The Auswine Forum

off to a xmas dinner thing tonight - suspect we are dining on ham, turkey, chicken and so on - have stashed some red bubbles in the fridge - wondering if there's any thoughts on a decent pinot to go with such fare? 9it's kinda warm so not thinking of anything too heavy ..... cheers - JB

2002s from the Adelaide Hills, Ashton Hills, Barrett or Mt.Lofty are all excellent.

From your way you can't go past Bannockburn, almost any vintage.

[quote="707"]If you can see through it, it's not worth drinking![quote]

hmmm...the same applied to P/N too

well i do tend to like my pinots with at least some depth so in fact not being able to see thru it could be a definite plus. have some brokenwood indigo vineyard pinot - might go with that - also picked up a coldstream hills 2003 pinot - havent seen any TN's of this as yet - should be ok - warm enough to have ripened well - thanks for the suggestions tho - i reckon a second option will be called upon later in the evenings' proceedings... adelaide hills here we come.

cheers - JB

JB, let us know how it went.

Guest, identify yourself!

I didn't say I'd actually drunk the Pinots I mentioned, I could have been just using other knowledgable peoples opinions in a concise form for JB

Anyway - get stuffed!

Due to issues that popped up at the last minute (i.e. my "nana" nap went hideously overtime) I wasn't organised enough to get up to the local fermented grape retailer and get me some adelaide hills '02 pinot.

What I did take with turned out to be quite ok though. As I recall the evening went a little like this:

A couple of cleansing Becks on arrival...

Followed by a 2002 McWilliams Mount Pleasant Sparkling Pinot. Hadn't had one of these in a few years. Was mainly how I recalled it, garnet red, berries and a fairly sweet and simple , quite soft, and going reasonably well with a range of antipasto goodies.

Enter the marscapone and gorgonzola tart with caramelised onions, partnered firstly with a Coldstream Hills Pinot '03. This was perhaps overpowered a little by the caramelised onions, which had a good splash of balsamic with them. The wine itself had quite a nice deep red colour, a good nose... plums...a little spicy... nice acidity on the palate, fairly ripe to my way of thinking which made for a nice drop.

Followed this up with a Brokenwood Indigo Vineyard Pinot. A little darker in colour compared to the CH. Richer and heavier wine IMO... quite sweet, spicy, perhaps almost chocolatey taste, with enough acidity to finish nicely. Stood up much better to the sweet/sour elements of the balsamic caramelised onions.

Ham, turkey, roast veg and some blanched greens with a herb, garlic and breadcrumbs tossed through. I was quite content to go back to red bubbles as we seemd to have an oversupply of the 2002 seppelt original sparkling shiraz. (a favourite amongst my dinner companions). However my host was insistent that we try his recommendation - the 2001 Burge Family Garnacha Old Vine Grenache.

Now for anyone following this thead you will have read that I was thinking of something relatively light to go with the xmas type fare. this brute was a lovely dark red to purple, heaps of jammy, sweetness on the nose. Weighing in at 15.5% from memory, which posed a couple of problems. Firstly it was difficult to compliment our hostess on the food when it was pretty much overpowered by the first sip. Secondly, the wine at this stage doesnt carry the high alcohol volume at all well. the mid-palate shows you lots of quite yummy rich sweetness and dark fruit, but alas a massive wine with a harsh and bitter finish.

At this point I was looking for my seppelt spurgly, and was heading for the esky when our host announced that he was off to his "cellar" and would find something more appropriate. (poor bugger!). Meanwhile opened the Seppelt Original '02 red bubbles and sipped away quite happily with my main. I'm sure I can't add much in the way of a tasting note to a wine that many many people have drunk. Just a nice reliable standard (that comes in handy in situations when the grenache has just punched you in the moosh!).

Dessert came next - a baked lemon cheesecake with crushed raspberry sauce. We drank the Brown Brothers Patricia Noble Riesling '99 here. Damn this was a good match. The wine itself had a the lovely deep colour, followed by a very rich palate, butterscotch, apricot, yum... and plenty of acidy to keep the finish clean as a whistle.

Cheese... cheese and more cheese.... And here here the wheels fell off im afraid.

What our host presented was 3 bottles of blue pyrenees estate red 1991, 1992 and 1993.

All 3 wines were long gone - the ullage was pretty bad on all bottles - almost inot the shoulders of all three.

The 91 was thin and green ... a little bitter and well and truly done and dusted.

92 showed no improvement - again thin and greenish ...

93 showed ok colour - but the wine was only slightly more alive... well on its last legs.

Last ditched attempt from the host was a 93 mount avoca shiraz... Again with a very low level for its age. This wine opened ok but on the nose was an awful stink. I thought it smeeled like an old hunter red with some leathery sweaty saddle aromas, but this went on to become almost a manure and earthy smell - reminiscent of a cattle yard.. charming huh?

All 4 bottles were decanted and over two hours nothing improved.

Coffee and home at 1.30 this morning - and given my letdowns i treated myself to a couple of glasses from my ever shrinking stock of seppelt GR113 muscat. But that tasting note is for another day.

It's all in the planning, meticulous planning is best. Don't think the host has good celaring conditions by the sound of it, he should be buying and drinking not cellaring.

Aren't those awkward situations when someone pulls out something they think is good and you know it's crap. There's only so much you can do with a smile and semantics!