Attended a tasting with work colleagues on Friday afternoon. Here are some brief notes on the more interesting wines.

Mitchell Watervale Riesling 2007
Austere, reasonably intense aromas of citrus and passionfruit. Quite high toned/powdery. Good impact on the palate, with astringent lemon rind most prominent. Firm, fine acidity drives intensity well through the after palate. Long finish. A very dry, austere wine with quite generous fruit and good presence. A little forceful right now.

Radford Dale Riesling 2007
Eden Valley goodness. Mineral and floral talc on the nose, with delicate lime juice. Lovely flinty palate, cut apple and lime flavours. Well integrated acid is fine yet firm. It’s shapely but persuasively so. Falls over a bit on the after palate, subtle dry finish. Lovely wine.

Taylors St Andrews Riesling 2001
Showing some age but in a somewhat non-typical fashion. Not your typical toast and honey, this comes across as more biscuit-like, youthful and aged elements integrating remarkably well for a wine that, to my taste, is only just starting to age. On the palate, youthful acidity, flint, a bit of residual lime flavour. Nice interplay between all the elements, brilliant length, with a slightly herbal, aniseed-like note on the finish.

Voyager Estate Chardonnay 2004
Lovely nose of vanilla, cashew, honeydew melon and sharper, citrus notes. It would be entirely comforting if it weren’t so smart. On the palate, more crisp honeydew melon, nice firm acidity, clove-like spice and a mouthfeel that manages “round” without any love handles. Good length. Nice wine, if perhaps a little simple at this stage. I would suggest leaving this one for a while longer.

Foxeys Hangout Chardonnay 2003
Quirky wine from the Mornington Peninsula. Beautiful honey roasted nuts on the nose, sort of nougat-like. Good complexity with aniseed and doughy note too. On the palate, more honey nuts, lees-derived characters, all with good intensity. Generous mouthfeel without excess creaminess, spreading well through the mouth. Went fabulously with fresh goat’s cheese.

Piper’s Brook Chardonnay 2002
Quite youthful, with cut apple and sweet mown hay on the nose. In the mouth, a hint of honey and baked things, intensely clean fruit, some butterscotch. An odd dried fruit character on the after palate. Good persistence but not great complexity.

Turkey Flat Cabernet Sauvignon 2004
Big, blousy nose, all dark cherry liqueur. Quite over the top and not really recognisable as Cabernet. Intense, genersous palate of dark cherries and perhaps some chocolate, with pleasant pippy acidity. Soft, fine and abundant tannins. Odd wine, or perhaps odd bottle?

Bremerton Old Adam Shiraz 2001
Langhorne Creek Shiraz in fine form. Complex, vanilla/blackberry nose, all very smooth and integrated and warm blanket-like. Surprisingly restrained palate, in fact quite elegant with a balanced structure and clean fruit. Some savoury complexities but really this wine is about tasty oak supporting a lot of delicious dark fruit. Fabulous clean lift through the after palate, delicate finish. Very drinkable.

Fairbank Sutton Grange Syrah 2003
Victorian Shiraz/Syrah. Intense umami on the nose, almost like smelling a mug of Continental “Hearty Beef” cup-a-soup, but of course in a highly refined wine wankerish manner. Very distinctive, but tending towards a single dimension. In the mouth, firm tannins, more beef broth. Very savoury and equally astringent, lacking perhaps a little drive through the after palate. Worth tasting.

Trevor Jones A Over T Liqueur Shiraz 1982
Very, very pleasurable, and super with Mauri Gorgonzola.