April 15th, 2008
Women who drink wine avoid dementia, study says
Want a long an happy marriage, especially one where you can interact well into your twilight years - share your wine with your partner! Sounds like a good reason to pop a bottle.
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February 29th, 2008
This interesting blend of Shiraz, Cab Sauv and Malbec is rather tasty but beginning to show its age.
Smell - hint of menthol, red fruit and red berries.
Taste - Chunky wine with a great weight and phenomenal finish. Black fruits and berries up front, some slightly sour(this was nice, somewhat juicy) fruit and spices mid to end palate and a long dry, cloying end. Love the end, if anything this wine has a little too much Vegemite(yeast) at this late stage of its life.
Tried this wine with a sirloin steak - it may have been designed to go with lighter meats but with the steak it was a brilliant accompaniment.
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February 23rd, 2008
- 2005 Wynns Coonawarra Estate Shiraz - Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra (2/22/2008)
This is a pop and pour - decanted for 4 hours and all the nice nose blew away :(, at the end left with strong menthol - which completely overshadowed hints of blueberry, plum and liquorice. Hints of cream and vanilla on the nose not too bad.
Palate - nice mid palate but it’s far too short, flavours are muted, this wine is “weak” flavour wise, finishes with a vegemitey taste in your mouth.
Hoping that this is a defective bottle, have one more, but will wait a few years and pop and pour the puppy. (83 pts.)
Posted from CellarTracker
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February 4th, 2008
This was an effort to promote and encourage trying of different wines at my work, along with getting people to have a look at WLTV.
Email I sent out:
Welcome - to the rip off of wine library TV, I am your host malliemcg!Today - just for you we have the WLTV ( http://tv.winelibrary.com/ ) unlicenced, unofficial, super sampling.
We have one wine - to try with/before/around your lunch - so grab a glass, grab your lunch - have a sniffy sniff(pat. pending) and then a drinky drink!
Wine of the Day - Hugh Hamilton Sangeiovese Blend 2005 (85% Sangeiovese, 10% Merlot, 5% Tempranillo)
M
Nose: Dark chocolate coated cherries along with chocolate coated aniseed rings, a green field on a hot summer day (- lucrene hay before being cut) a small amount of menthol/eucalypt. A small amount of dark berries - blue and blackcurrant, but very subtle. Pleasant nose!
Palate: It’s fairly drying almost dusty - cherries and another sour berry are coming through - a little pomegranate juice (not the fruit, but the bottled juice). Does not go well with spicy food - the chilli nukes the fruit completely and you’re left with a somewhat tart almost vinegary flavour for the wine. (85 pts)
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February 4th, 2008
Nose - Hints of multi grain toast with a lemon or lime butter with the ever tiniest whiff of nutmeg and cinnamon.
Palate - explosion of little bubbles, nice sour apple with citrusy flavours and the yeasty notes that one would expect from a “methode traditionelle”, slight nuttiness ending with a wonderfully refreshing acidic crispness - there are also hints of under ripe sultana’s throughout the palate, not overpowering and really quite refreshing, this might not to be everyone’s taste, but I loved it!.
I was quite surprised by the quality of this wine coming out of Seaview.
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January 26th, 2008
Left to decant for 2.5 hours before trying.
Nose - The initial overpowering smell of black currants and other red fruit have blown off - they are there but much more muted. HInts of mint and freshly opened liquorice (black) here. Very subtle hints of a forest fire miles away whilst you’re standing in a wet temperate forest thick with mulch (not over powering).
Taste - Spicy tannins, crushed green leaves nice coating on the mouth. Just mature black olives are here, more vegetal than fruity, but hard to pin down. Hints of a smokey prosciutto as well. Not like your standard aussie wine. There is a lot here, heaps of tannins possibly boardering on over-oaked, but I think this will be perfection in 2-3 years.
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January 22nd, 2008
Opening the screwcap on this 04 there was a wonderful explosion of fruit. However I’ve left it to sit in the decanter these past 45 minutes.
The nose in the glass has all sorts in it - lots of mint, some bbq hot rocks with fat burning on them and a wopping amount of alcohol.
On the palate it starts off quickly with some fruit, but its gone and replaced with tar and astringincy not long after that - the tannins are small and cover all of your mouth. There be some liquorice here too perhaps more molassesy than liquoricey and some green leafy bits too. I think I’ve popped this one a little early and the tannins are squishing the fruit, or it’s just over oaked. I’m hoping that its just been popped early I suspect that the fruit here is enough to stand the test of time. Bacon fat is popping its head out occasionally - which is wicked!
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January 6th, 2008
Coming from 109 year old vines in the McLaren Vale region of south Australia I’m expecting good things from this wine. Fairly tight nose. Some deep red fruits showing through the alcohol - plums and the like.
Colour is extremely deep red almost purple.
A whole heap of oak is here, not much fruit showing through. Somewhat disappointing. Not horrible, but not outstanding. I’m thinking more time to open up is required here even five minutes after writing the previous statement, things are on the up. I expect in an hour or so this will be very nice. The tannins in this are very tight, smooth and feel nice on the mouth after swallowing.Given an extra 30 minutes this wine is opening up wonderfully, the nose is showing forth blueberries, molasses, fine tannins and something smokey like smoked fennel.The oak is easing off, but now there is a hint of vegemiteiness coming through. It’s tip top.
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January 5th, 2008
Dark red berries on the nose, black currant (cassis) is there too along with smoky tannins overlaid on a subtle sweet/pepper mint (mentholy) which is just intoxicating along with hints of freshly cracked black pepper. Buried somewhere in this nose is a little liquorice or molasses. Oh what a nose job this wine has - something new every time you take a whiff.
A tad of the oak monster on the initial palate, however this quickly heads off to the land of fruit and chocolate, giving way on the palate slowly to more astringent flavours that I associate with a just matured granny smith when you first bite into it. On the end there is a dusty dryness, however the mouthfeel does not hang along as much as I’d like.
A nice drop.
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December 18th, 2007
From the Cahors region in France, this red drop is made up of
- 79% Auxerrios
- 13 % Merlot
- 8% Tannat
From what I’ve been able to determine in the Cahors region Auxerrios would be known as Malbec in the rest of the world. No idea when its good to drink (or if its way past its best). Am expecting this to be “old world” in style and having raised my palate on new world Shiraz and Cab Sauv’s from the Barossa, McLaren Vale and Coonawarra in South Australia not sure that my palate would be able to tell the difference.
Colour - Clear dusky red tending slightly to brown.
Nose - Very soft and subtle - I can pick the alcohol in it, but there are other scents there - having trouble separating them out. The cherries from a blackforest cake are there on a bed of forest floor, perhaps a little cold cooked cabbage?
Taste - Dusty tannins, a little sour - unsure if this is meaning the wine has gone bad or if it’s the way it’s supposed to be. I’m getting some uncooked cauliflower juice coming through. The sourness almost makes me think of vinegar, but its not throughout the profile from start to finish and the wine seems integrated with initial tastes flowing on to secondary, tertiary and then the finish, which is a bit short but the journey is smooth and flowing from one part to the next.
Not sure what to make of this wine.
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