Hardys Eileen Hardy through the ages – Chardonnay, Shiraz and Pinot Noir verticals
I’ve been rifling through some old paperwork this weekend and chanced upon my notes from a rather special vertical of Hardy’s Eileen Hardy wines late last year.
While the epic oldies tasted at the event dinner captured most of the attention, this swathe of Eileen Hardy ‘hits and memories’ certainly delivered up some gooduns’.
Sadly these scribblings aren’t wildly comprehensive (written hurriedly), but useful if you’ve got some of these wines in the cellar.
Notes are as written on the day, with extra (supplied) bits in italics.
Chardonnay
Hardys Eileen Hardy Chardonnay 1990
Padthaway, SA, 13.6% alc. Cork.
Full yellow. Golden toasty pineapple juice. Looks very toasty, golden buttered crumpets style. Mid weight. Gently rounded and full. Falling away through the finish but still soft and gentle. Curio factor high for it is still in good golden white custard richness and no decay through the finish. 17/20, 90/100
Hardys Eileen Hardy Chardonnay 1998
52% Yarra Valley, 43% Adelaide HIlls, 5% Padthaway. 13.2% alc. Cork.
Still quite primal and fresh and figgy on the nose. The palate looks a little dour and withdrawn, the (added) acidity really dominating things. A big and bulky sort of wine that hasn’t hit senility but is rather clumsy, the acidity not quite resolving with the fruit. 16.5/20, 88/100
Hardys Eileen Hardy Chardonnay 2002
43% Tasmania, 28% Yarra Valley, 20% Tumbarumba, 9% Adelaide Hills. 12.8%. Cork.
Cool. Backward. Quite mineral and fine. Lovely brioche palate with very balanced acidity cleaning things up. A line of lemon cream pie toasty bottle aged richness, but otherwise still quite fresh and elegant. Pretty clever and quite delicious. 17.7/20, 92/100
Hardys Eileen Hardy Chardonnay 2004
47% Tasmania, 30% Yarra Valley, 20% Tumbarumba, 3% Adelaide Hills. 13.2%. Screwcap
Figs and custard. Has a quite powerful presence of fruit and the best length of this lineup. In a real sweet spot of power and weight if definitely a drink now prospect. Looks really worked and lees weighty, maybe a little too weighty through the finish (plenty of oak too). Much presence though. 18/20, 93/100
Hardys Eileen Hardy Chardonnay 2006
Upper Yarra, Rokeby, Coal River Valley, Tumbarumba, Pipers Brook. 13.0%. Screwcap
Surprisingly forward nose. Really notice the Yarra component – like an old Yarra Chard. Initially broad and uninteresting but clean to finish. Maybe a fraction worked and less fresh than the 04? Certainly again has power and weight, if not quite the delicacy. Drink now as it is on the top of the plateau. 17.8/20, 92/100
Hardys Eileen Hardy Chardonnay 2008
Yarra Valley, Tasmania. 13.0. Screwcap.
Relatively unevolved. Dull oak. A bit heavy handed oak really and lacks quite the refreshment of the 06, yet the freshness here is still pretty good. 17.5/20, 91/100
Hardys Eileen Hardy Chardonnay 2010
Tasmania, Yarra Valley. 13.0%. Screwcap.
Nutty and mealy. Once again I don’t love the oak – it looks slathered on and less than perfect quality. Still, the fruit underneath has a lovely fresh figgy ripeness and great lees and fruit weight. Very fresh and in lovey form. Great acidity. Best white wine of the lot. 18.5/20, 94/100+
Hardys Eileen Hardy Chardonnay 2012
Tasmania, Yarra Valley. 13.5%. Screwcap.
Grapefruit and peach – juicy but compact too. Almost too ripe, carrying the just bottled esters. Tinned fruit and oak in a disjointed form though oak is much better integrated. Hold. Potential here. 17.7/20, 92/100+
Pinot Noir
Hardys Eileen Hardy Pinot Noir 2008
60% Tasmania, 40% Yarra Valley. 13.5%.
Red with just a lIttle mahogany. A big and firm Pinot that retains delicacy on the nose but looks a fraction dried out and roasted through the middle. Starts well, ends up dry and hard but certainly some power. Warm alcohol. 17/20, 90/100
Hardys Eileen Hardy Pinot Noir 2009
Tasmania. 13.5%. Screwcap.
New oak. New fruit. Youthful but also quite lacking in definition tending dry reddish. Really quite developed and bacony, drying finish, 16.5/20, 88/100
Hardys Eileen Hardy Pinot Noir 2010
Tasmania. 13.5%. Screwcap.
Better. Still an extractive and firm style – open ferments no doubt. A little more delicacy would be great here, but still carries some bitter weight. Shiraz style Pinot. 17/20, 90/100
Hardys Eileen Hardy Pinot Noir 2012
Tasmania. 13.5%. Screwcap.
Plump and plush and purple. Little definition just all fruit for now. Lipstick and purple berries. At least the extraction looks lighter here, but a very simple wine. It will probably look better in time but oaky and rich and a bit sweet and plump – little animale pinosity. 17/20, 90/100
Shiraz
Hardys Eileen Hardy Shiraz 1993
Padthaway, McLaren Vale, Clare Valley. 14.7%. Cork.
Fully mature, gently choc mint style with quite firm grainy tannins. Lovely old wine really, though would have been an oaky minty beast in its youth. Still plenty chocolatey and fresh now. Mint lovers rejoice! Acid is raising up quickly. 17.5/20, 91/100
Hardys Eileen Hardy Shiraz 1994
Padthaway, McLaren Vale. 14.9%. Cork.
Sweetly oaky choc truffles. So oaky and generous! Utterly unequivocal in its south Australian-ness but hardly a complex wine. Super generous and cosseting full flavored oaky red with at least 10 years left. Indulgent wine. 18/20, 93/100
Hardys Eileen Hardy Shiraz 1995
60% McLaren Vale, 40% Padthaway. 14.7%. Largely French oak (previously American). Cork.
Sweetly oaky and sweet fruited. Very much a flattering, front palate style without quite the penetration. Rather generous and full and utterly open. Plenty of appeal here too. 17.7/20, 92/100
Hardys Eileen Hardy Shiraz 1998
76% McLaren Vale 12% Padthaway, 10% Clare Valley. 14.6%. Cork.
Lots of Formic oak but also loads of power. A big, full, old school 90s red in the ‘boots and all style’, so big and brawny but also great because of it. I like the power and majesty of what is an unequivocally big wine. So South Aus! 18,5/20, 94/100
Hardys Eileen Hardy Shiraz 2004
McLaren Vale. 14%. Screwcap.
Not ready. Polished and with more restrained oak. But also seems a bit stunted and mono dimensional after the 98. Pretty and berried and generous but also reductive. Needs some time to come out of the hole. Potential. 17/20, 90/100+
Hardys Eileen Hardy Shiraz 2007
McLaren Vale. 14%. Screwcap.
A quite different shaped wine – short and light and almost scalped. Fruit looks a little skittish and purple, the tannins massaged and the finish sweet. Taken off skins early by the looks of it. Lesser. 16.5/20, 88/100
Hardys Eileen Hardy Shiraz 2008
McLaren Vale. 14%, Screwcap.
And we’re back. A quite linear wine with purple berries, more coffeed oak and purpleness. A quite representative Vale red. Purity is excellent but a little closed and again tight and reductive. Where is the expression? 17.5/20, 91/100+
Hardys Eileen Hardy Shiraz 2010
McLaren Vale. 14%. Screwcap.
Very youthful and sexy, oh so sexy. Little purple berries. Lovely length and purity – looks cooler and pretty, squishy berries. Still very coiled and tight, long and polished. Best since 1998. 18.5/20, 94/100+
Fortifieds
Hardy’s Rare Show Tawny 20yo
Cellar door only. McLaren Vale/Riverland. $55 500ml.
Delicious. Caramel chew fruit. Very sweet and bottled on demand. Lovely generous tawny in the non Portuguese sweet style. More like a Rutherglen Muscat in sweetness. Also quite delicious, 18/20, 93/100
Hardy’s Liqueur Sauvignon Blanc NV
McLaren Vale. Sourced from 100 year old vines believed to be the oldest in world at Anne Hardy’s property. Tropical fruit edge gives away the variety, sweet fruit and quite creamy white fruit. Not quite the wildness of the Tawny but fun. 17.5/20, 91/100
According to Bill Hardy these are ‘usually pressed off at about 4.5 baume and they are very Australian in style,
The vintage differences here are real vintage differences. The 75 has always had very distinctive cassis.’
Hardy’s Vintage Fortified 1956
McLaren Vale.
Mahogany orange colour. Decayed, sausage meat and prunes. It’s awkward and old but retains black jellybean sweetness through the finish. Black licorice in abundance, loads of alcohol and sweetness left but not much else. Curio. 16
Hardy’s Vintage Fortified 1964
McLaren Vale.
Considerably later and more translucent than the 56. Ethereal and licoricey old volatile red, serious sweetness but with a beautiful expansive finish. Lovely silken caramel licorice old red. Delicious. Has a beauty of old red but with a silkiness that defies belief. Wonderful. 19/20, 96/100
Hardy’s Vintage Fortified 1975
McLaren Vale.
A completely different beast again. This is more like a fortified dry red than an old wine and soi very fresh. Again with that black jellybean character, oak showing through here and genuinely intriguing flavour and depth. From a different era though clever and has decades. 18.5/20, 94/100
Hardy’s Vintage Fortified 1998
McLaren Vale.
Very youthful. Too youthful to drink, still very purple and big and brash. Pretty special flavour with no limits to its depth and power. Just needs more age to come together, for that willowy flavour to really resolve. 18/20, 93/100
Hardy’s Vintage Fortified 2001
McLaren Vale.
Lovely generous and willowy. Ah this is going to be lovely! It’s a very purple prospect. Black jellybean characters here, if just a little hot. A boozy one perhaps but will be magical. A bit blocky and overripe? 17.7/20, 92/100+
Hardy’s Rare Muscat 20 yr old
Rutherglen/Riverland.
Wonderful blackness and viscosity. I do find this a little warm and heady without the sweetness to match, so heady and spirit but not quite the completeness. Much older than 20yrs by the shape of the palate. Good, not sublime. 18/20, 93/100
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2 Comments
those fortifieds sound lovely..do you know where I can get some from? No info on the Hardy's website. Cheers
Try the Hardys cellar door in McLaren Vale. Still available there I think Andy.