Stephen and Prue Henschke hosted our wine group on Friday night and a lot of thought went into the brackets of wines. All wines were served blind and Stephen took great delight in bombarding us with a serious of tricky questions. The food and service at Collingrove Homestead was very good.
Gougeres
1998 Pol Roger ‘Sir Winston Churchill’ (Magnum): Really lovely and creamy, possessing plump fruit but with decent cut and focus. The rich, round fruits are ignited by brisk, lemony acidity and it finishes long and dry.
Prawn and Scallop ravioli on snow pea tendrils with Prue’s verjus vin blanc.
2001 Crawford River Riesling: Looked almost Alsatian with its strong scent of musk and flora. There were notes of decaying apple, smoky minerals and citrus fruits. It was nice and precise in the mouth with good posture and excellent length.
2001Georg Breuer Riesling ‘Berg Schlossberg’: A sulphurous haze greets the nose but lifts quickly to reveal scents of mineral, fresh lime and flowers. In the mouth the acidity has started to gently fold into the wine and there’s a taste somewhat akin to lime brulee. It is a nicely proportioned wine with enough aged complexity to put it in a lovely place right now.
2010 Crawford River Riesling: Very pure and fresh aromas of Tahitian lime, musk and flint. The fruit has a touch of sweetness about it in the mouth and it is juicy and very long.
2008 Georg Breuer Riesling ‘Berg Schlossberg’: This is a wine that has a real ‘solidsy’ textured fel about it. There are notes of custard apple and musk. It is linear and direct with a torrent of minerals cascading around the gums towards the finish.
Braised lamb shanks with prosciutto, crushed peas and marjoram.
2005 Dujac Clos de la Roche: Really tight and unyielding displaying oak traits of wax, resin and cedar. There’s some red berry and currant fruit along with pine needle sappiness about the palate. It has real sneaky persistence but I wouldn’t touch for at least another 10 years.
1989 Dujac Clos de la Roche: On first sniff half the table proclaimed ‘ah, an older Dujac’ (they didn’t really but Heidi and I looked at each other and said ‘Dujac’). Plenty of beef stock along with the floral, sappy lift that one sees so often in these wines. It has a gorgeous silky texture and is sweet and vinous. There’s something crisp towards the finish that resembles pomegranate and it is fine and long.
2007 Meo-Camuzet Vosne-Romanee ‘Les Chaumes’: A little volatile acidity punches liqueur cherry and cola into one’s nostrils. There’s plenty of oak on this wine but lashings of dense, sweet fruit also. It has a nice underlying cool fruit feel and is dense with good poise. Should be very smart in a few more years.
2000 Meo-Camuzet Vosne-Romanee ‘Les Chaumes’: This thing was that bretty that we thought team Henschke had snuck an old Beaucastel into the line-up. There are some sweet red berry things that are completely monstered by horsey, meaty, sweaty, band aidy things.
2007 Les Palliers ‘Terrace du Diables’ Gigondas: Creamy, ripe and even. Ripe and round in the mouth with floral infused red fruits. Correct but a little boring.
2005 Montirius ‘Terre des Aines’ Gigondas’: Ripe aromas of Turkish delight, raisins and liquorice straddle the border of Portiness. There’s good intensity and some interesting coffee and earth complexity in the mouth.
2007 Vieux Telegraph Chateauneuf du Pape: Certainly the wine of the Rhone bracket and a super wine in its own right. It is ripe and crammed with red currants but there’s lovely cool fruit minerality about it. It has floral notes that also refresh and is powerful but not too big and heavy. A delicious, balanced and long Chateauneuf that has not a hair out of place. As good as it looks now it should age well over a couple of decades.
2006 Domaine de Christia Chateauneuf du Pape V.V: Lots of chocolate and mocha, full and sweet…boring.
2006 Aldo Conterno Barolo ‘Cicala’: Oaky with a vitamin b note at first. There’s some leaf and red currant. It is mid-weight and creamy in the mouth with solid underlying structure and good cut. Needs plenty of time.
1995 Aldo Conterno Barolo ‘Ciacala’: Looked quite ‘old school’ next to the younger ‘Cicala’ and none of us thought it was from the same maker. Very much in tertiary territory with plenty of tar, cedar, beef stock and a little coffee. It is earthy and meaty with something green threading through the palate. Drinking very nicely right now.
1999 Angelo Gaja Sori San Lorenzo: Unevolved, glossy, pretty, perfumed and intense. There’s richness of fruit but with perfect poise and an engaging waft of dried flowers that sweeps through the aroma and palate. A touch of meat is perceptible in the mouth and it is a seriously classy wine that is stacked for the long term.
2006 Angelo Gala Sori San Lorenzo: The aroma shows some cedar, a little of meatiness and plenty of floral lift. It is creamy in the mouth with good fruit density and some big tannins lurking just below the surface. The cherry fruits are bright and coherent and the wine just feels so juvenile but is packed with latent power.
Vanilla bean crème brulee with poached quince and rhubarb, Almond biscotti.
1976 Chateau du Croix Loupiac: The nose shows some straw and a woodsy development thing, there’s also plenty of caramel and lavender. It is old, just drying out a little but quite lovely with the dessert.
1971 Wachstum Johann Sonnleitner Neuburger Beerenauslese Gumpoldskirchen: When I look for quality Neuburger I always turn to this producer. As if Roter Veltliner and Silvaner weren’t exciting enough they had to cross breed the two to come up with this sexy varietal. This was sweet and volatile with a weird sort of flor yeast thing going on. It smelled of tinned sardines and toffee and was sweet and viscous in the mouth with some breezy acidity booting in towards the finish.
Cheers
Jeremy