Punter Paul has
been in touch to tell us what's been
happening under his bed (OO
er - Ed). Fortunately it is something we can talk about
without having to send the kiddies out of the room.
A trio of Winstead pinot!
He found a bottle of 1994 Winstead Pinot. So what you say.
Well we answer, this is a bit of a rarity. Not a Tasmanian
Tiger rare or even Tasmanian foxes rare but pretty rare. Why we hear
you ask.
Well we answer, 1994 was the first commercial vintage for
Neil and Julieanne Snare. As a result not a lot was made and even less
was put up for sale. Apparently there were only a couple of cases sold
during Winstead's first open winery weekend. Those remaining are under
strict control. "My beloved wife Julieanne will not let a bottle go
unless she specifically says it's ok" Neil told us.
So if you can't buy it why are you banging on about it we
hear you ask. Well we answer, stop asking annoying questions and just
pay attention.
So Paul is already a lucky punter. Pushing his luck a little
more he
asked us for some advice. Specifically he wanted to know how the 1994
was travelling and whether or not he needs to drink it now.
Our initial thought was "how the hell would we know?" and
then we thought "oh that's right, we could go and ask him".
So it was off to the lesser known but a lot safer Bagdad to
find out about the 1994 Winstead pinot.
You can hear what
he had to say here: 1994
winstead.mp3
For those of you that prefer to read hear is a
summary.
The 1994 is a very special wine to Neil and Julieanne. As we
said it was their first commercial vintage but it was also a
particularly good wine. Part of the reason for this was that
1994 was a very low cropping year that produced very ripe
fruit after a very long indian summer.
When bottled Neil regarded it as a very big wine. In fact he
remembers either Huon Hooke or James Halliday trying it at a wine show
and saying "ok
this is a cabernet where are the pinots?". It didn't do very well as a
young wine. In fact it was initially over shadowed by the 1995.
However,
over the years it has won a
few medals and trophies.
It must be remembered that it is a 15 year old
wine and Neil believes it will
not get any better. "What we are finding is that some bottles are
holding up better than others ... but we haven't found any that have
totally fallen away yet ... (but) you are just seeing the
first signs that it is starting to slip over the hill."
How well it will taste depends on the condition of the cork
"if the cork is sound the wine will probably be holding up quite
well."
So Paul, best to drink it now or very soon and remember to
send us an invite to the tasting.
If you have an old bottle of Tassie wine and you want us to
find out more
about it for you