WORLD CUP SEMI FINAL DINNER (at home)

[Attila]

Tasting Note No.18

World Cup semi final night. Aus vs NZ. A big dinner and to keep with the theme, I choosen one wine from each country with our meal. On the sound of the mighty Haka, I twisted the screwcap and pulled the cork.

2001 FRAMINGHAM Dry Riesling-Marlborough.NZ

A favourite riesling of mine. I've drunk it earlier this year and reviewed it on the old Auswine site. It is still the excellent wine it was then. Grapes harvested from the Front Block site of the Conders Bend vineyard. Winemakers Ant Mackenzie and Andrew Hedley understand the variety perfectly. This dry style echoes Alsace, they've an other 'Classic' riesling as well, more of a Mosel style wine.
Colour vibrand clear with hay on the edges. Beautiful nose of minerals, spring peach blossoms, melon and citrus. The palate is bursting with juicy fruit. Complex flavours of minerals, stone fruit and clean riesling fruit. Excellent and long finish with controlled acid. Superb drinking now and over the next 5 years. Cost AU $23. Is it worth it? Oh,yes.

moving on to a favourite shiraz of mine I started to get the feeling that the All Blacks will be beaten tonight...

1996 BRAND'S of Coonawarra Shiraz

Grapes picked from the Laira vineyard. The wine spent 18 months in oak.
Colour surprisingly deep red with brick on the edges. Lot's of toasty-cedary oak on the nose, with gamey notes from the bottle ageing. Plum and blue berries, red berries mixing on the palate, the rich fruit well balanced with the fairly powerful oak. Reached perfect drinking now at 7 years of age. A medium bodied and complex shiraz with some typical red earthiness from Coonawarra. Although mature, it will develop for an other 3 years easily. Very well made. I paid AU $26 for it, money well spent.

So, by now we all know that the Wallabies won the game, at home however, the riesling provided more excitement, putting New Zealand at first place. My dream final would have been the Aussies vs France as I already knew which two wines to choose for the night of the final in that line up. Unfortunately I don't have any English wine, so come saturday night, Australia will definitely be victorious (at least on my table).

Tasted:November 2003

[Ian S]

Unfortunately I don't have any English wine, so come saturday night, Australia will definitely be victorious (at least on my table).

Can I congratulate you as the 1st person to ever say the words "Unfortunately I don't have any English wine"