The Auswine Forum

One wine represents all that is good about Coonawarra, and one represents the world of sameness - can you guess which is which ?


2000 Lindemans St George Cabernet
Deep ruby. Sweet blackcurrant-blackberry fruit. A fairly obvious wine, lacking complexity. The classic St George characters seem to have been sacrificed in its “Rosemountisation”. This wine used to be about elegant, archetypal cassis-minty Coonawarra fruit with good quality French oak. This current vintage could have come from anywhere.


2000 Balnaves Cabernet
Deep ruby. Intense, youthful and brooding blackcurrant fruit and powdery, cedar oak on both nose and palate. A very good, serious Cabernet which will cellar beautifully. This is low-cropped, quality fruit allied to some good oak.


regards
Chris

Thanks Chris

I like good Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon- the old simple style such as Balnaves.

Bowen and Leconfield making a resurgence too I hear. Both around the 20 dollar mark.

The more you spend, the more you seem to be at risk with Coonawarra cabernet.

Thankfully we have the help of the discerning Auswine palates to sift through the pretenders.

The more you spend, the more you seem to be at risk with Coonawarra cabernet

Don't quite agreed with that, Jaime. The more u spent, the lesser the risk unless the btl. is faulty.

I'm a firm believer in Price = Quality equation.

Of couse, we do get detractors who prefered elegance over full blown styles like the Tally or oppullent of the Odyssey.

Btw. how much is the Cullen at duty free? Fair est. will be around mid-60sAU$(without tax) but I know most duty free prices ain't cheap becos of high operating cost.

Drink less, drink better.

Cheers,

Chris it has been a long time between drinks for St George. Not since the 96 has the wine been tops. Balnaves, on the other hand hasn't produced a bad wine for quite some time.
don't know what Southcorp is going to do with the trio. They really need to be brought back to the high $20's in price. They are over-priced at the high $30's.

cheers
anthony

Agree Anthony, this St George was way over-priced. I also drank the 00 Petaluma which is in the same price bracket, at the same time as the other two, and it is a classier wine for the money.

regards
Chris

martin

I have found your price equation appropriate for my palate in all regions bar Coonawarra.

What I enjoy most in Coonawarra cabernet is more often or not delivered in the below $30 range. Above the $30 range I often find unneccessary pretenders and overworked wine.

Anthony's notes strike a chord.

Balnaves, Majella, Bowen, Leconfield, Wynn, Katnook, Zema often deliver the blackcurrent, leaf, licorice and cedar characteristics ( Katnook and Majella can include richer qualites without detracting from the basics) into a wine that improves with a few years in the cellar (IMHO 7 or so).

In the high price range($40+), I have found Coonawarra cabernet hit and miss. Sure, there are classic wines, but I have had more disappointments relative expectation.

Maybe it is because $20 or so Coonawarra cabernet is so good and a consequential expectation factor of the pricier Coonawarra! There may be a lot of legitimacy in this argument when you compare the quality of $20 Coonawarra cabernet with $20 Barossa shiraz and certainly, with Margaret River caberent in the same price range.

Coonawarra-KISS!

For $260 dollars a case of any of the above Coonawarra cabernet the most cost effective means of stocking the cellar with solid varietal wines that improve with bottle age.

Excuse my bias!

BTW Cullens 70 Aussie with airport worker's discount at Changi.

Jaime,

So which is ur fav. "value" Coonawarra ?

Mine are:

$20< Brands.
$20> Balnaves & Majella over Wynns
$30> Murdock

Rgds,

Mine are:
Sub $20: Penley Phoenix
$20-30: Balnaves & Bowen
$30 and beyond: Majella & Katnook

Under $20 can't argue with Phoenix or Brands.

Under $30 Bowen and Leconfield (guilty of enjoying the 00 too). Majella very good. Katnook, though not really and under $30 category, can be seen in this category!

OK Martin. Been away from Aus' for almost a year. Home soon and a few of your recommended >$40 Coonawarra cabernet?

I prefer regional and varietal definition to and over the top, "could it be a shiraz" style.

I have found that Coonawarra wineries, are very good when they get into their "zones" (which tend to last for 3-4 years), they then drop and flatten out. In summary their performances tend to cycle. i.e

Majella - Vgood from 98-01, definetely in the "zone".
Bowen - Excellent in the early to mid-nineties, flat since.
Zema - Good from 96 with peak in 00. 01 tasting are disappointing.
Leconfield - Poor since 97, starting to come good in 01.
St George - Agree, has been poor in the late nineties.
Katnook - Tends to be the exception, vgood all the way through.
Brands - I feel base product, has suffered of late, too price driven.
Murdoch - A revealation since 98.
Wynns - Black Label, has lost its soul since 99.
Petaluma - Along with Katnook super consistent, always the best of the bunch in a bad year.

Some interesting comments on Coonawarra wineries quality in recent times and an interesting comment about some of them being very good for a period then going off the boil.

Going off the boil could be caused by a number of factors like personnel changes, different ideas being employed or Accountants "making" the wine.

From my close observation of Coonawarra I think there are several wineries that are now making their best wines ever, vintage variation excepted.

Top of the tree my almost any standard, including continuous significant major show success is Majella. No secret to how they've achieved it, good vineyards, good viticulture, excellent winemaker and a dedication to make the best wine in Coonawarra. Hard to argue they aren't doing that now.

Katnook, Balnaves, Zema, Parker and Penley are getting better and better across a significant part of their range. Again there are constant improvements in the viticulture and a revitalisation of vineyards by adopting the techniques that are producing the best quality fruit. These guys aren't resting on their laurels, they are making improvements all the time.

I think the bar is being raised in Coonawarra and there may be some that don't go with the raised standard. One to watch for from here is Leconfield now they have Paul Gordon in charge.

I tend to agree with some of the comments about the Southcorp stable but, even there, things are astir. They have replanted substantial areas in the heart of Coonawarra with better varieties, clones and trellis methods and taken the chainsaw to other significant areas of vineyards to revitalise the vines. This loss of production is in pursuit of better fruit quality so even Southcorp is seeing the bar raising and doesn't want to be left behind.

Newcomers that have hit their straps from day one are Murdock, Ladbroke Grove and Reschke. All of these wines are made under contract at Coonawarra wineries but are made by the pick of the winemakers - Peter Bissell at Balnaves, Bruce Gregory at Majella and Peter Douglass at the ill fated Gartner winery (I believe).

The good thing for consumers is the stable prices from Coonawarra at present now representing great value. So drink up and stock up, the quality has never been better.

Jaime,

I would strongly recommend <b>Murdock</b> since u like Balnaves. Incidently this wine is also made by P.Bissell using the Balnaves facility. It's richer, more concentrated and intense than the standard Balnaves but NOT as massive as the Tally.
The '98 is riper and their '99 better structured.

Also the <b>Zema Family Selection</b> Highly impressed with their 96 & 98. Havent try their later vintages.

Cheers,

Any comments on Wetherall winery? I thought I've heard it somewhere that the '98 vintage was most impressive. How are the recent vintages?

The 98 Wetherall Cabernet was a stunning wine but I understand the label has now been put into recess by the owners as they have a young family taking up their time. 2000 was their last vintage.

Anonymous wrote:Any comments on Wetherall winery? I thought I've heard it somewhere that the '98 vintage was most impressive. How are the recent vintages?

I didnt buy volumes of 98s in Coonawarra more 1 of quite a few.
So far the 98 Weatherall has been my top pick and I only had the one
michel