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

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!

1977 Dow Vintage Port and 2004 Dow Vintage Port

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!

Defining decadence - Castro cigar with 1992 Lindeman's Pyrus

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.

Falling in love with secondary red grapes

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!'

Not feeling guilty drinking Montrachet after feeding the homeless today!

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!

Love and mental health are bigger issues than gun control

[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

Two very interesting bottles of wine

The majority of my cellar consist of wines that I have bought, usually by the dozen or more.  I enjoy the opportunity to have a repeatable experience of drinking an excellent wine (I only buy wines by the dozen or more when I have had the opportunity to taste the wine), and I love tasting how a wine develops over multiple years.

Yet, I am often gifted wine or have ended up with the 'loose' or odd bottle.  Sometimes these bottles represent excellent wines and I am aware of the wines characteristics and how it will taste.  Sometimes I have ended up with a crap bottle of wine, best used for cooking or to pass onto someone who is looking for the alcohol experience more than the wine tasting experience.  But the most interesting bottles are the ones I know nothing about, but have some indication they may be an interesting wine.

In the past several days, I have pulled out two bottles of wine that I knew nothing about.  The first one was a 2001 Courtney's Post Pinot Noir from Marlborough, NZ and the second, a 1996 Carindale Chardonnay from the Hunter Valley.  Both fortunately proved to be excellent bottles of wine!

Not knowing anything about these wines, I was uncertain what to expect.  I also had the concern that both wines being past their best drinking periods as Pinot Noir does not last well to a decade or beyond and neither does Chardonnay for the most part.  However, you are often blessed to find a bottle that defies the normal structure of the grape and the aging process.  Both of these wines surpassed my expectations by a far mark.

I knew who had given me the Pinot Noir and I was concerned as I had some nice bottles from him previously that had not been cellared properly and had not stood up well.  But the 2001 Courtney's Post Pinot Noir was great.  It was sweeter than most Pinot Noirs I have had and still retained a lot of fresh fruit with slight overtones of smoke.  My loved one had cooked up a tremendous pasta, chicken, cheese and broccoli casserole where she refused to follow the recipe and added some hot chile sauce and bacon among other things.  It was unbelievably good!  While I would usually match a younger Chardonnay to go with it, I had the Pinot Noir and it worked fine.  While not a perfect match, the wine and the food were both enjoyable.  I would not consider a Shiraz or even a decent Cabernet Sauvignon with a chicken, cheesy pasta dish, but the Pinot Noir was suitable enough.

The next night, I finished the 2001 Courtney's Post Pinot Noir with a serve of FAT (Feta, Avocado, Tomato on Toast) and that worked well also even though it was not a perfect match.  I think a lot of white wines would have gone well with the FAT, including Pinot Gris and Semillon.  But again, while not a perfect match, the Pinot Noir worked well enough with FAT.  I then had a sip of the Pinot Noir with mango and that did not work!  (I will be writing a separate post a bit later on what wines to drink with veggies and fruits.)

But the strange thing was that I could not find any references to Courtney Post wines, either through Wine-Searcher Pro or through Google.  They may have gone out of business, but I was expecting to find something about them somewhere.  (I must admit that while I did not try exceptionally hard to find a reference to them, I certainly thought it would be easier than it was!)  This was an exceptional wine for which I can find no history.  This is the reason I do not buy single bottles - I would have liked to repeat this experience, but sadly, it has become a 'one-nighter!'

Tonight, we are having leftover chicken pasta with cheese, broccoli, bacon and chile and I really wanted a Chardonnay to go with it tonight.  I had to scramble and only found two bottles of Chardonnay in my apartment.  Since one was a 2007 La Belle Voisine Chassagne Montrachet, I decided to go with the other one, that being the 1996 Carindale Chardonnay from the Hunter Valley.  When I checked Google this time, I did find a reference and found out it was a Hunter Valley winery that made aged Chardonnay among other wines.  And they are just down the road from Waverley Estate on Palmers Lane who also specialize in aged Chardonnay and Semillon.

I have no recollection of who gave me this bottle or how I came in contact with it.  But it is delicious! I cannot discern a specific fruit flavor to it - it tastes more like a finely blended fruit cocktail, but less sweet, in fact, a bit minerally.  Yet, the texture is somewhat viscous which I really enjoy in a well-aged white wine, and it has a very long finish.  This is a wine which fills and satisfies the senses!  And look at the color of the wine!  While not as golden and as complex as several of my 'Top 5 whites ever,' this is a great wine and still has some way to go.  I expect it will be drinking even more beautifully in 3 - 5 years, and hope I can find a bottle to test my theory out!

Fortunately, they are still in business and just around the corner from our place in the Hunter Valley!  I will be visitng them during my next visit to the Hunter Valley.  While they are sold out of the 1996 (and 1998) Chardonnay, they still appear to have some of the 2000 Chardonnay left and if it is anything like the 2000 Waverley Estate Chardonnay (or their own 1996 Chardonnay), it will be a great drink!

I don't always strive for the best food and wine match, even though I think it is usually worth the effort.  Sometimes I just want to try a particular bottle of wine and will drink it with a meal.  And while I don't usually like single bottles of undiscernable heritage, I must admit that I got very lucky with these two bottles and they have provided a great drinking experience over the last few days.  Some times it is worth taking a risk and going on a 'blind date' with a bottles.  Even though it may not last a life time, it can still be a great one-nighter!

Grenache was made for Sheperd's Pie!

A number of red wines work with Sheperd's Pie.  I have tried a few as my wife, DAZ in the Kitchen, makes a great Sheperd's Pie!  I have had Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz with Sheperd's Pie, and both worked fine.  More recently, I had the 2008 Glandore TPR Tempranillo with Sheperd's Pie and thought it worked better than either a Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz. Tempranillo is a secondary and less popular red wine grape, but a beautiful drink.

Grenache is another secondary wine grape growing in popularity.  I have been slow to coming to truly like Grenache as a grape, but really enjoying it more recently.  I have been tasting more decent wines from Châteauneuf-du-Pape and have been able to discern the more pleasurable characteristics of Grenache.  We also recently have a tremendous Australian Grenach (the 2006 Cirillo 1850 Grenache) which was wonderful with Korean BBQ.

The characteristics I love about Grenache (and Tempranillo) is that they make hearty, chewable wines that are still elegant and well-refined.  It almost seems to be a contradiction in terms, and that is why some of the cheaper, younger Grenache wines don't work.  The compexities and balance are not there yet.

I had a single bottle of the 2006 Perrin & Fils Châteauneuf-du-Pape Les Sinards and remembering how good the 2006 Cirillo 1850 Grenache was from a few days before, I thought a Grenache would go very well with Sheperd's Pie that evening.  It ended up being a perfect match!

The 2006 Cirillo 1850 Grenache was 100% Grenache.  But often the Grenache grape is blended with smaller quantities of other grapes.  The 2006 Perrin & Fils Châteauneuf-du-Pape Les Sinards is such a blend being 70% Grenache, 15% Shiraz, and 15% Mourvedre.  This blending is typical of a wines from Châteauneuf-du-Pape and why there can be such a wide variety of different tasting wines from that region.

Grenache (or a Grenache blend) works well with Sheperd's Pie because both the texture of the wine and the taste compliment the food beautifully.  This wine is 'meaty' on its own and mixes with the juice from the pie in a splendid sensation of flavours.  Additionally, the leaner, elegant characteristics compliment the mash potato used in the pie.

I have not tried a Pinot Noir with Sheperd's Pie and you may be asking why as it contains lamb mince.  I think most Pinot Noirs would be too light in texture to work with the heartiness of Sheperd's Pie.

If you have not tried Grenache before, you owe it to yourself to do so.  And if you are going to cook up Sheperd's Pie, then you definitely should be looking for a bottle of Grenache to go with it (or a bottle of a Tempranillo).  For my palate, a Grenache is a far better match for Sheperd's Pie than Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz.

Impressing or expressing? - a good night out with the guys!

The five of us were all looking forward to a good night out.  One in the group was returning to the US after two years living in Sydney, others reflecting on completing one of the greatest banking IT projects ever run anywhere in the world, which we all touched in one way or another over the last few years, but mostly we just wanted to get together to share some companionship and some great wine.  And what a wine line-up we had!

Owen, David, Mark, Daniel, Steve

We had been planning the evening for about a month, but except for agreeing on the date, no one did any real planning at all!  So we decided to meet at the Small Bar in Crows Nest and take it from there.  Mark and I arrived first, drinking some 2012 David Hook Pinot Grigio from the Hunter Valley.  After a glass each and some nibblies, we got another full bottle as the other guys were arriving.

After some good banter, we all started showing off the wine we had brought along for the evening.  It was suppose to be a 'big red' night and it certainly turned out that way!  As I mentioned, we all apparently wanted to impress, but not in that manly competitive way of "You show me yours, and I'll show you mine!"  It was more about being respectful of each being part of a friendship and wanting to share something special with each other.  The other four in the group had been especially tight over the previous few years and I had only circled in and out a few times, so it was great to be part of the group that evening.  We all knew and enjoyed our wines and made sure we each brought a very good bottle along!

I brought along a 1996 Waverley Estates Semillon to start us off with an iconic Australian white wine which I thought would go with whatever Asian food we decided to eat that evening.  Since the evening was about the friendship and the wine, we weren't sure where we would eat (so we went to the closest place which was the Vietnamese restaurant Phuong immediately next door to the Small Bar!).  In fairness to my friend's taste and Phuong, some of the guys had been there before and it was an outstanding choice.

I felt we should start with one bottle of white wine and I wanted to test and share what I knew would be a great Australian white in the 1996 Waverley Estates Semillon.  Once we got the food ordered (Banquet Menu B, showing again how much effort we would be putting into non-wine related topics!), we got into the red wines.  The line-up was a stunner:

• 2008 Trinity Hill Homage Gimblett Gravels Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot blend (from Hawkes Bay, New Zealand)
• 1997 Penfolds 389 Shiraz / Cabernet Sauvignon blend
• 1994 Brokenwood Hermintage
• 2002 Penfolds St Henri Shiraz
• 2009 Tyrrell's Johnno Shiraz
• 2003 Penfolds St Henri Shiraz
• 2007 McWilliams Mount Pleasant Maurice O'Shea Shiraz
• 2002 Wolf Blass Black Label Shiraz / Cabernet Sauvignon / Malbec
• Some bottle of Pinot Noir that Mark bought at the bottle shop because for some reason he did not think we had enough wine for five guys!

Except for the 2002 Wolf Blass Black Label which was gifted to Andrew (the guy returning to the US), the 2009 Tyrrell's Johnno Shiraz (which we deemed too young to drink), and the bottle Pinot Noir that Mark bought, we did drink all the wine with dinner.  You can tell because of how careful we were with our plates and food (and this does not show the broken glass on the floor or the mess I made of Daniel's shirt!).

Six of the reds we drank were Shiraz or Shiraz blends - that's heavy lifting for one meal!  We opened with the Trinity Hill Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot blend and finished with dessert and the Pinot Noir, but everything else in between was Shiraz!  I believe we all agreed that the wine of the evening was the 2002 Penfolds St Henri.  The 1997 Penfolds 389 was absolutely splendid and lasted better than I thought it would.  The 1994 Brokenwood Hermitage was a classic older Hunter Shiraz with great body and finish, but still maintaining  the elegant style of an old world Hermitage.  The 2009 Tyrrell's Johnno Shiraz would have been a delight, but we passed on it as it will last another decade or more and improve with age.  And the 2003 Penfolds St Henri was another wonderful wine.  Each of these reds would usually be considered the featured wine to finish a meal with, but we had no problem over-indulging with all of them!

We then walked in the rain down to Bravo's for some gelato and other desserts where we did finish off the bottle of Pinot Noir that Mark bought before finding our individual ways home.

Great friends, great food, great times and great wine all go together.  We were not trying to impress in a competitive way - just expressing gratitude for each others friendship and respect for each others palate!  It was a rare evening where everything worked - at least it seemed so with that much good wine!

Entering a wine writing competition

I am very excited to be entering 'Next Big Thing,' the annual amateur wine writing competition of Bauer ACP Gourmet Traveler (GT) Wine magazine.  This is the fourth year running for the competition.  I am entering as a way to better focus on more serious wine writing than just blogging through SAZ in the Cellar.  While I do not expect to win, I would not be entering if I did not think I had a chance to be competitive.

The entries must be in by 9 January, 2013 and the entry limited to 1,000 words.  All the details and guidance are provided in the links above and here.  You may wonder why I am alerting others to this as it will only increase the competition.  The reason is that I want to be supportive of everyone increasing their enjoyment in the wine and its related lifestyle and by being part of and more knowledgeable of wine and wine-related experiences.  I also want to be more encouraging to anyone who wants to write and share ideas and knowledge with others.

I do not consider my knowledge to be my own or sourced from within.  We all learn from each other and are better for it.  Plus it increases the community of people we can learn from and share with.  My friend Blake Stevens, author of Still Stupid at Sixty wrote a blog post about the larger value of exchanging ideas than money which really struck home with me.  I want to live and fulfill that idea which is why I encourage others to write, even if in direct competition to me.  I do value the way I might interpret and articulate material and am therefore very much behind copyright protection and respecting peoples ability to monetize their efforts.  But the main reason  I write is to share and engage with others.

I have five weeks to finish and submit my entry.  I am starting this weekend as I have an idea already and I want to see if it works.  But there is a lot more to do in terms of positioning a winning entry.  I need to ensure it is a fun topic in which the judges can engage and enjoy, I need to validate a lot of facts and make sure it is accurate (not something I always do with my blog posts, but I know them to be directionally correct and factual), and I need to really ensure the writing itself is of high quality, concise and well structured, and well edited and proofed.  (This is something I also do to some extent, but not thoroughly, with my blog posts - if I did, they would take several more hours each instead of the typical 30 - 60 minutes to write.)

So wish me luck on my submission, and if you know anyone who may be interested to submit also, please share this information with them!

Why does the screw top controversy rage on?

I have evolved my views on this over the last decade, and must say that I am in very strong favor of using screwtops.  Almost everyone else in the industry globally is also.  Yet, there are a few hold-outs, including the Chinese (who seem to value the cork tradition more at this point in time).  However, I believe that a few influential Chinese 'wine thought leaders' will come around quickly to the use of screw tops and then the rest of the nation will follow.

Fortunately the Australia wine industry is almost entirely converted to the use of screw top and recently awarded the 2012 McWilliams Maurice O'Shea Award to the 'Australian Screwcap Initiative.'  (My use of 'screw top' and their use of 'screwcap' is interchangeable.)  Usually this prestigious award goes to a great wine, but occasionally it goes to a theme or initiative and awarding it to the use of screw tops was a very bold step by the Australian wine industry which clearly announces the use of screw tops is clearly the future.

Almost simultaneously, the Italian wine authorities have approved the use of screw tops and other synthetic sealers to be used for their higher quality DOC and DOCG wines for the first time.  Even the Europeans are starting to come around!

The science and evidence around the use of a slightly porous cork allowing a good to great wine to reach its full potential is just not there.  Quite conclusively, the marginal potential differences are extremely minor or likely non-existent.  Screw tops provide the same path to maturity and complexity that corks do as what has been bottled inside the seal is sufficient to create to most from the wine.  The quality of the grape, the wine maker and the little bit of air in the ullage is far more important than the minute amount of air that may seep in over the next 10 - 20 years.  And if that air amount is 'more than a very little,' the wine will oxidize and turn to vinegar.

Cork has some major issues which can make for a most unpleasant tasting experience:

• Cork failure rates are between 3% and 15% according to a variety of studies, even with cork quality control and checking - it is just the nature of the beast
• Sometimes an entire batch of bad corks makes it way to the market and can ruin an entire great vintage of great wine
• The variability of the exact same wine bottle to bottle is often visible and indicates that at least one of the bottles will be an unpleasant drinking experience!

One of the two undrinkable bottles of 2002 Wolf Blass Black Label

The greatest disappointments I have had in wine drinking to open what you know is or should be a great bottle of wine, only to find it has been 'corked.'  This has happened to me several times and pouring a $50 - $100 bottle of  wine down the drain feels like 'wine euthanasia.'  I will try anything to save such as bottle from considering it for cooking to rationalizing that is is drinkable and I just need to reduce my finicky standards a bit!  But if I am going to share the wine others, I will not let it pass and have to move onto the next bottle - if I have a back-up bottle (which I usually do, but this is not always convenient or possible).

I hate to be disappointed, especially when it is beyond my control to have the right outcome.  It is my fault if I leave a vintage far too long and the wine has deadened, lost it fruit, or lost its structure.  I can control that and avoid that happening.  But there is nothing I can do about having received a bottle of wine with a bad cork in it.  And even with a good cork, it is difficult to get 20 years of solid performance without it becoming saturated and starting to seep.  This puts at risk most of your best bottles that require 20 years to age.  That is why every two years, Penfolds offers free re-corking of Grange and other iconic Penfolds wines as some of them require 30 years or more to be optimally drinkable.

My view is that avoiding this disappointment (a corked bottle) far outweighs what extremely small possibility that for a limited few bottles of wine, that aging under cork 'may' yield a slightly better result than the same bottle under screw top.  You are guaranteed that bottle after bottle will be at its best and consistent when under screw top.  The only chance of the bottle going bad is if you have scorched it from storing it in too hot a condition.

The other problem with the variability of cork, is that if you have several dozen bottles, they are likely to age differently and the chance you will be drinking each bottle at its best is diminished.  With screw top, you know they will age at the same pace and be consistently drinkable during an optimum period of time.  The need to provide a 'back-up' bottle is no longer necessary.

"Yes," I certainly enjoy the experience of taking out an old cork and will miss that experience more and more over time, but enjoying that sensation does come close to masquerading the the disappointment of a 'corked' bottle.  Insist on buying under screw top from now on and don't take the risk.

A little wine humor for the weekend

I have started using Pinterest more for several things and will be expanding that even more in the future.  I do enjoy collecting funny sayings and humorous cartoons regarding wine.  Since it is the weekend, crack open a bottle, have a good sip and enjoy some of the wine humor I have collected and posted on Pinterest.

I will be doing that myself while getting into a little of the 1977 Dow Vintage Port this evening and comparing it to the 1980 Lindemans Vintage Port.  I will let you know the results in a few days.

The generosity and great gift of friends

We had a small and very private event for my 60th birthday.  For a man who has everything (and many things twice!), I certainly did not need any presents.  But I have found it impossible to convince others of that, so through my lovely wife, Deanna, I was able to have her help guide people to buy some small things that I did need or at least desire!  The presents were great and I will cherish and use them with enthusiasm over many years.  The collection is in the picture below.

I got a nice wine bottle thermometer to help check the temperature of my wine and when to drink it, a dozen serviettes with funny wine servings on them, a couple of Riedel Vinum Montrachet glasses, 4 Riedel 'O' series portable red wine glasses, a nice Riedel decanter, and a couple of wine cork picture boards to create great memories from the corks of the fantastic wines I have drank over the years.  Additionally, I got a few good bottles of wine and a Nespresso coffee capsule holder which is very handy (my only non-wine gift).

I received great generosity from great friends, but most importantly, they all gave of their time to spend a wonderful evening with us. However, above and beyond these wonderful gifts, there were three gifts that emotionally moved me and which I will treasure forever:


Gift #1

One was from Nessa Doyle, who is not a long-term or close friend (but becoming much closer to Deanna and me with each passing week!).  I have worked with Nessa over the last several years and we have respected each other being able to get things done in difficult situations.  I had invited her to dinner about three weeks before my birthday with some other colleagues we have worked with previously.

It was another great meal cook by Jay Huxley, Masterchef and my regular go-to guy with anything to do with food.  Jay also cooked my magnificent birthday dinner which I just blogged about and which all attendees claimed was the best meal they ever had!

We were about three hours into the dinner of three weeks before my birthday and discussing the joy and learnings we get from charitable work, especially feeding the homeless.  Nessa is one of the most supportive people I know of great causes and and we mutually like giving of our time and funds to support these causes.  Nessa was planning to attend a wonderful dinner and fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis (CF) at the Sydney Opera House.  Nessa offered to take and pay for Deanna and me to attend with her as a 60th birthday present for me.  Nessa was not only being very generous to me with such a great gift, but also for one of her work mates who has a son with CF and hosting a table for the evening.  Nessa made a large donation to the cause that evening by picking up three seats.  Additionally, it is a gift that keeps on giving as it introduced Deanna and me to CF and the tragic impact it has on people's lives, but also the wonderful miracles that are made possible through the funds raised.  Nessa's generosity will remain with me forever.

Nessa, Steve, Deanna - not often I am surrounded by so much beauty!

Thank you so much, Nessa Doyle for day-in, day-out being such a wonderful, generous and caring person!  And for those of you who also want to support CF, you can do so by making a donation to Cystic Fibrosis in Australia, or to The Children's Hospital at Westmead CF Department which was the fund-rasier we were at that evening.  And if you can share this around to others who may be able to help, please do so.


Gift #2

Rob and Jude Tudor came up from Melbourne to share the special day with us.  Rob is one of the few people I greatly enjoy sharing a good cigar with (Jim Covington being another, but he lives in New York state now).  As a special treat, Bob was bringing up the last of the two very special cigars he had been gifted from his son, who is a masseuse to a very wealthy Arab sheik.  The sheik gave Rob's son (who then gave to Rob) two cigars made for Castro from the Cohiba factory in Cuba.  When I do occasionally smoke and greatly enjoy a cigar, it is almost always a Cohiba.  But this one was really special.  It used the very best tobacco leaves from selected years and were intended to be for Castro's special collection.  These cigars cost a fortune but that is not what makes Rob's gift so generous, it is the scarcity of being able to find or obtain these rare cigars.

Rob and I were going to share this cigar together and both enjoy it that evening.  We smelled the cigar earlier in the evening and we were planning on sharing the cigar later that night with some very fine aged vintage port.  Usually, we would each have our own cigar and avoid the "men exchanging spit thing."  However, this was a cigar worth savoring and sharing.  I have had some very fine cigars in my life (seriously, as little as I smoke cigars, why go with a cheap one?), but I have never smelled a cigar as fine as the one Rob brought along for the evening.  I looked forward to smoking that great cigar with Rob later that night, but it was not to be.  After ten courses of the finest food anyone could want and 13 bottles of great wine, we had little left for enjoying a great cigar.  It was at that point that Rob presented me with the cigar to have on my own when the time is right.  What a friend and what a guy!

This cigar is a few millimeters longer and a little thicker than a Cohiba Robusto.  And the smell is beyond awesome.  A regular Cohiba (which many, if not most, consider the finest cigar you can buy) is tepid and flat compared to "Castro's cigar."  If there is a cigar to smoke in heaven, this is the cigar!  Unfortunately, after about 5 hours of eating and drinking, we were satiated.  My estimate is that Castro's cigar was a two hour smoke and after all we had to eat and drink that evening, it would have incapacitated us!  Therefore, we did the smart thing and passed so we could wake up (late) once again on Sunday morning.

Castro's Cigar

I will never smoke a better cigar in my life time.  Rob has smoked one and knows the pleasure, and to give me his other one to enjoy is a gift beyond belief.  I will find the right place and time to smoke this.  I do not want to wait too long as I am concerned about the risk of anything happening to compromise the pristine quality of this cigar.  While I have it stored in my humidor, it is always possible that it may pick up a fungus or dry out.  I am watching it almost every day and ensuring it retains its pristine quality, and do not want to do anything to increase the risk of it going off.  Therefore, it will be smoked soon and likely at our place in the Hunter Valley.  This could be as early as next weekend, but I am going to ask Rob if it is possible for him and Jude to join us for a few days over Christmas in the Hunter Valley and if they can, then I will save it to share with him then.

Rob, thank you so much for providing me with what will certainly be the best cigar I ever smoke. I will honor you first and foremost with attempting to share it back with you, or at least pick the perfect setting and time to enjoy it over several hours without distraction!

Gift #3

Many, many years ago while still in graduate school, I started to learn about and drink some better wine.  This mostly consisted of $3 - $5 bottles of Chilean reds.  However, someone at Surdyk's, one of the premier wine stores close to the University of Minnesota campus where I attended graduate school, convinced me to pick up two bottles of the 1977 Dow Port.  I think I spent about $15 - $17 per bottle for it, but cannot really remember.  However, I held onto it for a long, long time.  When I arrived in Sydney, Australia in 2000, I gave a bottle to my (now) in-laws as a gift.  My wife (just girlfriend at the time) told me that it was easiest to get along with her parents if you provided them with nice material things!  So I gave them one of my two treasured bottles of the 1977 Dow Port about 14 years ago.  I was hoping they would share it with me over time, but that has not happened.  I am not sure what ever happened to that bottle and if they drank it or lost it in their cellar (I am at their house tomorrow so may look for it!) or gave it away.  But I have never seen it since.

The second bottle of 1977 Dow Port was consumed in a state of drunkenness which I greatly regret.  I lived next door to my wife's cousins back in 2006 and they were having a BBQ.  We had a lot of food and quite a bit to drink when someone suggested that some Port might be nice..  I quickly ran back to my house and got a bottle for us to drink.  Instead of pulling out a bottle of some cheap tawny port, I decided to share my last bottle of the 1977 Dow Port.  Well, it was gone within 20 minutes, having been consumed by 20 year olds who could not tell the difference!  Yes, I had a glass and it was magnificent, but now realized of the two bottles of 1977 Dow Vintage Port that I had carried around for between 20 - 30 years, both were gone and I only had one damn small glass to make me realize how good it was and how it had gone to others who had not appreciated it.

Don't get me wrong - I love sharing great wine and last bottles of special wine with others.  However, I feel my generosity was wasted here.  Giving up both bottles has been a great regret and both bottles went to my wife's family.  While I never blamed her nor blamed her family, I did feel regret in having these two great bottles being given up to others who could nor did not appreciate them.

My wife is not good at keeping secrets, especially when she wants to tell someone about something 'good' she has done.  Therefore, it is amazing that she was able to keep this secret for over three years from me!  I knew she had gotten me a bottle of wine for my birthday, but I just could not figure out what she bought me.  I checked on if there was a bottle of 1952 Penfolds Grange and this was their first trial year.  One half-bottle of the 1952 Penfolds Grange signed by Max Schubert could be had for $12,500 (it originally was given away as samples and then sold for $4.50!).  I was pretty certain she would not spend that kind of money, nor take the risk on a 60 year old Grange.  A 1952 Chateau D'Yquem would still be a great drink, but they did not make a vintage that year.  I also did not figure she would risk a 60 year old Bordeaux.  The only thing I could come up with is that she got me a bottle of the 1952 Sepplets Vintage Port, or some other birth-year Port.  A Port would last a very long time and get better over time.

Never in a million years did I think about about her finding or replacing the two bottles of the 1977 Dow Port!  What a special gift and and great surprise.  This gift is like being given back life!  Or like someone coming in and correcting a really stupid mistake I made (which I had).  I love my wife greatly every day of the year, but never more than for the very special gift she gave me on my birthday.  I was totally blown away.

These three gifts will all be consumed in due course.  The fundraiser gift from Nessa was consumed a week ago, but will live forever in my memory.  The gift of the cigar will be consumed and greatly enjoyed before the end of the year.  And I am opening a bottle of the 1977 Dow Vintage Port this evening and will likely consume both bottles over the next year.  (I also have about 15 bottles of the 2004 Dow Vintage Port and two bottles of the 2007 Dow Vintage Port - a spectacular vintage!)

While these gifts will be consumed, they will last as great memories forever, and for that I want to thank Nessa, Rob and Deanna for the impact they have made on my life by being so generous and considered in their gift giving.

[BTW, this post has taken me four hours to write, edit and take the pictures for! Wow!]

The wines of my 60th birthday were fine indeed!

It was quite a birthday weekend overall, with guests flying in from the US and Melbourne to join those of us already based in Sydney.  We started with a Friday evening pre-birthday dinner celebration at Fish at the Rocks (with our out-of-town visitors) with some great wines, including:

• 1992 Waverley Estate Semillon;
• 2007 La Belle Voisine Chassange Montrachet;
• 1996 Lindemans St George; and
• 2005 Chateau Haut Beregon Sauternes

This on its own was a great line-up!  Then on Saturday, I tasted three wines while being a guest on Food in Focus with Natascha Moy.  By the time I returned from the show, I had a bit of a buzz having consumed almost 750 ml by myself (one needs to make sure they are voicing the right opinions when one is serving the public like I was that day)!

By the time I arrived home, Jay Huxley, Masterchef, had arrived and was preparing dinner, and what a dinner it turned out to be.  A number of our guests (including most who had attended Deanna's 40th birthday several years ago) thought it was the finest meal they had ever had!  They felt that the wine drinking for Deanna's 40th was the best wine drinking experience they ever had and it came with a great meal, but my 60th was the reverse - the best meal they ever had with a great line-up of wine.

It was my intent to make my 60th birthday the second best wine tasting meal I ever had, but I admittedly fell short.  There were two main reasons for this.  The first that being my 60th birthday, it was really tough to get birth year wines (1952) that were truly outstanding compared to Deanna's 40th which had a birth year of 1971 when we had:

• 1971 Lindemans Limestone Ridge;
• 1971 Penfolds Grange; and
• 1971 Chateau D'Yquem

each bottle easily being in the Top 10 bottles I have ever drank!  But the most important reason was that Jay had developed such an awesome menu that it was actually difficult to match the very best wines with the food!  For Deanna's 40th birthday dinner, I presented the nine wines I wanted to drink to the chef and he did a magnificent job matching the food to the wine.  But for my 60th birthday, I let Jay have total freedom and while he created a killer food line-up, it was difficult to match great wines to every course.

I had been working for a couple of months to pick a line-up of great wines for my 60th birthday, including thinking it was time to have our last bottle of the 1981 Penfolds Grange, and do that just after the 1991 Grant Burge Mesach (given to me for my 59th birthday BTW!) and the 1992 Henschke Hill of Grace.  My original line-up of wines for my 60th, included:

• 1998 Pommeray Louis Champange
• 1990 Waverley Estate Semillon
• 2001 Grosset Polish Hill Riesling
• 2007 La Belle Voisine Chassagne Montrachet
• 2005 Chateau Brane-Cantenac
• 1991 Grant Burge Mesach
• 1992 Henschke Hill of Grace
• 1981 Penfolds Grange
• 1997 Chateau D'Yquem
• 1967 Lindemans Vintage Port

However, once I saw Jay's menu, I knew I needed to back off the big reds (especially the Shiraz) and I also 'downgraded' some of my choices, including moving from the 1990 Waverley Estates Semillon to the 1992 Waverley Estate Semillon (which we had the night before at Fish at the Rocks), and I also decided to drink the 1980 Lindemans Vintage Port instead of the 1967.  I only have two bottles of the 1990 Waverley Estate Semillon left and I needed a good bottle and a back-up bottle to share with my wife's boss who I greatly admire and who is a Semillon fanatic, and I wanted to sip the 1967 Lindemans Vintage Port over several months instead of 'gulping' it down at the end of a boozy meal, which I have mistakenly done with some iconic Ports previously.

But the key thing about Jay's menu is that it demanded more whites than reds and the reds had to be more refined than the big Shiraz' that I had nominated for the evening.  Therefore, I eliminated the:

• 2005 Chateau Brane-Cantenac
• 1991 Grant Burge Mesach
• 1992 Henschke Hill of Grace
• 1981 Penfolds Grange

I also decided upon seeing the desserts and having some guests who would never have the experience again to go with the 1975 Lindemans Porphry instead of the 1997 Chateau D'Yquem.  I only ended up using two wines from my original list being the 1998 Pommeray Louise Champange and the 2008 Grosset Polish Hill.

So what was the menu and matching wines for the evening?  It was as follows:

• Upon arrival - Bollinger NV Champagne
• Tian of Alaskan King Crab, black caviar and radish - 1998 Pommeray Louise Champagne
• Sousvide Pork Fillet, red cabbage, cauliflower puree and lentil pear salad - 2008 Grosset Polish Hill Riesling and 2007 La Belle Voisine Nuits St George (Pinot Noir)
• Tomato heart and gin shooter, in tomato tea and basil oil - finishing off the 1998 Pommeray Louise Champange and 2008 Grosset Polish Hill Riesling
• Smoked eel, jamon croquette with beetroot and apple - Rose Vin de Pays du Vaucluse
• Vichy Asparagus with citrus and olive crumb and sousvide duck egg yolk -  2009 Bouchard Perrin & Fils Puligny Montrachet
• Charcoal octupus in romesco sauce and verde oil - 2007 McWilliams Mount Pleasant Maurice O'Shea Shiraz
• Confit duck in mushroom sauce, abalone and star anise consume - (we continued to drink whatever wines we had going at the time!)
• Canon of saltbush lamb in minted pea soup and taro - 2000 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon
• Spiced poached pear crispy wonton, salted caramel and double cream - 1975 Lindemans Porphry
• Death by Chocolate - 1980 Lindemans Vintage Port and Bailey's NV Rutherglen Muscat

As you can imagine, we were quite satiated by the end of the evening!

This post has become quite a bit longer than I had expected, so I will leave my review of the food and wine matching and descriptions to the next post.  I just wanted to let you know that this was a very special meal - the best meal I have ever eaten thanks to Jay Huxley and his team, and among one of the best wine drinking experiences I have ever had.  Not every meal is like this though.  Tonight I am having a Chinese pork bun and drinking a 1997 Rosemount Show Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.  But it is still great as I am sharing the evening with my loved one over good food and good wine.  What could be better?

Seriously? A 1987 Lindemans Shiraz with pizza tonight?

I have so many topics queued up to blog about.  I love talking about (and drinking) wine.  Today I was discussing a very interesting new wine education concept with a friend and he called me wine-centric.  I kind of liked that!  And it fit in well with the wine educational concept he is promoting.  The guy I was talking with is Ben Hughes, who has a lifetime of experience in the wine industry as a seller, maker and educator.  Deanna and I have taken a wine tasting class from him previously which was great fun and very educational.  Ben is now starting his new and improved venture The Australian Wine and Beer School (AWBS).  It looks like a great way to teach a wide variety of people on Australian wine and beer.  Most importantly, it takes the mystique and intimidation out of learning about wine and makes it downright fun!

Perfect Cork

Because Ben was coming over and because I knew he would appreciate it, I opened my last bottle of the 1987 Lindemans Shiraz which I happened to come across when checking out the temperature in my Vintec.  Plus I knew I needed to drink it soon as with each passing year, it was at risk of becoming more past due.

I had taken a bottle of this to the Hunter Valley last year, but had about five winter months when it was not stored in optimal conditions.  That was a mistake for a 25 year old (and) fragile wine.  I was excited to have that bottle one day at Bistro Molines, but upon opening and decanting it, I found it was not in great condition and had to pour it down the drain - a real shame!  But the bottle I opened today to drink with Ben was much better.  The cork was perfect (except it was dry on the top and did crumble when trying to open it), and the wine much better preserved and drinkable than the bottle I took to the Hunter and was stored outside of proper cellaring conditions.

Since the cork crumbled into the bottle, I had to filter it to ensure no cork fragments made their way into the wine.  However, I was careful not to aerate it as it would have further harmed an already fragile (but still pretty good) structure. Opening any wine this old requires special care as I discussed in a previous post.  This wine was not brownish (brownish being a sure sign of too much oxidation in the bottle) and clearly lasted better than the bottle I opened last year.  While not having lively fruit flavors, it was still a remarkable wine, perfectly integrated and balanced, and your typical Hunter Shiraz.

Sharing a 'last bottle' bestows a great honor for all involved.  As I get down to my remaining few bottles of a particular wine and vintage, I think carefully about who I want to drink that wine with.  And knowing Ben would appreciate it and with a lifetime in the wine industry, he would enjoy this bottle of wine.  That makes it a delight to share with others.  When you have that special bottle and that last bottle, put some thought into who you want to share it with.

And notice the Temperature gauge on the bottle!  This was a birthday present from a friend after reading that I do not use a temperature gauge when checking the temperature of bottles before serving.  More on this in a future post!

And since Ben was driving, we have some wine left over to go with the pizza I am making tonight.  And I am able to share that tonight with the most important person in my life, my wife and soul mate, Deanna, writer of DAZ in the Kitchen.  This will be the most notable wine we have ever had with pizza.  Usually a Chianti or Cabernet Sauvignon does the trick, but tonight it will be a 1987 Lindemans Shiraz!  The spicy, peppery flavors should match up well with the chili and garlic I load onto the pizza.  And if you want the recipe for the pizza, check out DAZ in the Kitchen blog post for our pizza recipe.

I hope the food and wine you have tonight will be as enjoyable as what we are doing!  Enjoy!