2003 Barossa Valley Estate E&E Sparkling Shiraz

This sparkling Shiraz is the best I have tried to date. At over HKD4XX per bottle, it is certainly not cheap but certainly worth it. Very concentrated, black current, peppery, oaky and chocolate. Chilled and well balanced, and does not feel watery or just like grape juice. Nice round finish. Too bad someone drank my only bottle left at my wedding party!

1997 Penfolds Grange

Opened 2 bottles on wedding on freezing roof, but best condition to drink as temperature around 12 Celsius. Decanted and drank after around 1 hour. 96% shiraz and 4% cab. Well structured, all kinds of black fruits and red fruit, minty cool feeling, oak, red to purple, well integrated tannins, but clearly young. Wonderful way to spend the evening with good friends with something complex yet refreshing.

2005 Forest Hill Block 9 Shiraz

I like this Shiraz a lot! At 14%, it has strong alcohol content, but not over the top of taste nor flavor. Well balanced with berries and touch of leafy and cedar with excellent finish.

http://www.foresthillwines.com.au/foresthillredwines.htm

2007 Wolf Blass Chardonnay Yellow Label

Citrus, pear and oak. Well balanced and refreshing. Always consistent from Wolf Blass. Not fat, and tasted well both chilled and more closer to room temperature.

2005 Torbreck Shiraz The Struie

Another go and the Struie, always wonderful with the berries, the licorice, the toasty oak and great smooth complexity. Always a pleasure to drink!

(refer to other post)

2004 The Colonial Estate L'Explorateur

Big berry, big prune, hot, acidic and alcoholic. Big shiraz wine that probably goes better with food then just drinking alone.

2006 Cat Amongst the Pigeons Shiraz Grenache Alley Cat

Again, great value for money for Cat Amongst the Pigeons. Buy before the price goes up. The wine is bursting with fruit and alcohol but a bit to the harsh side and considered hot. The Shiraz Grenache blend is finely balanced with great length. Lacks finesse but more than makes up with it black fruit and yummy taste.

N.V. Jacob's Creek Sparkling Rosé

Chardonnay + Pinot Noir. Very light pink with fat bubbles. Yeasty with strawberries. Good for its price.

2006 Glaetzer Shiraz Amon-Ra Barossa Valley

This wine from Barossa is so so powerful, so powerful that it makes you doubt if you can handle all of the fruit, all of that tannin and all of that alcohol. A scary wine, in the bottle, the color (deep purple red, so dark, so much alcohol!), and in the smell. It is so young, and probably not ready to drink.

Drank too fast, as was having with pizza, just filled with blackberries, blueberries, black currant, jammy, tannins, some pepper and oak. They say you need to wait for 4-48(!) hours for this wine, I look forward to opening it for 24 hours before drinking. But personally, this is way too powerful for me and I prefer the Anaperenna, which is more approachable and more well balanced.

The eye corresponds to the "sixth" sense, I would say the "sixth" part is the feel of history in the old vines of this Shiraz from Ben Glaetzer.

Description of wine from official website

2003 d'Arenberg Shiraz The Footbolt

Deep red purple color. Cassis, blackberry, raspberries, pepper. Nose, a good new world shiraz but not fake nor overpowering. Compared with the dead arm, more approachable, not as much heat and not as much complex nor powerful. Very good for the price, enjoyable with meat. Finish with hint of meat and fine stable long finish.

On other years, it scores very high with WS and RP. Sometimes wine is more enjoyable when it is trys not too hard. Without the old vines, the conentration, too much french oak, it tastes fine for a night with friends or pizza in front of the TV.

Write up on the maker

2006 John Duval Wines Shiraz Entity

Dark purple color, nose has alcohol, blackberry and vanilla. Tannins still way too strong and high in acidity. Fruit intense but not overpowering. Finish long but lacks a bit complexity. Not as good as remember tasting the other years.

John Duval is a ex-Penfolds man and produces some very good wines with good character. Look forward to trying the other wines soon from him in Barossa Valley.

John Duval Web Site

2005 Cape Mentelle Cabernet Merlot

Blackcurrant, pepper, tobacco leaf and a bit of animal. Very good with the steak. Grainy, high tannins, acidity and finish that is not long but with the sticky mouth feeling.

Good wine from Margret River. This wine is very popular on the web. I guess also a very good wine to go with Pizza, as mentioned by Carmen.

Cape Mentelle web site

2006 Green Point Chardonnay

Wine selection at Heline's wedding in Singapore was very good. Very good marriage of food and wine. The first was Green Point Chardonnay. Light yellow with strong vanilla, creamy and yeasty overtones. Fresh peach and citrus. short to medium finish. With time and warmer, still well balanced and suburb wine which went really well with the lobster. Very impressed with this Yarra Valley wine.

Remember tasting the sparkling wine before, which was also impressive.

Green Point Web Site

2005 d'Arenberg Shiraz The Dead Arm

Powerful wine of Shiraz, from the d'Arenberg. Fantastic black fruit with strong vanilla sense as but in American and French oak for 22 months. However, not as strong as powerful as expected. Lacks complexity and probably not worth the price of over $500.

2005 Nugan Estate Third Generation Cabernet Sauvignon

Deep purple, oak, plums and berries. Smooth and reasonable finish. Good price / value. Had it at Ranee's wine class, they asked me to compare it Rawson Retreat from Penfolds. Of course much better, but it cost 3 times as much! Around HKD280.

2006 Anaperenna by Ben Glaetzer x2

Another chance having this wine. So smooth, blackberries, expresso, chocolate, leather and lots of oak. Had it with Roast Goose, but did not have enough time for the wine to open up. Really enjoyable wine, and everybody loved it.

2005 Torbreck The Struie

Had 2 glasses of this at SAVVA, above Prince's Buildling. I have always loved Torbreck wines and The Steading, Juveniles, The Factor, The Steading and Runrig very much. This was the first time I had The Struie and was really pleasently surprised! Great, smooth shiraz with licorice, vanilla, spices and great blackberries that are not over-the-top but with sophistication and depth. You can feel the old vine shiraz but the 100% shiraz is better than the grenache blends that I have tried with Torbreck, although I enjoy those tremendously as well. It did not remind me of the hermitage right away, but this has long long finish and finesse.

2006 mollydooker shiraz Two Left Feet

MollyDooker wines are great value for money wines. The Two Left Feet is a blend of Shiraz, Cabernet and Merlot. The wine explodes with fruit with cherries, raspberries, plums and spices. It is very smooth but it does lack a bit of finesse.

You are supposed to take out the Nitrogen with the Mollydooker shake. I did not try it but I will surely do it next time.

At 16% alcohol for all their wines, be careful in drinking them, as the alcohol content in it is way higher than the labeled!

Mollydooker web page

2006 Anaperenna by Ben Glaetzer

New name for the 75% Shiraz from Glaetzer. The vintages 2004 and 2005 was Godolphin but now it is named Anaperenna after the Roman Goddess of the New Year. This year's Cab is higher than normal at 25% and the wine is from the Barossa Valley, Australia.

Still tight, with dark, blackberry smell and vanilla. Powerful wine with great with cabernet sauvignon blending fantastically with the shiraz. Herbs, black fruit, cedar, high acidity when drunk. The finish is unbelievably long. They say it is 60 secs long?!

Had left over blue cheese with it. It really brings the feeling of the "new year" to everyday!

1994 Moss Wood Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon

Was introduced to Moss Wood through Carmen almost 8 years ago and have loved it ever since. At that time, hard to buy it at duty free or in Australia as it was not widely available in HK.

It was a treat that Karl bought the 1994 Cab for us to try during on of the wine tastings.

Dark black fruit, concentrated flavors, mineral, cassis flavours. Great nose, well balanced. A good cabernet, and looking forward to more Moss Woods.