Tyrrells and others

Sorry for not posting for awhile..a lot of stuff going on personally but anyways...

Tyrells Vat 1 1999.
One of my favorite semillons ever...this and the 1998 are both really fantastic.  Looked good through the bottle so from an oxidation standpoint it was looking good.  Popped it, sniffed it, took a sip...perfect.  Still really young with very vibrant acidity...Too young maybe?  I don't know but it had fantastic depth, toasty notes..honey and just really fantastic acid.  There was some left near the end of the night and it was still singing..these are so good it is a shame they're under cork though.

Eileen Hardy Chardonnay 2008
A lot of really nice Chardonnay out of Australia...Really good acidity, good depth, a bit too much oak at this stage, I really want to see this in 5 years or so..but this is drinking really nicely now.  I really like when Chardonnays have some fatness to them (oak, malo, etc) but still have that acidity to balance that out.  It makes for a very complex, very complete wine.

Kumeu River Mate's Chardonnay 2008
Very similar to the Eileen Hardy but maybe a bit less obvious oak.  New Zealand has a lot of great stuff as well..Kumeu is consistently great and one of the best.  It is also really easy to find in the US making it a quality drop at a pretty reasonable price.  40ish dollars for a complex Chardonnay with good acidity.

Penfolds St. Henri 1998
A few months back I had the 1993 which wasn't a great vintage but it was fantastic.  1998 was a really good year so I had really high expectations.  What we got was both good and bad.  On the good side, the structure was fantastic, I think this wine will last another 15+ years.  It was pretty typical of a lot of St. Henris which take a lot of time to come around...on the bad, it was just too too tight considering this wine was 15-16 years from vintage...I want to see this in 10 years..not sure if I'll have the chance but I think it'll be great.

Felton Road Block 5 2008.
I generally like most of the stuff from Felton Road..their Pinots tend to be very nice...I think this one we caught at a funny stage.. a bit hot even?  I didn't check the % but it seemed a little on the hot side...I've had some of these before but with more age and this just didn't do it for me.  I can see the structure, the fruit, the acidity was good as well..nose was nice but not giving away too much.  It needs quite a bit more time...