Rachel's Graduation Dinner

[dlo]

My twenty-year-old daughter, Rachel, graduated from the Australian National University last Friday afternoon with a Bachelor of Music proudly sitting under her arm. After an impressive after-ceremony reception outside of the School of Music's Llewellyn Hall, we raced home to finalise preparations for Rachel's, and three of her closest friends, graduation dinner. Our final roll call was for thirteen with Janet and I hosting Rachel's grandparents, fellow jazz study graduates, Jocie Jensen, Victor Rufus (Honours) and Rachel's partner, Henry Rasmussen with Jocie and Henry's parents driving in for the big day from Melbourne and Sydney, respectively. A cameo late night appearance by master pianist Luke Sweeting (en route home from a gig) completed the party. Our heartiest congratulations go out to these four young elite jazz performers/composers on a job extremely well done and we all have every confidence they will enjoy the rewards of their diligence and abundant natural talent for decades to come. Victor, Henry and Rachel recently received grants from the ANU to record and only late last week, Henry was awarded a major grant from the Australian Arts Council to produce another recording. Well done to you all, again!

Rachel and Henry discussed the proposed menu with me and we simplified things somewhat by sticking with plenty of hors d'ouvres over pre-dinner drinks - Tasmanian brie and strawberries then Tasmanian smoked salmon, egg and sour cream topped with chives, capers and cracked black pepper canapés followed by two Afghan bread pizzas of Portobello mushrooms, oregano, rocket and then olive, capsicum and fetta. Mains were served buffet-style and comprised barbequed beef eye fillet medallions with a homemade mushroom sauce, satay chicken kebabs and fennel marinated vegetable skewers, some fancy beef snaggers and plenty of swish salads, finishing with a monster pavlova topped with an array of the finest berries, kiwi fruit and passionfruit. Rachel made her now famous cup cakes with a graduate's hat atop made out of thin chocolate squares, liquorice strips sitting on a malteser on the icing - very clever indeed.

The men gave the beers a bit of a nudge at first - Little Creatures Pale Ale was a real hit as well as a few bottles of James Squires Nine Tales and their Golden Ale. A
bottle of Broome micro-brewery Matso's Mango Beer generated some intriguing banter. Victor brought a rare bottle of Little Creatures Puffing Billy but I only got a last sip and by that time the beer was too warm to fully appreciate.

The women kicked off with a choice of the 2010 Forest Hill Block 1 Riesling or a very fine sparkler - the Janz 2006 Vintage Cuvee. I sampled a small glass of the Forest Hill which impressed with a wealth of florals in the bouquet and delicate lime, apple and mineral character on the palate. This quite delectable Mount Barker wine displays the requisite acid balance to cellar for several years, although totally approachable now, so fine the balance of delicious fruit and crisp acidity found in its lengthy, expansive finish. The Janz was all class, as I have come to expect from this fine maker over the years, offering up considerable complex bread and autolysis character in the bouquet and finely honed citrus and most attractive red berried flavours coupled with an astute creaminess and very fine, crisp acidity found throughout some very fine palate length. It compares favourably with several more expensive French vintage offerings I've tried over the years. Worth checking out.

As we moved through the canapés and pizza slithers, I opened a bottle of 2005 Louis Carillon Puligny-Montrachet "Les Perrieres". A fine wine indeed with somewhat developed butterscotch character amongst a plethora of the usual culprits from a top maker including a flinty underlying minerality underpinning some ripe peach and fig fruit wrapped in a shroud of quite nutty/charry/spicy oak character. Just a little advanced for my liking but an excellent wine in its own right, just not up to the age worthiness of the Carillon's of yesteryear.

With mains I opened a magnum of Wild Duck Creek Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve from vintage 1998. In pristine condition this relatively low alcohol wine (12.7%) saw over two years of new French oak but such is the abundance pristine blackcurrant and red cherry fruit, the oak plays a supporting role only. The wine's bouquet is still most primary fresh fruit character although the palate's singing with integrated flavours, a terrific mouth-filling persona without any hard edges, wonderful poise and structural balance followed by a relatively rounded medium finish of pure class. Several of the guests were gushing with similar praise over the course of their meal. Victor kindly brought along a personal favourite - a 2008 Doonkuna Reserve Shiraz that was loaded with choco-berry fruit, savoury/coffee French oak and alcoholic heat. I'm glad this is his last bottle (he bought 14) as the wine has been a continual source of much pleasure for him over past few years but unfortunately the fruit is now overpowered by the oak and alcohol and the wine is losing equilibrium.

With the pavlova I served up an excellent offering from Francois Chidane - their Montlouis Les Lys Moelleux is only produced in truly exalted vintages and made only from nobly rotten Chenin Blanc fruit. This wine from vintage 1989, like the Carillon was excellent but just failed to reach the lofty heights of previous bottles. All the baked apple, paraffin, honeysuckle and honeyed characters were there in spades but this very sweet wine just lacked that "something special" to take it to the next level. Still no complaints from the troops on the night, so we moved onto the final wine of the evening.

I almost forgot to mention we did have a blow after our meal. Blow means jam or impromptu recital for those who are not musically enriched. Henry, our elite drummer, was the star with a rip-roaring washboard solo on the fast-paced Alabammy Bound. Jim Lole (83 years young) played alto sax, Norma Lole (82 years young) played washboard on I Ain't Got None Of That Jelly Roll and When It's Sleepy Time Down South, Victor Rufus played acoustic guitar and yours truly played the piano.

Vintage port is a wine that young Henry is immensely keen on and for his benefit I opened a bottle I secured for a very special occasion. 1927 rates as a great year for Portuguese Vintage Port and was I was able to secure a bottle of Gould Campbell for a relatively good price. The only problem being the wine had been bottled and recorked in Australia twice without supporting documentation. Luckily for us, if this was forgery it would be the best one I've come across, as it displayed all the hallmarks of the very fine Portuguese style with what seemed to me to be incredible aged character but still with some underlying freshness. The complexity of the bouquet and palate was a surreal experience. Yet even with all this lyrical waxing, this VP rated about outstanding for me, but a truly memorable experience all the same. And my man, Henry was suitably impressed.

Over the course of the night the requisite number of welcoming and congratulatory speeches were delivered (especially a very fine one by Henry's father,Tony) and Rachel delivered a lovely response on behalf of the graduates.

With midnight fast approaching, the troops left en masse, seemingly in good spirits. The next thing I knew after a monumentally long sleep, it was late Saturday morning with Henry and Rachel performing a sterling job putting the house back together again. The extended sleep-in did little to improve the residual effects of the night before but with the house ship-shape and time to sit back and reflect on the importance of this major phase of these young people’s years of study (over some of Henry’s famous poached eggs on toast and a cup of his great flat white), I was well pleased in thinking – mission accomplished.

[daz]

Congratulations to Rachel and of course her fellow graduates, proud parents and family!

[porschemad911]

Congratulations to all the grads and family! I had the privilege of being invited to the med school grad ball at ANU on Friday night to celebrate with a few friends graduating. A wonderful event!

Thanks for the notes on the 2008 Doonkuna Reserve Shiraz, I've got one bottle left. Have been really enjoying these over the last while, but by the sounds of it had better drink up. Tonight sounds good!

[Peter Schlesinger]

Sounds like a wonderful night of well deserved celebration. David - was that really a 1927 VP. At 85 years of age, it must have been remarkable in its youth to have held up for so long. I recall buying some halves of Gould Campbell 1977 VP many years ago (at an outrageously good price) and knocking them off far too quickly. You guys really know how to party.

[tpang]

Congratulations on your daughter's graduation and it certainly sounds like the celebrations befitted the occasion!

[markg]

Sounds like a great night David. Congratulations to all. Its fantastic when the kids start to enjoy and appreciate wine. Wine and music are fantastic common grounds to bond with.