Not the Corked bottle
Start with one I didn’t drink
Picardy Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon Melbec 2007
Corked, the wine was that bad it didn’t touch my lips, Cookie was foolish enough to try it and had to spit it out! Shame as this is a great value wine that is drinking well now and should do so for a few more years.
From my Cellar purchased for $25.00 from the winery direct.
Leasingham Shiraz Classic Clare 1998
Still going strong, colour is very dark purple with only a small amount of brown tingeing the rim, still looked young for a 13year old Shiraz. Cedar oak is there with more of the plum and dark berry fruit showing through on the nose and into the palate which is long and more refined than can be the case with a 90’s South Australian Shiraz, this is not one of those fruit bombs made famous by an American wine advocate.
From the Cellar purchased so long ago I don’t have a record of the price, purchased from Vintage Cellars when they sold good wine and had knowledgeable staff.
Leeuwin Estate Art Series Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
This was consumed at Sorrento Restaurant1 in Northbridge (must do a blog on this iconic restaurant). It should be pointed out that the wine was a done deal before I even got to sit down, the gardener and JA had ordered this and the next wine while I parked the car. Unsurprisingly both wines were excellent choices (that why it’s the Wednesday Wine Club). The leeuwin was very much a typical Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon with an earthy nose balanced with a good amount of oak and berry fruit, big on the palate, it most defiantly needs food with it and went well with the Oysters Kilpatrick.
Purchased at Sorrento Restaurant $98.00
Penfolds bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 2002
This, followed the Leeuwin and had been decanted, by the time we got to it, it was very open. Aged notes on the nose followed by good dark berry fruit. A little aside about this wine, it’s a blend I have only ever seen in Australia and some think it defines Australian wine, to quote The Great Australian Red2
“Shiraz Cabernet is The Great Australian Red. First championed in Australia in the late 1800s as generic “claret”, the blend of Shiraz and Cabernet was resurrected in the 1950s. By 1962, Max Schubert, the creator of Grange, had made what he himself named the best wine of his illustrious career. A blend of Coonawarra Cabernet and Barossa Shiraz, 1962 Penfolds Bin 60A is now Penfolds’ most successful show wine of all time, and has on countless occasions been heralded as the greatest Australian red wine ever made.”
As the bin 60A sells for around the $500.00 mark, the bin 389 will be my benchmark for this style for the foreseeable future. It is a very distinctive style of wine and if others see it as Australian that can’t be a bad thing.
Also from Sorrento Restaurant $95.00
winelibertarian.com 