AND NEARBY …
Date: Friday 15 June, 2018, 6:30pm start
Place: Kidnappers Cliffs Room, Te Awa Winery, 2375 State Highway 50
Cost: $85 per person
Bookings: www.fawc.co.nz
Limit: 19-only places
Contact person at Te Awa Winery: Lisa Chambers, mobile 027 910 0019, email: lisac@teawa.com
Booking Conditions / Waiting-LIst: There are no refunds for non-attendance. If circumstances prevent you attending, it is your responsibility to find a substitute. F.A.W.C ! can help in this, with their Ticket Buy and Sell facility: http://www.fawc.co.nz/events/fawc-marketplace Conversely, if the event sells out, and you wish to be on the Waiting List, please register at the same address to buy tickets, should they become available.
The 2000 Vintage: In New Zealand, 2000 was a La Nina vintage (slight tendency to prevailing nor’easters). Spring was promising apart from 80 mm rain 28 / 9 November in Hawkes Bay. For reds, as in Bordeaux, not a perfectly dry season, but a settled summer / autumn except for 70 mm rain 8 – 10 April, again in Hawkes Bay. Where viticulture was good and cropping rates were conservative, a plentiful and stylish vintage with good wines resulting. Reasonable alcohols, and Bordeaux style in the best blends too – so much so that 2000 Te Mata Coleraine was in 2003 judged in the top 10 reds at VinExpo, in Bordeaux ! Waiheke Island fared somewhat better, without marked rainfall days. For Bordeaux, the vintage is generally rated highly, though not everyone agreed with Wine Spectator‘s initial 99 rating. They have subsequently reduced that to 95, but maintained their assessment of the vintage: Racy tannins and very delineated reds now hitting their stride. Parker rates the vintage from 94 – 97 depending on the commune. St Julien, Pauillac and St Estephe are 96 and T for tannin, indicating cellar wines. Michael Broadbent rates the vintage 5 stars for many wines, and comments: The millennium vintage largely lived up to expectations, the best for reds since 1990. The wines are developing well, and their original promise is amply justified. … The more serious right and left bank wines are clearly in for a long, satisfactory life. A highly recommended vintage.
The wines include a cross-section of cabernet / merlot styles, including a couple of well-regarded classed growths rated 97 points by Robert Parker. One of them is described as: ‘one of the great wines of the vintage’. The opportunity to assess Hawkes Bay wines alongside similar Waiheke Island, Coonawarra, and Bordeaux examples will be a delight. Tasters must accept the risk of corked wines, just as with your own cellared wines. There will be reserve wines, so you still receive 12 samples, but maybe not a hoped-for one.
There are twelve wines, presented blind, via 30-ml pours in XL5 glasses (Schott-Zwiesel). They are presented blind so that assessment is not clouded by views offered in the tasting notes in the hand-out. Rankings are requested by simple vote at the blind stage, and later comments are invited, if forthcoming. There is no requirement to say a word.
The Tasting:
New Zealand and Australia:
2000 Alpha Domus Aviator, Hawkes Bay
2000 Mills Reef Merlot Elspeth, Hawkes Bay
2000 Ngatarawa Alwyn, Hawkes Bay
2000 Petaluma Coonawarra Cabernet / Merlot, Coonawarra
2000 Stonyridge Larose, Waiheke Island
2000 Te Mata Coleraine, Hawkes Bay
France:
2000 Ch Angludet, Margaux
2000 Ch Lanessan, Cussac (Haut Medoc)
2000 Clos René, Pomerol
2000 Ch Grand Corbin-Despagne, St Emilion
2000 Ch Leoville Poyferre, St Julien
2000 Ch Pichon-Longueville-Baron, Pauillac
