The Hunter Wine Hunter

A special weekend with the main man from the Hunter Valley - The Wine Hunter. He knows wine and he likes to search out and hunt for good tastes from bottles.

In deference to The Wine Hunter, SWMBO and I thought it best to ply him with all sorts - starting with an old Hunter Valley selection. A trio of old Hunter Valley wines, including one that The Wine Hunter had a hand in making would be a good start. First up was a 1989 McWilliams Mount Pleasant 'Homestead' Semillon. Wow, surprisingly OK, with no oxidation or 'past-it' flavours, but it was a bit of a nothing wine, really. Commercial in its day, and less than that now, being weak, watery and plain, though with a touch of toast. Then onto someting older to see if Hunter Valley Semillon can last. The 1979 McWilliams Mount Pleasant 'Elizabeth' Riesling, a Semillon, was 'jiggered'. Oxidised to buggery, and corked on top of it. Blah. However this won't deter us from old Semillons, as we know they can be glorious at over two decades of age. This cost me $8.60 at the end of 1982. The Wine Hunter was responsible for the rarely seen 1986 Tyrrells 'Vat 5' Dry Red, made from Hermitage grapes from the NVC Vineyard. (NVC = New Vine Cuttings - aren't these Aussies so up front and imaginative!) Horses for courses here with brett galore, or the old Hunter 'sweaty saddles'. But dark, rich and sumptuous. Brett can allow wines to work, and this was a super example where it didn't intrude, but added real character. I think The Wine Hunter was happy with it! He brought along a 1997 Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon. It was medium weighted and everything it should have been, with savoury complexities to the varietal fruit You can't go wrong with Penfolds, even today.

On to the serious stuff. Two 1982 Right Bank wines, as The Wine Hunter was in Bordeaux a couple of months ago. The 1982 Ch. Beausejour-Duffau St Emilion was elegant, minerally and still with sweet fruit. A moderately expressed wine, and classy with it. Good with food, it came alive and seemed longer on the palate. Lovely, mature wine, quite the opposite of being 'out there', and all the better for it. The 1982 Ch. Nenin Pomerol was bigger, more plummy and weightier, as Pomerols should be when compared with the St Emilions. But brett, with a capital 'B' was there, and got worse with air time. Dried on palate and became extremely difficult to drink, especially with pleasure.

From the sublime to the ridiculous. Kiwi Pinot Noir History 101. The 1985 and 1986 St Helena Pinot Noirs to taste. This was a trip down memory lane, but as time passes, the remembering should not be recalled! The 1985 was fresh, fresh, fresh and green, green and green. The 1986 showed caramelised sugar (chaptalisation) on nose and palate. I remember when it was released, and it was rich and sweet then. To taste history is great, but I know we have moved on! Even more ridiculous were the 1989 Montana Marlborough Pinot Noir - oxidised to buggery, the 1983 Montana Marlborough Pinot Noir - seemingly made with dead animals in the ferment! Plus a 1983 Montana Marlborough Pinotage - the best of these older wines. Still green, but still alive and OK, though I wouldn't drink much of it. Good on you, The Wine Hunter, as at least you were game to look at them.

Last, but not least was a 1983 von Kesselstatt Graacher Graben (or was it a Lay vineyard wine? We couldn't tell - damned torn labels) Riesling Auslese 1983. Absolutely stunning with freshness and gorgeously decadent toastiness. At its very best, now, this shows good German wine at one-quarter of a century of age and on a plateau. Broad, even for a Bernkasteler, but then, relativity is hard to find without a comparison. This, we could drink, and it was indeed drunk up!