Again, a confected nose, with liquorice and caramel allsorts, cherry fruits, warm spices, blueberries and cinnamon. There are also sweet fruits on the palate, cuddly, with Christmas spices, and a warming finish. Pleasant tannins. Overnight it held its line, broadening a touch and softening. A nice wine.
Rated : 87 Points
Tasted : Jun09
Alcohol : 14.5%
Price : $22
Closure : Screwcap
Drink : 2009-2012
Source : Cellar
Website : Tim Adams
This is a review from May 2007. It is relevant because I am at the moment tasting the 2005 St Henri.
I love St Henri; in a good year I will buy a six-pack, in a great year I will buy a dozen, plus a few magnums. So I approached this bottle with some high expectations, despite the vintage. This showed a pleasantly lifted and forward nose; raspberry, mocha, nutmeg, some raisined fruit and a bit of black fruits and char. The palate was quite delicious, with raspberries, cinnamon, nutmeg, black cherries and raisins (again), and a bit of char; or is this more like a burnt fruit character? It certainly shows some ripe fruits, and the alcohol pokes out at times, but these are ably balanced by some rapspberry acid. A very good wine, but the baked/raisiny character just doesn’t sit quite right with me. Drink over the medium term.
Rated : 89 Points
Tasted : May07
Alcohol : 14.5%
Price : $80
Closure : Cork
Drink : 2010 – 2015
Source : The Wine Emporium
Website : Penfolds
I think I bought over a dozen bottles of this wine, plus a few magnums. It is one of my son’s birth year wines, and as it is now 10 years old, and it is time to try a bottle. Dark cherries, raspberries, coffee grounds, graphite, black earth, maybe even some tar. The palate is tightly wound, concentrated fruits, raspberries and plums, coffee grounds, painfully young – could easily be mistaken for a two or three year old wine. Still too young, but has super potential.
Other vintages: 1997
Rated : 91+ Points
Tasted : Jan09
Alcohol : 14%
Price : $45
Closure : Cork
Drink : 2014-2020+
Source : Cellar
Website : Penfolds
A cheapie; last bottle I think. Initially a bit closed, but eventually showed lots of black currants, so much in fact that they dominated to the exclusion of all else. The palate showed blackcurrants, black plums and black liquorice, straight-forward and tangy, with average length and a bit of abrasion through the mid-palate. I used to be a big buyer of this wine, and the Bin 56 for that matter, but either I’ve moved on or BRL aren’t putting the same fruit and effort into the wine.
Rated : 82 Points
Tasted : Sep08
Alcohol : 13.5%
Price : $18
Closure : Cork
Drink : 2008-2010
Source : Cellar
Website : Leasingham
I have instituted a new practice. I have 3 or 4 dozen samples, tasters and bottles from the cellar in boxes, and have a bottle chosen at random and served to me blind. I think this is a good idea because it forces one to think about the wine, instead of using preconceived ideas drawn from the label.
This one is a cellar release from Dan Murphys. Initially closed, but with hints of gunsmoke and dried apricots. Yes, weird. Luckily it settled down after a hour or so and showed gentle aromas of plummy fruits, spice, red liquorice and some secondary leathery characters. The palate continued the red liquorice theme; in fact there were lashings of it, accompanied by mulberries, plums and spice, clean earth, acid, and a soft tomato stalkiness. A pleasant drink, perhaps still a bit unidimensional, so hold for a few more years before trying again. I would have bought a few more but when I went to Dans today they had sold out.
Rated : 87 Points
Tasted : Jun08
Alcohol : 14.0%
Price : $19.90
Closure : Cork
Drink : 2011 – 2016
Source : Dan Murphys
Like a lot of Australia wine enthusiasts from the 90’s, I was weaned on the Robin Bradley “Gold Book”. I would trawl his guide, finding the treasured wines with 5 Gold Stars, believing they were the best Australia had to offer. I would buy the ones I could source locally and try them and decide which were the ones for me and which were the ones that weren’t. (more…)