Notes from Saturday night's double blind Shiraz tasting and superb dinner at D's house. The wines should be Oz, Shiraz and 2002 or older.
3 couples attended with a bottle each. The ladies preferred to let the gents do all the tasting and analyzing of the wines so we asked the ladies to decant and bag the wines for the tasting.
While waiting for the wines to be prepared we opened a Gustave Lorentz Pinot Gris Reserve 2006 - Light gold, slightly spritzy. Nice acidity with just a bit of sweetness. Oily, Light lychee. After an hour of air, light butterscotch. Tart finish but good length. A lightish example of Alsace Pinot Gris. Quite good and easy drinking. This went particularly well with the saltimbocca.
We decided to taste the wines without food then with food before making a final ranking. The wines were placed in different colored bags which came with a home-made blind-tasting kit put together by my wife and given to me as a Christmas gift 3 years ago.
Green Bag - Impressively dark. Spicy. Quite hot. Dry and leafy. Slightly burnt. No noticeable oak which I appreciate. Dried fruit with some age showing on the slight pruniness of the fruit. Surprisingly tannic which somewhat unbalances it. New Worldy, sweet berry nose comes out after an hour of air. My #3, Group #3. Penfolds St. Henri Shiraz 1997.
Blue Bag - Quite dark but shows some fading on the rim. Subdued nose. Medium weight. Surprising acidity on the long finish. Good balance. A food wine. Very good. Probably close to peak now. My #2, Group #2. Penfolds RWT Barossa Shiraz 1997. My bottle.
Red Bag - Darkest of all. Excellent nose - all herbs and mint. Very Rhone in style; aroma and flavor-wise. Black olives. Lovely stuff. Soft tannins. Good length. Excellent. My #1, Group #1. Mount Langi Ghiran Langi Shiraz 1999.
Only one point separated the RWT from the Langi. The St. Henri lost in a big way, as it was last for all the tasters. All the wines did well with the hearty fare - braised beef ribs, rack of lamb wrapped in bacon and mushroom risotto.
As we had decanted about a third of each bottle into smaller bottles for future tasting, we still had room for more wine so moving on to Europe we opened:
Prunotto Barolo Bussia 1999 - Quite dark. No tar and roses for me but a rather odd, citrussy, musty note to the nose is what I found. Very dry and spicy. Dried herbs. Minty. Savory acidity. Medium-weight wine. Very good and ready to go at this point.
Vinas Elias Mora 2005 - From Toro, Spain. Nearly black. A bit hot. Blackberry jam nose. Strong, dusty tannins, as described by N. Sweet fruit but no jaminess on the palate. Well-balanced and no over-the-top sweetness. Meaty, plum, chocolate. Quite complex. Creamy oak only comes through after some airing but even this isn't too strong. Very well-made. Excellent wine but needs a few years to soften the tannins.
We ended with a few sips of BenRiach Single Malt 15 year old Madeira Cask.