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.

Melbourne Cup Carnival Champagne and Sparkling Wine

Tomorrow is the official start of the 2009 Melbourne Cup Carnival with the AJC Derby at Flemington. Tomorrow is also the start of my son Henry's sleep school - he still cannot sleep!! This will last for four days with Henry and me bunkered down in cosmopolitan Bundoora for four days. So seeing that this racing carnival is all about bubbles and fizz, here are four wines to spend your winning's - if there are any - on when you leave the track sober and head home to regale the days events.

Buxton Ridge 'Molly Jean' Upper Goulburn Valley Blanc de Noir NV - So nothing came home for you at the end of the day and you didn't think to put a 'place' bet on any of the seconds you got - doesn't matter! make sure you have about $50 left in the kitty so you can swing by Blackheart and Sparrows in Brunswick to pick up a couple of these; the 100% Pinot Noir in this wine gives it a great peach pink look to it with gorgeous savoury flavours flowing all the way through - lovely!

Croser Piccardilly Valley Sparkling 2006 - Nice work, you picked the winner in the jumps and got the office sweep and a voucher for $45 at Dan's. This will pick you up an easy Croser on the way home with change for a six pack of imported beer. Crisp, clean and to the point this one.

Krug NV, Reims Champagne - Getting the trifecta in any race is a big win, but when you have the winner in it that pays $101 and second paying $51, well you got a big payout. An NV will give you endless citrus and toast and nuts and deliciousness.Look for this at Vue de monde or Ezard for about $600.

Dom Perignon Œnoteque 1990, Epernay Champagne - So, you just got the running quadrella super whatchamacallit. A massive win like this justifies a massive Champagne and the Dom Perignon 1990 is all of that. This wine should be rich with real forest floor aromas and flavours of truffles yet still displaying the youthfullness of citrus and brioche. Expect to pay fork out at least $1,500 a bottle at Rockpool or Bistro Guilluame at Crown. Make sure you offer a glass to Bart Cummings if you see him, he probably trained the winner!

Boy, that was an expensive exercise! I do hope you have fun out there - good punting and wish Henry and me luck for our sleep school!!

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