Eating humble pie and the Adelaide Great Shiraz Dinner

Readers of last week's journal may remember I discussed the importance of cellar door operations and Southcorp’s closure of the Lindemans facility in Coonawarra

In the Q&A section Mal Campbell responded to last week's journal with the following “However, I do have a little trouble with the assumption that the folks at Rosemount would not have considered "the big picture" (the future sales generated by cellar door operations).  I can't see any evidence that they "fail to realise.....".  They have "failed" to make the decision that you would make but that’s not the same thing as making a wrong decision.” And I think he's right.

Wizz (Andrew) also pointed out the Hunter Valley facility is excellent.  Add to that my experience at the new McLaren Vale facility last week and it looks like I got it wrong by basing the journal on Coonawarra only and if anything it is I who fail to take into account the big picture. I would like to like to apologise to Southcorp for the inaccuracy of my conclusions in last week's journal. For the record, neither Bert nor I have not been approached by Southcorp in this matter, but as soon I realised my error felt it necessary to correct it and apologise.

The puzzling piece of the equation that I could not figure out was why the Lindemans wines were unavailable for tasting at the Wynns cellar door in Coonawarra. Now I have a speculative and I repeat, a speculative answer.  Last weekend when I was visiting the new Rosemount cellar door facility in McLaren Vale they had an excellent range of Rosemount wines available for tasting.  Many readers may remember this facility used to be the old Seaview Edwards & Chaffey winery, but it was interesting to note there were no Seaview or Edwards & Chaffey wines available for tasting.

The staff member on duty voluntarily, in passing, mentioned the Seaview wines, with the exception of the Seaview Sparkling will no longer be made. It is quite possible I am adding one plus one and coming up with three, but is it possible that Lindemans are going the same way as Edwards & Chaffey and that's why they are not available for tasting at the Wynns cellar door in Coonawarra?  Time will tell.

The Winestar in Adelaide was another great event and here are a few brief thoughts and highlights of the night.  The first wine served with dinner was a mystery wine and obviously the guests had no idea what they were drinking.  When asked for comments many people thought the wine was fading and getting old. It would be an understatement to say that the wine did not exactly WOW everyone.  When we played the options game, very few people thought the wine was worth over $200 a bottle.  The mystery wine was the 1992 Hill of Grace. As an aside, it interesting to note that Jeremy Oliver thinks the wine would best me drunk after 2012 and James Halliday forecast the wine would best me drunk between 1998 and 2010. Once again this just goes to prove you cant drink the label or the reputation, just what’s inside the bottle.

The 1994 Tahbilk 1933 Vines Cabernet Sauvignon was blown away by the 1999 Torbreck The Factor and in reality it was unfair comparison. The Factor was obviously young fruit driven wine with loads of youthful fresh fruit, brimming with typical Barossa chocolate flavour and whilst it was most enjoyable and seductive, it didn't have a huge amount of complexity but left a big stain in the glass.

The next to wines are both from the outstanding 1996 vintage and the both from Orlando.  The first wine in this bracket was the 96 Lawson and it was paired with the about to be released 96 Centenary Hill.  The Lawson showed typical Lawson characteristics.  Wonderful complexity, strong solid flavour, excellent balance and telltale mint. The 96 Centenary Hill was loaded with caramel and also had typical Barossa chocolate and liquorice.  I just love this wine and think it’s far superior to 94 and 95 vintages.  However, the final wine blew this pair away.

The Wolf Blass 1998 Platinum Barossa Shiraz has humongous amount of sledge-hammer fresh fruit combining with soft tannins to create a silky, seductive wine In terms of sheer lush enjoyment, the Platinum was the winner on the night and I am glad that I had the opportunity to try the wine but is it better than The Factor or the two Orlando wines? In my opinion the answer is no. It may well be the most luscious, but that doesn’t make it better.

My order of ranking in terms of quality would be Lawson followed by the Centenary Hill followed by the Platinum and the Factor. In terms of “drink ability” the Platinum would top the list. Would I purchase either The Factor or the Platinum, not at current prices, but no doubt may would love to do so due to their seductive nature.

Having been to a few of the Winestar dinners over the years, a few things are becoming evident. Firstly, expectations by all attendees are incredibly high and attendees rightfully expect to be wowed by the wines. Secondly, the fruit forward big young wines seem to show best. At the last Great Shiraz Dinner in Melbourne, the 94 Tahbilk showed reasonably well and blew away the 94 Magill. At this dinner because the Tahbilk was paired with The Factor, it showed poorly by comparison.

Many of these wines would be considered top notch wines in their own right and most attendees would feel luck to be able to drink them at home. Indeed many people would consider the Lawson (to use just one example) a “special occasion wine” yet when served against a bigger more fruit forward wine, many people think it is a lesser wine. In my opinion, that may not be the case. It all has to do with expectation, order served and the food match. And that does not take into account the subtly of an older wines.

All in all, another great night and if you get the opportunity to go to one of the Winestar dinners, grab it; it’s a terrific experience.

Cheers

Ric ©