Author Archives: Steve Shipley

About Steve Shipley

I am a wine enthusiast and writer without affiliation to commercial wine ventures or firms in the wine industry to ensure my opinions and points of view are strictly my own. I have enjoyed wine increasingly over the last 20 years and present many of my views and learning through this blog. My book, Wine Sense, consolidates what I have learned about enjoying wine and enhancing wine drinking experiences which I look forward to passing onto you.

Not a top Shiraz – the Tintilla Estate 2005 Patriarch

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This is a mediocre wine that I was hoping would be better.  I remember tasting and buying six of the highly rated 2007 Tintilla Estate Patriarch Syrah.  That was a fine wine and listed among Campbell Mattinson’s best red wines that year.  As part of buying some of the great 2007 Tintilla Estate Patriarch and also some of their very nice Sangiovese, we were offered four bottles of the 2005 Patriarch for free as part of a promotional offer.

The Syrah grape is the same as what I refer to as the Shiraz grape, but Tintilla Estate explicitly uses the label Patriach Syrah for its top-end Shiraz compared to the middle of the range Tintilla Estate Shiraz.  Tintilla Estate uses this differentiation to refer to their very select Shiraz grapes.  The 2005 vintage is the first for the Patriarch Syrah and the 2007 the second (and much improved) vintage.

I can see why they were giving it away for free two years ago.  The wine is showing its age and does not have much life left.  I will need to use the other three bottles quickly (which I was expecting and that is why I brought them out of the cellar).  This wine is a little on the sweet side, tasting of over-ripe cherries and does not have much finish.  It also has a bitter aftertaste which is not pleasant.

I was going to write another couple of blog posts, but thought it best to write when the taste is fresh in my mind (if not fresh in my mouth!). This is always a good idea.  If you do not take notes immediately, you can start to run wine tasting memories together, and more recent smells or flavors can confuse your memory.  My wife always carries a little notebook to write down tasting notes so we have them for later.  Also make sure to date the entries as wine changes in taste over time.

I like Tintilla Estate as a winery.  They make some of the finest Sangiovese in Australia and I am letting my 2007 Tintilla Estate Patriarch Syrah sit for a while to reach optimal drinking age.  (2007 for The Hunter Valley was a very good year for Shiraz.)  But I need to call it like I see it, and the 2005 vintage of the Patriarch is over the hill.  I expect it was better 3- 4 years ago, but even then, I am pretty certain, it was not better than mediocre.

As a winery, Tintilla Estate is a beautiful one to visit and is located at  725 Hermitage Road, Pokolbin, NSW 2320.  We first visited it during June, 2010 when the Hunter Valley Food and Wine month was in full swing.  We had a most wonderful Italian buffet lunch and sampled a 10-year vertical of Sangiovese and Merlot-Sangiovese wines which was a real treat.

If you have any of the 2005 Tintilla Estate Patriarch Syrah, you better drink it quick or consider it as a cooking wine.  Meanwhile, I will look forward to one of the 2007 Tintilla Estate Patriarch Syrah soon.  Hopefully, I will have a much more favorable blog on that wine as I remember the tasting of it to be exceptional.

Make sure to clean your wine glasses properly!

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As you know, I love using Riedel glasses of the proper shape to drink my wine.  The thought of drinking a Montrachet in anything other than a Riedel Montrachet glass is less seemly than pouring the Montrachet in the toilet bowl and drinking it!  I never drink wine from any other glass than my Riedel glasses when at home and unless I am certain that I can get really good wine glassware in a restaurant, I will bring my Riedel glasses (either my Vinum or my O glasses) along to the restaurant.  There is no excuse for not wanting to get the very best experience out of wine drinking and the right glass plays a huge part in that.

And in that regard, it is important to clean your glassware properly!  When cleaning my decanters, I only rinse them out with hot water or use a little bit of soap.  I then make sure to rinse out the decanter with very hot water and refill and rinse six to seven times to ensure there is no soapy residue.  About every 8th to 10th time I clean the decanter,  I use a Polident capsule (‘Yes,’ the denture cleaner!) to remove any slight build-up of red wine film.  However, the Polident capsule will leave a minty taste to it which could effect the taste of the next bottle decanted unless you make sure the decanter is perfectly cleaned.  Therefore, after using the Polident to remove any film build-up, I wash out the decanter as usual with soap and rinsing it out six or seven times, and then I repeat the process in its entirety again.

I never put my Riedel glasses in the dishwasher as I have a concern that the dishwasher may break or in some way damage them.  I know there are newer, nicer dishwashers in the Miele line that are Riedel-safe and that is great!  I plan on buying one when I move into our own apartment unit.  In my current rental unit, I wash my Riedel glasses by hand.  I have been careful to wash the wine glasses first before using the washing implements to wash other dishes as the washing implements may contain more food particles or greasy or oily residue.  However, I was not as careful and forgotten to do this with my drying towels!

Yesterday, I had used a Riedel Vinum Shiraz glass to enjoy a most magnificent bottle of the 1998 Tyrrell’s Vat 9 Shiraz to go with some great spaghetti my wife made.  I had about a third of the bottle left that I finished off today while writing and doing other work at my computer.  However, when I pulled the glass I cleaned yesterday out of the pantry, I sniffed it and it had an slight odor.  I compared it to other glasses I cleaned previously,  which were odor-free.

But the glass I used and cleaned yesterday definitely had an odor inside the glass when I put my nose to it. I tried to think what had happened and why it had a slight odor.  I often clean and rinse my wine glasses and turn them upside down to dry.  However, I make sure to turn them right-side-up quickly so as to not trap any odor in the globe.  Then I dry them with a drying towel.

The problem was that my drying towel was over-used from having cleaned  dishes the last few days and had built up some food odors on the towel.  Therefore, when drying the Riedel glass, I transferred some of the food odors to the glass causing it to smell.  I always sniff an empty glass before use and you should too.  While rare, this was one time where I had failed to clean and dry the glass properly and it could have caused my otherwise great glass of 1998 Tyrrell’s Vat 9 Shiraz to be less than perfect due to the odor in the glass.

   

I never store my glassware upside down on a shelf as the rim of the glass will be sealed by the shelf.  If there is any bacteria inside the glass, it can multiply and leave a poor odor in the glass, especially if it is sitting for weeks or longer.  Therefore, I always store my glassware right-side up to allow it to breathe.  I do so inside a closed cabinet so the glasses will not collect dust.  The ideal way to store glasses is upside down (to eliminate any possibility of dust), but by hanging it by the base (see above picture).  This requires you to install a rack to slip the base of the glass into.  While this is the best way to store wine glasses, it does require you to buy and install the rack.  This is not hard, but based on your living conditions, it may be difficult to find an area to mount the wine glass rack and store the glasses.  I just keep mine inside the pantry (see below).

Make sure your wine glasses are:

  • Cleaned properly;
  • Dried properly; and
  • Stored properly

Otherwise, your drinking experience will be less than satisfactory, even with the right Riedel glass and wine!

A more than very fine red wine

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My wife is making spaghetti tonight for dinner.  It will be tomato-based, with mince and chirizo.  And it will have lots of garlic, onions and other spices.  Therefore, I needed to select a wine with strong spice and pepper flavors, yet something delicate enough to go with pasta.  There are very few wines that accomplish both.  While many Cabernet Sauvignon are delicate enough, it would be missing the spice.  Some Shiraz’ certainly have the spice, but are often so thick with granular tannins that you can chew the wine on its own!  Very few wines are delicate and spicy at the same time.

One great exception to that is the 1998 Tyrrell’s Vat 9 Shiraz.  This is one of the best Australian reds ever made in my opinion.  For my 58th birthday, I served up this wine just before the 2001 Yalumba Octavius following that wine with the 1981 Penfolds Grange (which is a great wine!), and people seemed a bit ‘let down’ with the Octavius and Grange!  While both are tremendous wines in their own right, the finish on the 1998 Tyrrell’s Vat 9 Shiraz lasted ‘almost forever’ and had a more delicate sensuous texture than the heavier and grittier Octavius and Grange.

Some of you may think that such a fine wine is an overkill for spaghetti, but my wife, “DAZ in the Kitchen” makes a truly wonderful spaghetti well deserving of this wine!  And it has been a surreal week at work and when I arrived home, I just wanted to embrace the very best bottle of wine I could.  I knew we were having spaghetti, and wanted a wine to go well with it, but I also wanted a special treat to drink on its own as I write this blog post.  (I am well into my second glass now, so expect my creativity to continue to increase!)

The 1998 Tyrrell’s Vat 9 was the second to last vintage of Vat 9 that Andrew Thomas made while the chief red wine maker at Tyrrell’s and I remember him telling me it was one of his favorite vintages.  This is certainly one of my all-time favorite wines.  I was very fortunate to buy all remaining stock of this vintage from Tyrrell’s several years ago (21 bottles) and have about 9 bottles left for special occasions and sharing with great friends.  But tonight, I needed a special bottle to treat myself and something worthy of matching up well with my wife’s most amazing spaghetti!

And that bottle of very fine red of choice for tonight was the 1998 Tyrrell’s Vat 9 Shiraz.  Always feel free to treat yourself when you need it!  I did.

What to drink with Lebanese food

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First off, Lebanese is a lot of different types of food.  From Hummus, vine leaves, and pickled vegetables to potato coriander, chicken shawarma, spicy beef sausages and much more!  What wine could possibly match up well with such a variety of food?  The simple answer is Semillon!  I had a lunch the other day with 13 different Lebanese dishes and the Semillon worked beautifully for the entire meal.

I also imagine that a spicy Shiraz could could well if you wanted to switch from Semillon in the middle of a Lebanese meal also if some of the guests really prefer red wine.  I am confident that you cannot go wrong with Semillon for Lebanese food.  I have had three Lebanese meals in the last month, and I have had the 2005 Kelman Semillon, the 2003 Terrace Vale Campbells Old Vine Semillon and also the 1994 Waverley Estate Semillon.  These are three very different styles of Semillon and they all matched exquisitely with Lebanese food.

And for one of the meals, I also brought an open bottle of an excellent Riesling to try.  On its own, most people would say the Riesling was far superior as a wine to the 2005 Kelman Semillon, but the Kelman matched far better with Lebanese food.  That is why I continue to empasize the ‘right grape with the right food.’

Both the Kelman and the Terrace Vale where a little crisper (and much younger!) than the Waverley Estate.  The best Semillon I have ever had (even superior to the iconic 1999 Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Semillon) was the 1990 Waverley Estate Semillon.  This is among the top three white table wines  I have ever drunk.  But the 1994 Waverley Estate is very close!  It has a golden color, smooth, rich mouth feel, and tastes of orange and tangerine flavours with a touch of lemon.  It is simply heavenly and a great match for Lebanese food.

I found the smoother texture and richer taste of the aged Semillon to go a little bit better with the rich sauces for the shish barack and the yogurt.  It also matched up beautifully with the hummus with mince and pine nuts.  The 1994 Waverley Estate Semillon is just a better wine (and about twice as expensive) than the other two.  But the 2005 Kelman and the 2003 Terrace Vale Semillons are very good wines.  Most people would call then excellent wines and I have gotten great reviews from people I have shared them with.  But 15 – 20 year old Waverley Estate Semillons are in a class of their own.

There is no need to review the menu at a Lebanese restaurant to determine what wine to bring.  Just bring a Semillon and order what you like.  You won’t be disappointed.

The bigger the bottle, the longer the cellaring

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Wines come in all size bottles.  The most standard wine bottle size is 750 ml.  The ‘half-bottle’ at 375 ml is used sparingly for table wines, but is a common size for dessert wines.  (The wine makers may be concerned that after a couple 750 ml bottles over dinner, it is good to finish with some restraint, so a smaller bottle is in order!)  The smallest size is the ‘split’ at 187.5 ml, and is known as a single serving size.  This is the size you are usually handed or asked to buy in economy class on an airline.

Then there is the impressive 1.5 liter ‘magnums.’  The sheer mass to these bottles make them an impressive sight!  For larger groups, they can prove useful to make sure everyone gets a taste.  But after that, the even larger bottle size starts to become almost ridiculous.  The 3 liter ‘double magnum’ is more suitable for large parties where you want everyone to drink the same thing with limited choice.  This may serve well at a BBQ or a wedding, for example.  But after that, I believe the size of the bottle is strictly for show.  I mean how does one lift and pour the bottle, and how does one decant the bottle?  You would require a bathtub for a 12 liter bottle!

Except for dessert wines, I almost always drink only 750 ml bottles.  They pour and decant nicely and without much drama.  The standard decanter is designed for this size bottle unless mentioned otherwise.  The main reason I like to drink 750 ml bottles is that when having a dinner or gathering of four to eight people, then I can open two to four different bottles of different wines.  This works really well in terms of matching wines to different courses of a meal, and also for comparing and sampling many different wines.  In general, I find it is always more pleasurable to share a couple of different bottles instead of focusing on only one wine in an evening.  Larger bottles such as magnums (or even larger) limit the variety for smaller groups.

I have about 15 magnums of some nice wines I plan to use for larger celebrations and when bringing some special groups of people together.  I also bought (as a really good deal for the volume!) 24 double magnums.  The double magnums represent some of Australia’s best wine from the best vintages.  Yet, every time I think about pulling one out, I usually go with other choices (such as several bottles of a comparable wine) because (1) the are easier to handle, (2) I have more choice, and (3) the larger bottles are unlikely to be ready to drink yet.

When wine ages in a bottle, the air in the head space (called ullage) mixes over time with the wine in the bottle to mature and enhance it.  Describing why and how this happens could take several posts on their own.  The important thing to know is that for larger bottles, the ratio of the volume of air in the head space to the volume of wine is drastically reduced (since each bottle is filled to the top).  Therefore, it takes a lot longer time for the wine to mature and reach optimal drinking in a larger bottle.

When a wine taster / reviewer projects the time range in which to optimally drink the wine, he/she is estimating that based on the wine being cellared in a 750 ml bottle.  The general rule of thumb (for good wines that enhance through cellaring) is that for every doubling in bottle size (from 750 ml) you should cellar the bottle for an additional three to five years.  Therefore a double magnum could take an additional six to ten years in the cellar before it is ready to drink. 

Unfortunately, there is also the risk involved that the cork or the storage conditions are sub-optimal and statistically, you may not drink the bottle at the right time for that bottle.  There is a much greater chance with larger bottles that you will either drink the wine too early or too late.

Two years ago, I opened a 750 ml bottle of the 1994 Wynn’s John Riddoch (a Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon).  This is a stunning bottle of wine and drank beautifully.  We were able to share it among friends as part of a wine tasting.  Then several weeks later, I took my team out to celebrate the successful end of a major project, and over lunch and after a few earlier wines, decided to buy a magnum of the same 1994 Wynn’s John Riddoch, expecting it would be comparable.  However, it was still too tight and even after much decanting, could not compare with the same wine stored in the 750 ml bottle.  The magnum required at least five more years to be as soft and mature as the wine from the 750 ml bottle was at that point in time.

This was an expensive mistake, but I learned a lot that day.  I now take bottle size seriously in laying down the wine for the requisite number of additional years before I consider opening it.

In general, I avoid or limit the number of large bottles I have, but if you do have some, make sure to age them for a longer time.  The general rule of thumb should be to add three to five years of cellaring every time you double up the bottle size from the standard 750 ml size.

How to prepare a 20 year old red wine for drinking

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“Just open it and drink it,” many of you would say.  But a 20 year old iconic red wine certainly deserves more care and ceremony than that!  A number of seemingly small steps can make the difference between the wine being ‘passable’ and exceptional.  And it only takes a few more minutes to make it exceptional, so you would be foolhardy if you did not give it a chance!

Granted, the wine will be good or ‘not good’ mostly based on how it has been stored for the last 20 years and what has happened with the micro-oxidation that has gone on in the bottle during that time.  This will be heavily influenced by the cork quality and if it has been faithful or not.

While you are no longer in control of the previous storage or the cork quality, there are four things you have control over in preparing the wine for drinking, all which may influence if the wine is suitable or not:

  • Removing wine from cellar / storage, stand up-right and let rise to room temperature
  • Choosing to use an Ah So cork remover as the cork will be fragile (any cork after 12 – 15 years tends to become saturated and soggy (unless the cork grain is very tight) and is at risk of breaking apart.  See picture in my post ‘A disappointment, but one moves on!’) of a crumbled cork from a 17 year old bottle of wine.)
  • Decanting the wine, avoiding the use of a filter or aerator if possible.  If required, use a filter, but never an aerator for a 20 year old wine
  • Let decant for only 30 – 60 minutes.  Then re-bottle if not already consumed, and  consuming the wine within several hours

You should remove the wine 3 – 12 hours before you plan on opening it.  By allowing it to come to room temperature slowly before opening the bottle will put less stress on the wine as you decant it.  And standing it up allows any free sediment to settle to the bottom of the bottle, potentially removing the need to filter the wine while decanting.

Perfectly preserved cord after 20 years!

The Ah So cork remover is far better for delicate corks than more traditional cork screws as it provides a grip on the outside of the cork (instead of drilling down through a soft cork center) and also ensures the cork has been ‘twisted’ to separate the cork from the bottle.  Over time, the sugar in wine can crystallize, attaching the cork to the bottle and make it difficult to separate and remove.

Now if you have no sediment and no cork floating in the wine, you can decant slowly without using a filter or aerator.  If you do have some indication of sediment or cork, then use a filter but not an aerator.  The structure of an older wine becomes very fragile and will start to separate in a short period of time, further losing fruit flavor and its integrated texture, and an aerator worsen this effect noticeably.  (While I am a big fan of aerating most wines, never aerate a ‘museum’ wine.

Let the wine decant for a short period of time, maybe 30 – 60 minutes.  This old a wine does not usually require much more air to make it ready to drink.  You usually just want to get any older smells entrapped in the bottle out and let the wine breath a little.  If you are not going to drink the wine immediately, then re-bottle it, but make sure to consume within several hours.  This old a bottle of wine will not last the day without some deterioration.

There are a few exceptions to this rule for very robust, built to last wines, but this is the general rule.  You can test a sip or two every 15 minutes to see if the wine continues to improve or not and once it shows no further sign of improvement, then re-bottle.  Some wines such as an older Penfold Grange and the 1987 Lindeman Pyrus require a long time to decant to reach maximum potential.

I used the above process to open a bottle of the 1992 Lindemans Pyrus.  This is a beautifully-aged wine made of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc.  This type of blend has great potential to last a long time and beautifully mature in terms of the complexity and integration of flavors.  Thanks to the cork being in perfect condition, the wine is exquisite!  It would have been slightly better 3 – 5 years ago and has lost just a touch of its fruit flavors, but still very flavorful.  It has big plum flavors with a trace of tobacco which I really enjoy in an aged red wine.

The structure of the wine has held up well, but is fragile and will not last long.  Therefore, I need to drink this wine today.  I am craving a pizza to go with it, or some nice lamb, but we planned to have leftover black bean soup, some corn-on-the-cob, and a salad for dinner.  But it seems almost sinful to have this great wine with a spicy black bean soup!

Cheese/meat plate with 1992 Lindemans Pyrus and Rockmellon

Therefore, we decided to make a last moment change (as the soup, salad and corn-on-the-cob will last until tomorrow) and made up a cheese and salami / prosciutto plate instead which will suffice for dinner and be more enjoyable with the wine than black bean soup!

I am now 2/3rds the way through the bottle (and finished with this post!), so you do not need to be concerned if I finish the wine today or not!

[Post-writing update:  I stand corrected.  I saved the other 1/3 rd of the bottle for a day later, and it was still surprisingly good.  If a wine is very well crafted such as the 1992 Lindemans Pyrus was, then there is less of a concern about it deteriorating quickly.  This wine is still a star the day after opening!]

Made a mistake with the wine tonight!

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For a long time now, I have been craving blackened swordfish and black bean soup.  It is difficult to find black beans in Australia and nobody serves Cajun style fish in restaurants here.  Therefore, I went to the Internet and got some recipes for both and for once, I did the cooking tonight instead of my famous (to me anyway!) chef partner, DAZ from Daz in the Kitchen fame!

Surprisingly, the meal turned out really well.  All day, I was pretty certain I would be serving up a Hunter Valley Semillon to go with it, and had decided on the 2005 Tyrrell’s Vat 1 as a slightly better match than the truly outstanding 1999 Meerea Park Alexander Munro Semillon.  The 2005 Vat 1 would have been a little crisper and set off the Cajun spices better than the smoother Museum release 1999 Meerea Park.

However, for some reason just before starting to cook, I asked my lovely bride if she would prefer a Riesling instead of a Semillon.  I had been staring at a bottle of the 2008 Grosset Polish Hill and decided to raise the question.  Well, she ALWAYS prefers a Riesling so said she would prefer that.  I was going to have a glass while blogging before I started cooking and as soon as I took my first sip, I realized we had made a mistake.

The 2008 Grosset Polish Hill is a beautiful wine and many reviewers rated the 2008 vintage as 99/100.  This is a spectacular wine!  But it was too metallic to match up well and blend with the Cajun spices on the fish.  I could have opened the 2005 Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Semillon in addition, but then I would have two open bottles of white and I knew I was going to be opening a great bottle of red (1992 Lindemans Pyrus) tomorrow, and that is too much wine for the two of us over two days.  Therefore, we ‘suffered’ through drinking a great wine and eating great food, but not having the combination work as well as it should have.

There are just certain times when the right grape with the food makes the wine a much better wine regardless of rating and what you think of the other wine.  I try not to get carried away with wine and food matching, but some foods just demand one grape over the another.  And tonight was one of those meals where that was true.  Even a mediocre Semillon would have worked far better than the best Riesling.

I had a similar experience a few weeks ago when eating at a Lebanese restaurant and trying out both an average Semillon and an excellent Riesling.  The average Semillon won the battle that night also.  No matter how good the wine, if the grape does not match up well with the food, you will not have a great drinking or eating experience.

Can we really describe how wine tastes – Part 2?

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Several weeks ago, I starting writing on our ability to really be able to describe how wine tastes.  I mentioned almost all of us would struggle doing that.  First of all, wine comes from grapes and has different levels of sweetness and associated alcohol.  Frankly, most wines tastes like ‘grapes’ to me!

It is pretty easy to determine if a wine tastes sweet versus dry. It is also relatively easy to determine if a wine is acidic versus softened or mellow.  But a wine that tastes of “cherry, plum, lemon, grass” or even “cat’s pee!”  How is that even possible as those types of ingredients are not really in the wine?  Yet, some of those flavors may be coming through or influenced by the type of soil (with lots of limestone that the water is filtering through, for example), or other conditions in which the grapes are grown.

What we are really doing is transferring memories of our current tasting sensation to situations where we obviously did pick up on those flavors such as eating a cherry, drinking lemonade or chewing on grass.  (I have never had anyone admit to me though that they have ever swirled cat’s pee in their mouth, but expect some people who have cats have smelled it and remember the sensation.)

Therefore, these tastes can become very real to many people.  Others of us cannot distinguish any difference in flavor.  (Which is why Gallo wine at $5 per bottle sells well enough!)  However, since each of us has different tasting mechanisms and different abilities to remember and be able to accurately describe taste, it is still difficult to compare notes and agree on what wine tastes like.  I have been enjoying wine greatly for a lifetime and can only occasionally do this well with regard to flavor.  I can much better ascertain if a wine is dry, sweet or even sticky, and if a wine has well integrated tannins or not.  But picking out flavors is more difficult for me.

So how do these flavors become apparent or real to us?

I use a simple lexicon when attempting to describe wines: one for white wines and one for reds.  They are as follows:

White Wines:

  • Non-Citrus Fruit
    • Melon
      • Honeydew
      • Rockmelon
    • Kiwi
    • Apple
    • Passionfruit
    • Persimmon
  • Citrus
    • Lemon
    • Lime
    • Orange or Mandarin
    • Grapefruit
  • Sugar
    • Honey
    • Marlmarlade or Jammy (usually with Orange)
  • Buttery (often in very mature, softened Chardonnays)
  • Metallic (often in Riesling and in younger more acidic wines)
    • Metal
    • Kerosene or Battery Acid

Red Wines:

  • Berry
    • Blackberry
    • Boysenberry
    • Strawberry (usually sweeter and jammy)
  • Non-berry Fruit
    • Plum
    • Cherry
  • Cigar or Tobacco (smoky)
  • Leathery

And that’s pretty much it.  The other characteristic I pick up in wine flavors is if it is ‘damp’ or earthy soil, and this is more often with red wine than white wine.

One may ask how is it that a wine could be considered enjoyable when it tastes metallic, smoky or leathery?  Yet, many of us had had great memories and sensations with such flavors.  A metallic taste (if not over-done) provides a crisp or sharp edge and smoky or leathery (remember that new car or briefcase!) on top of the other flavors you have in a red wine provides for a ‘multiple sensation’ experience.

I expect there are several well-founded and well-studied programs that help describe how wine tastes, but the above structure is about as good a job as I can do.  Hopefully, it will help you get started and start to differentiate some of the nuances and different characteristics of the wines you drink.

Don’t be afraid to ask and ye’ shall receive!

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Never assume that what is on the wine list is all the wine that is on offer at a restaurant.  It pays to ask and minimally you may be surprised to find some alternatives wines not listed (wine received, but wine list not updated yet), or even be offered a wine from the owners private collection!

Today we had a most fabulous lunch at Bistro Molines in the Hunter Valley.  The place is one of the very few Hatted restaurants in rural NSW.  Robert and Sally Molines have been together for 40 years, and always in the food business.  They are true food icons in the Hunter Valley.  It is one of our very favorite restaurants, and every visit is a special occasion.  For some really special occasions like our anniversary, we might bring along an exceptional bottle of wine from our cellar, but today, having a normal great lunch with great friends, I ordered wine off the wine list.

Bistro Molines has a nice selection of wines, including Australian and imported wines at very reasonable prices for a Hatted restaurant.  After looking over the menu and the specials for the day, it became apparent that the four of us would all be having different starters and different mains.  Therefore, I would have a bit of a challenge selecting wines that went well with every dish.  We agreed as a table to venture forth with a Riesling over a Chardonnay for the white and selected a very nice Kabbinett Riesling from Mosel. The Riesling was sweet, but not too sweet, with a beautiful smooth texture.  (Embarrassingly, I do not remember nor did I take a picture of the wine, so I do not remember the wine maker.)

For the red wine, I really wanted something with some age on it, but many of the really good choices were from 2010 or 2011.  The wine list had a 2010 Cape Mentelle Zinfandel which is an outstanding wine.  I have had the 2007 and 2008 vintages, including the 2007 vintage at Bistro Molines a year ago.  While the 2010 vintage is considered a superior wine to the 2007, it should ideally be drunk from 2015 – 2030 and I felt it was far too young to drink this wine today.  I asked if they still had any of the 2007 vintage around and after checking, the waitress told me they had one bottle left, but since they had a new order of the 2010 in, the wine list had been updated to show that.

While the 2010 vintage would be a better choice to drink in five years, it was not th best choice for today.  The 2007 vintage would be far more mature and better drinking today so we selected that.  While the 2007 vintage was not on the wine list, it was ours for the asking!  Restaurants often have a number of wines which are single bottles left, or other special wines that do not appear on the wine list.  Therefore, it is worthwhile asking if there is something in particular you are interested in.

Zinfandel is not widely grown in Australia, but if you are going to buy a Zindandel, make sure it is from Margaret River.  Zinfandel grows best in Napa Valley and Margaret River is as close in climate and soil conditions as you are going to find in Australia.  It is a lighter style of grape with texture similar to a Pinot Noir, but sweeter in general.  The 2007 Cape Mentelle has flavors of blackberry and ripe raisins. It went well with the duck, the veal and the kidneys we had for mains (my wife continued to dring the Riesling to go with her mussels.)

Remember, even if you like what you see on the wine list, do not assume it is all that is on offer.  By asking, you establish an intimacy with the sommelier or owner that will serve you well in getting some even better choices of wines not available to those who don’t ask!

What I am drinking right now – food optional!

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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!