Tag Archives: lifestyle

What I am drinking right now – food optional!

Posted on by

Wine, of course!  Food is optional this evening.  My wife has done such a great job feeding me over the last few days and we have had some very nice wine matching her great meals.  Two nights ago we had a beautiful spiral pasta with chicken and pesto and I opened a 2007 Annies Lane Coppertrail Riesling from the Clare Valley.  Last night, we had a tremendous meal of pork fillet with steamed vegetables, mash and gravy.  While I would usually open a Pinot Noir to go with a pork fillet, we opened a 2008 Glandore TPR Tempranillo.  Tempranillo is a secondary grape, originally from Spain.  It is heavier than Pinot Noir, but went very well with the pork, especially when covered in gravy!

Tonight, we are not really cooking and I may make a sandwich later or just have some fruit while blogging.  But for now, I am enjoying finishing off the open bottle of the Annies Lane Riesling and then the rest of the Glandore Tempranillo.  Both are great wines to drink on their own which I am currently doing.

The Annies Lane Riesling is a great example of how you can buy an excellent Clare Valley Riesling for $15, cellar it for several years and have it drink like a $40 bottle!  And there is a sweetness to the Tempranillo, like the taste of a strawberry jam or marmalade.  It really is a nice change from my regular red grapes of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon.

We are looking forward to going to our place in the Hunter Valley tomorrow evening for an extended four-day weekend and some great wine drinking and reflection.  We will have four days up there with little distraction.  I will use that time to write another in the series of Five Best Wine Meals Ever and finish the other part of “Can we really describe how wine tastes?”  I am looking forward to that.  These posts deserve several dedicated hours to get right.

We will also have a great lunch with good friends at Bistro Molines this weekend, one of the very few hatted restaurants in rural NSW.  Brilliant views, brilliant food and brilliant ambiance – and dinner to be replaced by nap!  Lunches at Bistro Molines tend to be a three hour affair.

Well, back to drinking and getting this post published for you to hopefully enjoy.  And let me know what you are drinking right now!

The wine lifestyle without drinking wine!

Posted on by

We went to our place in the Hunter Valley last weekend.  It was the first time we had been there in about two months.  We did not tour wineries, we did not drink wine, we did not go out (we ate every meal at home) after we arrived, but we still enjoyed the ‘wine lifestyle.’  Surrounded by vineyards, taking in the greenery of the newly budding vines, and watching regeneration start to bloom was extremely exciting.

Hiking the Great Northern Walk through Mount View, NSW

I went hiking along the Great Northern Walk, we also hiked the Hunter Valley Gardens (where we have an annual pass for the very reasonable price of $85 per year and visit many, many times), we watched The Bourne Identity, and mostly we just chilled in our place taking in the great views, reading, and a little bit of blogging.  It was wonderful and we did not spend any money!  We just had a wonderful time utilizing what we already had – a house to stay in, the use of the annual pass and food in the fridge.

View from back porch in Hunter Valley

With the unbelievable quiet, we slept like babies and shared quiet time together and without any constraints of scheduling anything in advance, we were able to choose what to do at a moment’s notice.  I completely shut down my ‘work’ brain and was able to relax.  And we are going to do it all again this upcoming long weekend.  We will have four straight days in the Hunter.  We do have one meal scheduled with great friends for Saturday lunch and we will be drinking more wine from our cellar.  Again, there will be limited schedule constraints and no cost (other than what we have already spent) to enjoy time in the Hunter Valley.

Chardonnay vines on our place in Hunter Valley

I love walking among the vines, love watching the early stages of the wine production process, and am filled with hope for a great vintage and the upcoming season.  Taking in nature and the views and being able to let my mind room free was a tremendously relaxing and recharging experience.  Yes, I could have an unencumbered weekend in Sydney, but I would not feel like we were getting away, nor have the quietude we achieved in the Hunter Valley.  Plus being among the vines, driving past the great wineries and smelling the fresh air made me feel I was living the wine lifestyle, even when not drinking wine.

But that will change for this long weekend.  I have some great wines planned, including sharing a bottle of the 1999 Meerea Park Alexander Munro Semillon and the 1992 Lindemans Pyrus with our good friends at Saturday lunch.

Pinterest for sharing the wine lifestyle

Posted on by

I have slowly been adapting to social media over the years, probably at a slower rate than I should have.  It started with LinkedIn and then Facebook some four or five years ago.  Then about six months ago, I started blogging and using Twitter.  And now I use Pinterest.

Pinterest is a ‘pin board’ or scrap book where you pin pictures into various albums.  My bride loves to pin great looking guys (even though I have not been able to find my picture there yet!), her cooking recipes and other things.  I have created two wine boards, one for ‘Wine Labels’ and the other for ‘Wine Humor.’  As I find new wine labels and humorous posts on wine, I save and then pin them in Pinterest.  (I also have a few other non-wine boards.)

I like the concept in that I can find a home and quickly add related items if they are a picture of some sort.  I have about 25 Wine Labels and about 40 Wine Humor pins so far and it grows every week.  And it is possible if you have a picture in a blog post or an article that you can actually pin the blog post by attaching it to the picture you are pinning.  Therefore, it can be used as another channel to introduce people to your blogging.  Each board and each picture can also be captioned.

Feel free to follow me on Pinterest if you like.  Or just check in every now and then to have a wine laugh or see what new labels I have added.  Many of the labels are of wines I have recently drank or have drunk previously and want to remember.  I also plan on starting a board on ‘Wine Decanters’ and ‘Other Wine Paraphernalia’ very soon, maybe as soon as this weekend.

I am less interested in building a following for Pinterest than I am for other aspects of social media I use, but it is fun and and an easy way to share new dimensions of the wine lifestyle.

Sharing your ‘last’ bottle makes it extra-special

Posted on by

I have had three experiences lately in sharing a ‘last’ bottle of great wine with others.  One was intimate and at home, only sharing with my lovely bride, the last bottle of the 1996 Wolf Blass Grey Label.  We were fortunate to purchase three dozen of this magnificent wine a long time ago and very inexpensively, but it proved to be one of those ‘regular’ wines that was superior far above its branding and price range.  My bride considered this her every day drinking wine and we have enjoyed it over the years.  About a month ago, we opened and shared our last bottle together, eating at home and greatly enjoying the remembrance of this great wine.  The second to last bottle we had was at her 40th birthday party (and made it as part of the Best Wine Meal I have ever had!) a year and a half ago.  This was an occasion that was special to us as a couple and needed to be shared as a couple, not with others.

The other recent experience was with my BPAY team and the meal we had at The Cut Bar & Grill.  One of the bottles was the 2000 McWilliams Mount Pleasant Maurice O’Shea Shiraz.  It was my last bottle and I wanted to share it with the team as respect to them and what a great team that they made.  It was one of many great wines that evening and the meal achieved #4 Best Wine Meal ever.  I will be writing in detail about that meal and the wines during this week.

Today, we are going to our good friends for one of their typical Sunday lunches (which means we usually finish lunch and drinking wine well after dinner!).  We and this couple really enjoy each others company and sharing a good meal and wine together.  They both have great palates and he, in particular, loves his Cabernet Sauvignons.  Therefore among other things, I am bringing  my last bottle of the 1999 Zema Estate Cabernet Sauvignon.  Like the 1996 Wolf Blass Grey Label, this wine was superior far above its branding and price range and just got better over the years.  And since he loves great Cabernet Sauvignons and we love them, we are bringing this wine to share with them.

I try to make funerals about the celebration of life well lived, and not about loss and sorrow.  It is a time to celebrate the passing into the great beyond, the release from our bodily hurt.  We need to celebrate with each other and remember the great times we had with the deceased.  The only problem is that the guest of honor no longer with us to celebrate.  Well the great thing about that last bottle of a great and special wine is that it is there with us to celebrate!  And I keep the bottle to remember the great memories throughout the year that accompanied drinking that wine.

Today we will also bring a great bottle of the 2009 Bouchard Pere & Fils Puligny-Montrachet Chardonnay and a bottle of the 1995 Penfolds Adelaide Hills Semillon Trial Bin (which was one of the trial wines for Penfold’s White Grange experiment which resulted in Yatarnna).  I have four bottles of this wine, but have never tried one.  This will also be a great thing to share with good friends, hopefully because we find out it is a real treasure that has been overlooked.  But the featured wine today will be the ‘last’ bottle of the 1999 Zema Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, a great wine with great friends.

Can we really describe how wine tastes – Part 1?

Posted on by

For most of us, the answer is ‘no.’  Many of us enjoy wine just because it is alcoholic, and could not care less how it actually tastes.  I am in the group of people who enjoy wine for the taste and the sensation of pleasure it provides from a lot of different perspectives – seeing it, swirling it, smelling it, the texture it provides against the inside of my cheeks being just a few of those sensations. However, I cannot do a decent job of describing how it tastes with regards to its flavor.  There are people who can articulate most, if not all, characteristics of wine, and precisely define a multitude of flavors coming through.  And, finally, there are the pure bullshitters who know that 95% of us don’t have a clue, so they take a chance and try to impress us that they know.  I love catching those liars out!

The highest certification you can achieve for wine tasting is the International Master of Wine (MW).  This distinction means, you not only can taste the different nuances in many different wines, but that you can describe those nuances in a consistent manner with other MWs when writing or speaking about the wine.  It also means you can identify the characteristics and have a good chance of identifying what country, or region of the world the wine comes from, describe the influence of its particular terroir, and have a vast lexicon of terms to describe the wines flavors (including ‘”cat’s pee” for some Sauvignon Blancs!).

Becoming a MW requires a lot of study, practice and tasting.  It is estimated that it costs about $200,000 in wine you are required to buy and taste to be able to pass the exams.  Many MWs are naturally blessed and have ‘super-taster’ capabilities (25% – 40% more taste buds in their mouth than normal people), otherwise known as “cook’s palate.”  But many are also just normal people, greatly dedicated to their craft and their passion.

There are less than 500 MWs in the world.  I am certain that I will never become one.  Heck, the cost of $200,000 to even attempt it is a road block for almost all of us.  While I enjoy my wine greatly and enjoy writing and speaking about it and sharing experiences with others, I will just never put in that kind of dedication to achieve such a distinction.

I can describe how wine feels, if it is balanced, or if the tannins are fully integrated.  I can also define if it has a long or short finish. But when it comes to defining flavor or taste, I have a limited ability of description.  In my recent post on “Yatarnna Bin 144 – Penfolds White Grange,” I describe the flavor of the 2006 Yatarnna as “powerful lemon flavors and some peach and grass flavor.”  The lemon was obvious to me for this wine, and ‘it seemed’ like a little bit of peach flavoring, or it could have been a bit of honeydew melon.  I was not really sure.  In the great book on Penfolds entitled “The Rewards of Patience,” a group of wine reviewing experts, including Halliday, Mattinson and Hooke describe this wine as “Flinty pear/lemon curd/white peach aromas and fine pronounced tangy acidity.”  They tasted this wine four years before me, and I expect the wine changed markedly over time.  For starters, the wine no longer has a tangy acidity.  It has mellowed nicely.  And was their ‘curd peach,’ my ‘grass?’

Surprisingly, I did pretty well on this wine, but could not describe accurately most other wines.  And most of you who taste wine less than I do could not either.  Most of us don’t even think about the flavor or other characteristics of the wine, yet we can still greatly enjoy a wine and are able to determine if it is a great, good, mediocre or bad wine.  (To me, ‘mediocre’ is as bad as bad, so I won’t bother with ‘mediocre – life is too short!)

But I have over time developed a simple lexicon for trying to decipher and describe the flavor of the wine I am tasting.  And it somewhat varies for red and white wines.  There are some great books on wine tasting and some kits and flavor guides you can buy to help you along the way.  However, there is no substitute for just trying a number of different wines next to each other and sharing and attempting to describe your experiences with friends.  Another good way to learn more is to participate in winery tastings when they announce the new vintages.  These are quite inexpensive and a great way to learn from the way the wine makers describe their wines.  We have gotten 6 – 8 of us together to do this several times with great fun and success.

It may seem intimidating to do this around people you know are far more mature tasters than you are, but most wine lovers are delighted to enjoy and share a good bottle with you and derive great pleasure from assisting others learn and appreciate wine more.  (And if they do, they fit my definition of a ‘wine enthusiast’, if they don’t, then the are ‘wine snobs!’)

We have two friends who are wine judges and are studying for their MW.  We are going to their place for lunch this coming Sunday.  We have done this about five times in the last three years and have had them over to our place a similar number of times.  We have shared some great meals and great wines together.  Initially I felt a little extra pressure to be sure I selected some great wines to enjoy, but as we got to know each other and enjoy each others company and shared interest in good wine, we quickly found ourselves in a very comfortable and safe environment to try some special wines, and discuss them with relative experts.

Do not be afraid to just mix it up and give it a go!  I remember the first time my wife tried a Tannat (secondary red grape), her reaction was “Wow- I can’t describe it, but I love what it does to my mouth!”  Needless to say, the wine maker was delighted by her response.

In Part 2, I will provide the simple lexicon I use to attempt to describe the flavor of both red and white wines, and hopefully provide some ideas on how you can describe wines also.

Special Remembrance of 9/11

Posted on by

On 9/11 (actually the morning of 9/12 in Australia) I awoke at our place in the Blue Mountains, safely tucked away from civilization, at peace watching the kangaroos prance across our property.  It was a crisp, yet warming September morning and as I got to my computer and looked at Yahoo, I saw the news, but did not believe it.  Something truly that tragic could only be a hoax.  I just knew that Yahoo had been hacked and I was impressed with how thoroughly it had been hacked!  But after about 10 minutes, I felt something was wrong – drastically wrong.

I turned on the TV and CNN and was hoping that these hackers were damn good and had hacked into CNN also, but after switching to FOX News, ABC, TBS, and other stations, I realized that every channel was carrying the tragedy of 9/11.

When I awoke, and accepted that it was real, the first thing I did was wake Deanna and informed her of what had happened.  We were sickened by what we were witnessing and it was personal as we worked in that building for almost a year.  Deanna and a few other of my employees at the time spent nine months living in the Marriott World Trade Center while we were working on a project for Deutsche Bank.  We had friends and colleagues at Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley – Dean Witter (MSDW), and other financial institutions.  We knew many contractors from KPMG and BearingPoint among others who would possibly have been at client sites that day.

The way the skyline will always be in my eyes

By the time we were awake, I was able to check on the first person who came to mind and that was Dan Heldridge at MSDW.  MSDW had established a great system to check status on their employees and I was so relieved to have the assurance and confirmation the “Dan had left the building!”  I was able to get verification of a few others right away, but many were not in a position to respond, nor did their company have as good a system as MSDW did.  It took a week before the last person I was inquiring about was able to confirm she was still alive.  Her name is Irena Korateeva and she was a Russian KPMG employee working in New York.  She lost her laptop in the tragedy, but fortunately escaped the building and did not suffer the fate of her laptop.  It was only after she got a new laptop that she was able to respond and confirm her safety.

We were relieved that we did not lose a single colleague or friend.  Others were not as lucky.  Thousands died and many more lost friends and colleagues.  One of my friends had 14 people he was close to who lost their life that day.

I remember the strong drive I had to ‘defend’ my country and I thought about going back to the US, joining the CIA (assuming they would have me) or some other organization where I could help to contribute and defend.  The real heroes that day where the calm politicians, the fire and police and other volunteers and able bodied individuals who risked their lives to save the lives of others.  I was traumatized for several weeks and could not get the event out of my mind.  Then my cousin Tom sent me an email from someone who had escaped from the Marriott World Trade Center.  We relived the entire experience having been so familiar with the hotel and the layout of the surrounding buildings, streets and tunnels.

I have never forgot and frankly find it difficult, if not impossible, to forgive.  I don’t blame religious groups, ethnic groups or any other segment of the population.  I blame senseless and inhumane terrorists.  I pray for them and try to forgive them, but frankly, that is a big ask.

I have been to the top of the World Trade Center to view the great city of New York, drank beer with friends in the bar at the top of the World Trade Center, have worked for clients there and know many who spent most of their adult life in one of the buildings.  I will never, ever forget!

Tears are flowing down my cheeks as I write this.  I thank all the people who defend our freedom and our countries, defend our liberties and way of life.  Since 9/11, I am more conscientious and thankful for those in the armed forces, those who are civil servants, the police and fireman, and all who are willing to sacrifice their lives for others and for our freedom.  God Bless them beyond belief!

No, this post has nothing to do with wine – it has to do with things far more important than wine.  If you feel cheated, be comforted that I am drinking some of the leftover 2009 Hugel Alsace Riesling from the other evening as I write this.

But for today, remember our heroes, and thank God for their willingness to serve and defend.  We can always drink wine later.

I dedicate this post to Dan Helridge, Irena Korateeva, all the others in between, all those who died in the tragedy and all those who served and/or died saving and defending the lives of others.

My 5th best wine meal ever!

Posted on by

In a recent post, I list the wines that were consumed in my Top 5 wine meals ever.  They were all great meals, and you will notice that three of the five took place at The Cut Bar & Grill.  This is my favorite steak house in Sydney.  They have a great sommelier and wine list and a great menu.  It is a perfect place to host a business meal, or a personal celebration.  We frequent it regularly and usually order wine off the menu, but sometimes we ask if for a special occasion, we may bring our own wine.

The reason we do that is because we want to make the night even more special by having spectacular wine and being able to match the wine to the occasion and the people involved.  When we do this, The Cut Bar & Grill charge $25 per bottle for corkage which is very reasonable as they decant the wine, pour it for you and have to clear and wash the glasses and decanters.  It saves us a great deal of money also and allows us to spend more on their great food!

That is why The Cut Bar & Grill is one of our favorite places and is the venue for three of the Top 5 wine meals ever!  Make sure to frequent them and check them out.

For my fifth best wine meal ever, the situation and wines consumed were as follows:

#5 evening – My 59th birthday – November 26, 2011, at The Cut Bar & Grill

  • 2005 Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Semillon
  • 2000 Waverley Estate Chardonnay
  • 2000 Houghton Museum Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
  • 2000 McWilliams Mt Pleasant Maurice O’Shea Shiraz
  • 1975 Lindemans Porphry 

We shared a great evening with best friends, Owen and Lucy, Ric and Cristina, and Kevin and Yanna.  The eight of us often share a great meal and wine together and everyone has a pretty good palate and enjoys good wines.

When at The Cut Bar & Grill, we usually start with oysters, a plate of cured meats and a plate of salami.  Plus they have the most amazing Sourdough bread served with oil and butter.  We will serve up the white wines with this course and relaxed conversation.

This is typically followed by our selection of some fine red meat, either the slow roast (prime rib for you Americans in the audience!), or a Waygu New York Strip or Scotch Fillet, or one of the other great steaks they serve .  This gives us ample time to enjoy the reds.

And finally, we move onto dessert from their great dessert menu and have an assorted cheese plate to go with the Sticky!

Each of the wines that evening was superb in it’s own right and made a good line-up for the evening.  The 2005 Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Semillon is among the best ever made – just look at all those gold medals!  This wine is crisp, yet polished and beautifully balanced.  It went great with the oysters.  While the famous 1999 Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Semillon is the iconic vintage, the 2005 vintage in the Hunter Valley was truly outstanding and in another ten years, this may pass the 1999 in reputation.  (Hope I can make my remaining few bottles last that long!)

Waverley Estate is known for their aged white wines, both Semillon and Chardonnay.  Their 2000 Chardonnay is spectacular.  This wine drinks like a Montrachet, but at about a quarter of the price!  It is rich, smooth and buttery.  This wine relaxes you after the crisper, more vibrant 2005 Tyrrell’s Vat 1.

We then opened the wine of the evening, the 2000 Houghton Museum Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.  I have never had a better Cabernet Sauvignon (except the 1991 Caymus Special Reserve from Napa Valley now that I think about it).  This wine is perfectly balanced, large fruit taste with the slightest taste of  smoke and leather.  I had a few bottles of this previously and it is ethereal.  This is one of those wines my wife would say is like “sex in the mouth” when drinking it.

I always like to start with the slightly lighter, more elegant red before moving onto the heartier Shiraz, which this evening was the 2000 McWilliams Mount Pleasant Maurice O’Shea.  This wine was a real treat.  I only had two bottles and this was the first one I drank.  The other was polished off last week at the #4 Best Wine Meal with my BPAY teammates.  This is an excellent wine, with good tannins, and lots of refined fruit and spice.  It is perfectly integrated and the amount of age on the wine was perfect.

Another highlight from this evening was the full bottle of 1975 Lindemans Porphry.  Wow, what a treat that was!  Any time you are drinking a 35 year old wine that still tastes as fresh as this one, you are in for a treat.  I am delighted to know I have another three bottles of this!  It has a rich honey taste which almost sticks to the inside of your cheeks.  Needless to say, it went well with dessert.

When drinking a line-up like this, it is important to get the wines in the right order, generally going from white to red to Sticky, and the lighter, crisper grape to sturdier, heavier grape (for example, the Cabernet Sauvignon before the Shiraz), and younger to older vintages.  Then the anticipation and satisfaction continues to build throughout the evening.

While this was a great evening, it does not compare to the four others I have mentioned.  Stay tuned as those will be described in future posts over the next several weeks.

Pinot Noir with Pork Chops tonight!

Posted on by

My bride and I have some pork in our diet, usually when having Chinese dumplings or Yum Cha.  Or sometimes we will dice it and stir-fry it for a pork salad or mixed with rice.

However, it has been ages since I have had a man-size pork chop for dinner.  My mom used to make pork chops as regular fair when I was growing up, but I believe it has actually been decades since I have had a pork chop.  We are also having mash potatoes and salad to go with the chops.  I sure my bride will be publishing an upcoming post with the recipe in DAZ in the Kitchen sometime soon!  (in fact, she just posted the recipe and blog entry for great pork chops a bit ago.  Here it is at DAZ in the Kitchen.)

The pork chops are currently slow cooking in the oven for about five hours (and smell great BTW!).  Therefore, I expect them to be juicy and flavorful throughout.  I considered a few options for the wine, include Pinot Noir, a GSM (Grenache, Shiraz, Mourvedre) combination such as a Chateauneuf-Du-Pape Les Sinard, or a true Burgandy Pinot Noir.

A safe choice would have been the Bannockburn Pinot Noir from Victoria, but since this was a new dish and ripe with juices and flavours, I wanted something a little more adventuresome, not an easy, elegant, refined Pinot Noir.  I wanted a big, aged Pinot Noir with complex flavors and big fruit flavors.  A Charteris Pinot Noir from New Zealand could do the trick, but my Pinots from PJ (Chateris) are only three or four years old.  PJ’s Pinot Noirs are big and elegant at the same time and beautifully drinkable now.  However, I like to challenge my Pinot Noirs to age in complexity and show me how good they are in old age!  (Maybe this is a transference to something I am doing as I approach 60!)

I have had some 2003 and 2004 Pinot Noirs from Blueberry Hill in the Hunter Valley.  As you know, I favor the Hunter Valley for my Shiraz, Semillon, and Chardonnay.  I do not really buy Pinot Noir or Cabernet Sauvignon from the Hunter.  However, I there have been two Pinot Noirs I sampled and liked, including a specially blended (2005 and 2008 grapes) Pinot Noir from Sandalyn in Lovedale and the Blueberry Hill’s Pinot Noirs.  I bought four bottles of the 2003 and also several bottles of the 2004 Blueberry Hill Pinot Noir, but for some reason have never drunk them.

I always pick one of the bottles up and admire the beautiful labels used for the Blueberry Hill wines, but for some reason or another, have put it down and selected something else to go with dinner.  I actually cannot explain this, except to say that I am a creature of habit and only having been to the winery twice, I never got into regular tastings year-in, year-out like I have for some of my other Hunter Valley favorites.  Therefore, my beautiful bottles of Blueberry Hill have sat and collected dust!

If you know your Pinot Noir grape at all, you know many good bottles will go off after 10 years.  I have recently had some magnificent Pinot Noirs which have been 10 – 12 years old and really try to push this limit as the wine grows in complexity and elegance.  However, if you wait too long, it loses its flavor unless you like drinking the flavor of vinegar!  Therefore, if I have a dozen or more of one particular vintage of Pinot Noir, I will sample a bottle every couple of years (and enjoy it along the way!) to be able to determine the best time to drink most of the bottles.

Unfortunately, I did not do that with the 2003 Blueberry Hill Pinot Noir.  When I opened the bottle, my immediate reaction was that the wine was dead, and completely flavorless.  However, this was just from the neck of the wine after removing the cork.  When I decanted it, I could tell the color was still good and had not turned brown.  There was only a very slight indication of that.  And after decanting and pouring a glass (of course into my favorite Riedel Vinum Pinot Noir glass), I was able to nose some remaining fruit.  Upon tasting, I enjoyed plum and a bit of leather taste.  The texture was perfect with fully integrated tannins.

The wine is still very drinkable, but should have optimally been drunk in 2007 – 2009, not at the end of 2012.  The wine is somewhat fragile (notice the loose edge between light and dark red color in the glass in the picture above).  Therefore, while still flavorful, the flavor breaks down quickly in your mouth and does not have much finish.

I can tell this was a good bottle of wine, but should have been drunk when five years old, not at nine years of age.  I will need to drink the other bottles quickly and may use some of them for an educational tasting seminar, in terms of comparing a young, aging, mature and past due wine of the same grape and maker.

This wine is certainly good to drink with dinner and will go well with the pork chops and mash, but I did both myself and Blueberry Hill a dis-service to wait this long to drink it. I will need to stop by Blueberry Hill the next time I am in the Hunter Valley and get a couple of bottles of the current release.  They make a nice Hunter Valley Pinot Noir and not many Hunter Valley wineries can say that!  And thanks to Riedel for their Pinot Noir glass which help funnel and save the remaining flavor of this wine!  It’s a good thing my head isn’t smaller, or I might get it caught in the globe since I really do like to stick my nose in there!

Update two hours after opening bottle and with dinner:  This wine improved significantly, with the little bit of brackish taste having worn off.  It was a real treat with the pork chop and mash!  Well done to the cook and the winemaker!

Five best wine meals ever – Part 1

Posted on by

I have had some great wines in my lifetime. Most have been memorable of their own accord. But the memories that last forever are when you have a line-up of great friends, great food and great wine, all which match perfectly. The memories of those times are enjoyed forever!

Over the next few weeks, I will be describing each meal, the event that warranted it, the friends involved and the wines, all which made the evening special. But the ranking to make my Top Five all-time wine drinking meals is judged on the wine itself and the wine line-up being truly great. While the friends and food added to the evening, they did not contribute to how that evening ranked – only the wine counted!

In this post, I will provide the event, and the list of wines. In subsequent posts, I will describe the friends and food that matched the wine that made those evenings special. My Top Five evenings (in reverse order) are the following:

#5 evening – My 59th birthday – November 26, 2011, at The Cut Bar & Grill

  • 2005 Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Semillon
  • 2000 Waverley Estate Chardonnay
  • 2000 Houghton Museum Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
  • 2000 McWilliams Mt Pleasant Maurice O’Shea Shiraz
  • 1975 Lindemans Porphry

#4 evening – BPAY Architecture and Support team reunion – August 29, 2012, at The Cut Bar & Grill

  • 2009 Bouchard Pere & Fils Puligny Montrachet
  • 2007 La Belle Voisine Nuits St George
  • 1990 Lindemans Limestone Ridge (Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz blend)
  • 2000 McWilliams Mt Pleasant Maurice O’Shea Shiraz
  • 2006 Chateau Reuissec Sauternes

#3 evening – My 58th birthday – December 2, 2010, at The Cut Bar & Grill

  • Pommeray Brut Champagne NV
  • 1998 Tyrrell’s Vat 9 Shiraz
  • 2001 Yalumba Octavius Shiraz
  • 1981 Penfolds Grange
  • 2005 Château Haut Bergeron Sauternes Dessert wine
  • 1997 Château D’Yquem Sauternes

#2 evening – Deanna’s 41th birthday – March 17, 2012, at home with Jay Huxley Masterchef cooking

  • 1998 Pommeray Louise Champagne
  • 2009 Hugel Alsace Riesling
  • 1990 Waverley Estate Semillon
  • 2007 La Belle Voisine Nuits St George
  • 2005 Chateau Brane-Cantenac (Margeaux)
  • 2005 Château Haut Bergeron Sauternes
  • 1997 Château D’Yquem Sauternes

#1 evening – Deanna’s 40th birthday – March 19, 2011, at Lindemans Winery

  • 1998 Pommeray Louise Champagne
  • 1987 Lindemans Padthaway Watervale Riesling
  • 1990 Waverley Estate Semillon
  • 1996 Wolf Blass Grey Label (Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz)
  • 1996 Lindemans St George Cabernet Savignon
  • 1995 Yarra Yering Dry #1
  • 1971 Lindemans Limestone Ridge (Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz)
  • 1971 Penfolds Grange
  • 1971 Château D’Yquem Sauternes
  • 1957 Lindemans Vintage Port

While we have had some evenings (such as our anniversaries) where the wines have been just as spectacular, they were limited to two bottles. What made the Top Five truly stand out was that we had more friends and more wines to sample, enjoy and compare.

I am actually not sure if I can write about the great time we had for Deanna’s 40th birthday without passing out as just writing up the list has me quivering! I am uncertain if we will ever be able to top that evening, but my 60th birthday is coming up in a few months, so we do have a reason to try! Hopefully, I can use that night to knock off the current #5 and possibly reposition a few of the other four spots!

When to open that truly special bottle of wine

Posted on by

It is always difficult to determine when to share a truly special bottle of wine and who to share it with.  We recently gave our good friends a bottle of 1993 Penfolds Grange for their wedding and within four months, they wanted to open it and share it with us when we came over to their house for dinner last week.  While honored that they would love to share such a special bottle with us, we convinced them to save it for a more special purpose like their first anniversary, getting their Australian citizenship, having a child, or something like that.

I have had some truly great wines over the years where I have originally bought a couple dozen bottles, but as I have consumed them and gotten down to my last few bottles (and knowing this vintage of this wine can never be found again, except possibly at auction or in a private cellar), the responsibility grew as to when to serve this bottle and with who to share it.

When I was less mature as a wine drinker (and less mature as a person!), I would want to target a truly special occasion for that last bottle of a truly great wine.  It actually got to the point where it was a burden to decide instead of the joy it should have been.

Recently I have changed heart and instead of putting on the pressure to find the a special event to justify that special bottle, I am now looking at how I can consume that special bottle to make an ‘ordinary’ event much more special.  Let me give you two examples of that.

I have a group of guys that formed a great team on the last big project I worked on and they are respected and trusted colleagues and friends.  Six of us are getting together next Wednesday for a reunion and a great meal out.  While the place we are going is not a BYO (Bring Your Own), I know the owner and the sommelier and because I bring a lot of business to them, they are happy to allow me to bring my own wines for special occasions.  I have done that for my and my wife’s birthdays for example.  And I am doing that again for our reunion.  Because of the respect I have for this team of guys, I am bringing some great wines to the meal.  It is not a matter of waiting for the right occasion to break out the great wine, but how to make every occasion much better by opening and sharing those special bottles.  That is what will make an ‘ordinary’ reunion that much more special.

If we keep waiting for a better occasion, we end up either dead or with a ‘dead’ bottle because we waited far too long.  This recently happened to someone with a 1962 Penfolds Grange which was no longer any good because they waited too long.

One of my wife’s all-time favorite wines is the 1996 Wolf Blass Grey Label (which is a blend of 30% Shiraz and 70% Cabernet Sauvignon similar in style to the Penfolds Bin 389).  These blends are iconically Australian and make for a tremendous drop.  We were fortunate to have bought three dozen bottles of this excellent wine in the late ’90s and I think we paid about $16 per bottle for this wine, but I can’t remember for sure.  Several years ago, we put this wine up against the Penfolds Bin 389 in a vertical tasting and compared the 1996 Wolf Blass Grey Label to the 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2004 Penfolds Bin 389, and the consistent pick for the best wine that evening was the 1996 Wolf Blass Grey Label!  That is how good this wine is!

Well, now a decade later, we have one bottle left and I have been thinking about the right time to have it, but I am waiting no more.  Instead of finding the right occasion for the wine, I am just going to have the wine tomorrow night as I wanted to make the night more special for my wife and myself instead of it just being an ‘ordinary’ Saturday night at home.  We are not sure if we are making spaghetti bolognese, wagyu beef burgers, lamb or whatever, but we know the night will become special because we will be sharing that last bottle of a great wine together.

Therefore, instead of waiting for that absolutely special occasion, my recommendation to you is to look at how you can make ‘ordinary’ occasions far more special by bringing that great bottle of wine to share!

Looking back, I now believe it was a mistake to pass on the 1993 Penfolds Grange at my friends house and we should have made the evening more special by enjoying it together.  And (hopefully!) the next time he offers, I will say ‘yes!”