Waywood Reserve Shiraz 2010

Waywood Reserve Shiraz 2010

This is a weird wine and one that I'm not sure if this was a sound bottle. To start with the wine tasted of spearmint, which I think is derived from the oak, but then it turned flat as a pancake. Now the spearmint flavour was enticing and refreshing yet I couldn't get past the nothingness of the mid and back palate. Whatever the flavours were the wine tasted dull and lifeless as if an old school vampire had sucked the life out of it.  When I say old school think the movie Nosferatu

Image from IMBd

and not Twilight. 

Image from TwilightWiki

The wine also lacked structure but did warm my cockles as it slide down my throat.  My rating of this wine stands but it may have been the bottle was defected in some way. 

Alcohol: 14.8%

Price: $45

Rated: 83

Drink: ?

Penfolds St Henri 2008

I am a huge fan of this label and have written about the experiences that I have had with this label recently so I shall add the links to them below.

http://vino-review.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/penfolds-st-henri-1969.html

http://vino-review.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/penfolds-st-henri-1996.html

http://vino-review.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/penfolds-st-henri-1999.html

http://vino-review.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/penfolds-st-henri-2001.html

So what was 2008 like as a vintage? In a word hot. Many of the wines from this vintage are starting to show secondary flavours and many lack the structure to see them last in the bottle past their 10th birthday.

Penfolds St Henri 2008

This years St Henri shows that this is the heart and soul of the Penfolds team as it is fresh and lively in the glass with a little more plush flavours than is normal but for a hot vintage shows restraint. The wine is more blue and red fruits with a elbow in the face full of spice thrown in to keep you on your toes.  While these flavours are soothing the acidity and tannins are one that leave the lasting impression. They are so unlike the normal 08s which is a delight.  Some would say it is an afternoon delight wine but lets not get a head of ourselves. The velvet like palate starts with Shiraz but a little blackcurrant and olive tapenade from the little amount of Cabernet comes into the mix from the mid-palate on. Even though the Cabernets from Penfolds in 2012 are the leading lights I would be inclined to stash a few St Henri's away in a dark cellar. It is always a big event wine that holds a special place in so many Australian wine connoisseurs that this vintage deserves to be included in the must buy section.

Alcohol: 14.5%
Price: Street price $70
Rated: 93+
Drink: 2016 - 2030

Louis Bouillot Perle d'Ivoire Blanc de Blanc Brut NV

Cremant is a sparkling wine from France that doesn't originate in Champagne. Due to the wine not coming from such a renowned area the Cremant wines can offer brilliant value and sophisticated drinking.  This wine continues that theme.

Louis Bouillot Perle d'Ivoire Blanc de Blanc Brut NV

This wine is 100% Chardonnay from the heart of Maconnais. Well actually only 85% comes from that area with the rest from Yonne. This wine is smashingly refreshing and inviting with a symphony of flavours licking my mouth. It all begins with grapefruit and lemon dancing the lambada with roasted nuts and strawberry creams. The finish is nice and crisp with the whole package begging the question, why would I buy anything else.

Alcohol: 12%
Price: $25
Rated: 88
Drink: Now or over the next few years.
Importer: Negociants

Hahndorf Hill Winery Blueblood Blaufränkisch 2010

Blaufrankisch is a late ripening variety similar to Cabernet and Riesling which may mean that other areas than the Adelaide Hills are suited to producing the best examples from this variety. Now I tasted this wine a while ago but it has taken me a while to write it up.  My rating is a little different than Grape Observers but I would suggest that you have a look at his and mine and then grab yourself a bottle so you can make up your own mind. I have always thought the best review for a wine for my wife would come from her own experience. It is very Star Waresk the line I am about to deliver...'trust your own palate'.

Hahndorf Hill Winery Blueblood Blaufrankisch 2010

Dark and broody with a little porty fruits on the nose which is followed rather well on the palate. A little blueberry pie, cedar and raspberry coulis joins the team but the level of sweet fruit is a little too much for what the variety would normally deliver. The tannin structure is very good as the velveteen tannins march along to the beat of a drum adding interest and distracting me from the ultra ripe fruit.  While I liked this wine I would have like it more with an extra layer of savouriness woven into it.

Alcohol: 14% looking at this after tasting it, I can understand the flavour spectrum
Price: $35
Rated: 86
Drink: Now or over the next few years.

Penfolds Yattarna Chardonnay 2009

This wine marks the release of the luxury wines from Penfolds in 2012. For me this wine has had the most refinement over the years. Yattarna was first developed in 1995 but it wasn't until the mid-2000s that it started to hit its glory.  The style of Yattarna is more elegant, sophisticated and a little more conservative than the Bin A but I guess that each wine would appeal to a different type of wine consumer.  The original name for Yattarna was Bin 144 which is the amount of trials that they undertook before settling on the style that Yattarna is searching to achieve. On a separate note the large majority of this wine comes from a vineyard in the Derwent Valley which has recently been sold to Shaw & Smith.  It will be interesting to see if Penfolds can still get access to that quality fruit.

Penfolds Yattarna Chardonnay 2009

The wine is so tight with a core of acid running from the tip to the back of my tongue which suggests that it is built for consumption down the track yet there is still the comforting citrus notes that make me want to smash it now. In the mid-palate there is a hint of melon and orange rind wrestling with toasted nuts and wok fried galangal and all of these aspects are calling me into the glass. Complexity is not as issue here but this wine sits in the shadow of the Bin A, not for the flavours but it doesn't have the textural elements that is so enticing in the Bin A.  You will have to give this 5 years before it will show itself so if you are splashing out hold back on cracking the tops.

Alcohol: 12.9%
Price: $130
Rated: 93
Drink: 2017 - 2025

Penfolds Bin 169 Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

This is the second release of the Bin 169, the first being in 1973, and is 100% Coonawarra in origin. This wine is very different to the 707 as it is 100% French oak and from a single.  It is brilliant to see a Cabernet of this quality in French oak as I think the match between variety and vessel is better suited. While the Bin 169 doesn't drink as well as the 707 at this stage,  the quality and structure of this wine will benefit from extended cellaring. On a separate note this years luxury release from Penfolds is very strong with all wines being of high to extreme on the quality scale.

Penfolds Bin 169 Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

Oh so elegant and structured! The tannins are like liquid gold as they expand and conquer my mouth.  The easy flow of heavy yet light and rustic tannins is so beautiful I don't really care about the flavours and there are so many flavours it is scary.  Blackcurrant, plum skin, spice, cedar, sage, etc... it is too much to take that they have crammed so much into one bottle. Like all good Cabernet this will need a decade or two for it to open out and show some loving but when it does sit back and relax.   The finish of this wine is specular as it goes on forever, in fact the wine took so long to finish because the flavours and texture stayed so long in my mouth I didn't need to go back for another sip.

Alcohol: 14.5%
Price: $250
Rated: 95++
Drink: 2023 - 2050

Penfolds Reserve Bin A Chardonnay 2010

The Bin A Chardonnay started its life in 1994 and was named after the Adelaide Hills region. This wine is hands on as it is basket pressed straight into French barriques and then allowed to start ferment naturally.  The wine sleeps in barrel until it is deemed ready for its journey into bottle.  The wine is not filtered which makes me think that it could taste a little wild.  Once I tasted this I thought it was ultra structured with a little wildness thrown in.  I guess it would be like meeting Barack Obama and he hadn't shaved for a week.

Penfolds Reserve Bin A Chardonnay 2010

My god this wine takes you to a  place of enlightenment. For me this is more reminiscent of a religious experience than a simple flow of grapes from the glass to my mouth.  The wine is definitely crafted but it seems the fruit is doing most of the work.  The flavours started out with grapefruit and smoked river pebbles before it moves into nectarine and lemon custard.  My notes say every shade of citrus with a bit of spice but it is the mouthfeel and length that really gets me excited.  The wine feels like liquid putty as it slowly transverses down my tongue. Each bead of flavour attaches itself to a taste bud rubbing gloriously and constantly, never letting go. There is also a dryness to this wine that lingers and leaves me wanting to go back for more. I have always thought that Peter Gago was one of the best winemakers in Australia but I am knocking him off the top spot and replacing him with Kym Schroeter. This guy is a genius.  Everyone that is interested in top quality Chardonnay needs to go out and buy a bottle of this wine.  If this was from Burgundy I would have said that it would have been around the $400 a bottle mark but it comes from Australia so $95 is cheap.

Alcohol: 13%
Price: $95
Rated: 95+
Drink: 2013 - 2025