Had my birthday fall on Friday this year (halfway to 70!) so decided to have a few friends round to drink some of my favourite wines & indulge out on the deck. We got lucky with the weather and many of the issues in the kitchen that could have gone either way kind of coincidently all went right – it was just one of those nights. In terms of hosting a wine night, it’s not the kind of thing we’ve done before out here but I thought I owed my poor Wheatbelt based friends who are always putting up me rabbiting on about wine to actually show them what it can be all about. And by what its all about I mean drinking good gear without much carry on & enjoying different flavours with great food & company. We had a great group who were good fun all night, embracing the theme and enjoying themselves & as you would expect stuck around for the many beers afterwards.
So first up was a fennel salad with bits and pieces, and a couple of Semillons which were a 2007 Meerea Park ‘Alexander Munro’ from the Hunter and a 2017 Moss Wood. The Meerea Park was interesting and lovely but definitely past its best for mine, 2 or 3 years ago I think this would have been particularly fine, the flavours were all there but it lacked a bit of zip. The Moss Wood had some fans, was a nice match for the dish and quite precise but perhaps limited by the variety itself.
Next up was some confit duck and spiced red cabbage with a couple of Australian Pinots, both of which I personally thought presented fantastically. The 2014 Picardy ‘tete du cuvee’ was classy and generous with these long wavy tannins carrying the flavour – surely (along with the 2011) one of the best ever from here but perhaps two years away from peaking. The 2014 Curly Flat (Macedon Ranges) was my pick for the night it had incredible finesse and will drink well & possibly even improve for another 5+ years. Both these wines exceeded my expectations.
I pulled out a mystery wine for a bit of fun asking our guests to guess Old World or New, variety & also year, with some clever clogs to my right impressively and without hesitation picking as an young Australian shiraz straight away. It was a 2016 Ravensworth shiraz/viognier (Canberra) and was in a good zone, super perfumed and pretty as always. I was surprised and impressed that my guests enjoyed it as much as they did as it can be quite a polarising style for those who prefer the South Australian stuff.
Speaking of South Australian stuff, we were then onto the lamb and Cabernets which were a 2009 Balnaves (Coonawarra) and a 2009 Heydon Estate WG Grace (Margaret River). I very much enjoyed both wines & the group was very strong on the Heydon and rightfully so. It’s a vineyard I always recommend to people visiting Margaret River, friendly, small and very ‘real’ and the wines are always fantastic. This bottle very much confirmed all that. The Balnaves tasted pretty young and very Coonawarra (which I quite like) but I would have liked to cellar it for another 5 years. We finished off with a Port, some brownie & a few dozen cold ones. I thank my guests for their company & for indulging me.
Wines of the night votes were 4 for the Heydon, 2 for the Picardy, 2 for the Curly Flat, 2 for the Ravensworth & 1 for the Meerea Park.
The Wine Accomplice 