It was a big week. The Pommery and Heidsieck & Co. Monopole Champagnes are once again getting noticed, the back garden is green again and the cold I have dragged through the week is almost gone. Yet as the saying goes, 'There is no rest for the wicked', and even though I am (sort of) not wicked, it all starts again on Monday with the annual Australian Sommeliers Association XMAS Lunch at Mahjong in St. Kilda.
This will be a day when 50 or so sommeliers from mainly Victoria, with a few coming down from Sydney and Brisbane, get to sit around a big table and chew the fat over a busy 2009 with a cheeky glass of Pommery Brut Royal Champagne - an unashamedly promotion - and essentially sit back and let someone else serve really.
But it will not just be Pommery Brut Royal sipped over lunch. It is a lunch where all the diners are invited, nay encouraged, to bring something delish along for others to have a glass of. Decisions, decisions - what shall I take?
Yes, 2009 has been a big year for memorable wines. Pio Cesare Barolo, Lamy Pillot Montrachet, Etienne Sauzet Montrachet, Merricks Estate Close Planted Pinot Noir, Punch Close Planted Pinot Noir, Felton Road Block 3 Pinot Noir, Krug Grand Cru Champagne and on and on and on.........
I am not saying that my cellar is of slim pickings at the moment, but my choice of wine has been limited with plenty of corks being released this year. I will probably take a Bindi Original Vineyard Pinot Noir 1998 or 1999, but it is the wine that I would really love to take that got away earlier this year - The Dalwhinnie Pyrenees Eagle Shiraz 2001.
This was a wine that I had the pleasure of drinking at The Point Albert Park over a very impressive Chateaubriand. An almost ink tone to the wine, I found it near impossible to drag my nose away with plenty of cedar and mocha screaming up my nose. After about 45 minutes, a heavy spice layer of cinnamon and black pepper became the secondary wave on the nose. Plenty of ripe morello cherry on the initial palate, the wine once again changes in the decanter to a very earthy and savoury beast - an almost blend of Cote Rotie and Burgundy I would suggest. Throughout the life of this bottle, taught silky firm tannins were always present which were absolutely perfect with the Chateaubriand; a Susan this one!
Quite simply stunning!
Drink with Chateaubriand medium rare
Drink till 2020
99
Quality cork 13.5%v/v $310 wine list at The Point Albert Park
I know that David Jones would be thrilled to here you descibe this wine as Cote Rotie, I've heard him say the very same thing.
ReplyDeleteHaving tried this wine several times though, I can say it's not my favourite from his line-up. There just seems to be too much going on, there is a sort of opulent ripeness that I don't find appealing.