Sorry for the delay readers. I was not as far along the road to recovery from illness as I thought I was and Friday night set me back a tad!
A fantastic night with some real treats. The food was uniformly superb, and the service was so good that when we realised we had left less than $100 tip, we had another whip round! There were motions put that we simply have all our offlines at 85 Miskin Street (the artist formerly known as Brent's)
We had two bottles of the
2008 Majella Sparkling Shiraz while we got our act together. In my view an improvement on the 2007, this had good fruit, great balance and a pleasantly persistent finish. Slightly coarse bubbles, but that’s quibbling. A Very Good start!
Flight 1
2002 Grossett Polish Hill Riesling. Lemon pith, lanolin, green apple and nashi pear. All about the texture (which is lovely!). Some said this was in a dumb phase, but it really just needed food to express itself. Very Good.
2014 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc. A lot of people passed on this (a transition from ABC to ABS by the cognoscenti?). Not your fruity acid smear, this had structure with the nettles, split pea and surprising gooseberry. Not my cup of tea, but a change of pace. Good
Flight 2
2002 Toolangi Reserve Chardonnay. On the nose, distinct butterscotch and crème brulee, but without a hint of sweetness (if that makes sense). Gorgeous texture, with what fruit is left in the background, but very long and interesting. Set some of this aside and came back to it once or twice. Would have liked to have seen this in it’s heyday, but I reckon that was 3-5 years ago. Very, Very Good and my WWOTN.
2007 Voyager Estate Chardonnay. This was in a good space. Lean, but with good fruit. Good acid, with a fair bot of interest, nuttiness. Not sure where it will go from here. Very Good.
Flight 3
2007 Gevery Chambertin. Some ‘barnyard’ on the nose that blew off pretty quickly. After 10 minutes in the glass this came together nicely. Set some of this aside and came back to it again and again over the evening. Developed complexity and length. Nick said 2007 was a warm year, which I don’t recall, but he might have meant in France. This fell over towards the end of the night. Very Good,
2005 Giaconda Pinot Noir. Not sure whether 05 was a warm year (it’s always pretty warm in Brisbane). This was much fruitier, with cherry pastilles and liquorice on the nose with more of the same on the palate. Nice enough flavours but the consensus of the group was “shortâ€Â. Good, almost Very Good.
We then had a structured tasting of the
2012 Ballycroft releases. I will leave these to others to describe as these proved not to be my cup of tea. I normally like warm cuddly wines, but I found these a little OTT across the board. Might have been because I was crook as I struggled with a lot of the heavier wines tonight.
Flight 4
2004 Voyager Estate Cabernet Merlot. Nick called the wood on this. “Shedload of cedar†(although he didn’t use the word shed). This was popped and poured and to me proved enigmatic. Started out okay, but then the tannins overwhelmed the fruit for a bit and then it came good. I think everyone including some of the people at the next table asked Alan if it had been decanted (you had to be there!). Very Good.
2005 Marqués de Riscal Baron de Chirel Reserva Rioja. Surprisingly mild nose though Rens did say he had decanted it for 3 hours before putting it back in the bottle to bring along. It was surprising because the palate was so full and intense. Beautiful cherry, cola and tomato leaf. I wrote gorgeous. Balance. Again, I came back to this one across the course of the evening as it evolved. Very, Very Good verging on Excellent.
2002 Classic McLaren ‘La Testa’ Cabernet Sauvignon. Big, bold and enjoyable. Right at the threshold of my alcohol heat tolerance on the evening. Loads of fruit tannin and acid all in balance with just a question mark on the alcohol. Very, Very Good.
Flight 5
2002 Greenock Creek Cornerstone Grenache. Started out too confected and OTT for me but settled pretty quickly in the glass. Dark sweet cherry and raspberry, without the sweet finish. Good length. Interesting and rated as Excellent.
1998 Wirra Wirra RSW Shiraz. Caught in the trap of bringing this myself, I thought this was Excellent. Complex nose with floral elements and attractive oak. Great fruit somewhere between medium and full-bodied. Length to burn. Not sure how much of my appreciation came from the contrast with the wines around it. My RWOTN and WOTN.
2001 Greenock Creek Creek Block Shiraz. Not sure I want to say too much as this seemed like wine concentrate to me. Massive, but without much of a nose it sat on the palate, heavy, but lacking vibrancy. I was thinking about this and the following wine the next day, and maybe it was the lack of acid? Anyway, didn’t rock my boat on the night. Couldn't rate this. NR
2002 Torbreck Run Rig Shiraz. A potent (threatening?) nose with something I couldn’t quite put my finger on (putty?). Again, huge on the tongue but doesn’t seem to move across the palate. Perhaps on another night this would wow me (as it clearly did others), but not tonight. NR.
Cheese
Gerry had brought along a
Maxwell Vintage Port for the cheese which was a great way to finish the night.
Another fantastic Brisbane offline. (I'll post the votes in a separate post).
Thanks to Gerry for organising and moving the date even though he was flying out the next day. Thanks to Alan for coming from WA for the event. Thanks to everyone for the generosity of their contributions - it is remarkable the things people bring. The company and banter was great! I came under sustained attack for the quality of the glassware at the previous offline, which I organised but then failed to attend (First World Problems). I didn’t get a chance to mention Chelsea’s loss to the New York Red Bulls, sorry Nick. Great to catch up with everyone again and looking forward to the next one already
Only at a Brisbane off line... 
