2030, 93 points