A SPECIAL TREAT

Some neighbours came around for dinner on Saturday night and brought with them two bottles of Stonyridge Larose (not one, two!). They were the new release 2009 and the previous release 2008. For those who are unfamiliar with Stonyridge Larose, this is a sought after wine, made in minute quantities and one of the, if not most, expensive New Zealand wines. Most people hoard them and bring them out after years of cellaring. This is fine as the wines will last for a long time but it is great trying wines like this in their infancy and guessing what they might develop into.

We tried the 2008 first. This is a Cabernet sauvignon predominant blend with Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc (no percentages given). The wine was superb. It had great blackberry-like fruit from the Cabernet but also a rich and smooth texture from the Merlot. It had a big structure supported by good oak (mostly new oak by the taste of it) and was very spicy. The spiciness gave a savoury dimension to the taste which mixed with the very good fruit made for a very complex wine. This is one that will last for some time and it was a treat to taste. Definitely Gold Medal standard.

We followed with the 2009. Man, what a difference. This was also a stunningly good wine but for different reasons. It is a blend of 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Malbec, 15% Petit Verdot, 10% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc. There were more fruity and less savoury notes with this wine, possibly because of the lower proportion of Merlot. It was amazingly soft and smooth. The structure didn't seem as big as that of the 2008 but this was not a detraction, just a reflection of different vintage and different blend proportions. It was like drinking a very young vintage port without the high alcohol - rich and sweet. Whilst I preferred the 2008 vintage this was still a great wine of Gold Medal standard.

As we had finished the Stonyridge and were about to play Pool we opened a 2002 E&E Black Pepper Shraz. This wasn't done as a comparison, more because great wine should be followed by wine of comparable greatness. E&E is one of Australia's top Shiraz wines from Barossa Valley. It was rich and smooth with the 8 years age showing development but the wine was no where near its peak and will continue to improve for a few more years yet.

Lynn and I got thrashed 3-0 in the Pool challenge but never mind. The wines more than made up for it.
Sunday morning started a bit slow after 3 bottles of big red wine between 4 of us (plus the Chardonnay starter) but fresh sea air out on the boat blew any cobwebs away.