Penfolds St Henri 2004
South Australia. Shiraz. 14.5%. Cork.
May 1 and day one in the (drinking) life of St Henri 2004.
First (and possibly incorrect) impressions: This is big, black and sweet smelling. A multifaceted, layered nose of considerable nuance. Cherry ripe, berry compote and spice. Silky, raisin and Port like. Quite lush, but from memory more to the right (in terms of flavour and size) than the 02.
The dinner date (pepper steak and mash): Subdued and more than a little awkward. Inky, slightly sweet, grainy, firm and chewy. I wonder if this would look more fetching with a little less flab. Still there is lovely length, plenty of power and the family lineage suggests grace and ease will come with time.
About last night (day 2 impressions): Deliciously juicy, lavender scented and now perfectly on song. Chiseled and tighter than day one, the lush sensuality is now matched with flow, pace and structure.
Excellent
95
2010 - 2024+
technorati tags: wine, australian wine
7 comments:
Trust you to be drinking this on release, Ed.
We were going to have this tonight - is it worth it?
Ed..this sounds 'heady'..and a
3-dayer..have the aspirins ready....
BUT...
You could still convince me to try more Aussies...
Phil,
An excellent wine and well worth stocking up on. Needs time to show its best though.
Barry,
I'll have to put aside a bottle for the eventual get together with Joe. . .
I think it's a matter of bottle age. I had the 1996 this summer and it was still so young it actually improved overnight.
We had this on Friday night.. good wine, but as you say it definitely needs a lot of time. We decanted for several hours, but by the sounds of it, days would have been ideal. Also had an Old Adam... that was my wine of the night..
It's not heady at all. It's graceful low oak style - or will be with 20+ years of bottle age. Best shiraz I have had this year I think.
GW
GW, Phil and Chaim,
More patience is needed for sure, but still it is lovely being able to open a bottle and drink it over 2-3 days with no clear deterioration in the wine, only improvement. Quite uncommon and certainly a good sign.
I've had 4-5 bottles of the 96 St Henri over the last 12-18 months, and I think there has been some variation between bottles, but certainly the last two I've had have been superb.
I still think I prefer the 02 by a very narrow margin.
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