Sunday, May 4, 2008

Peter Lehmann "The Mentor" 2002

The more and more I approach wine with greater 'objectivity', the more I become confident that I simply and authentically love the lush New World style of wine making. This is not to say that I don't also love subdued and elegant wine-making, but I certainly don't agree with what appears to be a trend towards deriding overly lush and fruity approaches. Recently I've been rediscovering the beauty and power of Australian wine, and this particular Bordeaux style blend continued to reinforce my positive image of modern Aussie wine making.


The nose on this beautiful Cab based blend had intense chocolate and dark berry aromas. The palate had a huge body of oak, eucalyptus, and dark berries. But, none of this was out of place or unintegrated. This was also complex, but not boring, over-oaked nor did it have heavy cassis flavours. This was long and elegant, with a full bodied palate-coating mouthfeel and beautifully integrated and smooth tannins. A truly great blend.

Excellent
$45 at BCLDB

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Couldn't agree more - the Mentor is such a consistent wine and the 02 is a brilliant example.

Shea said...

Yes, I was actually surprised at the high quality, since I am not as much a fan of Lehmann's cheaper wines. But this was fantastic.