A Tale of Two Reds

Last Friday night I had an interesting experience that hopefully you will enjoy sharing and one that threw me totally. I asked two special old friends to join me for dinner. The wines I decided to serve were the Penfolds 1991 Bin 707 and the Henschke 1996 Mount Edelstone Shiraz. The 91 Bin 707 and I are old friends which I had previously rated it as Outstanding but I had not tried the 96 Edelstone.

Marion 1

Normally I would serve older first and then move to the younger wine but the choice here was no so clear cut because the Bin 707 was probably going to be a bigger wine than the Mt Edelstone. I had allowed over 2 hours decanting time for both wines and I tried both of them when they were opened. Marion arrived but Lynne was not due for another hour so we decided to ‘test’ the wines starting with the Mount Edelstone. Marion and I jotted down the following tasting notes.

Henschke 1996 Mount Edelstone Shiraz

The bouquet was rich and complex exuding smoky oak, formic acid, chocolate, sweet and savoury black berry fruit, prune, menthol and subtle mint. It’s a rich and vibrant wine that’s still amazingly youthful showing great complexity and harmony. Mouth filling flavours glide down with an incredibly long finish and although the tannins are powdery they are very smooth. The palate is layered and meshed into a complexity that’s difficult to describe.

Rated as Outstanding the wine will still improve. It’s very different to the 94 vintage which I just love, the 96 is much bigger and less subtle but awesome.

Marion quite uncharacteristically said, “You could be smashed before you know what you have been drinking, I want some more of this!”

As you can see we were both impressed and then decided to try the Bin 707.

Penfolds 1991 Bin 707

Fresh and clean nose that belies it age, the fruit is sweet with pronounced earthy dusty oak and loads of green aromas which are not the normal minty notes found in a Cabernet Sauvignon. (As the wine opened over the night, the minty notes receded.)

Plate flavour is full, the wine is muscular to full body in weigh with conspicuous dusty tannins and acid that’s still noticeably youthful. There is nuttiness to the flavour and the wine also has a long finish. This wine still has years to go and is not at its peak yet. Rated as Excellent it should go to Outstanding in the next 10 years as it matures.

Lynne (and Sam) 1

So from that you can deduce that Marion and I preferred the Mt Edelstone and based on what I know about Lynne’s taste, I was confident Lynne would prefer the Mount Edelstone and not be as impressed with the Bin 707, so when she arrived I gave her the Bin 707 to start. Well, blow me down, she loved it and said “This is one of the nicest wines you have ever served, I would be quite happy to drink the whole bottle. It’s just superb, there are no conflicting messages; it’s integrated, balanced and harmonious. It’s big but not overpowering.”

Lynne then tried the Mount Edelstone and I was expecting a WOW reaction from her. The complete opposite was the result. She preferred the Bin 707.

Here we have a situation where two of the highest quality wines are served together and the results and preferences are a complete shock. I am still wondering why. In part, it may have to do with the fact that Marion and I started with the Mount Edelstone which was very easy to drink on its own. Lynne started on the Bin 707 which demanded food. When Marion and I were trying the 707 initially, we tasted it without food but Lynne was nibbling when she tried it.

I could hypothesize till the cows come home (which in this case won’t be long as you can see from the picture) and not be able to solve this little vinous mystery. Wine can be so perplexing, but that’s one of the joys of drinking it.