23 Apr

Peter Lehmann Tasting

On Thursday 19th April, we held a ‘Peter Lehmann‘ tasting at our Glengarry Thorndon store. The thought of tasting a line-up of Australian wines is at first a daunting task, luckily the reality is a whole lot more pleasant. Peter Lehmann, who sadly passed away in 2013, was a living legend in the Australian wine industry. Owning a vineyard was not the first thing on his mind, Peter Lehmann Wines was initially set up so that the contract growers in the area had someone to take their grapes, thus saving many of them from bankruptcy. This is something that resonated with me, it was a selfless act and Peter deserves his place in the Ausssie wine hall of fame for that act alone. The wines I hadn’t seen for a long time and we tasted nine in a row with Malcolm Stopp, Peter Lehmann Brand Ambassador.

The Wigan Riesling 2011 was everything that you expect from an Australian wine, heavy lime and hints of honey coming through. The Margaret Semillon 2010 was still fresh in the bottle, showing lovely waxy/lemon flower characters and would be a perfect accompaniment to panfried scallops. We then moved to the two Cabernets; the first was the Ruediger 2013, named after the grower. This was rich in blackcurrant and violets and the finish was persistent. The Mentor 2012 was exceptional, it is named after Peter who mentored countless people over his career. This wine is the best Cabernet of the vintage and the cepage is dependent on what the vintage is like. The 2012 was showing great varietal characteristics,  the colour is deep leading to a bouquet of violet and cassis and touch of dark chocolate. We then went straight in to the Shiraz, the Barossa 2016 which had dark plum, warm spices and sweet mocha undertones. The next was my wine of the night –  the Futures 2014, this had lovely depth but also had a fantastic silky palate…. seamless. We then finished with the VSV Carey 2014 and the Stonewell. The Carey was a deep rich wine, showing blueberries and layers of plum cherry and dark chocolate; this again is named after a grower. The Stonewell is the top of the range and deserving of the price tag that goes with it. It had all the right flavours, dark fruits, liquorice and dark chocolate, but the stand out feature for me was the balance this wine showed.

View more of our Past Events here https://www.glengarrywines.co.nz/tastings.jsp?event=recent