Last night I thoroughly enjoyed examining some of the contents of my cellar with just over twenty subscribers to this site. Over a typically sumptuous Matteo’s dinner we worked our way through a stray and eclectic range of Australian wines, although the fizz on arrival, Domaine Chandon California’s rather creamy and very refreshing Blanc de Noirs 2000 was a welcome interloper from across the Pacific. A couple of Howard Park Rieslings made by John Wade to begin with: the rather perfumed and rose oil-scented 1996 plus the rather more taut and sculpted 1993 edition, which was drinking slightly younger. Then a pair of Victorian chardonnays: a developing, complex and fruit-driven but still very succulent and minerally Epis 1998, plus the equal best wine of the night: the astonishingly seamless, savoury and mealy Giaconda 1993. Given that this latter wine was made from one of the more difficult vintages of the 1990s, it is surely one of winemaker Rick Kinzbrunner’s finest achievements. It still has yeas to go. The reds began with a contrasting pair of shirazes: a herbal, elegant and rather funky Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier Pinot Noir 1995 with a wonderfully long and tight-knit palate, plus a deep, black and profoundly ripened (but certainly not over-ripened) Hanging Rock Reserve Heathcote Shiraz 1991. While the Clonakilla is perhaps unlikely to develop further, the Hanging Rock has years ahead of it. Then followed the herbaceous Giaconda Cabernet Sauvignon 1994, clearly a reflection of this cooler Victorian season, plus Howard Park’s apogee, its own Cabernet Sauvignon 1994. The best bottle of this wine was deeply laden with sumptuously ripened fruits, superbly long and magnificently structured, opening up to reveal layers of flavour and texture. It’s still a baby, but it stole the show. We topped off the evening with McWilliam’s Centenary Vintage Port 1977, a veritable old wine made from Riverland cabernet sauvignon that has finally begun to soften out into a rather drinkable, if tarry and spirity Australian style; plus the laid-back and rather smooth and sexy Seppelt DP 90 Barossa Tawny. That’s why I was rather tired this morning. My only disappointment? Some regrettable bottle variation between the wines, each of which were served alongside others from the same case and the same cellar.
