Chateau Martinens is from the famous commune of Margaux in Bordeaux. It belongs to the Cru Bourgeois class. This wine comes from the ‘legendary’ 2000 vintage of which outstanding wines were produced from both the left bank and right bank. The wine when poured already gave a garnet colour with a hint of brick. The nose was typical of a more simple Bordeaux wine which has red fruits, red currants, tabacco and with some earthiness and woodiness. This medium body wine was slightly more diluted than what I expected of which politically correct writers / die hard Bordeaux drinkers would call it elegant or even feminine! The fruit level was low but the acidity was high in comparison. The mouth feel was a little thin with some soil and damp earth in the background. The tannin present was also a little coarse so coupling with the acidity gave the wine some astringency. The wine when released had such a hype because Wine Spectator awarded it a whooping 91 points. I failed once again to understand why? Although it does have some structure and sourly red fruit, it just doesn’t have the depth and complexity. The finish is medium. Drink it up now. (Rating 86-88 points) by Michael Lam of the Beverage Review.

Hardys is an Australian household name. The winery has been around for over 150 years. In fact, your lowly was invited to celebrate with Bill Hardy in a private tasting when he came to Vancouver a few years back for his round the world 150th anniversary of Hardys wines tour. Wow! Bill LOOOOOVES talking and I mean he LOOOOOVES talking! When the birthday cake came with the candles lit, he made a speech but the speech turned out to be longer than the Great Wall of China. All of us were watching the candles burning away…then one of the ladies had to step forward to signal him from talking further and asked him to blow out the candles immediately. Phew! I thought the fire alarm would go off any seconds… The Tintara series is a premium economical line from Hardy. This wine when observed already gave a slight bricky colour. The wine has a typical nose of black current and black plum of a cabernet but has a scent of minty eculyptus mixed with green pepper and green stalk in the background. Medium to full body with slightly elevated acidity. It had soft tannin but not overly complex. What followed was dark chocolate character but like some other Tintara shiraz I tasted, bitterness and astringency (probably from over zealous wood treatment) came out that overpowered the fruit. The higher acidity and astringency made the wine a tad inbalanced. Still, all in all, this is a solid quaffer of good quality. Drink up your stock if you have any. (Rating 84-86 points) by Michael Lam of …

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