I've been attending this show each year for the last four or so years..and each year they have their own set of issues...but after this year I'm not sure I'll be attending another one...
The good:
They had a lot of snack foods available which were included in the cost of the ticket (which was more expensive this year but it was well worth having the snacky food in the middle. This was a HUGE improvement over previous years.
They had people pouring the portions (Much more on this in the bad section). Making sure people weren't pouring themselves full glasses of wine was very welcome.
They tried to make it so everyone could get a taste of the Trophy winners. They limited everyone to three tastes within the Trophy room. I think four would've been a better number but I can appreciate what they're trying to do here.
The different classes/tutorials were all open so you could attend multiple tutorials if you wanted..this was a very good idea. They also mixed it up a bit and did ones different from previous years...
They also had a couple of vendors selling other stuff..one of them was Sweetness Patisserie.
http://www.sweetness.com.au/
So a lot of very nice sweet snacky treats to buy at the end of your tasting.....Their Marshmallows and Rocky Road are YUM.
The bread in the snack section was provided by Brasserie Bread. This is the second time I've had their bread and it is excellent.
http://www.brasseriebread.com.au/
The BAD:
I'm not sure what happened but they were missing a LOT of the wine. It wasn't the popular stuff or the award winners..but the NON award winners were nearly non-existent. I'm sure many of these wines don't get too much attention during the show but let's face it, we're there to try different wines and honestly, I could care less if a wine wins a Trophy, Gold or any other award....
If you're going to have people pouring, you need to have enough people. There just weren't enough people pouring and it was rather frustrating seeing them run back and forth all over the place...That plus half the space to try (because they were on the other side of the table, half as many people could be near the table) was probably not a good combination.
Also, if you're going to have them pour..DO NOT HAVE THEM POUR HALF A GLASS. Maybe this is the new trend and I am the one that doesn't get it. But this is a tasting event...you should have enough to taste and move on...this IS NOT a DRINKING EVENT.
If you're going to split up the wines into categories..that's great...But don't end up with a few random ones that for some reason weren't in their spot and ended up in random places in other portions of the hall. There were 3 categories that were basically lost and I have no idea why..it is just poor planning...especially since there was more than enough table room in the hall..there were plenty of empty spots...
The Wine. Overall I was pretty disappointed with the entries this year. It could've just been my palate but I did find some good wines there so I'm not sure that was it...
Wine Highlights:
Tyrell's Vat 1 Semillon 2005. This has been highly touted for a long time but it hadn't really started that transition to an aged Semillon the few times I've had it in the past. This time however, was different. Wonderful honey, toast, lemon, grass and herbs on the nose. First sniff after tasting a few others and I was sure this was going to be good. Palate still had WONDERFUL acidity...but at the same time you really got that slightly petrol, nutty toast, honey, with a touch of lanolin. Very complex and obviously still changing....Big acidity but still some fruit and stuffing to balance it out and keep it going....This one is going another 15 years at least....
Meerea Park Alexander Munro Semillon 2006. I'm not sure what happened here. I tried this because it was there...and in previous tastings the acid was on its way out..not a great amount of development compared to previous AM Semillons....but maybe it was just asleep. Good acidity, great development...There were other Semillons in the same league as this at the time...but I think I was just surprised that this one was so different from previous ones I've had...
Tertini Reserve Pinot Noir 2009.
I finally got to this after wading through several full full bodied Pinots...and what a relief. Medium bodied, red fruit, good acidity, wonderful complexity...Fruit was quite bright but still had some earth and herbs...One of the better Pinots I've had in Australia and the best one at the show...
Briar Ridge Dairy Hill Shiraz 2010. Pepper, herbs, leather and earth on the nose. Medium bodied with very good acidity. True Hunter but clean fruit and silky tannins. This was quite nice.
Pepper Tree Tallavera Limited Hunter Valley Shiraz 2010. Another very Hunter Shiraz. Medium Bodied, very good acidity, wonderful complexity. Bright red fruit, leather, wood and earth. I'm not sure why they don't have this available when you go to their Cellar door but this was very nice.
Other notables:
Thomas Braemore Semillon, 2009, 2008, 2007...Still one of my favorites...great depth early on which makes it enjoyable young...and develops into a very typical aged Semillon....2008 looks like it'll go for awhile...
Xanadu Reserve Chardonnay 2011. Not as good as previous years..but still solid. I think this is just too young...
Overall..the disappointment of not having everything available and slow rate of tasting because it required servers made for a really mediocre time. The food was a good touch and the change in the tutorials was nice as well....Not sure I'll be coming back next year though...
No comments:
Post a Comment