Fanny Sabre Bourgogne 2011

Date: Sun, Apr 7, 2013 Wine Tasting

I've temporarily lost the use of my nose which makes the shopping list tasting note even harder to write. I'm in two minds about the merits of such ingredient based descriptions. I've become programmed to look for things and indeed it's one of my pleasures. To stop and sniff and remember.

The contrary argument is of course strong. Tasting notes are contrived and the animal/mineral/vegetable descriptors inconsistent between tasters. They are not worthy or necessarily 'true'.

The front of my nose is faulty and presumably the next time I open a bottle of this same wine, I will be drinking something different. Though I'd hope and expect the difference to be slight and more positive. Cork willing. . .

It is a cliché, but this does taste alive. It's not wriggling or struggling, but it has a freshness and vitality not unlike a Jean Foillard Beaujolais. A lightness of touch, a child's hand, fine but with baby flesh. It's not particularly complicated, but of course that is the appeal - brightness, a suggestion of stem and delicate natural curves.

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Gordon Street Garage

Date: Sat, Apr 6, 2013 Wine Tasting

After my first visit to this wonderful space and idea, I find I'm nursing a sore neck and a rather bloated tummy. . . There are so many interesting things (coffee paraphernalia, pictures, tools, pot plants, cakes, chains, exposed beams, masks) and people to observe. I found I spent much of my first few minutes turning and tilting my head, trying in vain to soak in the energy and controlled commotion. People, like me, new and surprised, smiling, pointing mostly appreciative and occasionally bemused.

No bookings are taken so expect a wait if you arrive at the wrong time. Presenting shortly after nine on a Saturday morning we were seated and watered within a minute. Presumably the menu will change frequently, for what it's worth - the pulled ham with beans and haloumi was very good - and not over salted and dry like the salmon royale with poached eggs and hollandaise. The cakes, such as the pretty Guggenheim like spiral of raspberry and lemon sponge are particularly good - precise, intense and with a pleasing lightness.

As a coincidental aside about food bloggers - the Weekend Australian's food critic - John Lethlean had this to say in today's paper:

Where are the mongrels of the blogging community? The dissenting voices? The anarchists? Why do so few use the liberty of self-publishing for serious, witty criticism?

This is the likelier scenario: someone who is into food enough to blog about it gets invited to a restaurant event at which they may, or may not, be fed and watered superbly.

Let's say the food is good and the wine is way beyond what the blogger could usually afford.

A breathless and possibly ungrammatical report of the occasion appears on the a blog.

Suddenly, the blogger is on a list and there are more invitations, more drinks, more introductions to chefs and. . . Shit, this is a great lark.

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Luke Lambert Chardonnay 2011

Date: Fri, Apr 5, 2013 Wine Tasting

Yarra. 12.5%. Diam.

A curious and excellent wine. Not filtered or fined. The nose is quiet. Peach, honeydew and flint perhaps, sap, dough and a flash of green. Subtle and refined. In the mouth a spark - Sauvignon in accent while the content is mineral, nectarine and firm flesh. As to archetypes - This is Chablis rather than Meursault.

The unrelated image: Gracetown Western Australia.

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Thursday

Date: Thu, Apr 4, 2013 Wine Tasting

After a week of heavy consumption, I still find I'm surrounded by people who just want to eat, drink and talk. Needless to say the mound of empty bottles keeps growing, albeit at a slightly slower pace.

Montevecchio Bianco 2011. Heathcote, Victoria. 12.5%. A field blend of Vermentino, Fiano and Moscato. Pollen, musk and muscat grapes. Simple and direct with an emphasis on texture and brightness. Grippy, slightly fatty with a sting of acidity. A food wine, ie slightly jarring and unsatisfactory on its own.

Cullen Cabernet Merlot 1999. Margaret River. 14%. Last tried in 2006, when I was easier to please. . . Dark and slightly dusty, eucalyptus, blackcurrant and panforte. Lush and sweet, mature and a hint of Port and raisin. Firm, really wonderful tannins - meaty, flavoursome, lead pencil tannins. Super. 95+ Drink to 2019 and beyond.

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Monday

Date: Mon, Apr 1, 2013 Wine Tasting

I spent the day flat on my back looking at the trees and the evening drinking red wine.

Penfolds 389 2003. There was a time not too long ago when a bottle of this cost as much as a small tank of gas. The RRP is now $A75 and even with a discount you can be expect to pay $A60. It is what it is. Sweetly scented and sweet in the mouth. A Penfolds wine. Predictable and yet somewhat against the flow.

Penfolds Cellar Reserve Sangiovese 2004. There is very little Sangiovese about this. It's all oak and it's made to the standard house specifications. It smells of its maker rather than its grape or place.

Ata Rangi 2003. Fragrant and evocative, though perhaps a little too exaggerated, keen and earnest.

Leoville Poyferre 1995. Has it really been 7 years between bottles? Mature but not yet bowed. Hide and olive, menthol and pencil. Savoury and meaty with dark chocolate grip and persistence.

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Easter bottles

Date: Sun, Mar 31, 2013 Wine Tasting

A gathering of clan and a home cooked meal. The theme was fish and Thailand. The concluding shiraz was mostly consumed after the spice while waiting for cake.

Laurent-Perrier Rosé.NV, and relatively expensive @ $A120. Beautifully packaged, the bottle reminds me of a hut. Salmon pink and prettier than a Billecart, it's red apple and mushroom, finely beaded with a hint of spice; quite good persistence, but the morning after dregs remind me of a mouse.

Grosset Alea Off Dry Riesling 2012.Clare. 11.8%.Like the other Grosset rieslings this one now has a specific place name. Tahitian lime and the seashore. A hint of spritz this is searing and intense, with salt and fleetingly and curiously and perhaps incorrectly - soy. Off dry, but still Australian in emphasis and outlook.

The cork and front label of theLeflaive Rully 1er Cru 2010 says Leflaive and Associes. Something I've not seen on a bottle of Leflaive before.Almond meal, peach skin and nuts. Rich, ripe and complex. Butterscotch, melon and yet another hint of salt and ocean.

Henschke Mount Edelstone 2002.15% alcohol. Cork. The penultimate bottle from my cellar.Big and formidable but not without a sense of flow. Closer to the front row than a ballerina. . .
Blackcurrant, pepper, leather and bay leaf. To my addled mind it smelt more Cabernet than Shiraz. . . Middle aged, but not yet mature and done. Silken and smooth before becoming more savoury and leathery. It gives the impression of Brett, but I'm not 100% certain. Firm, assertive and lingering tannins, though the finish feels slightly compromised.

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Sunday

Date: Sun, Mar 31, 2013 Wine Tasting

and a small, rare and beautiful cylinder of hand crafted Nakamura Easter eggs.

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Lake's Folly Cabernets 2005

Date: Thu, Mar 28, 2013 Wine Tasting

The late Max Lake was not the first or the last medical practitioner with a fondness for the grape. With my skewed and carefully selected sample, I find I'm surrounded by doctors who happen to enjoy the occasional tipple into inebriation. Is it the income and relative affordability or the years spent studying microbes and inhaling formalin?

This bottle is particularly delicious, even for for someone more fond of Pinot noir. Titled Cabernets, there is only one Cabernet based grape in the mix. 68% Cabernet sauvignon / 13% Petit verdot / 11% Merlot / 8% Shiraz. Cork sealed and tartrate crusted with 13% alcohol.

Delicate and perfumed, in descending order of intensity but not confidence - violets, malt, cassis, pan juices, iodine and bay leaf . In scent and emphasis it is quite apart from it's compatriots. Ethereal and harmonious, I keep picturing a burning but distant stick of incense. Bright and assertive in the mouth, meaty and the faintest suggestion of Hunter leather, though it tastes and feels clean and non affected. Mid weight and supple, perhaps it is fractionally short, but I find myself enamoured by the scent and ease.

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Another wine diamond

Date: Thu, Mar 28, 2013 Wine Tasting

The last cork was tainted, this one had a single jewel tooth and a sweet scent.

Related.

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Wendouree Shiraz Malbec 1999

Date: Thu, Mar 28, 2013 Wine Tasting

I was expecting something stern and unbowed, ginger scented perhaps, but with an iron grip and formidable, grasping tannins. Instead something attenuated and weak, smelling mostly of wet newspaper.

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Dujac Gevrey-Chambertin 2006

Date: Tue, Mar 26, 2013 Wine Tasting

More meat and animal than expected, the initial blush of strawberry and cherry is soon replaced by spice and fur. An opening kick of cola, but later it's more medicinal and savoury. A notable spine and fine, sticking plaster tannins. It's presently enjoyable but I'm unconvinced about its future.

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Head The Brunette 2011

Date: Sun, Mar 24, 2013 Wine Tasting

Being West Australian it's the white swans that I find disconcerting. . .


Tasted over two nights.

Day 1. Under a gum tree on a picnic rug close to a wide stretch of water. Quite possibly my thoughts were misplaced. Deeply scented, round and disarming. Mulberry, raw meat, chocolate and spice. Quite silken and smooth in the mouth with finely textured but assertive tannins.


A bottle image can be found here. The 2010 tasting note here.

Day 2. At home after an afternoon nap and with a plate of beef strog. It's much darker and with more edge and spice. Overnight it's grown and developed and become far more satisfying and complete. An adult perhaps.

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Frederic Magnien Nuits Saint Georges 2005

Date: Thu, Mar 21, 2013 Wine Tasting

More flattering than itssibling, though again any fruit is well hidden. Tobacco, rubber, earth and spice. A savoury, slightly roasted edge. Wonderful flow and movement across the palate; sappy, delicate and deliberate with curry leaf and sticking plaster tannins.

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Bean curd and seaweed soup - take 2

Date: Thu, Mar 21, 2013 Wine Tasting

An extraordinary day in Australian politics, in which very little was changed or achieved. I happened to be listening to the radio and so I heard most of the Crean press conference, in which he demanded a spill and declared his new allegiance to Rudd. I kept listening to question time and heard Gillard taunt her rivals, suggesting they give it their best shot and then I heard Rudd decline to make a challenge. Sound and fury but in the end nothing.

Coincidentally I too was moving in circles, cooking more or less the same meal as I did a year ago. This time with some improvements. The soup has several handfuls of chopped kale and a punnet of shimeji mushrooms, otherwise it is more or less identical to last years effort.

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