Firstly, a 1987 Penfolds ‘Ne Plus Ultra’ Late Pick Rhine
Riesling in 375 ml bottle. Made from Marlborough
fruit, picked at 31°
Brix, given 24 hours skin contact and fermented to 11.9% alc. ‘Thus far and no further” is the translation,
and the wine was regarded as pretty avant garde at the time for a big producer
, the label owned by Montana. I’m sure
there was a portion of botrytis involved and it was a decadent and luscious
wine. This night, dark mahogany with
burnished orange-red colour. A powerful
nose redolent of toffee and caramel, with a savoury, musky and musty note. Brown rot? Taint? Hard to tell with so much tertiary character. On palate, very sweet, again toffee and
caramel, with raisins, dried fruits, good sugar and acidity. Plenty of richness, and only just beginning
to show a little texture, dryness and slight coarseness on the finish. Still a bold and out-there wine, not
beautiful and it hasn’t aged gracefully
as a star would have, but not disgracefully either.
Then a 375 ml bottle of 1986 Delegat’s ‘Proprietors Reserve
Auslese 1986, which followed on from some award winning numbers under the same
label, made from Muller-Thurgau. This was
made from Rhine Riesling grown in Tekaraka, Gisborne, picked at 26° Brix, and a rarer, more
expensive number, quite a specialist wine at the time. It too was in the richer,
quality-focussed style. Tonight, this
was darkish mahogany colour too, and upon nosing, a scaled-down expression of
the Penfolds NPU, a little cleaner, but exuding aromas of raisins, dried
fruits, toffee and caramel. Clearly
sweet on palate, the flavours echoing the bouquet, but softer in texture, but
carrying some phenolics. Just beginning
to dry out. It was difficult to decide
which was better, and there were votes for each. My pick was the Penfolds – just. The overriding thoughts were they were in remarkable
condition. We’d expect world classical dessert
wines to last 25+ years, but New Zealand wines don’t seem to manage it
normally. We were a happy group.