Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

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9redpens
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by 9redpens »

I vote blind and looking forward to seeing you guys there!!!
Duck is from the water right?

catchnrelease
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by catchnrelease »

Is anyone bringing extra glassware by any chance?

pc79
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by pc79 »

Yes mate. I can bring 6x champers glasses and 4x pinot glasses

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ufo
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by ufo »

9redpens wrote:I vote blind and looking forward to seeing you guys there!!!
Duck is from the water right?


Water, I thought Ducks grow on trees :oops:
Last edited by ufo on Fri Apr 03, 2015 4:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

pc79
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by pc79 »

Sacrilege, but oh so tasty sacrilege

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9redpens
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by 9redpens »

Apart from Pinot what else shall we consume with the vegetable then?
Their dumplings are pretty good!

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TiggerK
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by TiggerK »

Yeah I'm hoping for some dumpling action too along with the crispy and roast duck frenzy... See you guys soon!

pc79
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by pc79 »

standard order for the mrs & I is: shallot pancakes, pan fried pork buns, steamed pork&crab dumplings, some garlic greens, then duck duck and more duck.

maybs
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by maybs »

Gah! Why did I check out this thread?! Sooo delicious.
You can find me on Instagram at oz_oenophile
Follow for my little wine journey.

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TiggerK
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by TiggerK »

Andy.L wrote:I am confirmed as well guys.

Will be bringing a champagne as well, to celebrate easter :P

cheers



What happened to you Andy?? We waited, knowing the champagne guy is usually late, but eventually had to start and put you down as a no show... Ah well, these things happen. :cry:

Hey, fun night, tons of great food and wine, and wow that bill was a killer. :) Cheers guys.

Pics tmrw...

pc79
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by pc79 »

Good times Tim,
Some great pinot's. Now watching Nicholas cage in 'stolen'. Must get stuck in to something that distracts me from his incredibly poor acting. Tequila?

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TiggerK
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by TiggerK »

pc79 wrote:Good times Tim,
Some great pinot's. Now watching Nicholas cage in 'stolen'. Must get stuck in to something that distracts me from his incredibly poor acting. Tequila?


Just got home, wow some fascinating post-EasterShow randoms on that Newcastle train.

Yeah, hit that worm action Paul, you deserve it, thanks for organising, drinking good wine with a good group of people is a lot of fun. :D

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Highlights for me were the Riesling and keeping in my preference for a bit of age, the Ata Rangi, Rippon and the De Bortoli.

And yes, plenty of family bias, but the Mt Riley Gewurtz 2013 is an excellent and pure expression of the grape IMHBO.

Cheers
TIm

catchnrelease
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by catchnrelease »

Great night. Even though I live in Ashfield I usually avoid the food there due to previous experiences turning sour (usually the day after). But the food was overall great with the only thing that wasn't too flash being the pancakes for the duck pancakes, but even then they weren't that bad. For $30 you get all the food you can eat and all the wine you can bring - pretty sweet deal.

Some brief notes from memory:

2001 Peter Lehmann Reserve Riesling - Nicely developed, a hint of kero. Lemon pith and curd, full soft palate. Not much acidity left but just enough to give nice structure. Finish was decent, could hold on to it for a bit longer but drinking well now.

2008 Barwang 842 Chardonnay - Beautiful Tumbarumba Chardonnay, pretty lean but still delicious. Not over the top with the oak, still pretty fresh for 7 years old. Very nice.

2013 Mount Riley Gewurztraminer - Lychee, fresh acidity to balance out the sweetness, very easy drinking and a great example of cheap Gewurz that isn't awful sweet crap. Should retail at around $15ish, hopefully less and if so it's a steal. Not technically the best wine shown, but a stand out for me.

2006 Surveyor Thomson Single Vineyard Pinot Noir - Mmmmmm something's not right here. Trying to fight but the cork buggered this up. Flawed.

2006 Ata Rangi Pinot Noir - Served next to the Surveyor Thomson, thank you screwcap. Much fresher, cherry's and red fruits, nice structure. Pretty fresh but showing development. Nice.

2007 Rippon Pinot Noir - Very good, can't remember too much about this wine but I remember it being a meatier and fuller style of Pinot Noir. I remember liking it.

2008 De Bortoli Estate Grown Pinot Noir - Beautiful, my WOTN. Perfect balance between savoury, forest floor tertiary development with plenty of typical primary-ish Yarra fruit to keep things fresh. Tannins and acidity in check and give good structure, but incorporated making this very smooth.

2009 Hospices de Beaune Beaune Premier Cru - Screwcap!!! This was served blind and the screwcap completely threw me off. Almost Bordeaux like in its tannin structure, definitely old world with sour cherry, earth, slight VA and almost olive (?) like notes very prominent. Tasted kind of like an old Coonawarra cabernet in a way, as strange as that sounds. At first wasn't a fan but slowly came round to it. Definitely a point of difference to the Aussie style I'm used to.

2012 Coldstream Hills The Esplanade Pinot Noir - Nothing flashy or trying to be different, but I mean that in a good way! A well balanced and well made typical Yarra Valley Pinot Noir.

2012 Holyman Pinot Noir - Whoa tannins! Very grippy tannins, coats the mouth. Massive structure for a Tassie Pinot. Has the fruit to back it up, though. This will last a long time.

2012 Kooyong Massale Pinot Noir - Funnily enough the only Mornington Pinot on show. Polar opposite to the Holyman, no where near as tannic and structured. Lots of sappy red fruits, a lick of tannin and some nice acidity for structure. Drinking well but not built for the long haul.

2009 Xanadu Graciano - Brought out at the end. Lots of VA going on here, I'm not too fussed about it though. Meaty, gamey and very rich. Had been opened the previous day (if I recall correctly?) so who knows what it would have been like on opening, it felt like this needed more time to settle down.
Last edited by catchnrelease on Sat Apr 04, 2015 10:24 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Sean
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by Sean »

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Polymer
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by Polymer »

The Hospice de Beaune is not Gevrey..that's where Pierre Naigeon is located but this wine is Beaune...1er Cru Beaune....First Red Burgundy I've seen under screwcap so I wanted to try it...The tannic structure is what I generally dislike about Cote de Beaune vs. Cote de Nuits (although I don't find this to be the case for Santenay and Chassagne Montrachet rouge) and this had that..it was far more full bodied than what I generally want to see from Pinot. I could barely keep myself from laughing because of all the confused looks...Screwcap (which I made sure to crack in front of everyone) really set a bias in people's minds...

Peter Lehmann Reserve Riesling 2001 - Screwcap - It is amazing how much more relaxed you are opening an older screwcapped wine...great development..good acidity although I might've like a smidge more...A bit of kero but not too much....The PL Reserve Riesling (now Wigan) is always a consistent winner and this was no different..

Rippon 2007 - Good acidity...Maybe too much oak? Not sure..but Paul pointed this out as I was picking it up as well but this whiff of white chocolate? Really bright fruit at first that made me think of Marlborough...but after awhile it had this graphite element that seemed far more Central Otago...

De Bortoli Estate Pinot 2008 - Not sure how this was a screwcapped wine with the amount of bricking..maybe Dan's magic aging garage helped this along :). Good acidity and the wine was very Yarra -ish..nice complexity..Showed quite nicely - Magic Garage..

Holyman Pinot 2012 - A lot of mixed feelings about this wine. As a wine, it was fine. Good fruit, good overall structure. Big tannins. But as a Pinot...meh...Not sure I'd classify this as Pinot...I think they might've thought they were making a shiraz....I think the only thing to make it more so would've been more new oak...So for those that like Domaine A Pinot or Moss Wood Pinot, this would fit very well in that same vein...

Sean
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by Sean »

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Polymer
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by Polymer »

It wasn't about pitting them against each other at all...

It was simply a casual night out with a general Pinot theme..the whites were just incidental..It was whatever you wanted to bring..nothing too serious...

Comparisons will happen because something is there to compare...They can happen with the same wine different bottle even..The general idea is just hanging out with other people passionate about wine and trying a bunch of different things. Everyone will have their own reasons for bringing something...sometimes it is just what they had...or some will try to bring something different or interesting or just something they like to drink..it really doesn't matter...

There is definitely nothing about deciding which region makes a better X..everyone is going to have their own opinions..and seeing the differences people's opinions is as interesting as the wines...

pc79
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Re: Casual Pinot Night - 3rd April Inner West Sydney

Post by pc79 »

A great night in all and not a bad place to eat some decent dumplings and duck have a casual drink with a few like minded folk. For $30each ($205 for 7 of us) it is an absolute steal really. If we go there in future, as Tim suggested, we should order in stages rather than ordering all at once and have the food come out willy nilly.
On to the wines.
I think Alex has written up notes that align quite similarly with my memory of all the wines.

For mine everything was very enjoyable, the picks:
2006 Ata Rangi
2012 Kooyong
2012 Holyman
and
the 2007 Rippon.
and special mention to all the whites which each had their own individual interest.

Holyman had excellent structure, those tannins were surely fine and very grippy in comparison to everything else. I liked it, but probably needs a few years to sort itself out.
The Rippon did have a lick of creamy vanilla/white chocolate on the nose to begin with. It was big and different to the De Bortoli which it was served next to. De Bortoli’s colour, burnt orange/purple and lovely structure. Magical garage indeed!

Many thanks again to everyone for making the effort and the generosity. Some lively discussion and good company. I think in future I’ll be spitting quite a bit more than drinking. Got home and ?somehow? the cats got out and spent the night in the pouring rain under shelter in the garden.

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