A good friend gave me a bottle of Veuve Cliquot NV Champagne for my birthday which, as one of my favourite NV marques, will go down very nicely thank you.
She also have me a bottle of Banrock Station sparkling shiraz that'd been sitting in their cellar for years. They know that we have (have had) a liking for Australian sparkling shiraz with E&E and Leasingham being top favourites over the years before they were discounted as a result of Constellation's takeover - ripping, stripping and bastardising of BRL Hardy brands - like the British, Spanish, French and Portuguese empires did to far flung countries for centuries.
The wine was given out of interest as she doubted that it would be any good. She couldn't remember when they bought it but I guess that it was probably before 2006 making it at least 16 years old. Banrock Station, at the time was owned by Constellation along with Barossa Valley Estates (E&E brand) and Leasingham and while at the budget end of the market, winemaking input came from BRL Hardy/Constellation with their world class sparkling winemaking team led by Ed Carr.
I said to 'Her Indoors' after we'd bowled a bottle of Bollinger Rose that I'd got in for my birthday (which is still 2 days away but we couldn't wait) that, while we wait for the lasagne to cook we could check out the Banrock Station.
The Bollinger was pretty good I must say - savoury and complex with a long finish. My only complaint is that the bottle went down so bloody fast hence needing another glass of bubbles.
Bubbles? The Banrock Station sparkling shiraz didn't deliver these but, to be fair, E&E, Leasingham, Great Western and the few, very few, others that braved this style never gave us bubbles other than a kind of fluffy mousse. 'Her Indoors' and I recently discovered another Australian sparkling shiraz - Rockford sparkling shiraz - that was like a lesser E&E but supply has been limited. We'd kind of given up on drinking this style of wine again which used to be a Christmas Dinner staple.
I opened the Banrock Station wine not expecting a 'pop' which I didn't get but neither did I get silence. There was a little squeak which wasn't as ostentatious as the 'bang' of note in wine circles according to this old joke:
.... I couldn't find it on-line but it goes like this:
A wine expert is demonstrating to a group of 'wine enthusiasts' from the Moera and Wainuiomata Wine club on how to open a bottle of Champagne.
Expert: "You grip the cork and twist the bottle. As the cork exits the bottle you should hear a hissing sound like the sound of a satisfied woman."
The expert attempts to do this but the cork leaves the bottle with a resounding *BANG*.
Wag from the audience: "I know her."
I poured the wine into two glasses making sure that 'Her Indoors' tried hers first.
"It's fine she said" which surprised me and prompted me to try mine. The wine had deep, dark red colour with only slight browning at the edges. It had a bit of spritz still which freshened the palate showing nice fruity flavours. To be honest it was damned good and the bottle age - over 18 years - seemed to have improved what was otherwise a simple wine made for early drinking. I note that this has been long discontinued but, in the UK a few years ago loyal followers of it petitioned Constellation to bring it back.
They didn't.
