Last night, I attended a dinner in Sydney put on by the mad Hungarian (aka Attila) and despite the amount of fine wine available, it was a sobering experience and one with a number of lessons.

The theme of the night was Bordeaux and Bordeaux blends. Each of us was asked to bring the best and most interesting varieties we had of these wines in our cellar or that we could readily get and our hands-on. The dinner was hosted by the Mad Hungarian and attended by six other people who could only be described as having “educated palates.”

The line-up of wines was absolutely astounding. Seventeen bottles of wine were opened with an approximate value of about $2000. Any person in their right mind would think that with so much money being spent on wines that were carefully selected and in the vast majority of cases well cellared, we would be in for a very special night of truly memorable, fine wine.

Unfortunately that was not the case. Memorable it was, but for all the wrong reasons. Rather than using my own tasting notes (I being of sound mind didn't make any, I just wanted to enjoy the event) I will use Attila's notes (highlighted in blue) and Dave Brookes’s notes highlighted in this colour to illustrate the points I will be making. However, readers should be aware that as Attila arranged the event and had very high expectations for the night, because of his disappointment, his criticism of some of the wines maybe a tad stronger than other attendees.

1983 LOUIS ROEDERER - soft and creamy, chardonnay driven. Somewhat passed it's peak for me. Lacking depth and character, not very good. $100.

Pale gold in colour with an enticing nose of fresh bread, toffee apples, bice biscuity comlexity and hints of vegemite and other autolysis characters. Quite full bodied and presumably chardonnay dominant?? Still has quite pronounced acidity for its age and the finish is long, multi-layered and complex. Lovely wine.

2001 CLOS FLORIDENE Graves - simple and cheap tasting dry white, could be mistaken for a lesser NZ blend. No class or character. $37

I'm not having a good run with white Bordeaux's lately....this ones got a case of DMDS and underneath the pong of burnt onions you can just make out quince, gooseberry and tropical fruits. Bugger all body but a fair brace of acid. It's out of kilter a bit. Not so grouse. Graves AC 50% Semillon, 40%Sauvignon Blanc, 10% Muscadelle

1992 TAHBILK Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon - Dusty, traditional, old fashioned red, quite full bodied but lacking fruit and life. $50 (TORB: I thought this wine just needed further time to gain complexity and still had plenty of life left.)

Blackcurrants, cassis, cedar, thyme and dried herbs on the nose. Lovely weight and quite silky in the mouth. Still quite deeply fruited on the palate and obviously cabernet based with black/redcurrants, cassis, pencil-case.....very nice wine.

1986 MOUNT MARY Lilydale Cabernets - the most beautiful nose. Super silky cabernet taste up front but doesn't deliver on body and length. $120 (TORB: From my perspective, this was a very enjoyable wine and one of the better wines of the evening.)

Lovely nose of cassis, blackberry, tobacco, cedar with hints of rosemary and minerals. Still deeply fruited on the palate with silky black fruits, thyme and dried herbs and just a touch of funk. Belted me around in the options. St Julien my arse! Excellent wine.

1983 LINDEMANS Hunter River Burgundy Bin 6603 - Had this first when it was on sale for $7.99. Always a very nice and delicious Shiraz, now past it. (TORB: A bad bottle?)

Medium brick red and has thrown a hell of a crust. Not the best bottle I've seen of this, sulphury with a fair dose of funk....redcurrant, blackcurrant, tobacco leaf, old leather and gamey hints.....fruits starting to drop off a bit...Like I said there’s better bottles around and the better ones are bloody outstanding!

2000 Chateau PALMER Margaux 3rd Growth - Very modern and tight wine. Completely closed at the moment. Powerful tannins and too strong oak grip on the finish. Showing slightly better the next day. May become a very good wine in 15 years but not $400 worth. (TORB: I was convinced this was Australian. It seemed to be reasonably high alcohol, had masses of rich ripe fruit, and was the wine of the night for me. If it came from Coonawarra or Margaret River, I would expect to pay around $60.)

Very focussed on the nose and a wine of immense concentration. Cassis, blackberry nip, rosemary, herbs and crushed earth. Very rich and powerful with a dense concentration of black fruits that coat the tongue....deep in fruit and opulent, certainly a Parker wine this one. Excellent.

1997 VYLYAN Duennium -a Hungarian Bordeaux blend from Villány. Supposedly great I bought it for $60. Disjointed and acidic, not showing well at all.

Dire Hungarian cabernet....well I guess it was cabernet as it was just a seething puddle of volatility in my glass; down the sink and I hope it didn’t damage the drains.

2002 CRUICKSHANK Pressings Cabernet Sauvignon - this was supposed to be the blind surprise from the upper Hunter and it was. Stood up against every bottle on the table. Lovely Cabernet fruit, fine tannins, certainly very enjoyable at $35. (TORB: A good, enjoyable wine that will benefit from time in the cellar which will allow the tannins to resolve. It will never be a great wine but showed “reasonably” because of its youthful, ripe fruit.)

Blackberries and blackcurrants, coffee, quite herbal and earthy but with super ripe fruit and tannins. Fantastic value and an excellent wine. Hunter Valley Cabernet.....flipping heck!! Got to track some of this down.

1976 Chateau LAFITE ROTHSCHILD Pauillac 1st Growth - a great survivor after all these years. Lost most of it's fruit, barely holding itself together, a quiet little off vintage hero. Fine experience but far from first class. $186

Stood out as Bordeaux for me.....black/redcurrant, thyme, chocolate bullets, cedar, herbs...lovely nose with characteristic Pauillac pencil-case....the fruit was lovely on the palate - savoury but still retaining a sweetness. Lovely wine.....a touch of funk in the mix as well.

1996 Chateau GRUAUD LAROSE Saint Julien 2nd Growth - It had great nose but a chaotic palate, oak and fruit thrown together. Parker gave 91 points to this, we gave it a miss. $130 (TORB: This wine was badly disjointed.)

Blackcurrants, cassis, rosemary, briar and coffee....quite an enchanting nose but disappointing on the palate....disjointed with spiky acid and oak poking out in various directions.....a shame :-(

1986 PENFOLDS Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon -The 1988 rocked twice at our club dinners. This vintage looked tired, lacking life and fruit, very disappointing. $125 (TORB: The last bottle of this wine I experienced was stunning but unfortunately this one, whilst good, was a little dull and disappointing.)

Not a great fan of this style but this was a lovely wine. Deep brick red with blackfruits, fig, olive tapenade, herbs, pomegranate and hints of dill and mint,.a tad tart and acidic on the finish.

1995 Chateau LA MISSION HAUT BRION Pessac Leognan Grand Cru - Strong cedary oak, lacking good fruit and focus, very one dimensional. Not liked. $250

This really deserved better treatment and a good decant but ran out of time. Blackcurrant, cassis, rosemary, earth and minerals and some interesting cheesy hints. This is an excellent wine and I'm sure it would sing with 3-4 hours in a decanter.

1995 DOMAINE DE CHEVALIER Pessac Leognan Grand Cru - Worse than the La Mission, completely charmless, oaky and unbalanced. Will never recover.

Pongy and quite resinous, black and red fruits,.a bit on the thin side....Pessac Leognan suffered badly from the heat in 1995 and it's quite obvious that the La Mission fared better than this wine....a shame

1982 Chateau CALON SEGUR Saint Estephe 3rd Growth - Drunk this a decade ago in the club, it was fruity and slightly passing it's peak. Today, completely dead. $180

Porty, stinky, bollocks is all I have written.

1989 Chateau LEOVILLE BARTON Saint Julien 2nd Growth - a terrifying wine that bordered on offensive. Poured down the sink quickly. $160

Another wine that should have showed a lot better...herbal blackfruits, quite medicinal, briney and bitter on the finish....a bit dire

2000 Chateau DERESZLA Late Picked Tokaji Furmint - showed nice Furmint characters but lacked intensity, slightly high acid finish on this average Hungarian dessert wine from Tokaj.

1983 Chateau LAFAURIE PEYRAGUEY Sauternes 1st Growth - a fitting end to this complete disaster of a night. Initially lovely roasted almond characters but quite short and slightly bitter finish. Less than average, this sweetly terrible Sauternes made the previous Tokaji look good. (TORB: I admit completely at odds with Attila on this wine and quite enjoyed it.)

Attila’s final comment, “This event couldn't have been worse even if we planned it.”

Despite the lack of great wine, or possibly because of it, it was an interesting night and one which drove home the number of salient (and sobering) points that I would like to share with you.

In reality, much of the difficulty in determining source of origin is because on the night, in a number of instances it was almost impossible to tell if wines were French or Australian because the Australian wines were so well made and in some instances the French wines were very different from what you would expect.

It is interesting to note, that the best of the French wines were all from warm or hot years; they had higher than normal alcohol content and a core of ripe fruit. The Palmer which was unanimously voted as the wine of the night, had most of is fooled as we mistook it for an Australian wine. It was modern, tight, had loads of tannin, lots of oak, and above all, a core of rich ripe fruit, everything you would expect of a local wine. That begs the question, do we need to spend $400 on a bottle of French wine when, for between $40 and $60, we can get an Australian wine that would compare favourably in a blind line-up.

Price is absolutely no indicator of quality. And neither is the reputation of the label. Many of the French bottles that cost hundreds of dollars were frankly, disappointing. Not just because of their lack of value but because they were basically very ordinary wines. How often can you buy an Australian wine over $100 and find it to be very ordinary? The answer is its extremely rarely, yet with top name French wines it happens all the time.

There is also absolutely no doubt, that there is almost no experience like a sublime French wine. The problem is wading through an awful lot of ordinary and expensive wine to find it. Australia may not be able to produce many wines that offer a sublime experience but at least you know if you spend over a hundred dollars a bottle you will get consistently good quality. In reality, in most cases you don't have to spend over hundred dollars to do this, high-quality age-worthy wines are available for far less.

Finally, corks and bottle variation play a huge part in the game of “Russian Bottle Roulette”. To be fair, the 1986 Bin 707, which did not show well on this occasion, is proof that there is no such thing as a great old wine, only “great old bottles” and that all old bottles, no matter what country of origin, are subject to the laws of “Old Bottle Russian Roulette.” 

Yes, old Bordeaux can be a sublime experience but as this dinner has just proved; it is possible to spend thousands of dollars hunting for that experience only to be disappointed. As my mate Tom at the Moss Vale Hotel said “Why would you bother?”