Rockford Black Shiraz Barossa Valley, Disgorged 1998

Simple words need only apply....

‘I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.

I hunger for your sleek laugh, your hands the colour of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.
I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body, the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,
I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes, and I pace around hungry,
sniffing the twilight, hunting for you, for your hot heart, like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.

Love Sonnets XI – Pablo Neruda

A wine that took my breath away from the very first faint aroma to the last soft bead in the glass. An Australian masterpiece. Thats all I’ve got xxx

Spring Vale Freycinet Tasmanian Pinot Noir 2006 and Michael Owen

It’s another humid start to the weekend and I’m sitting down the back with ‘The Age’ listening to my kid’s sort of fight and giggle all in the one guise. So I’m reading the paper and a story on the upcoming cricket world cup in the sub-continent grabs my attention. The story is focused on ranking the teams and discussing key players. But it is the last column that has me scrunching up my face, ‘If they (the cricket nation) were a curry they’d be...’ Give us a spell.

Gimmicks. They’re everywhere. But I have gimmicks too. Oh my, I’m part of the 'scrunchy face’ epidemic. Yep, if you can’t beat them....

So with this I ponder my next gimmick, and it is, ‘If this wine were a Football player, who would they be?’ the football in this case is the real football, the world game, or soccer as you may regard it. Yes I know it is sort of tacky, but hey, whatta ya going to do? It won’t be on every post, just ones where I’ve got the itch.

The Spring Vale Freycinet Tasmanian Pinot Noir 2006. I reckon it had been about 10 years since I have had one of these wines, with their Gewurtz being a regular in the fridge. But that was long ago. Now Tasmania I guess isn’t as cutting edge that it used to be 10 or so years ago. Don’t get me wrong, they make great wine, but now when I want something new I look to Vermentino or Waitaki Valley or Hawkes Bay Syrah.

The wine has a very Pinot Noir look about it in the glass with a pink/ruby transparency going on. The nose has a blend of macerated strawberry with a subtle touch of earthiness. So far so good right? The first sip is still holding on to a sliver of acid and primary fruit of strawberries and sweet plums. Then it was over. The wine ceased to be. There was really nothing left in it but a rather dull dry red wine. In hindsight the wine was probably passed its best, somewhere around 2009 I reckon (tasted Jan 22, 2011), but at $34 from Dan’s I thought it would be good to have a look. Oh well.



Now this raises the question: if the Spring Vale Pinot Noir were a football player, who would they be? Michael Owen. Ten years ago this guy was safe to say at the peak of his powers. World Cup at the age of 18 – France 1998 where he scored that exquisite goal against Argentina - £45,000 a week pay check and the world at his feet. But that was his problem, his feet. After years of stress fracture problems in his feet, Michael Owen was off-loaded to Real Madrid – not a bad destination, but he did virtually nothing there, thanks to more injuries. After that it was Newcastle United and now Manchester United; two great clubs but only a bit part player at best. We loved you Michael, but your best is behind you.

Drink with BBQ lamb burger
Drink three years ago
82
Screwcap 13.5%v/v $34 Dan Murphy’s Hawthorn East

Suckfizzle Augusta Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon 1998

My first look at a Suckfizzle wine was a corked bottle of the SSB at Piraeus Blues in Fitzroy just after I returned from four years in Europe and the US. In an Iron Chef moment, if memory serves me correct, the manager quickly took the wine away, and instead of another SSB she opened up the Cabernet Sauvignon. The three of us seemed a little surprised but just went along with it – we were glad. The banquet that we ended up having been accompanied with a further two more bottles of the Suckfizzle CS.

That was effectively the start of my love-affair with Suckfizzle wines, in particular the CS. And with this Suckfizzle Augusta Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon 1998, my cellar is a little bit sadder today for there is no more hiding away. But no more tears, let’s get to the wine.

Still very dark in the glass, with no signs of any brickie hue to be seen. Fantastic wafts of cassis, cedar and brown spices with cinnamon the most obvious. More cassis in the palate with the acid a surprising hit in the mid palate followed by blueberries, more spice and another surprise with checked and still firm tannins bobbing up – very Bordeaux and very Left Bank.

My cellar has taken a hit in the past six months, so armed with Mr Visa, I think Suckfizzle may be getting an email from me sooner rather than later.

Drink with Corsican lamb stew – my recipe
Drink till 2016
98
Quality cork 14%v/v Parkhill Cellars Richmond $38 – still have receipt, but Cellars are now closed

Rockford Barossa Valley Basket Press Shiraz 1998

Boy, two Barossa Shiraz’s in one week, I fair dinkum don’t think I can do it! I know it’s the Rockford Basket Press and I know it comes from one of the best vintages from the last 50 years, but hey, it’s the Barossa!

So for just this one time, I am going to pass the keys over to my very good friend Archibald Hinkletroffer, who just as it happens is a third generation Barossavite whose family hails from Dusseldorf can you believe it (put it in the boot you dunkoff!!). So because of my avoision (see George Costanza) to the Barossa, here’s Archibald.

One more thing, the wine is from my birthday dinner. Thanks Archibald (in photo)

No, thank you Tim,

First may I say that the greedy bastard Tim did not give me any of the wine, and that he is making me translate from his notes – wanker! Now, what can I say, the super excellent super gorgeous Rockford Barossa Valley Basket Press Shiraz 1998. Apparently the colour in the glass was quite red, hmfff, I could have told you that. He also goes on to say that the hue had a tinge of orange; does he think I am a moron; of course it had a tinge of orange – blah blah blahhhh!

He goes on and on! The aroma exuded eucalypt and cherries which apparently then turns in to licorice allsorts, cedar and leather – wow, magic cherries these ones hey! Here we go; the mouth was like Dave Graney ‘n’ The Coral Snakes, ‘Scorched earth love affair’, and it goes a little something like this....

‘...it’s a scorched earth love affair,
They were going at it like a couple of minks,
And they aint thinkun about the wider community.....’

Very good, now I get it (he told me to write that!).

Thank you Archibald. Really, I thought this was going to be an easier gig for Archibald. Just because I am not the biggest fan of Barossa Valley shiraz, and just because he didn’t get any does not excuse the tome he just used. Fuck it, the wine was amazing and Rocky Callaghan was right to write on the back label, ‘Cellaring for 10 years will reward’, and definitely no JABS!!!!

So thank you again Archibald and sucked in that you missed out.

Drink till 2015
Drink with people you love; that’s you Erin. Also try my Corsican braise
100/100
Quality cork 14%v/v plenty if you get it at an auction site; Erin won it back in 2001 at a work team bonding exercise. God bless that woman hey!

Top of the Pop's in the Naughties - the best of wine for me 2000-2009

Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn’t it? Yesterday when I ended my Top 10 wines of 2009 saying that I would be posting my top 10 wine moments of the naughties (or noughties I have since been informed), the thought that it would be as big as it is was not as obvious as it is now.

The last 10 years has really been about me finding my place within the wine industry; from sommelier to retail wine sales to studying wine and viticulture at university to working vintage and finally finishing the decade working for a Champagne house in Brand development. Since arriving back from Europe in February 2000, I have immersed myself in all things wine, so coming up with a list of wine moments for the naughties has been tougher than first expected, but after much thought I have come up with the ten moments and events that have defined the past ten years with wine. So in no particular order, here they are.

1. Four amazing Champagnes; Dom Pérignon Œnothèque 1959, Dom Pérignon Œnothèque 1990, Krug 1998 and Krug NV.
2. Penfolds Grange robbery at Como Wine & Spirits, 2002.
3. Domaine de la Romanée Conti 2005 vertical tasting, 2008.
4. Vintage at Oakridge Wines, Yarra Valley 2008.
5. Working at Bindi Wine Growers, Macedon Ranges 2005-2009.
6. Sommelier work.
7. Viticulture/Wine Science degree 2003-2008.
8. Re-discovering Chardonnay.
9. Working for Vranken Pommery Monopole.
10. The rise of cool climate Shiraz.


Now it’s a big list with each one being a lengthy story, so like many other posts, this one will be a series over the next few weeks, with the first instalment on my Champagne moments with Dom Perignon and Krug.


Four amazing Champagnes – I have always loved champagne, with it all starting in Champagne while doing vintage with Jean-Marie Etienne in 1997. During my time there I was able to taste some amazing wine, and not just from Jean-Marie Etienne but from other producers in the Valle de Marne, yet it wasn’t until 2002 that Champagne really meant something to me.

The first was back in 2002 when the three assailants responsible for the Grange Robbery at Como Wine & Spirits were charged and sentenced to lengthy gaol time (I will get to the Grange incident in another post). It was a pretty big moment for me filled with relief, anger and pity for the three idiots who did it to pay off a heroin debt. With the help of a good mate, we polished off a bottle of Krug NV in quick time and were left with the common thought that we could never go back to boring old sparkling wine – a bit like flying first class the first time and knowing how tough it’s going to be in coach the next time!

My next Champagne moment came in 2005 with the birth of Imogen. Having the kind of taste for wine that I do, Erin and me were never going to toast the arrival of Imogen with a mere bottle of Aussie sparkling, or even something like a Bollinger or Veuve Clicquot NV; we needed something grand, and that was the Dom Pérignon Œnothèque 1990 – an amazing moment celebrated with an amazing wine.

I did not have to wait too long for my next Champagne moment, with this one still being the most amazing wine I have ever tasted – the Dom Pérignon Œnothèque 1959. This happened when I was a sommelier at Vue de monde in 2005 when David, the head sommelier, and I enjoyed a half a glass each of this wine that was left by a customer who BYO’d it. I can fair dinkum still smell the truffle and earthy notes of this wine.

Finally, there is the Krug 1998, another wine that Erin and I had to welcome our second child, Henry, in to the world. Having only had it 11 months ago, this wine displayed everything good about a young vintage Champagne with mouth watering citrus and brioche, and also the lament of finishing the bottle just knowing how good this wine will taste in 20 years. Still, the wine lived up to the occasion.

There you have it, four wines that meant, and still do, quite a bit to me; relief, amazement and wonderment.

Gluttony or Gourmand delight - a very busy week eating in Melbourne

“In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.” Benjamin Franklin.

It is, I think, the last day of a very long and large week of eating out across Melbourne; by Monday I will presume that I will be linking my belt one hole back! And it is on this day that I sit here in my study sipping a glass of sparkling wine (I was supposed to go to the gym!) while thousands of service professionals snake their way through tightly set tables serving the corporate professionals lunch on the busiest service of the year. Please do not think I am making light of their endeavour, but I do not miss it one bit!

For far too long now I have been the one who has been doing the serving of wine and food to the endless conga line of Christmas lunch and dinners. Now that I am on the other side of the bookings book, it has been my great pleasure this week to find myself pondering over wine lists and menus, and apologising to the wait staff for taking my sweet precious time.

For me it started on Monday with a lunch that turns into an all nighter. It was the annual Australian Sommeliers Association Christmas lunch at Mahjong in St. Kilda. On arrival I was greeted with a crisp and cold flute of Pommery Brut Royal (a little donation of six bottles for the thirsty sommeliers) and a catch up with thirty or so wine professionals from some of Melbourne’s best restaurants. David and Quentin from Vue de Monde, Sally from Cutler & Co, Lincoln and Penny from Taxi and a smattering of wine reps from JHL Wines, Yabby Lake and Russel Gehring Wines there for the usual trade talk – me included now. It was a set course of plates being dropped off at the tables with dumplings, spring rolls and sticky rice making up some of the delicacies. The highlight for me however was the Peking duck pancakes; melt in the mouth perfection!

After many more bottles of Champagne and other wine blow ins, we headed off down Fitzroy Street and over The Esplanade to The Stoke House bar downstairs. Here we drank more Champagne, wine and beer (and yes, a little bit of water too) and continued on our general stream of bullshit for the day. It was getting a little busy and crowded so the decision was made to head up to Circa, The Prince bar – so off we headed again. More beers and wine and also a good catch up with Travis from Coda, who I never got too play pool with downstairs even though I said I was going to, and Virginia from Cumulus Inc. After far too many beverages it was time to close my account and head home – at 11.30pm!!

With a sore head the next morning (very sore!) I headed in to work to regale Cameron with all the witty anecdotes and try and remember who I spoke with; it took a while let me just say that. With not much on the horizon but a few calls and emails, Cameron and I headed up Burke Road in Camberwell and settled at The Tea House on Burke, a little Chinese place that needs a bit of work on the interior but definitely not in t he kitchen. Another serve of Peking duck and even better selection of dumplings was washed down by some Pinot Noir from Geelong and Mornington Peninsula. Can you believe I had to go back to the office and do some work after the bill – sheesh!!

Wednesday saw the arrival of Jon from Sydney who is the NSW Sales Manager for Vranken-Pommery, and it was at Rockpool Bar & Grill where I joined up with Jon and Cameron. Along the way I had a little catch up with David and also bumped in to Michael Dhillon of Bindi Wine Growers. After a couple of beers at the bar we headed to our table in the wine bar where there is only one thing to order – the Wagyu Burger and onion rings; three all round of course. This burger has got to be one of the best in Melbourne I tell ya! Another glass of Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir – The Oceans 8, and we were back to the office to discuss strategy over some more Champagne.

We were now in a taxi and headed for Matteo’s on Brunswick Street Fitzroy (the clean end) where we sat down with three bottles of Champagne – The Cuvée Louise Rosé 1999, Pommery Blanc de Blanc and Pommery Blanc de Noir. There was a little more wagyu beef as an appetiser - bresola air dried; I know it is supposed to be oysters with Champagne, but it is summer and you should never order an oyster if the month has an ‘r’ in it! All wines were fantastic, but the Louise 1999 dropped away pretty fast unfortunately – we picked the wrong bottle with that one, I guess.

These guys get two hats for a reason. The food was absolutely fantastic. It was just the two courses for me – I’m not really a dessert person I must say – with the Japanese plate of smoked eel, confit salmon and sashimi King Fish. BRILLIANT!! This was hard to match, but the suckling pig was just as good if not better!!! I rolled out of my chair (full, not drunk) at about 11pm and headed home to a very jealous Erin who wanted to know all about it; I just wanted to know all about my pillow.

The next morning I picked up Jon from his Hotel in Carlton and headed in to the CBD to give him a walking tour of some of our better restaurants. We started at Vue de monde where we had a coffee at the cafe and headed down over to Syracuse, Gills Diner and through to the coffee precinct around Degraves Lane. After another stop we headed up Flinders Lane past Mo Vida, Coda and yet another coffee, this time at Cumulus Inc before walking past Verge, Becco, Gingerboy, Bottega and Grossi Florentino and hopping in to the car for the short ride to Cutler & Co for a hello with Adam Cash and a super glass of Felton Road Central Otago Dry Riesling 2008.

We were again in the car out to Camberwell and in the office just before the heavens opened up. Some more strategising and it was time for lunch – again. With our walk cleverly timed between two rain periods, we headed up to Gohan-Ya Japanese Bento Cafe on Camberwell Road. With about 12 seats, this place is always full and if it had a few more seats and maybe a liquor license would be jamming every day. I once again gave in to my smoked eel addiction and the obligatory serve of gyoza dumplings; I was once again truly full!

The week duly finished today with a lovely impromptu lunch with my lovely Erin and the boy Henry as well at Gertrude Street Enoteca in Fitzroy. A serve of pork and duck terrine for me and a goat’s cheese and sorrel tart for Erin and all was well - they even struck a deal in Copenhagen I over-heard someone say there.

With all this done all I could do was to go and pick Imogen up from her very last day ever of daycare and whip down to get her favourite dinner – Fish and Chips! It’s always good.

With the children now asleep and Erin and me down here relaxing in the kitchen area, it was time to open something nice up to celebrate not only Imogen’s last ever day of daycare before she starts prep next month but also the fact that Erin secured some more consultancy work. So to wind up a massive week we sit here sipping the Pommery Cuvée Louise 1998 Grand Marque Champagne – absolutely gorgeous. Have I told you that I don’t miss the restaurant floor?

Pommery Reims Brut Royal NV Champagne

Today I re-entered the workplace, leaving behind my poor gazumped son Henry in the care of his mother and taking on the role as Brand Development Manager for Vranken-Pommery Australia – that’s Champagne, people. Yes, it is my task to show-case Vranken-Pommery’s Champagne portfolio to all of the sommeliers out there in restaurant land with such Champagne as Pommery Brut Royal, Cuvee Louise 1998 – super drop that, and Heidsieck & Co. Monopole which has had zero presence in Australia for quite some time.

So it is with great pleasure that I give you the Pommery Reims Brut Royal NV. Now I am not going to tell you it is the greatest Champagne ever made and that you would be a dead-set nimrod if you don’t buy one now, tomorrow will be fine. The Pommery Brut Royal has a presence in over 85% of Michelin Star restaurants in France right now, so you don’t need me telling you how good it is.

A traditional aperitif style Champagne with a third each of Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir, this wine presents a very lean and crisp palate with a very tight bead. Green apples and slight lead pencil aromas are evident with seamless acid holding everything in place.

So next time you head out to a restaurant, ask for Pommery, and if they don’t have it on the list tell them to get in contact with me at tcohen@vrankenpommery.com.au


Drink with freshly shucked Tassie oysters - a fair dinkum Susan these two!
Drink till 2011
No rating
Quality cork 12.5%v/v from Vintage Cellar stores nationwide.

Worthy of a Celebration

We all celebrate in our own little ways. In 1999 an old friend, Conner, jumped off the King Edward VIII Pier in Douglas on The Isle of Man screaming, ‘Free at last’; he had just got his divorce through. Again in 1999, Tihab, a mad Manchester United fan celebrated the treble by shouting the punters at ‘The Cow’ in Westbourne Grove, London, Guinness and oysters for a half an hour – he later said it cost him about £600, and in hindsight shouldn’t of bought everyone oysters that would later have many of us hugging the porcelain in our respective bathrooms.
Yes, we all love a celebration. So my mode of celebrating you may be asking - Champagne; real Champagne, not sparkling wine. This is not to say I do not like sparkling wine, on the contrary – Australia producers some great fizz like Bay of Fires Arras and Bindi from the Macedon Ranges. But I digress; this is about Champagne.
Ever since the friar Dom Perignon discovered bubbles in the wine at the Hautvilliers abbey and shouted to his brothers, ‘... come quick my brothers, there are stars in the wine’, Champagne has been the most sought after wine coming out of France.
Since the eighteenth century, with the exception of Napoleon Bonaparte who was a mad Bordeaux fan, every head of state for France, be it Emperor or President, has celebrated their coming to power with Champagne. The most famous being Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte where he celebrated becoming the first President of the Republic of France in 1848 with a four day Champagne fest which included an impressive 400 bottles of the then fledgling winery, Krug.
I couldn’t imagine drinking anything else to mark a celebration. When Erin gave birth to Imogen in 2005, we celebrated with Dom Perignon 1990 in the hospital. This was a great wine that displayed lovely biscuity leesy notes on the nose with a gorgeous citrus explosion in the mouth. You see, this is what I got out of the wine; Erin was still a bit knackered from the whole birthing experience. This child we did it right; we waited till we got home, shipped child number 1 off to the grandparents, settled in and breathed in the quiet; that’s when we opened the Krug 1998.
This was a great moment. I love opening up great wines and this was one of them. The colour was straw yellow. On the nose there was a real freshness of toast, roasted nuts and a great hit of bready yeasty characteristics coming through. In the mouth there was gorgeous lemon, almost like a preserved/dried lemon feel – it was long with gentle acid washing the middle palate and finally more of that preserved/dried lemon taste.
Just an amazing wine really. Drink with tuna sashimi or freshly shucked oysters.
Drink till 2028+
19/20

Tete a Tete CDR 1998 Coonawarra Shiraz

Please do not think I am a Lush, but I am in a bit of a rhythmn so here goes.


I opened this wine in 2005 for the first time (still have 2 bottles left) and the colour was blood red; massive blood.


The nose was really developed; leathery and cedar coming through strong and proud. By jove it smelt good.

In the mouth it was gorgeous!! There was acid coming in strong and then... then praline, smooth praline. And just when you think it's done, ripe cherry comes pouring in.


So bloody nice

Drink with slow cooked game such as goat.

now (2009) till 2011





18.5/20