The latest mailer from the Villa Maria wine club was titled "Blast from the Past" and offered a chance to taste some aged wines. I run a wine training programme for Villa Maria and most of the training focuses on the current releases. But a question that is asked regularly by those attending the course, is how long a particular wine will age. I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to go and get a snapshot of how the wines develop in bottle.
One of Villa's Marlborough winemakers, Jeremy McKenzie, hosted the tasting and kept us entertained with stories of winemaking, hunting pigs and shooting deer. I am sure most of us in the audience wouldn't have been capable of wrestling a wild pig to the ground, so Jeremy helpfully also provided more pedestrian food matching tips.
2005 Villa Maria Reserve Barrique Fermented Chardonnay, Gisborne : Bright straw. Nose has plenty of sweet oak; bran biscuit, hazelnut and cinnamon with some grapefruit peel, lemon and spun sugar too. Good texture, silky and creamy with a thread of acidity running through. Plenty of oak again, butterscotch and melted butter, a fleshy generous style that is deliciously drinkable. Four years old and really at its peak now though would keep on through 2011.
2006 Cellar Selection Pinot Noir, Marlborough : Bright ruby with little sign of ageing. Nose has quite a strong minty, herbaceous note at first. Smokey with dark fruits and cranberry too. Primary, fresh and bright. Decent fruit concentration, some silky tannins.
I found the green note a bit off putting at first though it disappeared with time in the glass. But it is hard to make a convincing case for keeping this level of pinot noir much past 3 to 4 years.
2005 Cellar Selection Syrah, Hawke's Bay : Bright ruby. Pungent white pepper, some dark fruits and florals. Not too much oak which keeps the palate juicy and fresh. Medium finely grained tannins and decent length. A good solid effort and whilst drinking very well now it would be good to keep a few bottles for another 2-3 years to see the primary fruit profile develop into something more.
2000 Reserve Merlot, Hawke's Bay : Just starting to show some ageing on rim. Nose has tobacco, dark plum and cassis with a definite whiff of fruitcake. Some secondary truffley, mushroom notes emerging too. Plenty of richness and concentration indeed almost a touch of super-ripe fruit. But there is still a quite noticeable drying tannic edge that persists after the fruit flavours have faded. Is this a result of a really hot 'excellent' vintage ? An impressive wine but I wonder if the tannins will resolve ?
1999 Reserve Merlot Cabernet, Hawke's Bay : My wine of the night. Poured from a magnum, this wine had a magnificent complex nose; lead pencil, cigar box, smoky berry fruit with some mocha/coffee grounds secondary characters too. A touch of tannin still present but with lovely bright acidity lifting the profile. Good persistence. Overshadowed by the more prestigious 1998 and 2000 vintages, I wonder if this 'lesser' 1999 vintage has made for a fresher, more appealing character than the wines from the other two, more lauded vintages? Certainly in Bordeaux, more forward vintages (I am thinking here of 2002 and 2004) have produced some really charming, early drinking wines that have grace and elegance. One wonders if in an effort to make 'serious' wines, in the earlier days, some Hawke's Bay wine producers concentrated on extracting to the maximum and along the way, lost some of the subtlety and charm. (I remember judging the Museum class at the 2008 Hawke's Bay show last year and being struck by how tough and unyielding many of the aged reds seemed to taste).
Hopefully, now we are ten years further on, this is no longer the case.
2003 Single Vineyard Twyford Gravels Cabernet Sauvignon, Hawke's Bay : Very dark ruby. The nose is very opulent, showing a tiny bit of warmth. Lots of cassis, plum, wood smoke and lead pencil. Ripe, densely fruited at first then chalky, chewy tannins kick in. Good length.
At $15 a ticket, I thought the tasting was great value. An aperitif of Single Vineyard Waldron Riesling served on arrival, thoughtfully provided cheese platters on each table, (though the person sitting next to me managed to woof through most of our table's without much fuss - obviously hadn't been taught to share as a child) and a light supper served afterwards. All in all, an entertaining and interesting evening.
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