Greenock Creek Creek Block

We are having a tasting tonight of the 1996, 1998, 2001, and 2003. I open the 2003 a few hours ago and it tastes and smells like cough syrup. I will double Decant all but am shocked at the glacial pace of the evolution. I know these are Parker 100 points and were bought upon release during the height of the Australian craze. Just want to see if anybody else has had experience recently with these and I’ll report back after the tasting.

Never liked the 03 vintage compared to the 98 and 01 vintages. Too hot!

Not super recent, but had the 1998 and 2001 in London a few years back - very rich, confectionery blackcurrant fruit - true crème de cassis - and still lively. Will be interested to hear your report back.

William, if you described them as balanced and elegant I would have lost all faith in you!

The thing I remember most is the intense blackcurrant aroma, strongly reminiscent of the British soft drink Ribena.

The wines were not dead or even tired, they are just impossible to contextualize in any sort of traditional wine culture whereby they might have some sort of interaction with food.

I bought my share of the “Parker babies” back in the day, and to be honest felt lucky to find and get them at the price point that they were available. My experience with the entry level Marquis-Phillips wines was that the almost syrup-like profile tamed down considerably with a few years in the bottle. But the balsamic characteristic that I find so typical with aged Shiraz is one that I can tolerate, but not look forward to experiencing. Generally speaking, I enjoy them a lot more on the younger side.

Like Robitussin cough medicine, maybe?

Cleverly concealed alcohol?

This. I find greenock creek wines hot and very overripe (and maybe oaky, it’s hard to tell sometimes.)

I find Torbreck to be like British Ribena. Drinkable, but more cocktail than table wine.

I find GC undrinkable.

I will delete this post if it is inappropriate on this thread.

After tasting four vintages last night of Greenock Creek Creek Block(all were bought upon release and never moved) Much agreed with most of what was said in previous posts.
I will say I haven’t recently been to a tasting when more wine was left in the bottles than in the glasses for 4 people.
The 1998 was most approachable and the WOTN.That is not saying much but it was a relatively smooth and balanced Wine that at best approached the lower 90’s on a rating scale.
2001 was like a bad Attempt at port…clunky,hot and seriously flawed.
2003 was even worse-nail polish was its best attribute and cough syrup was predominantly the overwhelming flavor. This monster got worse after two hours.
2005 was nowhere near approachable and completely out of whack.
I can’t wrap my head around the ratings of these wines which have gotten worse over time.
Not sure if I can recommend these to cook with but if you want to keep your friendships do not gift a bottle of these to anybody.
I’ve had a lot of experience with Australia from 1996 to 2006. Been through my share of run rig, noon, all the Dan Phillips portfolio and the rest of the Parker darlings. This was by far the worst experience and now I see why there is very little market in retail.
Sorry to be such a downer on this but it’s just my two cents.
Cheers!

Transparency is super-senior to perfection. The silver lining here is the consensus-corroborated awareness not to bottom-fish for these once-coveted collectibles, in the hopes that ooze-monsters evolve into mature beauties.

Have the various wine critics downgraded their ratings, over time?

Bought all these wines (and other Oz blueberry woodshakes) based on The Wine Advocate’s recommendation. The Wine Advocate and I parted ways after I tasted them.

Greenock Creek was sold last year by the Waughs. Not sure how the new owners will progress the style.

2005 Creek block was something ridiculous like 18% abv on the label if memory serves
I remember tasting it at the winery back in 2009 and thinking it was closer to a port than normal wine

Funny yet sad. What did you do with the wines?

Maybe this should be its own thread, but for those here in this one – are many of the labels that were the high-scoring ultraripe Aussie wines from 10-20 years ago adjusting their styles? If so, which ones? And how good are the wines?

More than anything, I’m curious whether these kinds of wines could be good ones if they picked earlier and used less oak, or if hugeness was all they were really capable of. Is there some good terroir lurking in vineyards that were used to make overripe wines?

We gave all the wine to the table of four middle-aged women celebrating their friendship of 25 years. They were drinking cupcake and butter. They had no idea that wines like this existed.Fortunately we did not know them so they can’t hold it against us.

This proves that all is relative.

James Billy wrote: ↑
Wed Jan 15, 2020 10:18 pm
William Kelley wrote: ↑
Wed Jan 15, 2020 10:15 pm
Not super recent, but had the 1998 and 2001 in London a few years back - very rich, confectionery blackcurrant fruit - true crème de cassis - and still lively. Will be interested to hear your report back.
William, if you described them as balanced and elegant I would have lost all faith in you!


The thing I remember most is the intense blackcurrant aroma, strongly reminiscent of the British soft drink Ribena.

The wines were not dead or even tired, they are just impossible to contextualize in any sort of traditional wine culture whereby they might have some sort of interaction with food.

William this is their top wine. Why do you think the Apricot wines are more balanced?