Another marathon dinner session - slow food and wines. Jansz Premium Vintage Rose 2005 - my Finnish MW colleague Essi Avellan judged this to be very good. I tried the Avonmore Organic Pale Ale which I judged to be very good. The Pennyweight Woody's Amontillado was, well, hmmmm, not at all like an amontillado Sherry being pale and sweet.
Two roses followed - the Sutton Grange Fairbank 2008 (hardly rose in colour at all) worked very well with the food, while the Lucy Margaux Vino d'Auge 2008 was lovely on its own.
The Gemstone Albarino which cannot be called albarino so is now a grape without a name and this is really getting boring was nice but no match at all for its pork belly and apple dish. The Moonarra Holly's Garden Pinot Gris 2008 was a match, and a very good one at that. The Ngeringa Viognier 2007 was lovely but, again, did not match the dish.
A Bass Phillip Pinot Noir 2007 was simply fantastic. Again, it didn't go well with the quail pie as there was a strong red wine jus but it was gorgeous. The Castagna Genesis Syrah 2007 was a better match having the depth to match both meat and sauce. The Ngeringa Syrah 2006 was good.
Then, to ruin both cheese and wines we had ewes cheeses with a Castagna La Chiave Sangiovese 2002 (gorgeous), a Castagna Un Segreto Sangiovese/Shiraz 2005 (peppery and lovely) and a Cullen Mangan Malbec/Petit Verdot/Merlot 2007 (rich and deep). Any chance we could get some off-dry whites with the cheese, please? Pretty please?
Ooops - two off-dry to sweet rieslings, each destroyed by the intense lemon curd dessert. KT and the Falcon 2008 (nice enough) and a Lethbridge Kabinett 2008 (very nice) but both should have been served one course earlier. A Ngeringa Altus Vin Santo was lovely and the Sutton Grange Ratafianovese 2007 was, well,.... have you ever been dared to drink something and discovered that it wasn't that bad?
Say no more and off to bed.
About Me
- DermotMW
- Dublin, Ireland
- Hi, I'm Dermot Nolan, and I became a Master of Wine (MW) in 1997, and resigned from the Institute of Masters of Wine in 2023 after being an MW for exactly 26 years. I opened a wine shop in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland, called The Wine Library, which closed in 2018, and this is my personal wine blog. I will do my utmost to be fair and responsible in my posts – please read my Who Pays article in re the ethics of wine trips and writing. I have worked in wine education, retail, and consultancy since 1990. I was a Director of the Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW) from 2008 to 2014 and was also a member of the Events Committee, founder of the Trips Committee, and member of the Governance Committee. Having had problems with potentially libellous comments from unidentifiable posters, I now require that if you post a comment, you must identify yourself properly or it won't be published. Please note that I do not review products or services on request so kindly don't ask. I value my independence and I believe my readers (few that they may be) do so also.
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