Last night a few friends came over for dinner and everyone brought wine from Oz. Here’s what we thought:

Flight 1:
1998 For Creek Reserve. One guest said “I could drink it all night”. Very well balanced – would have even done well in a blind Cab tasting. Very long finish. Rich tasting with a hint of mushroom. The favorite of this flight.

2000 Wild Duck Creek Springflat. Heavy with the sweetness of new oak. (probably the oak shows more in a weaker vintage). Hot (not surprising, it is 15.5%) Blackberry and cedar the predominant tastes. Slightly medicinal in the finish. If this were a cab, I’d say keep it in the cellar for 3-5 years. But with shiraz? I don’t know.

1998 Rosemount Balmoral. Understated and backwards with an earthy nose. Hardly your classic SA shiraz.

1998 JJ Hahn 1914 Block. Yummy, thank you Rolf. Cotton candy, black cherries, butterscotch. A little violet perfume in the nose. Very classic Australian and Grange-like.

Flight 2:
1991 Three Rivers. Super ripe with a hint of prune. Almost Amarone-like. A finish that goes on for about 5 minutes. This was from my cellar and doesn’t match my notes from the last time I had it about a year ago. The last one had much more fruit. Oh, well.

1990 Henschke Hill of Grace. One of my favorite HOGs. Very European with refined flavors of Eucalyptus. In a blind tasting I would have bet it was a high end Rhone.

1995 The Malcolm. Big forward fruit, smooth, rich, layers of blackberry and currant. Hint of tobacco in the finish. The more you drank, the more layers you found. The wine was 16%, but you would not have guessed.

There was no strong consensus for the best of flight 2. Different but all great.

Sounds like a great dinner, Bob. The '98 JJ Hahn 1914 is a fantastic wine. It was my WOTN at a Syrah/Shiraz tasting we did in Sept. My contribution to the wines that night did not fare well. I brought a '90 Chapoutier La Sizeranne and it sucked. Thus, it's entry into our VinoCellar QPR Hall of Shame.

jb