TN: The Melbourne Group Go to Geelong

[mychurch]

It’s been hard to get the Melbourne tasting group together recently but we managed to get a group of us out to the Archive Wine Bar in Geelong. That was despite finding out the day before that all the direct trains were cancelled for the month.

We arranged with Greame to bring a couple of bottles, which became 3, and the rest we ordered
Per glass and split - 2 wines and 2 glasses of each per round split between the 5 of us. Meant we drank too much to drive, but not enough to get really effected.

The list for the day was

1987 Domain Chandon Brut*
2019 Off-Dry Fingers Lake Riesling, Living Roots (USA)
2020 Hofberg Riesling Kabinet, AJ Adam, Germany
2022 Sauvignon Semillon, Sorrenberg
2016 Saumur Blanc, Domaine Du Collier, Loire
2020 Passetoutgrains, Bourgogne Gamy, Domain Blaine Gagnard
2020 Morgon Cuvee Corcellete, Jean Fiollard
1972 Metala Shiraz/Cabernet (Recorked in 2015)*
NV Manzanilla, La Guita, Spain
1979 Dry Sardinian Gold, Vernaccia di Oristino, Italy*

* brought by us

I didnt take notes on the day, so these are only impressions of the wine.

The Chandon was served blind and Con guessed it as being a non French Champagne without the bubbles. Lovely wine.

The 2 Riesling had plenty of sugar. Not much Finger Lake wine makes it out of America, so it was great to try. I thought both were good and preferred the American as the fruit and the sweetness was toned down a bit. Both were very easy to drink though.

Not had the Sorrenberg Sauvignon for a few vintages and this was different to the versions I remember, with much more acidity and a green sherbet freshness. Great wine, which I would have placed as South African in a blind tasting. There was no obvious wine to pair it with so we went with the Chenin, which was probably the best wine of the day. Lots of lanolin, structure and intensity. One of the top Loire houses and it was a classy wine - as it should be at $60 a glass.

The 2 Gamays made for an interesting contrast. The one made by Gagnard showed all the traits of a Gamay made in a Burgundy style. It was plump, round and quite smooth to drink. Would have been a good dinner wine. The actual Bojo still had a lot of fruit and while not as crunchy as some I have had, the wine was leaner and higher in acidity than the Burg. It was the group favourite, although I preferred the Burg.

The 1972 Stoneyfell Matala deserved to be savoured on its own. Recorked in 2015 there was a lot of red fruit and some alcohol on the nose. None of the decaying features you can get with older wines and the wine still has a lot of primary flavours, backed up by cream and acidity. I presume the recorking added a bit of life to the wine, but still, it’s in a lovely place. Misses the complexity of other older wines I have had and actually reminded me of the 62 Lindemans Pophory that Con brought last time, which was equally drinkable. Yum.

We ended with the 2 sherry style wines. These come alive with salty seafood, which we didn’t have, so we ordered a bowl of salty fries. The sherry came in a half bottle and it has all the flavours you expect - good to see a screw cap being used. I picked up the Vernaccia at auction recently and this was the youngest of the 3 bottles. It’s from Sardinia and its a sort of Italian Sherry. This was very dry and woody and I probably should have decanted it 2 days beforehand, instead of one. It spends a time under Flor in cherry barrels and some of these also show Vin Jaune traits. Not this one though, but the longer it was in the glass, the better it became. Amazed that we almost finished the bottle.

Great afternoon and it is a place where you can try something odd and new.

[mychurch]

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[I Love Shiraz]

Sounds like a great tasting Cameron. I am disappointed something came up at the last minute which prevented me from coming along.

[mychurch]

Shame you weren’t there Micheal. I hope you can make to Richmond on the 6th.