Runny Returns.....the Great Australian Wine Dinner.

Runny came back from Tokyo for the HK Sevens weekend and threatened to open some of his Australian wines he'd kept here. After some "I'll see you and raise you", the seven of us ended up with a wonderful spectrum of 10 wines over a superb dinner especially crafted by Chef Patrick to match the wines.

• NV Penet-Chardonnet Champagne Grand Cru Grande Reserve Brut Nature 90 Points

  France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru

  Flinty, minerally dry nose......gunflint and very dry white chalk rock.....nuances of honeyed brioche in the background. Palate is bone dry, like Fino sherry, with hints of dried star anise on the mid palate and a bone dry sherried finish. Overall, austere and steely but but very elegant in a lean-boned way. This is an austere version of Champagne and not for the faint-hearted.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

Patrick was the Asia finalist in the World Lobster Chef Championship in Maine last year......you can see why with this dish, which was simple but stunning and brought out the best aspects of two quite different Australian Chardonnays.

• 2004 Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay Art Series 91 Points

  Australia, Western Australia, South West Australia, Margaret River

  Green-gold with the lightest dash of yellow gold. Nose is lovely and open....ripe green melon and orange canteloupe melon with a more acidic note of mandarin oranges in the background. Palate is weighty, good firm oak, rich, lots of ripe honeydew melon. Good minerality but definitely in the background with this bottle. Heady. A big resonance on the finish. Very easy to enjoy. This has put on weight since I last drank it 9 months ago. Very Mersault-like, as Chris pinpointed.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2005 Mount Mary Chardonnay 90 Points

  Australia, Victoria, Port Phillip, Yarra Valley

  Light green-gold colour remniscent of a NZ Sauvignon Blanc...... looks very young and as if fermented in stainless steel (which it isn't). Nose of nice high-toned piano notes.....white Chinese pears and other citric white fruits. Palate was initially disappointingly monotone, disjointed and somewhat flat compared to the 2004 Leeuwen Art Series Chardonnay drank alongside it and seemed to be in a sulky place......then it just blossomed with extended time in the glass and rising temperature to reveal a gorgeous linear citric purity and some distinctive minerality. Very surprisingly young.....like a 2007 Chassagne-Montrachet. I'm so pleased that I reserved judgement until the last vestiges of the glass.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

I love this dish...... which we normally pair with old Burgundies or old Barolos..... it went brilliantly with the three horizontal vintages of older Grange.

• 1980 Penfolds Grange 92 Points

  Australia, South Australia

  Decanted very briefly. Dense purple-red totally opaque core lightening to translucent at the edges and with the merest watery meniscus...... this is not an old-looking wine. Nose is immediately soft, mellow, dusty and totally powdered tannin with a super "come hither" allure but without the OMG of a classic year. Palate is immediately tertiary in charactistics but held beautifully in balance by good initial acidic attack followed by a mellow congee element that reminds me of the wallpaper paste powder I mixed in buckets of water in my childhood. Powdered.....classic Grange elements of dried plums, dried prunes and sandalwood. Hints of black licquorice-like opium smoke come out with more time in the glass and then the plummy black and red fruits assert themselves more....very complex but not in your face. Light but incredibly dimensional resonance inside the head on the finale. Compared to the 1983 and 1986 drank alongside it, this was a 55 year-old woman who would have still stopped traffic at 50 whereas the 1983 would still cause fender benders without even noticing. Not a blockbuster year and I do think it's time to drink up over the next 2-3 years. Faded somewhat with extended time in the glass. Thanks, Chris.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 1983 Penfolds Grange 96 Points

  Australia, South Australia

  This smelt and tasted of sewage water on opening the rather crumbled cork. Decanted for 8 hours beforehand then drank over 3 hours alongside Grange 1980 and Grange 1986 (plus some other great Australians). Semi-translucent, purple-red colour with no variance between core and meniscus. Nose is high-toned, nail varnish, sharp black cherry....younger and less open than you'd expect as a Grange afficionado. Ah, and then the nose comes into precise focus.....cut, poised, chisel-jawed, aloof....like a Prussian soldier standing in at Buckingham Palace....wow, a jeweled precision in its cut. Palate is ooh, gosh!...deep, rich rounded, succulent confit plum, confit prunes, black licquorice, thick opium smoke and all wrapped up in a swathe of billowing red brick dust, red bitter cherry boiled sweets from childhood....and that same jeweled precision and Prussian aloofness and cut. The length and resonance was chiffonesque......constantly shifting in the breeze....like chasing the Dragon. Of the Granges drank alongside, if the 1980 was a beautiful 55 year old woman who would have stopped traffic a few years ago and still looks great....and the 1986 is a 21 year old who doesn't even know that she can stop traffic..... the 1983 is the the woman who doesn't even notice that you just walked into a lampost in Central admiring her, she's used to it.

  Post a Comment / 1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 1986 Penfolds Grange 94 Points

  Australia, South Australia

  Decanted for 8 hours before serving over a further 3 hours. A youthful purple-red opaque, dense colour with just the merest light translucency at the meniscus. Nose is initially totally understated ....understated but yet very, very complex...but it's all there somewhere but lurking in the background like a sullen teenage beauty....huge linear power of blackcurrant and blackberry pastilles but not yet open or talkative....opium smoke there too. Palate is close to OMG, with very dry and powdery tannins....incredibly powdery.....sloe berries and red brick dust dryness but combined with ripe plum fruit, fresh prunes and confit prunes and similar duality of figs....and black licquorice and opium smoke... mesmeringly complex......but this is still so youthful. Compared to the elegant but fading beauty of the 1980 Grange and the poised aloof total beauty of the Grange 1983 we drank alongside it, this is a precociously beautiful young woman who doesn't yet realise her ability to bring traffic to a halt. Ultimately, it will surpass the 1983 during the next decade. Thanks, Runny.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

A quintessentially great wine-friendly dish that met the power of the RWT without overpowering it.

• 1997 Penfolds Shiraz RWT 93 Points

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley

  Two bottles decanted 5 hours before serving and drinking over the following 3 hours. Black-red opaque colour. Nose is lifted violets and a hint of Eucalyptus but all quite new road tar on a cold day and buttoned down...leathery element at the back end. Palate is sharp acidity but beautiful powdered and feminine finesse.....pencil lead, grace and sharpness. If a Japanese took 1000 pencils and sharpened every one, this would be the one they judged to be the best. It is a bit tight on the finish...good length but lacks thunderous reverberance, but has a feminine persistency that you can't argue with. Needs a few more years to blossom.....thanks, Runny.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

A fantastic selection of great wine-friendly French cheeses..... Epoisses, er some others too.

• 1995 Henschke Shiraz Hill of Grace 93 Points

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Eden Valley

  Decanted for 5 hours and then drank over the following 3-4 hours. Lighter ox-blood red semi-translucent colour. Nose is pencil lead....perfect linear precision.....seriously, Ch. Lafite precision on the nose....and a huge depth of pure lean black currants fruit. Palate has the same elements but in a super-focused lean, precise, almost austere character......this is all about a very precise and mineral terrior... hence the Lafite comparison. Absolutely compelling.....but there is still a disjointed alcoholic heat and a surprisingly total lack of resonance or reverberance on the finish....if the 1985 and 1986 currently blow almost any other Hill of Grace out of the water, this could well surpass them in 10 years's time. Double-thanks, Runny.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 1998 Elderton Shiraz Single Vineyard Command 91 Points

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa

  Decanted 6 hours before serving and drinking over another 2 hours. Light purple transparent-tinged rim but totally opaque purple-black at the core. Nose is hot days in Auatralia....dry eucalyptus leaves in the sun and other evergreen leaves... still very closed. Palate is closed and elusive.....very pure and enticing fruit but way too young. This has gone backwards since I last drank it in 2008 and when I was blown away by its potential. I'd leave the rest of my case for 3-8 years......it is in a very sullen, spotty adolescence at the moment. I think that Outlier's recent note nailed it.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 1997 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 85 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Last of 11 wines at the end of an Uber-Australian wine dinner.....so this was always going to come from behind. Sweet and unsophisticated nose. Sweet and unsophisticated but still enjoyable palate.......won't impress even against comparable Napa cabs. Unmemorable........wow, 4 years ago I scored this 94 points. Drink up...now!

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

This was a really super evening of relaxed, good company and outstanding wines that were very generously donated by all...... not often you get to drink three years of Grange from the 1980's let alone some other super Aussies from the 1990s. Salut also to Patrick and his team for an excellent and carefully crafted dinner menu.