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?

Five best wine meals ever - Part 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#1 evening - Deanna's 40th birthday - March 19, 2011, at Lindemans Winery

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

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

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

Should you decant wine?

In my opinion - "Yes, most of the time."  I am a believer that spending some time with air after opening a bottle helps to finish the wine and make it closer to its optimal drinking state.  This is not always the case, but should be considered most of the time.  Plus the ritual of decanting a wine can enhance the sensual pleasure of drinking wine.  I am not big on "form over function," but do get joy out of decanting a bottle, watching the wine spiral down the decanter and the smell rising up as the wine breathes.  Check out my recent blog post "Wine Foreplay and Sensual Pleasures" to find out more on how sensual, almost erotic decanting wine can be!

The visual and nasal aspects of decanting are both enjoyable, and it builds anticipation for the liquid to hit your palate!

Minimally, all wines should be opened and given several (5 - 10) minutes for any odors that may be still captured in the head space (the air at the top of a bottle of wine regardless if under cork or screw top) of the bottle should be given time to flow out.  This will improve the drinking experience by removing any intervening unpleasant smells.

It is difficult to determine the absolute optimal time to open a bottle of wine.  Fortunately, many good wines can be drunk over a several year period where they are truly outstanding.  However, it is often the case that when we open a bottle, the wine is still a little tight, and exposing it to air for 30 minutes up to several hours can really help the wine.  The transformation includes the wine becoming smoother in texture and more mellow in taste.  The little bit of remaining tightness is gone or significantly reduced.

In general, decanting a wine for 30 minutes up to two hours should do the trick.  However, some really complex and very well structured wines that demand to be in the bottle for 10 - 20 years, may require a decanting period of two to three hours or even longer.  The 1987 Lindemans Pyrus for example, should be decanted for 6 - 8 hours to provide optimal drinking pleasure.  This is because of the nature and role of the Cabernet Franc grape as part of the blend.  This is a complex grape which evolves over a very long period of time, making some of the 20 - 25 year old Pyrus a truly magnificent drink.  Yet, it needs long exposure to air to really complete the process.

I tasted this wine a while back at Lindeman's after it was open only two hours and while I liked the wine, I felt it had bit of an aftertaste, so had a difficult time committing to buying much of the wine.  My bride though who has a much better palate than me, loved the wine and insisted we go back the following day to get some more.  (This was a $90 bottle of wine, but because the bottle had been shortfilled at 747 ml instead of the full 750 ml, they were going for $30 per bottle).  The bottle had stayed open over night and when I tried it the following morning, it was absolutely brilliant!  We ended up buying the last four bottles and I am really glad we did as we only have three bottles left now.  This is a complex wine that is 25 years old, and it needs a lot of time to breathe!  But most bottles require far less decanting time to finish off nicely.

However, be very careful and I suggest not decanting very old and fragile wines for too long.  They lose flavor far too quickly and will become tepid or even flat.  While many wines can be drunk over several days, older, fragile wines should be drunk within an hour after being opened.

Most people only think of decanting red wines, but I have found great benefit in decanting really large, robust white wines also.  5 - 20 year old aged Chardonnay, Semillon and other whites deserve an hour of decanting to really bring out the flavor, as does truly great Montrachet wines.

And in case there is any doubt, do not decant a Champagne!  It will quickly lose its bubbles!  Drink Champagne right from the bottle!

1988 Lindeman's Verdelhao - one of the best white wines I have ever drunk

"Yes", that's correct - Lindemans' spelled "Verdelhao"  that way back in 1988.  Most Verdelhos will not last more than several years in the cellar.  But somehow we got our hands on two bottles of this great wine back in 2006, and had one in 2008 which I remember as being superb.  This Verdelho was definitely built to last!

Our friends, Owen and Lucie, recently got engaged and we have been looking for a time to have a great meal together, which is far too infrequently, and our next meeting for dinner was scheduled for 1 September!  But a class they were scheduled for over the weekend was canceled and we happen to be free which provided the opportunity to get together this last weekend, and we jumped at it.

They wanted to treat us to a meal at their house because we had recently given them a bread maker we were no longer using.  Owen and Lucie are really nice people, great cooks and have a great palate for good wine.  Therefore, it is always a pleasure to share a meal and wine with them and I put 'extra' effort into selecting wines we can drink together.

Owen really wanted to provide the wines that evening and we were going to just bring a bottle of the 1998 Pommeray Louise Champagne as a celebration of their recent engagement.  This is one of the world's best Champagnes and the celebration was worthy of such a fine wine.  And I was glad to have an easy time of it, by selecting a great wine to match the celebration, not the meal - that would be Owen's job that night!

However, Owen called me in the afternoon, and informed me that we would be having a very slightly seared tuna steak with guacamole and chili (which could be added in for taste) followed by a fried lightly battered flathead fish.  He had some great reds picked out (which I will describe in another post as to how well they went with the tuna and flathead!), but wanted to start with a white for the cheese platter before the meal, and have an option of a white with the fish if we so wanted that choice instead of the reds.

I had to put on my thinking hat and see what I could come up with.  It would have been very easy to pick out a good Sauvignon Blanc or Semillon / Sauvignon Blanc blend, but there is nothing special in either of those choices.

Fortunately, I came across my last bottle of the 1988 Lindemans Hunter Valley Verdelhao.  I knew this would be a magnificent treat regardless of what food we matched it up with, assuming the bottle was still good.  I had been keeping it stored for the last four years between 2 - 6 degrees Celsius and ready for drink instead of the normal 14 degree Celsius of my cellar.  I believe this helped 'save' the wine as it maturation process would have slowed to a trickle.  Also, knowing the cork was almost 25 years old, I found a back-up bottle (1999 Moss Wood Semillon) if needed, and brought along my Ah So cork screw.  The Ah So cork screw is about the only way to get old cork out of an old bottle.  It is designed to be able to get old and soggy corks out of the bottle, but you still need to be careful and use only a small amount of pressure when putting the Ah So around the cork.  I have had several incidents where the cork has been pushed into the bottle when not careful.

As delicate as I tried to be, the cork broke half-way through.  Fortunately the cork did not appear compromised, just weak and soggy.  Then I had the issue of not being able to secure the bottom half of the cork without pushing it into the bottle.  It was not my intent to filter or aerate the wine since the structure of a 25-year-old wine is fragile at best.  However, at this point, we decided to do that with a slightly larger mesh which was able to remove any cork from the wine without causing too much damage to the little remaining structure.  To stop the cork in the bottle from catching in the neck and slowing or stopping the flow of the wine when pouring, I used a chopstick to hold the cork away from the neck, a method that works really well if you ever find yourself in that situation.

I was certainly excited to find when pouring the wine into the decanter that it had a rich, golden hue to it, without any indication of a brownish or other "off" color which means the wine is past its best drinking period.  And once I brought the decanter to my nose, I knew we had struck "liquid gold!"

Starting off the evening with this bottle of wine set the stage for everything that followed - it was a magnificent evening and meal overall.  The wine was huge and robust with great flavors of mandarin and tangerine, and a texture which seemed to float over the tongue.  Just holding the wine in my mouth was a thrill, experiencing everything the wine had to offer.

I have drunk a lot of wine in my time, but this would have to be in my Top 3 white wines ever along with the 1971 Chateau D'Yquem and the 1991 Lindemans Sauvignon Blanc.