vintage port

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)

Welcome back to Australia?

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Winter, and fortifieds exert their willpower, with somewhat disappointing outcomes from recent auction purchases.

1992 All Saints Vintage Port 18.5%
Rutherglen
|A cooler year, with some remarkable local red wines made – but not every wine can be a winner. Here, the colour is respectable, there is sweet brandy spirit, but the dark fruit struggles to keep up. Sound, and utterly unexciting.

Drink now, 84 points

1987 Sevenhill Vintage Port 18.5%
Clare Valley
Oxidised, not rated

1991 campbells vintage port

1991 Campbell’s Vintage Port 18%
Rutherglen (70% touriga, 30% Tinta cao, Souzao etc)
Deep red with bricky edging. Back in the land of fruit vibrancy – sweet red cherry, blueberry, sweet spices; excellent spirit. Fruit compote pie, with soft, fine tannins, and supple texture. Very satisfying, in terrific condition for age, with just a minor, forgivable miss in the complexity stakes. Drink up while it retains freshness.

To 2030, 91 points

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

Two local, two not

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2003 Ch La Tour Blanche 13%
Sauternes.
Deep gold colour; then citrus, minerals, quince, marmalade, apricot and stonefruit. Palate shows all this, plus some frangipani and balanced bitterness. Oak becomes more prominent with time, and a little more acidity would be welcome, but given its age and monster VFM, this was a damn enjoyable drink (and an insane 178 g/l rs).

Drink to 2028; 92 points

Seppelt Show Vintage Port GR151/153 20%
Barossa/McLaren Vale (tasted blind)
Bricky mature colour; VP style with high for style alcohol. Mellow, mocha, brown spices and nutmeg, liquorice and yet still with crispness and plenty of tannin to hold interest. Reasonably sweet, but lots of savouriness too. Hmm, first thought was Oz, but the ripeness, spirit quality, tannin and alcohol wrongly diverted me to Portugal. I punted on around 1990. The reveal proved it to be 45 years old, and a label covered in bling. Excellent wine (and I was fortunate to taste the slightly better bottle).

Drink to 2030 – 93 points

1949 saltram white port

1949 Saltram Show White Port 19.5%
Barossa Valley, Bottle #0934 (tasted blind)
Bricky, lots of raisin, and a spice-bucket with rancio, and plentiful vanilla, so a Tawny style. High quality spirit. My guess was 20 years in oak. The reveal was that this wine spent 30 years in small oak,  released in the 1980s and unusually was a blend of Pedro, Grenache, Takay and Verdelho, so based on white grapes. A curio for sure, The back label contained a lot of information about aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, but further wine detail was scanty (plus the cork was very ordinary).

Drink now, 90 points (more if you like the style)

2000 cockburn canais

2000 Cockburn Quinta dos canais Vintage Port 20%
Portugal, and another producer I can’t recall tasting before (a 1955 tried in 2015 was faulty).

Dense colour, then fig, plum, dark cherry plus voluminous spices. Concentrated, fruit-driven with moderate tannins, blueberry, Sweeter than most Portuguese, but with the power to thrive. Just some “burnt” characters for me that didn’t bother the other tasters one jot. Plenty of time ahead.

Drink to 2035, 92 points

A marvel

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1994 q do v

1994 Quinta do Vesuvio 20%
Portugal.
I am confident (but not certain) that I have never had a wine from this producer, (owned by the Symington family since 1989) but how I wish I had. Wow!

When assessing VP styles, I look for balance  – this essentially covers fruit density, tannins and spirit quality. And does it add up to pleasure?

Pretty average cork, but it’s performed its duty. Deep, dense youthful colour. Blueberry, cherry, plum, fig, plus assorted spices, and mealy nuttiness. Vibrant, with powerful fruit-powered drive. Full-bodied and with super balance. Textured, and waves of continuous flavours. Altogether lovely. Now I just hope no-one reads my column, pays attention and bids against me on the secondary market….

Drink to 2040, 96 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

Three Australian vintage fortifieds

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1994 peter lehmann vp

1994 Peter Lehmann “the king” AD 2015 (Vintage Port) 20%
Barossa Valley, 100% Shiraz

An auction purchase last year for $32. Reasonable cork, and abundant sediment.
I thought there was some faint oxidation present, but not to the extent that it would worry – I need to respect a mature, thirty-year-old fortified.

Colour was mature, deep and bricky. The wine offered very classy mellow brandy spirit, hazelnut, mocha, cola and dark plumcake. Absolutely, obviously Australian. The palate was round and rich, with more sweet spices emerging, and the spirit is a winner.

There may be better bottles, but this one will drink to 2030, and 90 points.

1997 ch reynella vp

1997 Chateau Reynella Vintage Port 19%
Bottle #8097, McLaren Vale, South Australia (different bottle image)

Served masked, the wine is still a deep ruby colour with trivial bricking; dark fruited style – black cherry, plum and blackberry, with some spice. Australia, and Shiraz.  The palate is rich, sweet and balanced. with terrific quality brandy spirit. The finish is pleasingly dry finish, but there is some hotness. My guess at its age was late 1980’s to early 1990s.

People at the lunch had no qualms about seeking a top-up., but this bottle was not quite as memorable as the one consumed and reviewed in October 2018.

92 points, and drink to 2030.

1995 S&K vp

1995 Stanton and Killeen Vintage Port 19.0%
95% Shiraz, 5% Touriga Rutherglen, Victoria.

Another auction purchase last year for $31. “A big full style that will mature and improve in bottle for up to 25 years” was the accurate statement on the back label.

Deep ruby with some bricking. Aromatic, violets and menthol, wafts of sweet mixed spices. Mellow, rich and lush – camphor, raspberry jam, sweet dark fruit – blackberry, and raspberry plus excellent brandy spirit.  Yes, it’s less “multi-dimensional” than other vintages of S&K, but their track record is consistently excellent.

To 2030 (or longer), 91 points

One Barossa fortified

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1987 peter lehmann VP back1987 peter lehmann vp front

1987 Peter Lehman “the king” AD 2008 (Vintage Port) 18.5%
Barossa Valley, South Australia, Mainly Shiraz with some Cabernet Sauvignon. Unusual, metal-embossed bottle, with all the detail on the back.

Confusion alert, as the “AD” is meant to announce peak drinking as a 21-year old wine. Anyway, this was a sneaky auction buy last year for $29- pretty smart for a 37yo.

Hefty sediment, dense colour with minor bricking. Dark cherry, roses, liquorice, blackberry and blackcurrant and amazing high-quality brandy spirit. Soft and mellow, but still tannin sneaking away. Absolutely a winner, with time ahead.

Drink to 2034, and 92 points