We recently entertained Burt Williams and his lovely wife Rebecca for dinner in our home. Starting with appetisers on the rooftop on a magnificent blue bird day, we enjoyed a fine magnum of champagne and then moved downstairs to feast on a creative dinner put together with a South America theme.
I typically supply the bubbly plus a bottle of Burt made Pinot Noir, but in this case, Burt brought the champagne.
1996 HENRIOT BRUT MILLESIME- magnum; a great combination of a stellar vintage from a fine producer in a magnum format makes for a winning combination which this fulfilled; this bottle was at its peak maturity; with a yellow gold colour, it had mature notes of butterscotch, honeysuckle and caramel in the nose; the taste profile had more peach, pear, apricot and lemon with a lightly honeyed undertone; it had a creamy mousse, bright acidity and a crisp, refreshing finish; consumed.
1974 RIDGE LYTTON SPRINGS ZINFANDEL- I had promised Burt that wed share this bottle which I recently acquired and tonight was the night; the colour was a deep, dark purple with no signs of ageing; it had a good amount of spicy dried blueberry which beautifully dominated the taste profile; additionally, some black cherry, cranberry and plum also came in; Burt mentioned this had some Petit Sirah in it and I then checked the label to discover it was 92% Zinfandel and 8% Petit Sirah with an abv of 13.3%; the quite informative label also stated the vines were 80 years old, 1974 was an excellent harvest, the wine was bottled in November 75
, the tannins were higher than previous years and it needed 5 years to develop; we certainly achieved that last qualification.
1992 WILLIAMS SELYEM ALLEN VINEYARD PINOT NOIR- its always a treat for me to bring out a wine that Burt made and share it with him; that typically leads to discussion about the vintage, the vineyard, harvest, etc.; Joe Rochioli was the vineyard manager for Allen and Burt praised his knowledge and expertise in viticulture; he gives credit to Joe for this fabulous wine; I
ve only had great bottles of this 92` and this one may have been the best ever; the colour was a milky, velvety red with no signs of ageing; the nose had spice and cinnamon flavoured red raspberry which continued on and was joined by a dollop of strawberry; the texture was silky smooth and the flavours crescendoed into a grand climax; this was in perfect balance and so elegant with grace and charm, a tie with the first 2 wines for WOTN.
Another fabulous evening with friends with food and wine as the intermediary.
Cheers,
Blake
Please excuse typos and unintended auto-corrects