What wine with salad?

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It is summer time here in Sydney and that requires cooler food.  We have been making a lot of salads recently to address that.  We have also been watching our weight and trying to eat better, so a good salad helps with that also.

But what type of wine to match with salads?  I have books and experience matching wines with different types of meats, cheeses, and chocolates, but not with salads.  With the number of salads we have had over the last few weeks, I have been considering this more and wanted to share some initial thoughts with you.  My single most important rule is that any good wine and any good salad will do!  Matching salads and vegetables with other foods is pretty easy and it is not often that you have a major conflict.  I think the same can be said for wine and salads.

However, to improve on the “any good salad, any good wine will do” approach, I would try to determine if there is a main or over-riding ingredient or dominant taste in the salad.  If a particular taste or flavor is going to be dominant in the food, that would be a good starting point for selecting the wine.

Another concept I go for is that salads are most often made with fresh produce and therefore I go for a wine with some freshness and crispness to it.  A wine that works well with meaty / gamey foods would not – as a general rule – be good with a salad unless the salad had large slices of grilled lamb or something similar meat.  In general and if you have no other guidance, then go with a white wine, preferably a crisp one.

For example, tonight we are are having a bean and feta salad.  The beans are slightly cooked, but still quite crisp.  The feta has a touch of sharpness to it.  It also contained tomatoes, Spanish onion, and some spices.  Therefore, I have pulled out a medium aged Riesling (a 2007 Annies Lane from Clare Valley) to go with it as I expect a bit of the remaining acid in the wine to stand up well with the crispness of many of the ingredients in the salad.  In general, I would consider three types of white wines which should go well with salads:

  • Riesling:  for a salad with crisp ingredients, sharper cheeses, apple chunks, spices
  • Pinot Gris: with walnuts or figs as part of the salad, or more citrus fruit bits
  • Semillon or Sauvignon Blanc (or blend): should work well with almost any salad, especially if it has chunks of smoked salmon, seared tuna, scallops, lobster, or other fish or crustaceans

Chardonnay: will not work as well as the other three whites mentioned above unless the salad contains large chunks of chicken and is fairly bland overall.  And if salad is the only thing I am going to eat as a meal, then I usually am going to have one with some stronger flavors and spices.

If you plan on putting some grilled or stir-fried red meat into the salad, you can start to think about a red wine.  In general, salads should be ‘light,’ so something like a Pinot Noir or a Zinfandel could work.  If the meat is heavier and spicier, then a Shiraz should work also.

If you plan on making the salad the main or only course like we have been doing this summer, then it is also a cause for more celebration and a Sparkling Shiraz or a Frizante could work well also.  Both the salad and the wine are full of crispness and freshness then!

This is still an area I am finding out more about and hope to have a more complete and rigorous set of salad / wine matchings in the future.  We just got a couple of great salad cookbooks and will be trying a number of new salads over the coming weeks, experimenting with different wines, and coming back with more suggestions for you in the near future!  And if you have any good ideas or experiences where you have had a good pairing of a wine with a salad, please let me know.

BTW, my friend Blake Stevens posted an article today on home-made fresh summer foods and the concept of a ‘fridge’ salad.  Read the post and let me know what wine, if any, you would consider matching with the ‘fridge’ salad!

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Wine writing rightly or wrongly

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I entered the Gourmet Traveler (GT) Wine magazine competition for 2013.  While excited to do so, I was also hesitant and did not completely decide to enter until three days ago when I made my submission.

I write about wine for myself as much as I do a broader audience.  I find it helps to organize and remember my thoughts about wine and I enjoy the writing experience anyway.  I am thrilled to have a good following for SAZ in the Cellar which continues to grow and am appreciative of the good feedback I get as a ‘great wine story teller.’

Each blog post takes about an hour to write with about half that time going into the initial draft content writing and the other half to establish links, find a suitable picture and to proof and edit.  Some blog posts take as much as two hours and I believe one even took four!  But in general, it is about an hour.  And I now have well over 100 posts in less than a year.  There is enough content there that I might even try to make a collection or book out of it.

However, to enter the competition, I needed to follow the competitions rules (which were not many nor onerous BTW), and I felt constrained in doing so for two main reasons.  The first is the upper limit of 1,000 words.  When I start writing, I do so without constraint to the number of words.  I focus on defining an article that I think will be educational and interesting.  It may end up at 500 words or it may end up at 3,000 words if I feel more detail is interesting and justifiable.  Had I written my competition entry as a blog post, I expect it would have been about 2,500 – 3,000 words and I probably would have actually turned it into a 3-part or 4-part blog series with about 750 words each.

The second constraint was that it need to be interesting to both wine buffs and also to people who are newly gaining an appreciation for wine.  Fortunately, I believe I have a entry that accomplished that, but I could only quickly come up with one topic where that worked, even though I thought about it for several weeks.  For blogging and not caring about the level of audience expertise, I don’t really target a topic to a particular  audience.  I figure that the audience will find me and read the post if they are interested.  But if you are writing commercially, you need to be conscious of the ‘real estate’ you are consuming in a magazine and make sure it is being used effectively to sell more magazines!  Therefore, both the number of words and audience reach are extremely important.

I had the interesting experience during writing for the competition that it seemed more like a job than a passion and I felt pressure to write my article ‘commercially correct’ (or ‘rightly’ as I say in the title!).  And that raised a concern or at least a caution for me. 

Many of us are often seduced by the idea of making a career out of our hobbies and passions.  We love to cook, so why not do it full-time and become a restauranteur?  Or if we love to fish, why not become a fishing guide so we can fish all the time?  Etc., etc., etc.!  But what happens when we treat our passion as a job or a career?  Well, for starters, we need to be focused and concerned about what our clients want to accomplish, not what we want to accomplish (and that is usually far less interesting to us!).  And secondly, we need to understand and manage it like a business.  And what I found happens in such situations is the passion drains away.

Dining room set I refinished in Graduate School and used for 30 years!

All my life, I have had a love and appreciation for timber and wood products.  Early on, I would refinish furniture and had the pleasure of enjoying using it day-in, day-out.  Then I got into wood turning and then making wood furniture.  I love the Australian and New Zealand hardwoods and have been working with them since 1988.  Then in 2000, when I tried to retire, I thought I could turn ‘working with wood’ from a hobby and a past-time into a profession.  In trying to do so, I found out several things:

  • What I could make financially  in 52 weeks of wood turning was the same amount I could make in 6 weeks of consulting.  Additionally, instead of turning what I wanted, I would need to turn what people wanted to buy, which would mean I was cranking out salad bowl sets and bed posts – not something I was really interested in!
  • A large capital investment was required to do the volume I would require and that combined with my skills disadvantage (to people who have been in the field all their life) meant I would be un-competitive

But what I learned the most was that when I treated it as a business, my passion drained away.  What I had enjoyed about the creative aspects and being an artisan were now replaced by managerial and administrative tasks.

Therefore, I am hesitant to turn my love of wine into a business, even just the business of writing about wine.  It may drain my passion for tasting and enjoying the wine lifestyle and I definitely do not want that to happen.  I will take it slowly, continue to blog, possibly write some short stories or a regular column if given the chance, and possibly do some teaching or being the Master of Ceremony for some corporate wine functions.  If that happens, that will be great.  But I am not going to push it because I know if I do, that I will lose my passion for wine the way I did for working with wood and I would not want that to occur!

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2007 Hunter Valley Shiraz, featuring the Wyndham Estate Black Cluster Shiraz

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2013 looks to be a spectacular year for Hunter Valley wine.  We have been visiting the region frequently during the growing season and the climate and precipitation have been close to perfect.  Last year was almost a total loss with far too much rain making the grapes moldy or bursting them before picking, causing most grapes to be lost.  And the ones that were saved were likely picked too early and lacked the full fruit flavor that most vintages should have.

Having returned from Qatar in middle of 2009, we were able to taste a number of the 2007 Hunter Valley Shiraz’ as the premium brands were just being bottled and released.  I fell in love with the 2007 Hunter Valley Shiraz vintage and purchased at least a dozen of about 14 different brands (and four more different brands of the 2007 Hunter Valley Shiraz vintage where I have a least a couple of bottles), so I would be able to enjoy and compare them for many years to come.  I thought it would be a fascinating journey to see how each wine developed over the next decade when compared against its peers.  With that in mind, and when tasting the 2007 vintage, I tried to think about how this wine would taste in ten years time.  While some wines were already mellow and very drinkable right away, I was looking for and trying to appreciate which ones were too tight currently, but had the big fruit and complexity to mature into a beautiful wine over the next 5 – 10 years.

I set all of them down in the cellar until 2010, but then would drink an occasional bottle.  Among my favorites were the 2007 McWilliams Mount Pleasant Maurice O’Shea, and the 2007 De Iuliis Reserve.  However, there are many excellent brands from the Hunter Valley in 2007, each outstanding in their own right.  The difference in quality between most of the wines listed below would not be more than several points out of 100.

The wines are now six years old and starting to drink extremely well.  Whenever I need a very good Shiraz and do not want to dip into my last bottles of pre-millenium Grange, St Henri, or Vat 9, I will now retrieve a bottle of a 2007 Hunter Valley Shiraz.  I have a lot of them including:

  • McWilliams Mount Pleasant Maurice O’Shea
  • De Iuliis Reserve
  • Tyrrell’s Vat 9
  • Tyrrell’s Stevens
  • Tulloch Hector
  • Glandore Hamish
  • Brokenwood Graveyard
  • Thomas Kiss
  • Thomas DJV
  • Meerea Park Alexander Munro
  • Meerea Park Hell Hole
  • Meerea Park Terracotta
  • Audrey Wilkinson Museum Reserve
  • Pokolbin Estate Reserve
  • Pooles Rock HV
  • Rothvale
  • Saddler’s Creek Best Barrique (blend of Hunter Valley and Langhorne Creek grapes)
  • Wyndham Estate Black Cluster

All of these wines are excellent wines, and will last at least another decade, but being six years in bottle already, they are a true delight to start drinking now, so that is what I plan to do.  (Some, however, like the 2007 Meerea Park Alexander Munro are so big though that they need at least another three years before even attempting them.)

Today, I am having a bottle of the 2007 Wyndham Estate Black Cluster.  This is their premier Shiraz and is an excellent wine.  I first had this wine when attending a wine and chocolate matching course at Wyndham Estates last year.  We had a chili flavor induced dark chocolate and this wine was an excellent match, being powerful and confident enough to stand up to chili chocolate!

Drinking it on its own now, you can tell this is a bold wine with many more years left to help it mature.  I may not drink my next bottle for another 5 – 10 years.  It has bold, powerful fruit flavors, strongly tasting of plum, cherry and blackberry with some spice.  It does not possess as strong a pepper taste as some Hunter Valley Shiraz, but you can still tell it is from the Hunter Valley  It also has full tannins, yet a smooth, elegant texture to match the great taste.  This wine has deservedly won four Gold Medals.

When drinking the 2007 Wyndham Estate Black Cluster, and recently having sampled the 2007 McWilliams Mount Pleasant Maurice O’Shea and the 2007 De Iuliis Reserve, I have been surprised to find out how similar these wines are.  These are definitely Hunter Valley Shiraz as compared to Victorian or Barossa Valley Shiraz.  These wines have slight nuances and their own unique characteristics, but they are more similar than different.  It would be very difficult to pick these wines out in a blind tasting.

What excites me about the similarity is that the wine makers let the quality of the grape from the 2007 vintage rule the day.  They did not get in the way and try to manufacture a unique outcome for their wine.  They let the natural flavor of the grape grown with Hunter Valley terroir do the job for them with this resulting in an  excellent batch of wines.

I bought so much 2007 Hunter Valley Shiraz and a little 2009 Hunter Valley Shiraz.  2008 and 2012 were bust vintages.  2010 was ‘fine’ and 2011 was also considered quite exceptional, but I did not buy any of those vintages as I have so much of the 2007, but am starting to work through them more rapidly now.  As great as the 2013 Hunter Valley vintage looks, I may pick up some of those also to compare to the 2007 and also just because some of the best winemakers such as Michael De Iuliis, PJ Charteris, and Andrew Thomas are also working with some new sources of grapes (for example Michael now has access to the Stevens Vineyard, one of the best Shiraz vineyards in the Hunter Valley) and I am excited to find out what these wine makers can do with the very best grapes around!

Riedel Vinum Shiraz glassware

If you are looking for a good Shiraz and find a bottle of 2007 Hunter Valley Shiraz, you can feel pretty confident that you will be picking up a very good to excellent bottle, no matter how much you pay for it.  These wines deserve to be served in the Riedel Vinum Shiraz glassware also.  They are so big and powerful, that frankly no other glass in my opinion will do.

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Creating, retaining, and reliving wine memories

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For me, drinking a great bottle of wine is like being at the Louvre or the Metropolitan Museum of Art and seeing an original painting.  It is an exquisite experience and even though I may never be able to experience it again, I want to retain and relive the memory.

That would seem quite easy to do in these times of social media with Instagram and Facebook.  We can take pictures of our drinking and eating experiences and immediately post them into a variety of public clouds to share with others and to retrieve whenever we want to.  But while those pictures provide great memories of the experiences we have had and the great friends and relationships we have, they do not focus on ‘the wine!’

I currently do four things currently to create and relive wine memories, and am about to add a fifth which I learned about from my good friend Dave who also has a place in the Hunter Valley.  The four I already do are:

Every time I look at an empty bottle, or a cork, I remember the experience and relive a bit of the wine drinking that went on that evening.  It also invokes memories of the friends and experiences we shared while drinking that wine.

The new thing I am going to do, is to create a wine map of the Hunter Valley and pin the wineries we have visited and plan to visit.  Dave has made one up, hanging in his hallway and we will be doing similar.  It’s a great idea.  Dave used a laminated map of the Hunter Valley, added some information regarding wineries and numbers to locate them, and pins with the coding for if they had visited them already or they were on the list to visit soon.  The back is cork board and he made the frame out of other wine corks cut in half.  This will provide more opportunity for me to use the good corks I have as my two Corkhaus boards will only hold about 110 corks and I certainly have more than that!

These activities are similar to keeping a photo album, but take a little more real estate, especially for the wine bottles.  However, it is not much of a difficulty and helps to reinforce and relive the great memories we have had. I am glad I do these things and recommend that some of them may enhance your wine drinking experiences and lifestyle.  I love having the constant reminders to prompt pleasant memories!

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Seriously, who would drink a 2000 Lindeman’s Pyrus when its 40 Celsius outside?

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I would, of course!  And by the way, that’s 104 Fahrenheit for my adoring (and adored) American followers!

Over time, we have brought more bottles of decent wine to our place in the Hunter Valley.  However, I wanted to be careful as I did not have proper wine storage and the temperature can vary greatly from several degrees below zero (Celsius) to 40 or so degrees based on the time of season, so I did not bring too many great wines that I knew I would have to lay down until a future trip.  This type of variation is not good for wine storage, especially when a cork is involved.  Yet, I always like to have some nice bottles around to go with dinner or to bring to a friends.

And that is how the 2000 Lindeman’s Pyrus found its way to our place in the Hunter Valley.  We now have a small Vintec which allows me to store with confidence about 30 bottles of good red and a few Montrachet.  I also have about 30 or so other bottles of medium quality whites and reds that I store in a cabinet or under the bed.  It was in reorganizing the other day that I found the 2000 Lindeman’s Pyrus which had been around for a while, but I missed transferring to the Vintec.  I wanted to make sure to drink it right away and today seemed like a good time for it.

First of all, we are BBQ’ing this evening some pork ribs, corn on the cob, asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, and some small tofu steaks.  I thought a very nice red wine would go with that.  Secondly, I am writing a few wine blog posts today and could not consider writing about wine without having a nice glass at my side to help me out!  After all, I am inside and the we are running the Air Conditioner.  But that being the case, the room temperature is still a few degrees higher than I would like for the wine, so I have made a rare exception and put two reusable ice cubes into the Pyrus to cool it down a few degrees. 

This is a extremely nice, but not a truly great wine (at least not yet!).  It is very smooth and balanced.  It tastes like a classic second or even possibly first growth Bordeaux, except that it lacks the complexity and robust flavors of a great Bordeaux.  But then, I have recently been drinking and raving about the 1987 Lindeman’s Pyrus and the 1992 Lindeman’s Pyrus, so it may be an unfair comparison to call the 2000 Pyrus lacking in complexity!  I expect with another 5 – 10 years in the bottle that the secondary characteristic of the maturing Cabernet Franc grape will add some real structure and an enhanced flavoring to the wine.  Unfortunately, this is my only bottle, so I will not be able to witness that unless someone shares a bottle with me in the next decade.

The wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc.  The 1987 Lindeman’s Pyrus and the 1992 Lindemans’s Pyrus also contained Malbec in the blend which would have added to the nuances of these great old red wines.  The 2000 Lindemans’ Pyrus has a dark chocolate nose to it and tastes of plums, cherries and blackberry.  It is subtle and beautifully nuanced and should be a great match for dinner tonight.

I have been primarily a fan of the the other two members of the Lindeman’s Trio – the St George (Cabernet Sauvignon) and the Limestone Ridge (blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz), but am really growing more fond of the Lindeman’s Pyrus, especially the older ones where the Cabernet Franc grape has had a chance to evolve and provide some real elegance to this great blend.

This wine is so easy to drink!  The Cabernet Sauvignon grape is prominent and so smooth.  My only problem with this wine is that I seem to only have about one-third of the bottle left for dinner!  Oh well, better get onto that!

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1977 Dow Vintage Port and 2004 Dow Vintage Port

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I am sitting with a glass of each of these glorious Port wines in front of me as I write this.  These are some fine Ports!

1977 Dow Vintage Port (left) and 2004 Dow Vintage Port (right)

I would have to give the nod to the 1977 Dow Vintage Port being superior, both in terms of wine quality and also since it holds a special memory for me.  I had two bottles for a very long time that I purchased while in Graduate School a long, long time ago.  However, through misfortune, I was only able to drink only one glass of this brilliant Port wine.  As a very special treat for my 60th birthday, my wife found and surprised me with two bottles of the 1977 Dow Vintage Port.

The picture above shows the 1977 Dow to be slighter browner, but that is not the case.  This is still in its optimal drinking period.  Being high in alcohol, most Port wines will last a very long time.  When I opened the 1977 Dow Vintage Port, the cork crumbled (even when using the Ah So – that’s how saturated and weak the 35 year old cork was!)  The cork split and the bottom went into the bottle.  I had to filter the wine to remove the cork and the sediment.  Fortunately, being a high alcohol wine, it was still in good condition and improved after decanting.

The 2004 Dow Vintage Port is an excellent wine and I paid $30 per bottle for this.  But the wine is a child yet – so tight and with the grape fibers still interlocking (that is why is looks darker around the edges compared to the 1977 which is looser and therefore smoother)!  While drinkable today, it will last another ten years and soften over that period of time and even longer.  However, once I work my way through my two bottles of the 1977 Dow Vintage Port, my last 1967 Lindeman’s Vintage Port, and two bottles of the 1980 Lindeman’s Vintage Port, then I will seriously start work my way through the 14 bottles of the 2004 Dow Vintage Port I have.   I expect this will not occur for another 2 – 3 years.

The 2004 Dow Vintage Port tastes of blackberry and boysenberry.  It has a sharp smell when you nose it, but is smoother to the palate.  It is thick, a bit sweeter and and does not have the complexity of the 1977.  It starts full, but has a weak finish.  The 2004 Dow Vintage Port is still trying to figure out what type of wine it wants to be and is almost combative with your palate.  I expect this Port has a lot of potential though and will benefit from more years in the bottle. 

By comparison, the 1977 Dow Port is elegant.  The nose is softer and more subtle, but once the wine hits your palate, you can taste the intensity and concentrated plum and blackberry flavors.  This wine is sharp to the taste and lasts a very long time.  But then the 1977 Dow Vintage Port does benefit from 35 years of aging!  It is beautifully balanced and sits in perfect harmony on your tongue and against your cheeks.  And the 1977 is certainly a more expensive wine (than the 2004) today, even though it went at a reasonable price when first available. 

The very best vintage in a long, long time of Dow Vintage Port is the 2007.  This wine was so popular, it never made its way to Australia.  I was fortunate to pick up two bottles of this in the US about 18 months ago.  This wine is rated by many to be a rare 100/100.  However, I definitely need to let this wine mature in the cellar for a long, long time.  The trick is to determine when is the best time to drink them.  I want to make sure I still have a good enough palate to be able to discern the quality, yet not drink it before its time.  I just hope its time comes before my time!

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Defining decadence – Castro cigar with 1992 Lindeman’s Pyrus

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As mentioned previously, my friend gave me a tremendous cigar for my 60th birthday.  You could tell by smelling it, that it would be the finest cigar I have ever smoked.  Having smoked it today only confirmed the point!  I enjoy a great cigar every now and then, usually smoking the Cohiba Siglo #1 or #2 or the Cohiba Robusto.  I may have a Montecristo every now and then.  Since I may only have three or four cigars a year, it does not make sense to smoke anything less than the best!

Being on vacation, I brought some cigars along to enjoy while sitting on the back deck in the Hunter Valley.  I was also looking for a cause for celebration (beyond just being on vacation!) and had it by having our best quarter ever for my group.  We are already over 200% of sales plan for the quarter and finished the year on a high note.  I also got a call Friday at 5:00 pm that we closed our biggest deal ever so far, so I knew I had plenty of justification (or just plenty of excuse!) for smoking “Castro’s Cigar.”  (I will explain more later on how this great cigar made for Fidel Castro found its way to me!)

I also like the idea of smoking a victory or celebration cigar to ‘relish the moment.’  Red Auerbach, as General Manager of the Boston Celtics, would sit in Boston Garden watching his beloved Celtics and when he knew the game was in hand, he would light up a cigar, further intimidating the other team.  This was a bit arrogant and I am not sure if he ever lit up, only to have the other team come back and win.  (Does anyone know?)

I was even more influenced though by Will Smith in the movie “Independence Day.”  After a victory in battle (and isn’t life an everyday battle?), Will would always savor the moment by smoking a cigar.  I have followed suit and also like to relish the big victories with a good cigar, and had every reason to do so today.

I know this blog is about wine and we will get to the wine soon!  However, my choice of wine cannot be adequately justified without explaining how a cigar intended for Castro made its way to me.  These cigars are made by Cohiba.  They consists of the very best tobacco leaves (similar to premium wines using only the very best grapes).  Cohiba then provides these top end cigars to Castro for his private stock.

(I am not certain if everything I mention here is exactly correct, but it makes for a good story, so I will continue!)  Every now and then, some cigars are gifted to special friends or used for diplomatic purposes and found their way into the hands of some of the sheiks from Qatar.  (I actually do not know if it is now possible to buy these cigars on the open or secondary market at all, but plan to find out!)  My friends son is a physiotherapist living in London and provides regular massage to one or several of these sheiks, who as a tip provided some of the cigars to my friend’s son, who then passed on two to his father.  His father smoked one and gave the other to me for my birthday.  Therefore, I have been waiting for the perfect setting and occasion to smoke this very special cigar and today was the day.

Many of my friends drink cognac or brandy with a good cigar, but I am not into harder liquors.  Therefore, I enjoy a good cigar with red wine or port and decided a good bottle of red wine was the answer today.  I originally was going to play it safe and go with a bottle of the 2007 McWillams Mount Pleasant Maurice O’Shea Shiraz.  This is an outstanding wine and was awarded the ‘best red wine’ several years ago by Campbell Mattinson.  I love this wine and knew it would be a great wine to drink while smoking the cigar.

However, I thought that smoking Castro’s cigar was a rare and unique experience and deserved a rare and unique wine.  Since we were up in the Hunter, I did not have full access to every wine in my cellar, but found a 1992 Lindeman’s Pyrus.  I have had the 1987 Pyrus which was a magnificent wine and decided it was time to open a bottle of the 1992.  I was excited as I cut off the seal that the cork appeared in perfect condition – something you cannot guarantee for a twenty year old cork.  Still being careful, I used the Ah So cork remover as the best option to get the cork out in one piece and fortunately that is what happened.

I started to decant the wine and was glad to see it still had full crimson color that had not yet turned brownish (a sign that the wine had oxidized to some degree and would be less than optimal if not downright bad).  It took a while to work the wine through the filter, even though there was very little obvious tannin separate in the wine.  It was just so thick and luscious.  While I am sometimes hesitant to use an aerator on a 20 year old wine (since I do not want to break down further an already fragile wine structure), this wine still had a solid structure and I knew that decanting an older Pyrus would take some time and I wanted to help it along with aeration!

We left the wine to decant while out shopping and by the time I got home, it was ready (or maybe since I was just so anxious to get started, I made myself believe it was ready!).  Of course, I used the Riedel Vinum Bordeaux glass to drink the wine.

It had roasted nut, plum and full berry flavors.  The wine was perfectly balanced with well integrated tannins.  It matched a perfect Bordeaux blend using each grape in a well balanced proportion.  The grapes were Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc.  This was an easy wine to drink, so smooth in texture and at 12.5% alcohol.  I loved this wine and it beautifully matched the cigar in terms of rarity and elegance.  This wine also won three Gold Medals early in its career.

Wine, cigar and Sandalwood incense burning in the background!

I spent 50 of the most blissful minutes I have ever experienced smoking this cigar and sipping this wine!  I was expecting the cigar to go for about 2 hours, as I usually take about 1 hour, 20 minutes to smoke a Cohiba Robusto and this was bigger than the Robusto.  I think there were several reasons for the time being shorter than  I expected.  The first was that the tightness of the rolled tobacco leaves was not as tight as a typical Cohiba and therefore drew more freely and was quicker to burn.  Secondly, I was concerned with wasting any possible cigar flavor, so I was puffing harder and more frequently than I would with a so-called ‘normal’ cigar!  I just did not want to waste a puff!

I usually cannot smoke a cigar beyond the last 25 cm – 35 cm, as they become too harsh and also are hot on the fingers while holding them.  This one however, did not become harsh at all and I could have smoked it to the very end except it was too hot to hold.  However, I did get it down to about 18 cm before snuffing it out!

The total experience took 50 minutes and I also got through about 2/3rds the bottle of the 1992 Lindeman’s Pyrus during that time. 

While I have had some truly decadent experiences previously in life, I believe this 50 minutes now has reached #1 in terms of decadence and pure sensual pleasure in such a concentrated period of time.  I know I will never have a better cigar.  I will have comparable wines (heck, I still have two more bottles of the 1992 Lindeman’s Pyrus left!) but the combination of the wine, the cigar and the reason for celebration was a truly unique and pleasurable experience.

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Falling in love with secondary red grapes

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Most of my life, I have been primarily a Shiraz grape drinker, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir when it comes to red wine.  I rarely drink Merlot, and only as a comparison test or in a blend with other red grapes.

But recently, I have been falling in love with the secondary red wine grapes Grenache, Malbec and Tempranillo.  I also enjoy the occasional Zinfindal and Sangiovese.  Just what is it about Grenach, Malbec and Tempranillo I am finding attractive?  First, off, like a hearty Shiraz, they can have a chewy texture which lingers on the palate and usually provides a long finish.  Secondly, these grapes tend to be a bit sweeter and fruiter than the primary red wine grapes.

Additionally, they easily match a wide variety of food.  These wines work well with red sauce pastas, meats, nachos, pizzas, meat loaf, Sheperd’s Pie, and a number of other dishes.  With Cabernet Sauvignon, in particular, and a number of Shiraz, you need to be a little more careful in matching the wine to the specific sauces and seasoning you are using with your red meats.  Therefore, if I want to do something ‘easy’ in terms of a great meal and matching wine, I can whip up some nachos or pizza and just pull out a bottle made from one of these secondary red grapes and I have a heck of a good meal!

If you want to try a great bottle of each and not spend a lot of money doing so, there are a few great-valued and high quality Australian wines you can try.  My suggestions would include the 2006 Cirillo 1850 Grenach, which is absolutely magnificent!  If you want to spend more, there are a variety of wines from the region of Châteauneuf-du-Pape you can try.

And the 2009 Audrey Wilkinson Malbec is a great buy for the money when it comes to Australian Malbec.  Of course, if you want to try the very best, research and purchase some Malbec from Argentina.  And one of the two best-valued Australian Tempranillo I have had is the 2011 Running with the Bulls.  This is a very good-valued Tempranillo, and the 2011 vintage is even better than the outstanding 2010 or 2009 vintages.  This is because the grapes have been sourced from Wrattonbully instead of the Barossa Valley.  Another great Australian Tempranillo from the Hunter Valley is the Glandore TPR Tempranillo.  And if you want to try some other great Tempranillo, then research and purchase some from Spain.

These secondary red wine grapes are well textured, bursting in taste and match well with a variety of pedestrian food dishes, so make sure to try some and get some in your cellar!  You are then prepared when you need to put together a simple meal with wine that ‘needs to impress!’

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Not feeling guilty drinking Montrachet after feeding the homeless today!

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I had the privilege of spending time and feeding Sydney’s homeless today.  A few have recently been fortunate to get their own place, but all of them are doing it rough.  My local church, St Philip’s York Street Anglican, puts on a great event to invite those doing it rough onto the church grounds every three months.  The one today was amazing as a special Christmas lunch cooking steaks, salads, veggies and potatoes with ice cream sundaes, brownies, cookies for dessert.

St Philip’s and Senior Rector Justin Moffatt illustrating ‘Let There Be Light’

I originally thought the lunch was scheduled for Christmas day and we were going to be away, but I found out at church today that it was this afternoon.  I had already made some other plans, but when a notice came out over Facebook asking for some immediate help, I walked over to the church to help out.  Over 200 people had shown up!

I have regularly fed the homeless before and am comfortable and excited about the opportunity.  They help me more than I can possibly help them.  I leave the experience feeling blessed, and realizing except for the grace of God and the fortunate life I have had, I am not any different than they are.  This group today was amazing.  First off, there were a lot more woman who attended than in other gatherings I have helped with.  Secondly, they were so appreciative!  This was largely a group of kind spirited and warm hearted people.

I left the gathering to return home and discussed dinner plans with my wife.  She is making her amazing chicken pot pie recipe.  Tomorrow night we will finish off the amazing soup she made last night which is chicken, wild rice, bacon and creamy mushroom.

With two great meals of creamy chicken dishes coming up, it demanded I open a bottle of great Chardonnay and I thought the perfect drop would be the 2009 Bouchard Pere & Fils Puligny Montrachet.  I have blogged about this great wine before and how well it goes with meals like we are having tonight and tomorrow night.  But this bottle of wine cost me $75 and is now worth about $175.  It was such as stark contrast to what the homeless eat on a daily basis.  (Today being a real exception!  Many claimed they have never had a better meal in their life!)

But the guilt did not last long.  First of all, the homeless would not have liked this rich or good of wine (I don’t believe).  They prefer coffee with lots of sugar in it for the drink of choice.  Secondly, the money could be far better spent on other cheaper more nutritious drink and food and that was what today was all about.

I enjoy my wine and am not guilty about drinking good wine, and sharing it with others over good meals and discussion.  I also enjoy serving my Lord and serving those doing it rough.  After all, service is my love language!  And today I was privileged to be able to do both.  What a great day.

Those doing it rough at St Philip’s today felt blessed to be in the company of their peers and helpers from the church and be treated to such a great meal and some love and companionship.  I felt privileged to part of that.  And I feel privileged to now be sipping a most amazing Montrachet waiting for my wife’s great chicken pot pie to cook.  I am blessed with a great job, a great wife, great friends and great opportunities to serve.  Both spending time with those doing it rough, and drinking a great Montrachet make me appreciate that!

Given the tragedy in CT, USA and the grief and sorrow so many are going through coming into this holiday season, take some time to appreciate and enjoy the things that really means something to you!

And now, I just got the call for dinner and that great chicken pot pie!  Bye!

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Love and mental health are bigger issues than gun control

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[This has been co-written by Blake Stevens and Steve Shipley as both had similar views and rage when discussed over breakfast this morning and in an attempt to reach the largest group possible will be posted in each of our blogs.]

First off, we apologize for this being a long post, but it deserves the space.  Secondly, we apologize for writing this while consumed with anger, but expect that will make the article more poignant, if less coherent.  And third, we apologize to those who find it controversial and will disagree with it when in fact we are making the effort to be balanced and put the focus where the focus should be – more on love, relationships and mental health, and less on gun law.

We are by no means pro-gun.  In fact, we are anti-gun and believe in stronger gun control, tougher screening, more training, more testing and more enforcement, similar to what we do to get a driving license.  We need to be old enough, we need to take training, we need to pass a test and consistently be monitored for eye sight and other disabilities which could impair our driving and make it potentially dangerous for others.  We take away the license from those who are caught drunk-driving and we jail those who are repeat offenders.  We should have similar stronger mechanisms in place for purchasing and allowing people to use guns.

But those strong controls for obtaining and keeping a driver’s license certainly does not stop a still large number of people from driving under-age and driving under the influence.  Enforcement for repeat offenders has gone even further and requires they only drive cars that will not start before passing a breathalyzer test, but even then I have heard stories of drunks having friends or paying others to breathe for them.  Drunks drive without licenses all the time, and drunks will steal a different car or find a way to start their car while impaired.  And they will continue to go on killing people through their recklessness.

We think we should have similar mechanisms in place for gun control and can do a lot more, but it will not stop people from using guns to kill.  And if they did not have guns they would use other devices such as baseball bats, frying pans, kitchen knives, etc.  Trying to keep guns out of people’s hands will not work, and certainly the lame-ass petitions we now see going around to put more guns in classrooms and teachers hands will not either!  What insanity!

We do not want to take the focus away from gun control, but accept it certainly will not work to stop a majority of the potential killing and killers out there.  There has been a string a nasty, disgusting maniacal killings this year.  The people who killed had severe mental health problems, were victims of emotional or physical abuse, felt (rightly or wrongly) that grave injustices had been committed against them, or were just unloved, hormonally imbalanced, or down-right fucking crazy.

We believe we need to love more, pray for people more and help people to identify and deal with pressure and growing mental health issues more.  Damn it, we are not some pansy-ass liberals who believes everyone is troubled and should be pardoned or excused for their behavior.  Quite the opposite, we both would support the death penalty for certain people in certain situations.

But we see so many people daily, and have recognized in ourselves over the years, the amount of stress we have been under and how our jobs, our relationships and our situations have helped us to deal better with things or to the contrary, make them worse.  But as  guys in the corporate world, we have not been allowed and certainly not encouraged to admit to any weakness or stress and if we did, were often considered incapable to perform.  What a crock.

The world has become too fast paced and too highly leveraged and things are breaking around us which breaks all of us to some degree  Some of us can deal with it, and others cannot.  We see so many on the roads and trains in the morning going to work who are clearly not happy with life, are in need of a kind word or some stronger support.  We have found in life that relationships are everything (and why we needed to get together this morning to be with each other, discuss it and ultimately get it out by writing it down).  We are all broken, some of us terribly so, but with the right relationships can be so much better at dealing with things.  Our relationship and faith in God (regardless of your religion) or even a belief in a higher order of karma or morality provides a foundation to deal with things better.  The support of our friends and co-workers is critical to our mental well-being.  And our ability to admit brokenness and seek the help of others, informally or professionally also is critical to our well being.

Sorry to say it but these killers are fucking crazy.  Through their own delusions or helped along the way by others not being there for them, they have found the need to kill, the need for revenge and nothing about gun control is going to stop them.  They will build explosives or use chemical warfare from instructions found on the Internet, or find other ways to make their point.

Yes – continue to improve gun control, and really – it should be so fucking easy!  Better screening, certifiable training and testing, and some simple ongoing enforcement is all it takes.  If we can do it for driving (or restricting driving) a car, we should be able to do it with guns.  So we say to the governments around the world, and the politicians who we vote into office, “just fucking do it!”  Fuck the NRA and fuck other lobbies who support freedom of all to own weapons. Their power and support must be eroding quickly and be close to zero.

But let’s not forget to love, to be responsible and to be supportive of those we see falling off, going down a dark hole, or acting out of character in a world where maintaining good mental and emotional health continues to become harder and harder.  We all have a responsibility on a personal level to help and support others and to seek others help and support for ourselves (assuming we can see we need it and can admit to it).

I (Blake) used to say I was anti-gun and then I saw the below post:

I realized how true and rational this was and it was a double standard if I blamed guns for killing, but blamed cars for drunk drivers.  By that, I mean within the conditions we have outlined above for screening, training, and testing.  While bad spelling may not kill people, cars with drunk drivers certainly do, every bit so as much as guns do, and some of us have even eaten ourselves to death, but please do not take our spoons away!

We do not want our rights to own a frying pan and a chef’s knife to be taken away because in the wrong hands they could potentially be instruments of death.  We do want reasonably good screening, training and testing for things like gun control and driving though.  But most importantly, we need to focus on achieving faith, loving each other and being there for each other, and stepping up when we think others need our help and our support.

It is not about guns as much as it is about the state of the collective population’s mental health.  Crazy fucking people mass murder people and they will find multiple instruments of choice to do so.  We have already had one tragedy today, we don’t want another by having people focus only on gun control and not on the other even bigger factors involved.

Mentally and emotionally healthier and more stable people in the population reduce senseless killings far more than gun control on its own ever will.  Let’s deal with stress and mental health issues also.  We owe it to ourselves and our fellow members in the human race.

Blake Stevens, author of Still Stupid at Sixty
email:  blakestevensauthor@gmail.com
twitter: @stillstupidat60

Steve Shipley, author of SAZ in the Cellar
email:  shipleyaust@yahoo.com.au
twitter: @shipleyaust

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