Comes from a warm vintage and I can’t for the life me understand why it was left in 28% new French barriques and Hungarian oak hogsheads for 27 months. The fruit tastes and feels desiccated and all that wood only makes it more arid.
Sweet black curranty, raisined berries, plums and a hint of ironstone. Astringent and raw in the mouth. The quality of those vessels used for maturation is questionable. Planks of woody, grainy tannin. Strict and stern despite the sweetness. I don’t think it’s balanced and while the oak should settle to an extent over time I reckon it will always dominate proceedings. 86
Region: King Valley
Alcohol: 14.0%
Closure: Cork
Price: $24.95
Tasted: July 2013
Pity, I used to really like this wine when I worked for the distributor, maybe was 06 vintage. No idea why they had cork back then let alone now.
Just posted this up myself and thought i’d see what else may have been said. Whilst I may have been a little kinder, I did also think there were some odd choices.
Including the choice of closure as per Sanjay’s comment above. Interesting.
It wasn’t the easiest of vintages but all that oak just hasn’t helped at all in my opinion.
With regards to the cork closure, I’m not entirely surprised by the choice as it is in the Robert Hill Smith stable of wines and RHS seems to be an advocate of cork for certain wines (of course we shouldn’t forget Yalumba’s importance in forging ahead with screwcaps when it comes to Riesling). The other factor that could be at play is the export market. I’m unsure if the Redbank wines are heavily exported but if they are then as a business decision I can understand the choice of closure a little more.
Ultimately I respect RHS for his intellect and achievements, not to mention some of the great aged wines that some of us have had the opportunity to taste as a direct result of his/the family’s generosity. It provides a tremendously valuable insight into the history of Australian wine history and I don’t know of any other producer who has done as much to further this area of education. When it comes to the issue of cork I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree.