Recent auction case purchase for $24.50 a bottle (after fees and charges including delivery to my door)

13.5% A/V Traditional cork closure

Medium ruby core with abundant brick red and some amber in the meniscus. Reticent, youthful bouquet of cedar, road tar, old lounge leather, licorice, red cherries, an undercurrent of blackberry and a suggestion of mint. The palate displays medium body, a tight, unresolved personality but with abundant potential for long-term improvement. Harbouring deepset leathery red and black fruit, cedary oak and a wealth of unresolved acidity and firm tannin, this is a wine that needs another 5 or 6 years of quiet rest before developing into something quite special to be enjoyed for a decade or more thereafter. Only 90 points from me today but with a bullet for something higher in good time. A Hunter “Classic” in the making.

H. M. Martin, grower, 100% Shiraz grapes from Langhorne Creek, South Australia.

Quite an unusual hazy muted ruby/brownish colour with incredible viscous tears hanging to the side of the glass. Intoxicating, brandied-chocolate nose of aged licorice, spicy, earthy blackberries, dusty old leather, a twist of caramel and a whiff of amaretto - almost a hybrid of styles here - distinctly Australian but with plausible links to a Portuguese thoroughbred. The palate offers up a similar array of complex flavours, possesses a gorgeous silky texture, abundant viscosity, lovely weight and a resolved finish with a modicum of spirit adding a deft touch of astringency. Just the shortest glimpse of the chocolate/licorice/blackberry fruit giving up the ghost at the death, but not enough for me to give this Outstanding wine a rating of 93 points. Drink now or in the next year or three.

Wynns has always held a special place in my life of wine. For it was the 1976 “Black Label” Wynns Coonawarra Cabernet that I cut my teeth on in 1983, giving me the impetus to start my twenty-five year association with most things vinous.

Wynns make two flagship reds - their Cabernet Sauvignon - the John Riddoch, and a Shiraz - the Michael. And 1991 was an exceptional year in Coonawarra with many a heralded scribe now giving this particular year more accolades than the massively hyped (but perhaps a little more forward and riper) 1990 vintage. Over the last several years some bottles of the 1991 Riddoch I’ve tried have been utterly sublime, some a little unready, but never one anything like the bottle reviewed below. Previous bottles of the Michael from the same year had never overly impressed. In more recent years I’ve much preferred the 1990 version of this label, the inaugural re-release of the label commemorating the brilliant and quite freakish 1955 Wynns Michael Hermitage (100% Coonawarra Shiraz) - a wine, with proper provenance, still drinks incredibly well today.

So what went wrong here?

Both wines were sourced at release by the owner (a long standing and very good friend) and have been stored in what I can only describe as a relatively good “passive” cellar over the last decade or so. Seeing I know this person (and his wine inventory) very well, we have opened and shared glorious bottles from his Australian red wine collection dating as far back to the seventies and eighties with very few problems with oxidation, heat damage, senility or the like. Both wines were decanted and served double blind and drunk from Riedel Bordeaux and Shiraz glassware at about 16 degrees celcius ambient temperature on a fine, cool Autumn day.

Wynns John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon 1991 - Mature hue. Planky, volatile nose with a distinct “aged” green bean character over weak greenish fruit. Big, lumpy, varnishy oak-dominant palate over tired, fading green herbaceous fruit followed by a rather rough, soulless, hard tannic finish. Barely drinkable! 70 points. Could only think (after the wine was revealed) this was an errant bottle.

Wynns Michael Shiraz 1991 - Drunk immediately after the previous wine, this fared a little better but, unfortunately, shared several of the previos wine’s trait/faults. Colour a tad more youthful but definitely mostly brick red; fruit a little fresher and sweeter but veering to the cooked plum/pruny spectrum. Palate not so bad with jammy/pruny fruit behind a wall of high-octane/dill-infused oak; in better balance than the Riddoch, but overall a big clumsy over-extracted red revealing only a little varietal or regional character. 82 points and going nowhere in my book. My friend began asking me the usual questions/options to those of the Riddoch and the first question was grape variety …. Cabernet/Shiraz? ….. I answered “Shiraz and it’s the ‘91 Michael”.

So it’s difficult to say what caused the poor showing of the 1991 John Riddoch. Perhaps the wine was just old and tired. The Michael - pretty well as I remember it from a few years back, only worse. Whatever the problem/s, the only positive I can muster is I own not a bottle of either!

As part of the WLDG monthly “Wine Focus” series, I wrote an introduction and overview on Australian Shiraz and, subsequently, opened several bottles for evaluation. The full text and tasting notes follows:

Long the work horse of the Australian wine industry, Shiraz is widely regarded as the most versatile and ageworthy red grape variety grown in Australia. With its roots firmly planted in Australian wine folklore dating back to the early eighteen-thirties, Shiraz is the most widely planted, profusely produced red grape that’s just as likely to be the source of a cheap “Rose’”, a remarkable Seppelt sparkling “Burgundy”, a good old Penfold’s St. Henri “Claret” or even a monumental “Rutherglen Port” and just about anything in between. Not to mention it constitutes the significant proportion of every vintage of Max Scubert’s world famous creation, Grange “Hermitage”. Thankfully, all the preceding preposterous generic stylistic references are not used these days (at least Max got the region almost right for grape variety with his precious Grange). Recent international legal agreements now preclude such ridiculous and, what I regard as, insulting label references to the great wines of France and Portugal from gracing Australian wine bottles. But for decades these generic descriptors were used almost “carte blanche” across the local wine industry as some form of “ready reckoner” for the new breed of local “punters” and their choice of, the new kid on the block, red table wine.

For the most part of its long existence in Australia, Shiraz has been put to most use in the production of fortified wine. Even today, if you see a bottle of Australian “Tawny” or “Fortified Vintage” wine languishing on a retailer’s shelf, the chances are the predominant grape used as the basis of its construction, will be Shiraz, although, it must be said, even as far back as the nineteen-thirties, Hunter Valley pioneering genius, Maurice O’Shea, produced absolutely magnificent dry Shiraz table wines at the Mount Pleasant winery. Coonawarra, now famous for their Cabernet’s, was once home, and for decades almost exclusively, to Shiraz and the great wines of the nineteen -forties and -fifties from Wynns (1955 Michael Hermitage) and Woodley’s incredible Treasure Chest Series (1949-1956) bear testimony to this grape’s role in forging the region’s reputation.

Shiraz flourishes in most areas of Australia, perhaps reflecting its warm-climate ancestry but, almost surprisingly, performs equally well in cooler regions. Aromas and flavours can be detected at either end of the spectrum - sour cherry, redcurrant, pepper, spice and even forest floor at one extreme, graduating through to the sweeter red berry fruits such as raspberry, cherry and plum, moving to the darker fruits of blueberry, blackberry to licorice, chocolate and prune at the other. With considerable time (and good provenance) the telltale signs of well-aged leather, cigar box, sweet earth, game and sometimes mushroom appear giving extra dimension and complexity, especially when aged sensibly, in well-seasoned, quality American and/or French oak.

One of the great attributes of Australian Shiraz is its ability to be blended with other great red grape varieties. Although this may be akin to some purists of mixing scotch with ice or water, Shiraz has the amazing ability to fill out and soften the mid-palate and harshness of the more austere Cabernet Sauvignon. Some of the greatest mature Australian reds I’ve encountered over the last two and a half decades have been bleen blends of these two varieties. Blending with Grenache, Mataro (Mouvedre) and, particularly over the last decade or two, Viognier have come into vogue, often in the attempt to mimick the blends employed so successfully over the decades and, in some cases, centuries in France such as Chateauneuf-des-Pape and Cote Rotie. And how could I not mention the great results from the loyal band of Aussie wineries who continue to produce wonderful sparkling Shiraz. Somewhat of an Aussie enigma, Seppelt have the quite envious and foremost reputation of making this unusual wine style since the early decades of the twentieth century and what a fine, ageworthy wine it can be.

So whether it be a big, bold and brassy, top-end South Australian Shiraz from the Barossa Valley (Penfold’s Grange), Clare Valley (Jim Barry’s The Armagh) or McLaren Vale (Coriole’s Lloyd Reserve), a gorgeously fragrantly seductive cool climate Shiraz Viognier (Canberra’s own Clonakilla), a New South Wales Hunter Valley legend from Lindemans (e.g. 1965 Bin 6600) or the occasional sensational vintage of Brokenwood’s Graveyard, a Victorian blockbuster from Heathcote (Wild Duck Creek’s Duck Muck) or Great Western (Seppelt St. Peters) or any of the new breed from Margaret River or Lower Great Southern in Western Australia, there’s plenty of variety for the hedonist to get their teeth into. At the other end of the price range, I can heartily recommend some of the bigger corporate’s efforts with wines from Burge, Lehmann’s Barossa, Saltram, Penfold’s, Orlando et al. For the bottom dweller’s there is absolutely no need to go to Yellowtail or some forlorn Gobbly-Gunk, purile, sweet crap we’re “concocting” for the “sweet-toothed” American market. This is crass marketing at its worst. It’s not even clever. It’s demeaning to me and so many other lovers of “good value” wine in this country.

The real beauty and secret of Australian Shiraz is that somewhere between the best and the worst you’ll be able to find an ocean of more than decent juice at not too high a price that will be approachable as a youngster and should improve and probably last for a lot longer than most would expect. My cellar has been built on a platform of low- to mid-priced Australian Shiraz and I’m still drinking wines dating back to 1990 that have not only held for many years but will go for some appreciable time to come. And when I drink ‘em masked, I invariably give them one helluva good rating to boot.

The 2004 Watershed Shiraz hails from Margaret River in Western Australia and weighs in at a hefty 14.5% A/V. My first hit-out with this small winery, this wine possesses a healthy dark ruby colour with purple hues, a lovely open bouquet filled with dark plums, blackberries, cherries, chocolate, cinnamon and savoury oak. The medium-full palate harbours a wealth of fruit, filling the mouth with mainly dark plums and berries with an underlying savoury streak from the fine-grained French and American oak with hints of the spices and chocolate found in the nose. Expectedly, there’s, seemingly, relatively low acidity but at no time did I detect any sense of blowsiness or lack of focus. The tannin regime meshes extremely well with the fruit and persists through to a fine, impressive finsh of some considerable duration and, it must be added, without any sense of heat from the high alcohol level. I thoroughly enjoyed this extremely well balanced, nicely honed wine for the meagre twenty bucks I paid and would recommend a further five years of cellaring for it to be at its best. 90 points

The 1992 Leasingham Classic Clare Sparkling Shiraz has been resting quietly in my passive cellar for many years and what a delight to find this little ripper of a wine in such good condition. The colour is still quite dark but the telltale signs of age are present in the outer edges. The removal of the cork revealed plenty of punch in the wine. The myriad of streams of bead were aggressive and ohso fine with plenty of froth evident even with careful pouring. The fully mature bouquet reeks of saddle leather, earth with no shortage of small black berries with a noticeable contribution from the vanillin US oak. With time in the glass, extra notes of chocolate and fresh field mushrooms were detected. Gloriously smooth and creamy in the mouth with swirling mousse providing another textural positive, this very fine wine travels though the mouth like a ballerina, weaving its web of magic to every corner. There’s still plenty of acidity for freshness and the departure is long, smooth and extremely satisfying. I can see no reason why this sparkling red won’t continue to drink well for another five to ten years, although I have suffered the disappointment of a couple of spoiled, undrinkable bottles from the original case purchase. By and by, most have been consistently nothing short of excellent, most outstanding - this bottle deserves a rating of 93 points.

Chateau Reynella Vintage Port 1972

One of my oldest fortified Shiraz from the cellar, this label’s still a benchmark for the style here in Australia. Wholly sourced from very ripe McLaren Vale grapes and made in the traditional manner, this wine may have seen better days but still provided enough enjoyment to deserve a rating of 88 points. And, above all, is testament to Aussie Shiraz being capable of lasting for many decades.

Semi-opaque brownish red with abundant rust in the edges. Lifted bouquet filled with lantana, prunes, licorice, old dusty oak and aged leather notes. Still sound and holding quite well for its age. Excessively spirity in the mouth at first, although with a decent breathe, developed some nice “creaminess” with decent flavours of licorice, bitter chocolate, sweet earth and old saddle leather. Intensely raisined, quite complex and fully mature this grand old lady displays quite reasonable length although the astringency of the spirit’s now starting to dominate. Drink yesterday.

Seppelt St. Peters Shiraz 1998

Formerly labelled as “Great Western Shiraz”, this is Seppelt’s flagship red sourced solely from their vineyard at Great Western in Western Victoria. This wine saw 18 months in new French oak.

Saturated dark ruby purple. Quiite a boisterous nose with spicy, juicy blackberries leaping from the glass with undertones of Satsuma plum, savoury French oak and a touch of lift as a top note. For its age, still incredibly youthful and elemental. The medium- to full-bodied palate boasts a wealth of old vine creamy fruit loaded with choco-berry/plummy flavour, relatively low acidity, a nice dollop of savoury/vanillin oak and quite robust tannins on a chalky finish of excellent length. With extended breathing, this wine improved dramatically, revealing more complexity and improved palate structure/integration. An extremely classy wine that needs several more years to reach peak maturity. Drink now-2020+. 92 points.

Orlando Lawsons Shiraz 1991

Another flagship label, this time from a vaunted vintage and reflecting another development stage of non gooby gunk Oz Shiraz. Sourced entirely from dry grown old vines in Padthaway, located in south-east South Australia, a little north of Coonawarra, Lawsons represents the pinnacle of Orlando’s Shiraz portfolio, a little surprising in an odd sort of a way; one would suspect the Barossa would hold that mantle, but to my my knowledge, only the odd Limited Release blend carries a similar price tag. 18 months in new American oak.

Dark ruby red, opaque purple to black core, remarkably youthful colour. Earthy, mushroomy, musky, tarry nose with a touch of dill, five spice, cardamon, iron, blood and the merest suggestion of creosote with latent dark berried fruit, cedar and anise coming to the rescue with prolonged airing. A wealth of tertiary flavour, similar to that found in the bouquet greets the palate; there is undisputable length but little in the way of primary fruit. Understated tannins, a creamy texture and melted acidity provide astute counterbalance. As the wine sits, the palate fills out beautifully with the tertiary flavors picking up more leather and hints of dusty plum and blackberry fruit following through to a fine, savoury sustained finish. Fully mature but will hold for at least the next four or five years. By far, the most developed bottle of this wine I’ve opened thus far. 91 points.

The Rothbury Estate Brokenback Shiraz 1998

The Rothbury Estate, established in 1968 by (the late) wine industry guru, Len Evans, is a medium-sized Hunter Vallery winey, now a pawn on the gigantic Fosters Group chessboard. Rothbury, probably best known for some glorious unoaked Semillons from the seventies and eighties, created considerable attention and a degree of notoriety (mainly from the South Australian wine fraternity) with this wine, winning the prestigious Max Schubert Trophy at an Adelaide Wine Show for the best red wine of the show, a feat a Hunter wine had never achieved before (or since for that matter).

Transluscent medium ruby with a hint of rust and pink in the edge. Strong whiff of cinnamon upon pouring, followed by a most attractive bouquet of cedar, wet earth, cherry and a touch of amaretto. Medium-bodied, flavours mimicking those found in the bouquet, silky entry into mouth, blessed with a very fine tannin structure and extremely well-honed acidity. Great focus, fantastic line in the mouth, exuding a rare elegance, an expansive, soft but authoritative finish, closing with a hint of bitter chocolate and tremendous carry. Outstanding wine. The definitive non-gobbly/gookie Aussie Shiraz and if tasted blind would be almost impossible to identify as a warmer-climate Hunter red, being, most impressively euro-centric (using a Tim York descriptor) in nature. Drink now–2015+. 93 points.

Seppelt Original Sparkling Shiraz 1998

A blend of Barossa and McLaren Vale (South Australian Shiraz) fruit matured in large oak casts for sixteen months followed by a secondary fermentation in the bottle on yeast lees for a further 18 months. 14% A/V and sealed with a traditional champenoise cork.

A youthful dark ruby colour. Persistent fine streams of infintisimally small beading. Some reticence on the nose with enticing aromas of blackberry, raspberry and sweet earth with a twist of musk and spice adding extra complexity. Lovely entry into the mouth, swirling mousse, initial flavours of blackcurrant gradating to cherry with dusty, savoury oak, fine but quite pronounced, tannins unfold and some bright acidity providing a lengthy mouth-puckering finish. A quite excellent example of this unusual and somewhat controversial red sparkling wine, just lacking some of the dimensions and complexities required to merit an outstanding rating. Purchased for a meagre ten bucks a bottle, this wine will last for several years but I’m doubtful if it will improve much. Solid, most enjoyable but no better than 90 points. Drink now-2012.

I’ve sat on my remaininder of these for many years now and, for my fiftieth recently, had pulled one from the cellar to have at the ready for the big week of partying. Didn’t get a chance to open one then, so I’m gradually getting through them now.

Deep ruby colour, very little bricking. Powerful oak-infused nose of mainly tar, dill and miso that relented to earthy red and black fruit with notes of old leather, bitter chocolate and a touch of cigar box. The palate’s an instant replay of what’s found in the nose, quite fleshy in the mouth although I found the US oak input quite distracting. There’s sufficient body, acid, tannin and length for this to last several years, but overall, I’m not all that fussed on where this bottle is headed. A big bruiser of a wine that offers little charm or refinement. 86 points.

the petaluma oozes class with a brilliant glowing infantile white straw colour, continually unfolding and building, still relatively primary, aromatics of orange blossom, grapefruit, musk, pear drop, minerals, lime and a just a hint of secondary toasty development. the palate harbours a solid and multidimensional core of musk, lime, oranges, pears and chalk, all underpinned by an incredible dose of mouth-puckering mineral-laced acidity and a prolonged finish of great authority. this tremendous oz riesling deserves the self-praise heaped upon this wine on the back label. this vintage rivals, and, in my most humble opinion, surpasses, the fabled 1980 vintage, winemaker brian croser compares it to. it displays all the hallmarks of a classic ageworthy clare valley riesling and should live for another decade and a half given proper cellaring conditions. 12.8% a/v, sealed with a cork closure. 94 points

the mcwilliams “old hill” is a recent auction purchase I now have no regrets paying a little over top for securing the right to tonight’s tasting. displaying a transluscent but very healthy brick red colour with abundant rust and brown in the meniscus, the haunting nose offers up a wealth of old leather, plenty of sweet earth, some dusty oak and a strong undercurrent of red cherry liquer over a backdrop of a ‘drying smidge’ of v.a (schlack), a hint of cigar box, nutmeg and an ultimate, alluring top note of licorice. so intoxicating is the bouquet, one can only go back to it, time and time again and wonder on how this wine looked to all the lucky punters who got to try it at various times in the past. the palate opened somewhat disappointingly empty and a little short, but as I sit here sipping on it for the third hour, I am absolutely dazzled by the improved performance. silky in texture as a rare red burg, this corker abounds with red fruits of cherry and currant displaying similarly perplexing virtues I found in the bouquet. exquisitely profound with such a diversity of nuance it’s difficult to know where it starts and finishes. at forty-two years of age, this shiraz is still alive and kicking with enough acidity and some lacy tannins providing backbone to the glossy fruit. surely one of the most wonderful balanced and compelling bottles of aged oz red I’ve had the pleasure of assessing, this wine fully deserves a score of 95 points. on the indication of how this particular bottle opened, I can vouch for the 1965 hunter red vintage of being up there with the best of the twentieth century. unfortunately, due to my parents procreation schedule, I doubt I’ll have little chance to enjoy the great wines of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s that the genius winemaker, maurice o’shea, made under the mcwilliams label.

Seventy-year old, dry grown, ungrafted Shiraz vines planted on the eastern side of the Barossa Ranges provide the basis for the iconic label from this famous family-run estate. Having drunk Henschke’s red wines for more than twenty years, this particular vintage of Mount Edelstone rates up there with the ‘78, ‘82, ’86, ‘88, ’90, ‘91, ‘92 and ‘93 as one of the best I’ve tried. Unfortunately, over recent years some well-documented incidences of brettanomyces and some difficult vintages have resulted in some indifferent publicity for C. A. Henschke & Co.. I’m confident, with the very well-received recent release of the 2002 reds, Stephen and Prue have got the ship back to into shape and before long will be back on the lofty pedestal on which they were revered by most critics and wine lover’s, the world over. Let’s hope that Mother Nature holds her part of the bargain on a more regular basis, too!

Still holding a youthful medium ruby with some purple hues, this terrific wine exudes an exquisite nose of integrated bitter chocolate, macerated plum and mulberry, some forest floor character over seductive, seasoned vanilla/savoury/spicy/mocha oak and the merest suggestion of, what I consider, most appealing dimethyl sulphide (cassis, green bean and sweet corn). In the mouth, the creamy old vine texture imparts a sense of smoothness and sophistication. Riddled with exact nuance found in the bouquet, I could not detect the alcohol by volume of fouteen point two per cent, such is the intensity and purity of fruit with the complex oak, again, playing a minor supportive role on only a medium-bodied frame. There’s enough bright acidity giving the wine freshness and vitality and the tannins are uber sleek and very fine - both near-perfectly meshed as this gem glides down the throat. To complete the picture, the finish is awfully long, quite elegant and harmonious with, you guessed it, the old vine fruit doing most of the talking. Outstanding. 94 points. Drink now-2014. The best bottle I’ve tried thus far (and I’m onto my second case).     

On the evening of March 30, 2006, I wrote the following tasting note on the abovementioned wine -

Finally, tonight I cracked my unopened timber box of the Chapoutier Crozes-Hermitage “Les Varonnieres” 1999 - a profound, virile, plump, juicy Syrah revealing a very deep ruby colour, gorgeous old-vine creamy nose of blood plums, spicy new oak and new leather with hints of blackberry, licorice and a subtle floral top note. Plush but suave and relatively easy to drink, the palate offers up a slightly less inspiring replica of the bouquet’s constituents with a dash of cherry thrown in for good measure. There’s a good whack of acid and the savoury oak is yet to quite fully integrate with the ripe fruit. Only medium-bodied this wine finishes dry and long with great persistence of grainy tannins just overpowering, at the minute, classy savoury/berry flavours. Bordering on Outstanding, I’m now “over the moon” I opened my first bottle tonight. Expect superior drinking over next 5-8 years, once the wine fully matures on the palate. This Syrah almost compares (just a notch below) with the best Crozes-Hermitage I’ve ever tried - Paul Jaboulet’s fabulous 1990 Domaine Thalabert.

Last Saturday, Tim Kirk mentioned he’d bought some of this and found it decidedly bretty and most disappointing. I recently secured another 6 pack and have just cracked a bottle tonight to compare and upon opening there’s brett aplenty on the nose. The only saving grace is once given some air, the worst of the brett blows off. The palate seems relatively intact - lovely fruit and fine tannins - if anything, a little better than what I experienced above! Ultimately, a Very Good rating tonight - 87 points. 

13% A/V

I bought a case of this on spec after a rapturous review from Huon Hooke in the Sydney Morning Herald. From memory, he rated this far superior, on that paticular day, to the prestigious “La Chapelle” of the same year.

Medium ruby with some brick and rust in the outer edges, the wine opens with a lovely perfume of rose petals quickly followed by most attractive cooked plums with hints of hung “deli” meats, savoury/cinammon oak, sweet earth and Asian spices adding complexity. Of medium body, the svelte palate brims with ripe damson plum, blackberry and blueberry fruit backed by an intriguing almalgam of meaty/savoury/spicy/miso oak-derived characters with pleasing, refreshing acid and classy fine tannins providing the necessary structure to award this an Outstanding rating of 91 points. Displaying a creamy texture, ample generosity of flavour and an impressive, lengthy, sweet, mouth-filling departure, this wine will continue to improve and provide superior drinking over the next five to ten years. Great effort, FWII!