Exactly what you’re going to drink this coming New Year’s Eve is certainly becoming a competitive issue. Dom Perignon has stolen a march on the rest for the biggest swank of the night with its Keepsake Cork by Christofle. Cast in a silver alloy, it’s supposed to preserve for posterity the cork from the bottle of DP which you are intended to consume at certain restaurants on the big night itself, or else have otherwise purchased from quality retailers. Why you would want to do such a thing is perfectly beyond me, but it does make rather an attractive paperweight. Moet et Chandon has also imported tiny quantities of very mature but recently disgorged Dom Perignon vintages in time for the big night. A small number of restaurants and retailers have access to the vigorous, savoury and refined 1973 vintage, the surprisingly racy and superbly assertive 1964, the bright, nutty, buttery, magically complex and laid-back 1959 and the creamy, concentrated 1986 Rose, which simply bursts with flavours of wild cherries and red berries. There are indeed some other very serious oenological prospects you might consider to see in the year prior to the actual Millennium itself, foremost of which might well be Barbeito’s 1900 Malvasia. This extremely rare wine, made from one of the greatest post-phylloxera vintages of all and near as dammit to a century old, was bottled in October 1994. A very dark and extremely concentrated Malmsey, it’s been matured in very small casks for Madeira, about the size of French barriques. A couple of dozen bottles have been brought into Australia and they retail for $550 approximately. Order your bottle very smartly from Rathdowne Cellars in Melbourne on (03) 9349 3366 or from John Coppins in Perth on (08) 9384 0071. And here’s one in case you reckon you’re a high flier. When the Jonkoping, a Swedish schooner, was sunk by a German U-boat in 1916 off the Finnish coast, it took with it a 60-tonne cargo of wines and spirits intended for Tsar Nicolas II’s Imperial Army. Needless to say, the army went thirsty, but you needn’t. That’s provided you can raise a lazy $9,100 (based on exchange rates at time of writing) for a bottle of Heidsieck & Co Monopole Gout Americain 1907, a once-fashionably sweet blend perfectly preserved 64 metres below the surface of the Baltic Sea and marketed today as the ‘Champagne of the Tsar’. The passage of time has reduced the wine’s sweetness from 100g/litre to 44 g, while its natural acidity is believed to have helped preserve the wine’s integrity. Needless to say, I haven’t tried it to make sure. For your bottle simply call West Coast Wine Cellars on (08) 9446 3565. DP’s Keepsake Cork
