Cont,
JIM BARRY
Of the underclass, the Watervale riesling 03 was good,quite floral with nice palate intensity,clean,young and acidic. The Cover Drive 02 ($18) cabernet is good value at the price,good varietal definition with currant,herb and some mint,a touch of bitterness on the follow through though. 01 Lodge Hill Shiraz,fruity,spicy,chocolate, honest Clare Valley shiraz at $18 again.
The 2000 Mc Crae Wood and Armagh were a big step up in class. Both pure shiraz wines. The McCrae Wood showed notes of white pepper,well put together with fine tannins,excellent length and a nice wine for an average vintage.
The Armagh was (my notes say,a wine with testicles!) big and bold. Ripe ,spicy and dense. I havn't tried many Armaghs(1!) so I'm not sure how this compares to previous vintages but it is an uncompromising wine with noticeable oak sweetness. Hard to make a call on it, I won't pretend to know much about its future given my lack of experience with it. I thank Julie Barry very much for taking me for a drive out to have a look at the Armagh vineyard and its gnarly,twisted vines,very historic. Good people in the Clare,couldn't help you enough as a rule.
PAULETTS
Well priced wines,all around the $15 mark. I found some acidic hardness(phenolics?) on the 03 Riesling and Unwooded Chard, but actually tasted the Chard again a few days later and it showed better,so it may have been a bad bottle.
The 01 Andraos Shiraz,which is the flagship wine,only made in the best years,was very impressive in barrel,last made in 98. Approx $35, it is a v.good wine of admirable intensity and power. Small quantities,so hard to find but worth a look.
PIKES
Had a super time at Pikes. Neil Pike is a champion bloke,despite deciding to take me out for a look at some grapes on the vines,in the dark,2 minutes before it absolutely bucketed down!!
I have to say that I was also highly impressed with his wines across the board. We did some verticals going back to the 80's ,and it was remarkable just how long lived and durable the wines were,both white and red. I would also add that you should keep an eye out for the wines from his Adelaide Hills venture,Pike and Joyce,a Pinot Noir and a Pinot Gris. Both glorious,well priced wines at $28 and $20 respectively.
Enough has been said about the 03 Riesling. It's really good. Plenty of fruit and just delicious drinking. We then opened the 1990 Polish Hill as a comparison. Deeply coloured with toast and honey but still plenty of acid,plenty of time left in this one. We both felt that it wouldn't get any better,but will hold for some time yet. Lovely,a joy to drink.
The 01 Cabernet( $22) is an undervalued wine. It's vibrantly youthful,in rude good health colour wise;it looks great. Tight with fine grippy tannin,,and best of all it ages gracefully. We then tried the 99 Reserve Cab,starting to show development but still with pure ,rich varietal blackcurrant fruit,lovely tobacco/cigar box character coming through. To top things off, the 87 Cabernet,from a less than perfect year,was showing beautifully and not tired at all. Still life in this one yet,fully developed though, but a real treat to try and Neil thinks the 01 has similar traits.
Too numb in the mouth to try any more,so we retired for dinner! Great day,great people,would have loved another couple of days to try everything else. From here,on to Mclaren Vale,will post later in the week.
Cheers
SA visit -Clare part 2
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Grant
One other thing. I'd recommend that if you are going to Clare,its worth taking a wander through the vineyard at Wendouree. There's no cellar door as such, but you can go up and take a look at some of the craziest looking vines you'll ever see,really a national treasure and a must for wine junkies.
Cheers
Cheers