2005 Hardy’s Nottage Hill Cabernet Sauvignon

In 1850, at the age of 20, Thomas Hardy came to the new colony of South Australia from Devon, England. He established a winery on the banks of Adelaide's River Torrens in 1853. His Bankside winery was the start of an outstanding family wine business that grew to become one of the world's great wine companies. Thomas Hardy was a self-made man, a pioneer of immense character. With a mixture of energy, determination, shrewd judgment, innovation and a touch of daring, he pursued the highest standards in winemaking. At Bankside, and later at his McLaren Vale property Tintara, he focused on quality and craftsmanship. (courtesy of the Hardy’s homepage).

One of the surprising things about this wine is its softness. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s a rather pleasant surprise for this grape variety. Cab Sauvs are usually big and bold. ‘Argh! Look at me, I’m a big red wine!’ But the subtleties of this wine cause me to consider that the black and white labelling suggests this is more genteel.

On the nose there are some complex characteristics. ‘Complex’, of course, usually means that there is so much going on it’s hard to tell exactly what’s there. There are the fruits and the black currents common to Cab Sauvs as well as a hint of chocolate. However the real pleasure begins on the tongue. The tannins are pretty soft with a smooth finish which lingers all afternoon. The complex nose carries over to the flavours, but doesn’t detract from the overall pleasantness of this wine.

A great wine to be served with red meats over dinner.

Woodstock 2001 Shiraz Cabernet

I received this excellent wine as a present back in Christmas '05 and have been saving it for quite a while. A friend at work said that anything 2001 from South Australia was going to be a very good drop - the main reason: bush fires. During 2001 South Australia suffered from many bush fires, the result being that the grapes in the wine regions were going to be very sweet and the wines excellent. Lesson for today: the year of a wine will be important to some degree, and you can tell if one year is better than the other sometimes from seemingly irrelevant reasons (such as a bush fire!).

So it comes as no surprise that when I did open up the bottle, to coincide with our wedding anniversary, the wine was brilliant. I have learned that one of the best reasons for keeping wine is to allow it to mellow out. However, wine can not be kept forever. This particular wine has a cellaring potential of anywhere from 5-8 years. I've opened it at the 6 year mark.

And after 6 years this wine has matured quite well. Whist I expected it to be quite strong, I was also quite surprised at how relatively mellow flavouring was. So I referred to the notes to compare what I was tasting stacked up to the winemaker's opinion...

Herbal anise and cloves spice with pencil shavings, cedar, coconut and complex bacon aromas.

Don't know about the complex bacon aromas, but there was a hint of coconut and a hint of wood. I thought I picked up the scent of tobacco but that could also be a by product of oaking. A 'complex nose' sounds rather pompish, but it simply means that there's so much going on with the aromas that it's hard to pick - as it is with this wine.

That said, it was a very nice wine to drink from a very respectable wine maker.