What do you do when you have that special occasion wine tucked away, and the special occasion never arrives? You all get together and drink the lot in one go! Well, that's what we did last night: we got together at Arrivedeci bistro in Milton, carted along our own glassware (Riedel Chianti Classico glasses, thanks to Stewart Plant for stepping in the last moment to provide these), had a couple of quaffers to start (which wouldnt be quaffers in any other lineup), and then got stuck into it.
These notes are reasonably brief, and I think its hard to do a lot of these wines justice. This wasn't helped by the wafting smell of cigarette smoke, at least at our end of the table.
Opening wine was the 01 Peter Lehmann Blue Eden Riesling, served from magnum. Straw coloured, austere on the nose, floral if anything. It has a spritzy, lightly citrus palate and shows the first hints of development. Tightly woven with fine acid, lacks a bit of back palate and finishes a bit short.
Next was the 93 Seppelt Salinger, also in magnum. This is quite pale coloured for its age. Smoky biscuity nose with some honeyed tones. It shows some pinot like red fruits, with its biscuity bready palate, and I also got an unusual hint of something like fish oil. Still a nice wine.
Then onto the first masked wine, a bubbly. This poured as honeyed pale gold, and showed very little bead. In the mouth though the wine exploded with a burst of lightweight, delicate fizz, and showed in the lemony aperitif style. The wine was unveiled as the 93 Pol Roger Winston Churchill. Wow, what a start!
Next wine poured was a still white. Glowing pale gold, this has some age on it. The nose didn't show the same way, i got fresh lime and some petrol. Aged Clare riesling methinks. Richly textured in the mouth, and amazingly fresh and floral, with more petrol lemon and lime. Turns out to be the 1987 Petaluma Riesling, thrown in by Mark K as no one offered up a white wine for the balance of the night! Also turns out to be the last options game where I'm anywhere near close
Now a sparkling red. But hang on, this is deadset brown! Looks like an old tokay! This started as funky rancio, barnyard, chook poo, but after 10 mins started to show a bit of cherry. Not a wine you'd choose to drink, but its apparent this has a LOT of age on it. The wine is eventually revealed as the 1953 Seppelt Show Sparkling Burgundy, made by Colin Preece. Truly amazing that this wine was still in any kind of condition, and showing such a strong bead. A piece of Australian wine history.
And on to the first dry red. A dense colour, but very brick red and orange rimmed. More age! On the palate this is a rich, soy master stock, savoury mouthful with a "pastry" like note in the taste. Amazingly silky, supple palate structure, and firm tannic finish. I thought Barossa shiraz with age, but no, its the 1970 Lindemans Hunter River Burgundy (Classic Release).
Next bottle. Dense red, clear at the rim. Sediment floating in this. Muted nose, but shows a bit of alcohol lift, and eventually this gives up some soy, herbs and dark fruits. Over time the fruit becomes fleshier but is still muted, not sure how long this bottle was decanted. Dusty tannins, great length. Turns out to be the 1992 Henschke Hill of Grace. I've tasted this wine on one other occasion, and I know it can show better than this.
Onto another red, which is paler in colour than the last one, much pinker and clear at the rim. Leather and earth nose. Relatively subdued palate, nice texture, and prominent acid. My first instinct was a hunter shiraz or even a pinot noir, and to me this bottle of 1990 Hill of Grace was a disappointment. Others at the table thought more of this bottle, I'll blame the cigarette smoke .
Next wine poured as a rich dense purple. Coconut, chocolate, and dark berries on the nose. Tight tannic palate, which is rich and intense in its fruit, acid and firm tannin, and again with an alcoholic lift. This is way way too young, and will be an outstanding wine after extended cellaring. So it should be, its the 1996 Penfolds Grange.
What can you do to follow that? Pour another red, another densely cloured one, clearly older and showing some bricking. Hessian and leather first up on the nose, and then something fruity. On the palate this is tight and closed, and tannic. Shows some dark fruits as it blossoms in the glass and I would have liked to spend some time with this in the glass to see where it went. Given that this was the 1982 Grange, a shame I didn't. 21 years old still locked up and evolving, by no means tired.. Wow.
Getting a bit punch drunk by now, and the next wine splashes into the glass, and its different: it's inky purple black. "KAHUNA!!" comes the cry from the table! Closed, delicate nose, which shows some spice. A huge, huge dark fruited palate of blackberry, some subtle coconut. Huge. Amazing. Wow. What could it be? Is this the 98 Grange (I'm starting to expect stuff like this....)? No, its the 1999 Jim Barry Armagh. Wow.
Last dry red. It hits the glass and people put it to their noses. Its my wine. Murmurs go around, "ooh this is different, what have you pulled on us here?" and Mark K tells us that he doesn't think anyone at the table would have ever tried this wine. Its another inky black monster, and on the nose, its bitter chocolate, black cherries, and has a BIG alcoholic lift. In the mouth, its alcohol. More alcohol. Almost offputtingly alcoholic. There were some rich red cherries in there too, along with some black fruits, on a huge, jammy porty palate. People start to work it out: its the 1998 Greenock Creek Roennfeldt Road Shiraz.
Then a couple of others while we recover:
94 Yalumba Signature. Red, clearing to the rim. Closed dusty nose, some green herbal characters. Showing some red and black berries, and very firmly tannic. Keep this one for a while yet.
93 Henschke Keyneton: Darker Red, starting to brown. Savoury, spicy, aged fruit. Still fruit sweet, good length.
Then some fortifieds: The three Seppelt rare fortified were on the table, the muscat was gone in the blink of an eye, I tried the Tokay, yum, and the DP90 went missing in Action.
83 Hardys Vintage Port: by this time of night we had slowed down enough to linger over this for a while. Lifted licorice and sarsparilla nose. Still very young palate, its a battle for the tongue to come through this unscathed! The assault passes by and leaves behind some licorice, chocolate and sarsparilla. How long are we going to have to wait for this wine to mature? Sheesh!
And thats that! A good time was had by all, and getting up this morning was hard.
In summary? Everyone is asked to bring an extraordinary bottle, and only one non Austraian Wine. Apart from the 94 Signature, every single red wine is Shiraz. Not one other Cabernet, not a single Pinot.
Thanks to Mark K for his unrelenting effort to whip up our enthusiasm for the event, organising the restaurant, glassware, and giving the options game the unique Mark K treatment
cheers
Andrew
