Excited

[waistcoat]

Well my parents are both hitting the big 60 this week, so naturally I'm heading up to Sydney to celebrate with them. While looking through his cellar the other day, my dad happened to stumble across a bottle of 84 Grange he'd somehow forgotten he had, which he plans to open for our family dinner. No doubt you guys have all done the Grange thing and it's lost its excitement, but since I'm a newly minted wine geek of only a year or so, I can't wait!

[dlo]

Good luck to you.

The '84 Grange is generally a very good wine but remember there are no great old wines, only great old bottles. I'd recommend decanting about an hour before serving. If it's totally ready to go immediately when decanted, cover the decanter with a small plate, wash the bottle clean and drain then pour back the wine back into the original bottle. In the meantime, lots of sincere prayer to the cork gods may help your cause as well.

Congratulations to both your parents on reaching another milestone and I hope the celebrations go off with a bang.

[KMP]

Good luck with it. Penfolds corks are notoriously bad and while I drink far more St Henri than Grange I have reverted to using the twin prong cork puller or Ah-So on any bottle with any age on it. This is because almost without fail a cork screw pulls through the bottom half of the cork, the cork then breaks in half and I’m left with a cork screw with half a cork and a bottle of wine with half a cork plus bits. The Ah-So has solved that little problem!

Here it is in use!

Mike

[dlo]

Good luck with it. Penfolds corks are notoriously bad and while I drink far more St Henri than Grange I have reverted to using the twin prong cork puller or Ah-So on any bottle with any age on it. This is because almost without fail a cork screw pulls through the bottom half of the cork, the cork then breaks in half and I’m left with a cork screw with half a cork and a bottle of wine with half a cork plus bits. The Ah-So has solved that little problem!

Here it is in use!

Mike

I have adopted this procedure, too. Thanks, Mike.

[mjs]

that makes at least three of us

old Wynns corks as well

[Polymer]

Same...anything with a reasonable amount of age I'd rather use my Ah So...

[monghead]

Same...anything with a reasonable amount of age I'd rather use my Ah So...

Thread hijacked by the Ah So...

[sjw_11]

But wait, theres more... if you buy your Ah So now, Ill throw in this set of steak knives absolutely free!
Thats over $400 of value, for just three easy instalments of $19.95... so call now!

[Michael R]

Classic!
Fwiw...+100 on the Ah-So, they rule.

Waistcoat...hope you have a cracking night with your parents, i often get excited about wine, especially special occasion bottles, and i'm certain that will never change. Grange is truly iconic, and should always get you giddy with anticipation, fingers crossed the cork has kept some of its undoubted class.

[waistcoat]

Well what a night! One of those truly memorable nights people have only a handful of times over the course of a long life. Cafe Sydney were great sports in allowing us to take the Grange as it wasn't on their list (not that vintage anyway) and charging us $25 corkage. We dropped it off at the restaurant before going for pre dinner drinks which meant it was opened and decanted without a hitch. Pre dinner drinks for me were a very well made Manhattan and a rusty nail. With entree I picked something very different - a Spinifex ‘Papillon’ Grenache, Cinsualt, Mataro that had everyone at the table talking. A huge spice bomb up front with juicy red fruits following afterwards, a perfect lead up to the main event. The Grange was perfect - no cork taint or any problem with it at all. The only way I can describe the experience is with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlIaown6Wpw

The secondary flavours had definitely come to the fore but were perfectly balanced with the dominant fruit flavour of prunes and currants. I can't even really think of it as individual notes because the whole is so much greater than the sum of the parts. As I was drinking it I was trying to analyse all the flavours at which point I thought you know what, enjoy it for what it is without trying to describe everything about it. Everything is so perfectly balanced it was just...wow.
The evening finished off with a couple of glasses of Majella sparkling shiraz at home, and as is usually the case everyone slowly went to bed and it was just me and dad sitting up and chatting into the small hours (and about wine no less).