Thursday, January 6th, 2005
1990 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Spätlese, Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium, Mosel
Appearance: deepish green gold.
Nose: honeyed, fading apples and pears, kerosene, some cheese.
Palate: good balance of acid to sugar, rich, good length. Pleasant honeyed fruit.
Conclusion: we’ve enjoyed the 1990 wines from Gymnasium more than the 1989s, although the 1990s have usually been Spätlesen with that extra bit of richness (not discounting the difference between vintages, however). This was a particularly good bottle.
Rating: 18/20
Tuesday, January 4th, 2005
2003 d’Arenberg ‘The Feral Fox’ Pinot Noir, Adelaide Hills
Appearance: medium red purple, pink rim.
Nose: not as hot as expected although clearly not a cool-climate Pinot; red cherry and strawberry fruit, some spice, fair amount of French oak.
Palate: good fruit, high balanced acidity, high alcohol, but well held together, soft low tannins, fairly good length.
Conclusion: this was in a less assertive style than we expected (although we’ve only really drunk Australian Pinots from the Yarra Valley, Mornington and Tasmania). For a wine at 14.5% alc. – which usually pushes Pinot into atypicity, i.e. jam – this was very well balanced. A young wine (appropriately, this bottle was enjoyed over two days). Probably not d’Arenberg’s most exciting red, however.
Rating: 17/20
