....but sometimes they are just covering their arses. Do you read the blurb on the back of wine bottles? The marketers can and do make up all sorts of rubbish (I know I've done so myself). Generally the cheaper the blend the more creative the writing. Often, with better quality wines, in addition to the expansive descriptions of flavours and colour there is a bit of detail about the grapes used and the area(s) they came from. There is usually an indication of when the wine is best drunk or how long to cellar it. The trick is to pick a number that suggests the wine is big and will improve with cellaring without putting the buyer off by him thinking that only his grandchildren will benefit from the wine. I opened a bottle of 2002 Stonehaven Hidden Sea Cabernet Sauvignon. This Wrattonbully/Coonawarra blend was made at the now closed Stonehaven winery in Padthaway and I suspect that the Hidden Sea label is another casualty of the disastrous Constellation Australia brand reorganisation. The back label tells us that "the wine is rich and complex, revealing aromatic ripe blueberry, redcurrant and cassis flavours that are enhanced by subtle oak characters. The wine has been made to enjoy now or cellar for up to 7 years" Well they are wrong! The wine is truly alive and will benefit from further cellaring (not now for me as I've nearly finished my only bottle). It is rich and complex I agree. It has a dense dark colour with vibrant hues. There is a nice balance of fruit and gentle oak that age has combined. It has a round, soft and still fresh flavour with a nice finish and will be good for a few more years. Constellation Australia (formerly BRL Hardy LTD) has been selling off vineyards and wineries (haven't found a buyer for the magnificent Stonehaven winery yet) and I assume dumping out all of the old stocks. If you see any of this wine or more recent vintages or indeed any Stonehaven red wines being specialled out then I recommend that you buy them. Seriously good and good keepers.
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| Stonehaven Cellar Door and Winery |
10 comments:
Oh yes yes yes ...but I'll never forget the Haut-Brion. Somehow every cabernet sauvignon disappoints afterwards.
You ought to try a good Hawkes Bay Cabernet blend from 2005 vintage onwards.
The Wine Guy
Should all Cabs be mixed with lemonade? I remember that working for me in the 70s.
It worked about as much as the red flared trousers did for picking up women.
Red flared trousers worked for me.
A Scots lass, one Mistress McCarten,
Led a life that was sober and Spartan,
But she’d push out the boat,
Once a week, down her throat,
Went a magnum of Léoville-Barton
Elton John
Thank you Elton. I like that. I've drunk several vintages of Léoville-Barton but never from a magnum. Lucky old Mistress McCarten.
This reminds me of another ditty. This one from a Derek and Clive performance.
My dear little Flo, I love you so
Especially in your nightie.
When the moonlight flits across your tits
Oh! Jesus Christ almighty.
"My dear little Flo, I love you so
Especially in your nightie.
When the moonlight flits across your tits
Oh! Jesus Christ almighty."
But ne'er it be said
The Wine Guy by blighty
E'er looked apon woman
Except in dreams nightly.
When you drink with the Devil:
When the time came for Second to pass on,
His wife at the wake drank Paul Masson,
Now Second's in Hell,
Where they drink Hirondelle,
And Gallo is greatly in fashion.
Well said TSB. Wouldn't it be 'divine' justice if Second was proved right in his beliefs that there is a heaven and hell but he got sent to hell.
An appropriate ditty:
I go said Second to a better place
One that I'll find to be fine
He arrived and met, face to face
TSB who'd drunk all the wine.
(OK, lousy doggerel I know but its late)
And to finish:
An oenophile based in Matariki,
Gave up sex when he hit 93.
'But I'd never abandon
My Moet and Chandon,
In my will I have left it to me.
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