I guess most of us have started thinking about this already, perhaps even standing a few bottles up.
So what wines have you got lined up for xmas (either on the day or the wider period), and what's the food to go with it?
Given the *slightly* cooler weather over here, we'll be having a roast, with this year being a haunch of Venison. Whilst normally we'll be reaching for something properly mature (and often nebbiolo) that we can mull over on the day, this feels like it needs something more robust. Hence toying with a 2001 Wolf Blass Platinum Shiraz or 1999 Jim Barry Armagh, though a 2002 or 1999 Chateau Musar also an option as something lighter that I hope would still work.
Beyond that, with 3rd (booster) jab done now, it might be the right time to get some friends round for a tasting of weird odds & sods we've been talking about for a while. I've got a good few candidates
Christmas Dinner will be a quiet one as I will be driving my sister to the airport and then accompany some friends on a long walk from their house to another friend who is now wheelchair bound for a few warming drinks before walking back. So after a hot shower settling down to a roast dinner with a mature bottle of wine followed by a port. However between Christmas and New Year I will have a couple of friends over but not necessarily on the same day. Food will include chicken, lamb, goose or duck.
As for the wines, in the next few days I will be rifling through boxes for a couple of dozen wines, all older, ranging from modest to the special. In the mix might be a Musar or Rioja from the 70s, Bordeaux from the 80s, and maybe 80s Rhone, Rioja, or Tuscany. Who knows what will catch my fancy. One of my friends found a couple of bottles of 2014 Tignanello recently (for a song i might add) and is interested in tasting it so I will be on the hunt for my 1990 or 2005 Tignanello to make it a micro-mini vertical. The possibilities are almost endless.
Cheers ........................ Mahmoud.
PS: I forgot, this is an Australian wine forum and I should have mentioned some Australian wine candidates. Off the top of my head I would like to try a 2004 Langmeil Freedom, or maybe one of the 1992 Bailey's Classic, or a 1998 Aberfeldy or 1999 Meshach, or the 1996 Bin 389. There is a bottle of 1983 Wolf Blass Yellow Label somewhere - it surely needs drinking. Ha, ha, just joking!
Sensible choice on the water (on both counts).
Our Perth rellies choose the big family xmas meal to be a morning breakfast, which I think a rather sensible idea. It rather reduces the prep, and gives everyone the prospect of a little quiet time later on (and is of course a fair bit cooler).
Mahmoud Ali wrote:
PS: I forgot, this is an Australian wine forum and I should have mentioned some Australian wine candidates. Off the top of my head I would like to try a 2004 Langmeil Freedom, or maybe one of the 1992 Bailey's Classic, or a 1998 Aberfeldy or 1999 Meshach, or the 1996 Bin 389. There is a bottle of 1983 Wolf Blass Yellow Label somewhere - it surely needs drinking. Ha, ha, just joking!
Of those, perhaps a little perversely, it's the Bailey's that jumps out for me in terms of appeal. The opposite of 'tricked up'.
Interestingly Halliday made reference to Bailey's in his weekend Oz column this week. I love their fortifieds, owned now by Castella.
I have mixed case of 98 1904/20 somewhere, part of my Victorian journey all those years ago. Great wines for very little money IIRC.
Cheers Craig
phillisc wrote:Interestingly Halliday made reference to Bailey's in his weekend Oz column this week. I love their fortifieds, owned now by Castella.
I have mixed case of 98 1904/20 somewhere, part of my Victorian journey all those years ago. Great wines for very little money IIRC.
You're right about the little money. I bought my mixed case of bottles at cellar door a long time ago and had it delivered to Sydney, then home to Canada - with the 1992 Classic Cabernet and Shiraz costing A$22 a bottle, the 1998 1920s Block for A$24, a pair of 1983 Vintage Port for A$35 each and of course the Liquor Tokay. That was back in 2001.
