[ Forthcoming tastings above (red title), past tastings below double rule: ]
1970 BORDEAUX STYLES – FORTY YEARS ON: 2 first growths, two super-seconds, 10 France, 1 Australia, 1 NZ
Time: Thursday 11 March 2010, 6 pm
Place: Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $95 per person
Bookings: Phone 385 6952 Wellington prefix 04, or email: office@regionalwines.co.nz
Limit: 21 places – please note Conditions
Conditions: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am
sharp, on the Wednesday. However, if space allows, bookings after that
time will be accepted.
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Broadbent: * * * * An imposing vintage, combining quality with quantity,
though in my opinion, not as uniformly excellent as 1966.
Two of the wines offered have been described loosely as one of the top wines
of the vintage. These are wines in the "classic" lighter French style, well before
the more hefty wines of today. Hence the Americans don't rate 1970 as highly.
Coupled with age, tune your tasting expectations, please.
This tasting cannot be repeated, so 'last chance !'
1970 Ch Ducru-Beaucaillou, St Julien
1970 Ch Lascombes, Margaux
1970 Ch Latour, Pauillac
1970 Ch Leoville-Las-Cases, St Julien
1970 Ch Margaux, Margaux
1970 Ch Pape-Clement, Pessac-Leognan (northern Graves)
1970 Ch Rauzan-Segla, Margaux
1970 Ch St-Pierre, St Julien
1970 Ch Talbot, St Julien
1970 Chambertin (magnum - Lichine)
1970 McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon (Hawkes Bay)
1970 Tahbilk Cabernet (Victoria, the standard wine)
Reserve wine (bit out of style) 1970 Penfolds Cabernet / Shiraz Bin 389
A TASTE OF HISTORY: 1965 & 1966 McWILLIAMS CABERNET SAUVIGNON, 1966 CH PALMER, 8 OTHER 1966 BORDEAUX, AND A 1965 AUSTRALIAN
Wednesday 5 November, 2008, 6.00 pm (the evening before Hawkes Bay Winegrowers' Cabernet / Merlot Forum at Hastings)
Venue: Sensory Lab, Eastern Institute of Technology, Gloucester Street, Taradale, Napier [ Room E167, Building E1, at the rear of the campus, as shown on the map: http://www.eit.ac.nz/Doc_Library/Documents/Colour_campusMapA4_70.10.05.pdf . The campus is 1.4 km SSW of the intersection of Meanee Road with Gloucester Street. ]
Cost: $95 per person
Limit: 22 places (please note booking conditions)
Bookings: To book please email me, with the name of the tasting in the subject line. Publishing my email address in plain language has had undesirable results, so please 'translate' the following into the standard format – geoffdotkellyatxtradotcodotnz Once numbers are sufficient, pre-payment will then be requested by direct electronic payment (or cheque). Since I am not in Hawkes Bay, logistics demand that a final decision on whether the Tasting proceeds will be made at 6pm Monday 3 November. Please book before then. Cancellations for refund will not be accepted after that time and date. If space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
In August 1969 I wrote to Tom McDonald, seeking a case of the soon-to-be-released 1965 Cabernet Sauvignon. This was the successor to his McDonald's Cabernet Sauvignons, certain of which were much praised. In many ways it is THE critical post-war wine in New Zealand, demonstrating to all those with the wine experience to recognise it that truly international red wine could be made in New Zealand. That was a fairly way-out thought, at the time.
It seems appropriate that the last bottle of my case should come back to Hawkes Bay, in the hope it will be of interest to a later generation of winemakers who will have heard of this legendary wine. We can only hope it is not corked. [ More info on the McWilliams wine in my recent article: The Evolution of Bordeaux and Hawkes Bay Blends in New Zealand, to 2005, 16 Jul 2008 ]. To accompany it, we will have a wine close to Tom McDonald's heart, not the Ch Margaux he much admired, but the "next best", Ch Palmer. In fact, 1966 Ch Palmer (Robert Parker: one of the greatest examples of Palmer I have ever tasted – 96) is now regarded as the superior wine of the two, and one of the top 3 wines of the entire 1966 vintage (Ch Margaux – 83).
The 1966 vintage in Bordeaux is usually referred to as a classic vintage, meaning Bordeaux the way it used to be, lighter than current taste, more aromatic, slightly austere, but in youth the best wonderfully fragrant and varietal. Broadbent rates the vintage 4-stars (out of 5). Parker does not go back that far.
Palmer aside, these wines are old and frail, but of great interest. This offering of the legendary 1965 McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon with the 1966, and 9 x 1966 Bordeaux and a similarly-aged and equally pioneering South Australian Cabernet Sauvignon is unlikely to ever be repeated. With the inclusion of the Palmer, it provides a rare opportunity to taste history.
Pricing: Hard to get this right. Please check the wines on the international reference point: www.wine-searcher.com , noting those prices do not include the additional freight, duty, and GST costs incurred in importing the wines to New Zealand. For Ch Palmer alone, four of the quotes are more than NZ$1000, the highest $NZ1560 per bottle. This gives some idea of the reputation (and rarity) of the wine.
The 12 wines will be presented all at once, blind. Before the main tasting, just for fun and to also see where we have come from, 25 years later, we will check six or so 1983 Australasian chardonnays, in the hope there will still be pleasantly mature flavours in one or two.
1983 Cooks Chardonnay (Hawkes Bay, gold medal and highly regarded in its day)
1983 Corbans Chardonnay (Marlborough)
1983 Esk Valley (Glenvale) Chardonnay (Hawkes Bay)
1983 Matawhero Chardonnay (Gisborne, early use of MLF)
1983 Jeffrey Grosset Chardonnay (Clare Valley, SA)
1983 Lindemans Chardonnay (Padthaway, SA)
1983 Lindemans Chardonnay Bin 6282 (Hunter River, NSW)
and then suitably enlivened or saddened as the case may be, proceed to the main event:
1965 McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 65/3 Hawkes Bay
1966 McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon Hawkes Bay [ back-up bottle ]
1965 Hardy's Cabernet Sauvignon Bin C546 McLaren Vale & Coonawarra
1966 Ch Palmer Margaux 3rd growth [ now rated a 'super-second' – back-up bottle ]
1966 Ch Gruaud-Larose St Julien 2nd growth
1966 Ch Lascombes Margaux 2nd growth
1966 Ch Branaire-Ducru St Julien 4th growth
1966 Ch Grand Puy Lacoste Pauillac 5th growth
1966 Ch Mouton-Baron-Philippe Pauillac 5th growth [ now d’Armailhac, since 1989 ]
1966 Ch Pontet Canet Pauillac 5th growth
1966 Ch Chasse Spleen Moulis cru bourgeois exceptionnel
1966 Ch Meyney St Estephe cru bourgeois exceptionnel
In reserve: 1966 Ch Leoville-Poyferre St Julien 2nd growth
NB: There are back-up bottles of the Palmer and 1966 McWilliams, so (barring calamity) these key wines will be tasted.
I look forward to meeting you in the EIT Sensory Lab.
1982 BORDEAUX – THE BEST VINTAGE SINCE 1961 ?
Thursday 25 September, 2008, 7.00 pm
Venue: Lincoln University, Horticulture Tasting Lab [ via Gate 2, first road to right – the single-story buildings immediately to right of 'tennis courts', as shown @ www.lincoln.ac.nz/story_images/2802_campusmaphalls_s8231.pdf ]
Cost: $125 per person
Limit: 22 places (please note booking conditions)
Bookings: To book please email me, with the name of the tasting in the subject line. Publishing my email address in plain language has had undesirable results, so please 'translate' the following into the standard format – geoffdotkellyatxtradotcodotnz Once numbers are sufficient, pre-payment will then be requested by direct electronic payment (or cheque). Since I am not in Canterbury, logistics demand that a final decision on whether the Tasting proceeds will be made at 6pm Monday 22. Please book before then. Cancellations for refund will not be accepted after that time and date. If space allows, bookings after that time will be accepted.
Robert Parker (before the 2005s arrived)
“ … for today’s generation of wine enthusiasts, 1982 is what 1945, 1947, and 1949 were for an earlier generation of winelovers … Even in Bordeaux the 1982s are now placed on a pedestal and spoken of in the same terms as 1961, 1949, 1945, and 1929. Moreover, the marketplace … continues to push prices for the top 1982s to stratospheric levels.”
The wines of Bordeaux remain the model for New Zealand's 'Hawkes Bay blends'. Do we however give enough thought to how time will deal with the wines we are so proud of today ? Good examples of Bordeaux blends develop for ten, twenty and sometimes more years. All too often in New Zealand, however, we can only read about tastings of mature fine Cabernet / Merlot blends held in other countries.
Here is an opportunity to not only taste, but also assess a cross-section of quality-levels of mainly Bordeaux wines, from one of the great recent vintages. To keep costs reasonable, and increase relevance, there are no First Growths. Several of the wines are nonetheless considered amongst the vintage's best. And we have both high-Cabernet and high-Merlot wines amongst the good ones.
The Medocs range from Second Growths to Cru Bourgeois. The St Emilion and the two Pomerols are highly-ranked chateaux. If you are concerned about the price for the tasting, I request you price the wines on the international reference point: www.wine-searcher.com , noting those prices do not include the additional freight, duty, and GST costs incurred in importing the wines to New Zealand. This will reveal the asking price is modest, considering such a tasting can generally only be found nowadays in places like London or San Francisco. This tasting in London would cost roughly £165, according to ex-Cantabrian but now London-based Linden Wilkie, of www.finewineexperience.com .
The 12 wines will be along the lines of the following, presented all at once, blind.
1982 Ch Bonalgue, Pomerol
1982 Ch Giscours, Margaux 3rd Growth
1982 Ch Grandis, Haut Medoc
1982 Ch Gruaud-Larose, St Julien 2nd Growth
1982 Ch Haut-Marbuzet, St Estephe
1982 Ch La Lagune, Margaux 3rd Growth
1982 Ch Latour a Pomerol, Pomerol
1982 Ch Montrose, St Estephe 2nd Growth
1982 Ch Pavie, St Emilion
1982 Ch Trotanoy, Pomerol
1982 Jaboulet Hermitage la Chapelle, Northern Rhone Valley
1982 Te Mata Coleraine, Hawkes Bay
IN PRAISE OF SYRAH – THE 1998 VINTAGE IN THE NORTHERN RHONE, HAWKES BAY, AND WEST AUSTRALIA
Monday 15 September, 2008, 6.30 pm
Venue: upstairs meeting room, Trinity Hill Winery
Cost: $95 per person
Limit: 22 places (please note conditions)
Bookings: to book please email me (as above), with part of the name of the tasting in the subject line. Pre-payment will then be requested by cheque or direct electronic payment. Cancellations / refunds will only be permitted up to 48 hours before the start of the tasting.
Hermitage and Cote Rotie in the Northern Rhone Valley are the definitive appellations for fine syrah. The 1998 vintage in the northern Rhone was warm and dry, even hot. Some of the wines therefore lost to a degree the classical floral beauty which typifies great syrah grown in optimal climates, but are nonetheless highly rated – simply because many years are fractionally too cool. This district is much cooler than the Southern Rhone, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, etc. Parker rates the year 90 in the north, and Tannic. Broadbent is more enthusiastic: unequivocally a great vintage, 5-stars. New Zealand was similar climatically, but it was early days for syrah.
The 12 wines will be presented all at once, blind.
1998 Cape Mentelle Shiraz Margaret River WA
1998 Guigal Hermitage
1998 Guigal Cote Rotie Brune & Blonde
1998 Guigal Cote Rotie la Turque
1997 Jaboulet Hermitage la Chapelle
1998 Mission Estate Syrah Reserve Gimblett Gravels
1998 Rostaing Cote Rotie Cote Blonde
1998 Saint Cosme Cote Rotie
1998 Sorrel Hermitage le Greal
1998 Stonecroft Syrah Gimblett Gravels
1998 Tardieu-Laurent Cote Rotie
1998 Te Mata Syrah Bullnose Ngatarawa Triangle
10 YEARS ON – 1998 NEW ZEALAND REDS
Monday 7 July 2008, 6.00 pm, @ Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $55.00 pp, Limit 22 places – Please note conditions
Contact: Wellington = 04 385 6952; office@regionalwines.co.nz
Note: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Monday.
1998 will be remembered as the hot year of the 1990s. It was a strange decade for red wines, ranging from the post-Pinatubo chilled years of the early 90s, through several good vintages, to this by local standards very hot one. In Hawkes Bay, discussion at the time speculated that such warmth would catch some winemakers off-guard. By the same token, in more southerly districts, the warmth allowed exceptional opportunities for marginal varieties.
So let us sample as complete a cross-section of both the wine styles and the geography of New Zealand's red wine world as 12 bottles will allow, by looking at the following wines. They should give a marvellous insight into how these varieties mature in New Zealand, in a warmer year (which, given global warming, may give us a peep into the future). We may also gain some insight into the question: does the traditionally heavy-handed use of oak in our red wines ultimately marry in ?
The wines will include, give or take:
1998 Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir Reserve (Martinborough).
1998 Daniel Schuster Pinot Noir Omihi (Waipara)
1998 Te Awa Pinotage Longlands (Hawkes Bay)
1998 Mission Vineyard Syrah Reserve (Hawkes Bay)
1998 Benfield & Delamare Merlot / Cabernet (Martinborough)
1998 Pegasus Bay Merlot / Cabernet Maestro (Waipara)
1998 Chateau Magdelaine (St Emilion)
1998 Esk Valley Merlot / Malbec / Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve (Hawkes Bay)
1998 Pask Merlot Reserve (Hawkes Bay)
1998 Sileni Merlot / Cabernet Franc Exceptional Vintage (Hawkes Bay)
1998 Te Mata Cabernets / Merlot Coleraine (Hawkes Bay)
1998 Villa Maria Merlot / Cabernet Reserve (Hawkes Bay)
Several quite famous (in New Zealand) wines are listed there: the first $100 pinot, the first latterday gold medal merlot, a remarkable Bordeaux blend from the South Island, and others which seemed hellish pricey at the time. Then of course we must have in a Frenchman for external comparability / reference / reality purposes, and 1998 was very good on the east bank, too. Should be good !
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1995 CRU BOURGEOIS, 1995 TOM AND TE AWA
Wednesday 11 June 2008, 6 pm, 6.00 pm, @ Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $45.00 pp, Limit 22 places – Please note conditions
Contact: Wellington = 04 385 6952; office@regionalwines.co.nz
Note: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Monday.
This material first appeared on www.regionalwines.co.nz, here slightly amended.
After a year's break, we will start the 11th year of Library Tastings at Regional Wines & Spirits with an affordable reminiscence on the 1995 vintage in Bordeaux. Classically, the dictum about better Bordeaux reds was: it is a sin against the spirit of the bottle to open one under 10 years of age. Since we are checking out cru bourgeois only, some of the wines should now be showing pleasing maturity.
1995 was an attractive vintage in Bordeaux, the better wines having a soft round plumpness of fruit which even on release, was delightful. Wine Spectator rates the vintage 94 – 96, depending on the district. Robert Parker is less enthusiastic, at 88 – 92.
Our dozen wines will be along the lines of:
1995 Ch Beaumont (Haut Medoc)
1995 Ch Croizet Bages (Pauillac)
1995 Ch Gressier Grand Poujeaux (Moulis)
1995 Ch Angelique de Monbousquet (St Emilion)
1995 Ch St Paul de Dominique (St Emilion)
1995 Ch Clementin du Pape Clement (Graves)
1995 Ch de Pez (St Estephe)
1995 Ch Senejac (Haut Medoc)
1995 Ch Potensac (Medoc)
1995 Ch Fourcas Hostein (Listrac)
1995 Te Awa Merlot Boundary (Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay)
1995 Church Road Tom [ Merlot / Cabernet / Malbec ] (Hawkes Bay)
Most of these are well-regarded petits chateaux, some of them wines one frequently thinks of, in assessing New Zealand reds. A check alongside a couple will be good, therefore. Tom was twice the cost of any other wine. It will be interesting to see to what extent the then management of Montana Group understood the concept of quality in the Bordeaux wine style, relative to the wine quality in bottle and the (then amazing) price originally set.
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Tenth Anniversary Library Tasting: 1966 – Forty Years On
Monday 16 October, 2006, 6.00 pm, @ Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $90.00 pp, Limit 22 places – Please note conditions
Contact: Wellington = 04 385 6952; office@regionalwines.co.nz
Note: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Monday.
This material first appeared on www.regionalwines.co.nz , here slightly amended / more specific.
It is the time for a little anniversary – two actually. One more general, one more personal.
It is hard to believe that Regional Wines & Spirits has been presenting my Library Tastings for 10 years, come mid-October. Like so many good things about Regional Wines, the whole concept sprang from founder Grant Jones’ lively imagination, and ability to then put thoughts into deeds. Grant’s immediate idea was: if it catches on, we’ll call it ‘Adventures in Geoff’s Cellar’. Initially, that seemed a flattering idea. However a few days later, I had to go back to Grant, and suggest we take a lower-key approach, being mindful of security.
So here we are, 10 years later, sadly without Grant. But the most exciting thing for me in presenting these tastings, has been to see people come to them perhaps because the chosen wine-year marks their birthday or other personal anniversary, or for other quite personal reasons. At the last, one taster shyly admitted the wines were older than they were. It really gives me a buzz to be able to facilitate that kind of experience.
So the second more personal anniversary is, in this year 2006, to present a tasting based on the year 1966. That was the first year I invested in fine Bordeaux quite significantly, and those 1966s have formed the measuring stick for my entire subsequent wine life. It was a good year, a very “classic” year. That means the wines had all the bouquet and aromatics and vinosity of the berries themselves, shaped by oak, but not dominated by it, as so many over-ripe Austro-American-styled wines are these days. To modern tasters, the 1966s at release would mostly have seemed austere, but then, remember, that was in the days when the dictum was: It is a sin against the spirit of the bottle to open fine Bordeaux before its tenth birthday. Not a thought the instant-gratification generation readily identifies with.
The highlight of the tasting will be 1966 Ch Palmer. I will never forget my first tasting of it, in assessing these wines for cellaring, in a caravan in Canterbury (for those were the days when Christchurch was the hub of fine wine importing in New Zealand). It smelt of violets and cassis, and tasted like velvet. It was beautiful from day one, as so many great wines are. Few young clarets have seemed better to me, over the years. And it is not all the romanticism of fuzzy memory. 1966 Palmer is now rated (in Parker's definitive 2003 edition of his text Bordeaux) as: a great Palmer, one of the three or four best wines of the vintage. Elsewhere he says: When Palmer has a great vintage, no other left bank growth is as aromatically seductive to the nose and palate…. Palmer consistently made the best wine of the Margaux appellation between 1961 and 1977, but with the resurgence of Ch Margaux in 1978 … it is now often runner-up. The style of Palmer’s wine is characterised by a sensational fragrance … the richness of great Pomerol but the complexity of a Margaux.
There will be 11 other claret-styled wines accompanying the Palmer, 6 of them Bordeaux, and 4 from Australia, all now rare. From New Zealand there will be Tom McDonald’s 1966 McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon, the follow-up vintage to the 1965 wine which started the modern era of quality winemaking in New Zealand.
1966 Chasse-Spleen, Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel, Moulis
1966 Gruaud-Larose, Second Growth, St Julien
1966 Ch Mouton-Rothschild, First Growth, Pauillac
1966 Ch Palmer, Third Growth, Margaux
1966 Pontet-Canet (then less good), Fifth Growth, Pauillac
1966 Prieure Lichine (back when it was good), Fourth Growth, Margaux
1966 Ch Talbot, Fourth Growth, St Julien
1966 Hardy’s Cabernet Sauvignon Bin C626, McLaren Vale & Coonawarra
1966 Ch Reynella Cabernet Sauvignon, McLaren Vale
1966 Stonyfell Metala, Langhorne Creek (back when it was the company’s top wine)
1967 Yalumba Rudi Kronberger Cabernet / Shiraz, Barossa Valley
1966 McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon, Hawkes Bay
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Evolution of New Zealand Pinot Noir: 1964 – 2003
Monday 25 September, 2006, 6.00 pm, @ Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $40.00 pp, Limit 21 places – Please note conditions
Contact: Wellington = 04 385 6952; office@regionalwines.co.nz
Note: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Monday.
With the imminent debut of not one but two $150 New Zealand pinots, it seems timely to pause for a moment, and reflect on where we have come from with this quietly exciting variety. I have been interested in pinot since first purchases of the 1964 Burgundy vintage from the then Fletcher Humphreys in Christchurch, and cellared my first case of Grand Cru burgundy from the fabled 1969 vintage. Since then I have watched with alternating degrees of enthusiasm the various interpretations of this great grape pinot noir which have been launched in New Zealand. Our review will sample a few of those, over 40 years.
The wines will be presented in two flights. Flight One will be historic wines spanning the first 25 years, say 1964 to 1990 or so, including key wines which acted as New Zealand scene-setters. For these I will ask you to note their age, and see them more as souvenirs of an exciting evolution. The goal will be to rejoice we can actually taste such historic items, and to see if we can find some residual varietal quality and charm. I don’t want to be told they are too old. But, incidentally, a 1978 Nobilo Pinot Noir quite recently was in its lightly roseéd way as pleasant as many a faded minor Beaune wine. Appreciating old wine merely requires a little lateral thinking on the part of the taster, a preparedness to dream a little, and try to be romantic.
These wines will include: 1964 or thereabouts Mission Reserve Pinot (cost $1.15, probably meuniere); the two remarkable wines which launched the modern pinot era, 1976 Nobilo Pinot Noir and 1982 Danny Schuster’s St Helena Pinot Noir; perhaps an incredibly rare 1982 Seville Estate Pinot Noir from the Yarra, to match the latter; Larry McKenna’s 1986 Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir which put Martinborough on the map, and perhaps the matching 1986 Coldstream Pinot Noir Yarra Valley wine to show where James Halliday was at that point of his pinot evolution (along with Larry); of necessity an early 80s Babich Pinot Noir for they moved the market along a good deal towards the goal of lighter, fragrant (if stalky) pinots; and maybe we should have a Montana as well, just to acknowledge key players at both ends of the market.
Flight Two will touch on one or two wines of the early 90s ( thanks to Rob Bishop & Shelley Hood), reflecting the rise of Ata Rangi and maybe Neudorf as key players, a 1995 Rippon from Otago to introduce the remarkable rise of that district, then two of the key wines of the 1998 dry year, Martinborough Vineyard Reserve and Danny Schuster’s Omihi Selection. From 1999 on, the picture starts to gel, and the pendulum swings more towards Central Otago. We will have wines from Felton Road, Greenhough, Neudorf, Ata Rangi and others, including McKenna’s 2003 Escarpment Kupe – designed to be New Zealand’s finest pinot yet. I have not been able to secure either of the two (Peregrine, Martinborough Vineyard) super-premium pinots not yet quite ready for release, sadly. The Flight Two wines will be presented blind, to cast a little more light on the actual achievement of pinot quality. If space allows, a little frog may be slipped in somewhere, too.
Needless to say, this tasting will by virtue of its historic / museum wines, be unique and unrepeatable. It is the kind of tasting the industry should do, but doesn’t. The first flight of wines will be charged at a token value only. I hope the theme will appeal greatly.
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Germany in 1976 – 30 Years On
Monday 14 August, 2006, 6.00 pm, @ Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $75.00 pp, Limit 21 places – Please note conditions
Contact: Wellington = 04 385 6952; office@regionalwines.co.nz
Note: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Monday.
In his absolute reference work Vintage Wine (2002), Michael Broadbent describes 1976 in Germany as:
A gloriously ripe vintage with soft, fleshy, extremely attractive wines, the only handicap being a certain lack of acidity in some of them. This was a year of great heat and drought throughout the summer in northern Europe. However … the sort of year that brings out the best in the Mosel, and in particular the Saar and Ruwer, which normally produce fairly acidic wines. Although in terms of quality 1976 ranks below the firmer, greater, all-round 5-star 1971, there are few German vintages which have given me more pleasure ****.
Seven of our wines are from the Mosel, 3 from Saar - Ruwer, and two from the Rheingau. All are Qualitatswein mit Pradikat. Notwithstanding German wine law first allowing acidification for the (hotter than 1976) 2003 vintage, several wines have overt tartaric acid crystals in them !
The chance to taste 12 x 1976 German rieslings is unlikely to be available again in New Zealand. Our wines will be (though I don’t guarantee my deciphering of the archaic script in one case):
1976 Ayler Kupp Riesling Spaetlese (Sichel)
1976 Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Spaetlese (Licht-Bergweiler)
1976 Geisenheimer Schlossgarten Riesling Spaetlese (von Schornborn)
1976 Maximin Grunhauser Abstberg Riesling Spaetlese (von Schubert)
1976 Niederberg Belden Riesling Spaetlese (Liesen)
1976 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese (von Schorlemer)
1976 Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Auslese (von Schorlemer)
1976 Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling Auslese (Tobias)
1976 Schloss Vollrads Auslese (white capsule)
1976 Wehlener-Sonnenuhr Auslese (Prum-Erben)
1976 Wiltinger Sandberg Riesling Auslese (von Schorlemer)
1976 Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling Beerenauslese (Tobias)
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The Top 1986 Bordeaux, Part 2
Tuesday 20 June, 2006, 6.00 pm, @ Regional Wines & Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wellington
Cost: $175.00 pp, Limit 22 places – Please note conditions
Contact: Wellington = 04 385 6952; office@regionalwines.co.nz
Note: There will be no refunds for cancellations made after 9.00 am sharp, on the Tuesday.
Robert Parker (in his 2003 book, Bordeaux) says of the 1986 vintage: “The year 1986 is without doubt a great vintage for the northern Medoc, particularly for St Julien and Pauillac.” This tasting will offer three First Growths among ten classed Bordeaux. The First Growths include 1986 Mouton Rothschild, considered by most informed commentators to be (Decanter, May ‘06): “the star of the vintage, with some claiming it could be a 1945 in the making….. Parker has time and again given it a perfect 100-point score, not to mention a drinking window up to 2096. Other strong performers include…..Margaux and Las Cases”. All three of these wines will be in our Library Tasting. It is therefore an incredibly rare opportunity to taste mature wines considered as fine as Bordeaux can produce.
How of course one costs such a tasting is open to debate. The price for 1986 Mouton has increased by 50% in the last 12 months alone, in London and New York. All the predictions for the 2005 Bordeaux releases en primeur this month are that the First Growths will exceed $500.00 per bottle. Retail might be nearly twice that. In addition to the three First Growths, the tasting includes four ‘super-seconds’. For interest, I asked 'The Fine Wine Experience', London, to cost the tasting below, as if they were presenting it in London. They replied: £140.00, which is about $420.00. Whereas, we are offering the opportunity to taste ten classed 1986 Bordeaux and two Australasian cabernets for $175.00. The least of the French wines is worth that, per bottle.
The wines, their classification, and their Parker score will be: 1986 Ch Mouton Rothschild (1st, 100), 1986 Ch Leoville-Las-Cases (2nd, 98), 1986 Ch Margaux (1st, 96), 1986 Ch Gruaud-Larose (2nd, 94), 1986 Ch Cheval Blanc (=1st, 92), 1986 Ch Ducru-Beaucaillou (2nd, 92), 1986 Ch Montrose (2nd, 91), 1986 Ch Grand-Puy-Lacoste (5th, 91), 1986 Ch Pavie (=2nd or 3rd, 90), 1986 Ch Palmer (3rd, 88), 1985 Mt Mary Cabernets (***** JH) Victoria, and 1987 Stonyridge Larose (***** GK) Waiheke Island. Note the Grand-Puy-Lacoste is in both Pt I and Pt II, to calibrate the tastings. I regret I don’t have 1986 Mt Mary (but the label is regarded as one of Australia’s most Bordeaux-like wines), and the 1987 from N.Z. is simply to provide a better match, it being Waiheke’s first high-quality red.
If that list is not tantalising enough, here are Robert Parker’s (paraphrased) thoughts on 1986 Mouton: “In most tastings where a great Bordeaux is inserted with California Cabernets the Bordeaux comes across as drier, more austere, and not nearly as rich and concentrated (California wines are inevitably fruitier and more massive). To put it mildly, [in the 1986 flight] the 1986 Mouton-Rothschild held its own (and then some), in a flight that included the Caymus Special Selection, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cask 23, Dunn Howell Mountain, and Joseph Phelps Eisele Vineyard. Clearly the youngest looking, most opaque and concentrated wine of the group, it tastes….. of creme de cassis in abundance, exhilarating purity, and awesome layers of finish….. impeccably made. Anticipated maturity till 2096.”
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