I'm trying to drink my cellar down at the moment, as the wine storage fees are a little excessive, and there's wine lying all over the boat. So, last night, in the name of good housekeeping, we had:
Ridge Geyserville 1994
This is the last bottle from the amazing Chinatown buyout Chris, Dan and myself effected a few years ago. I can't remember how many bottles we ended up buying, but I do know the last two bottles opened were very much over the hill, showing overwhelmingly unpleasant oxidised characters. So I didn't have very high hopes for this bottle.
What a wonderful surprise, then, to see a bright, not-overly-dense ruby red colour pour into my glass. Good start. The nose showed complexity and balance, flavours tending towards dusty, leathery sourness (the other half chimed in with "radishes!", which pretty much nails it). The palate delivered more of the same, plus the last vestiges of distinctive zinfandel fruit flavours, and, susprisingly, a light dusting of fine tannins. Very much in balance, lots of flavours swirling around in there, like some sort of beautiful yet sad last gasp.
Brands Coonawarra Shiraz 1998
Quite a different beast, this one. It's ageing quite well, but is a considerably younger wine, the balance of flavours still tipped more heavily towards fruit compared to the Ridge. I remember this wine being really enticing as a youngster, with that lovely clear, elegant fruit flavour profile that Coonawarra shiraz tends to have. So there's definite aged complexity developing, and the mix of flavours is relatively well balanced, but compared to the Ridge there's a clumsiness to this wine, a coarseness, that relates in particular to its structure, and perhaps to its mouthfeel also. Still, for less than $20 when purchased, not a bad performance. I have one of these left and will probably drink it soon.
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