We had the Private Dining Room at Rocket in Chatswood. Usual fantastic levels of service from our French man of the floor, making sure we were all well looked after, watered well, and any on hand for any requests – great asset to the restaurant. I did observe that the food had definitely gone up a notch or two in presentation and flavour. (turns out there were new owners, staff) so kudos to them for raising the bar higher.
Didn’t take notes, so will just comment, rant on a few wines.
Greywacke still is the only SavBlanc I’ll drink in the absence of waterboarding. Getting a little too close to clean and normal dare I say. I loved them with a bit more interest and funk.
Rippon was still a baby, nice enough.
The Pyramid Valley wines were simply not good enough, for the money I know they are worth they are taking punters for a ride. If I want tinned corn, I’ll go to Woolies – if you are going to be edgy and what not, don’t make the wine suffer, get the basics right then go edgy. I tried, but ended up tipping them all out – corn, acid, bit of fruit. The 2011 I think, was the only drinkable one of the 3. (essentially $300 down the sink)
Kumeu to me is like Felton Road, they don’t try to be showy. They just tick all the boxes, wine that is well balanced, nicely fruit driven with complementary oak regimes. Sure some might say they are bit plain and boring, for me it’s a sign of quality winemaking when you can produce such good wines in such an effortless way. The Mates was a pick of the bunch for me, just had that extra bit of interest and drive.
Of the Pinots the Felton Rd for me stood out, plush, plums, great texture, with good tannins. Also liked the Martinborough Vineyards one with the benefit of a few more years.
The blind options were interesting, I was probably playing the man too much thinking surely he’d have to have a Le Sol or Sophia in the mix. I really enjoyed the power of the Squawking Magpie, nice pure fruit, with good acid and heaps of tannins still – will be a long lived wine, and a merlot dominant wine to boot.
The Te Mata were all pretty good, the 1994 had a bit of funk. The 1998 was right in the zone for me, really enjoyed this, just hitting the secondary notes, and it was good to see a younger version of it to get the whole progression overview.
The Framingham was fantastic, really lovely wine, still very young and primary but a great way to finish off proceedings. Give these 20 years easy.
Great night, thanks for all the hard work Tim and everyone for the good conversations. I was a bit seedy still from the previous night but soldiered on.
List of Wines courtesy of Tim.
Rippon Mature Vine Riesling 2013
Greywacke Wild Sauvignon Blanc 2014
Bell Hill Chardonnay 2008
Pyramid Valley Field of Fire Chardonnay 2010
Pyramid Valley Field of Fire Chardonnay 2011
Pyramid Valley Lions Tooth Chardonnay 2010
Kumeu River Coddington Chardonnay 2010
Kumeu River Hunting Hill Chardonnay 2012
Kumeu River Mate’s Chardonnay 2012
Pyramid Valley Angel Flower Pinot Noir 2011
Hans Herzog Pinot Noir 2011
Martinborough Vineyards Pinot Noir 2009
Ata Rangi Pinot Noir 2009
Bell Hill Pinot Noir 2009
Felton Block 3 Pinot Noir 2009
Blind Options…
Fromm La Strada Reserve Malbec 1996 (Marlborough)
Squawking Magpie SQM Merlot Cabernet 2005 (Hawkes Bay)
Hans Herzog Montepulciano 2011 (Marlborough)
Te Mata Coleraine 1994
Te Mata Coleraine 1998
Te Mata Coleraine 2007
Churton Petit Manseng 2015
Framingham Riesling F-Series Beerenauslese 2012
not really, yes I am a rather slow eater)
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