The Musket Room in NYC
Tasted Tuesday, April 30, 2019 by MC2 Wines with 409 views
It's a pretty privileged situation to get to do three Grange events in a week. This is by far the most in-depth I've ever gone with the wine and as it's my favorite wine I was loving every second of it.
Also - the choice of the Musket Room was inspired. Each dish was lovingly crafted and just spot on with these wines. Really a great place and somewhere we'll need to come back.
I should note there was also a Chardonnay poured to begin the night but I skipped that one
Smoked Beef Tartare | White Asparagus | Truffle
Veal | Peas | Mustard
Quail | Blackberry | Bread Sauce | Roasted Onion
New Zealand Red Deer | Flavors of Gin
60 Day Aged Beef | Morels | Pearl Onion
Some takeaways (from this and the earlier events):
Grange absolutely changes depending upon the year, but it is amazing how basically all of those incantations are great. Even years that aren't meant to be 'wow' are really good. Sometimes it feels like splitting hairs.
Grange 100% benefits from age and serious age. This can sortof be helped by very long decants and swirls in the glass, but the reality is these bottles were built to go for 50+ years and as long as there's no flaw they all easily do that. And when you are drinking 40+ year old Grange next to 25 year old Grange you do see the difference and that patience is rewarded. In both evenings I would say the oldest wine was WOTN.
The 707 cab is really good. I'm sure overshadowed because well Grange, but the ones we had I always enjoyed. It is a restrained with new world fruit style that I think works really well.
And the St Henri was perhaps my surprise of the week. It's a fun wine with an interesting history (being the other project of a Penfolds winemaker at the same time as Grange). I would be intrigued to try more old ones of those.
Also - I must say that Steph is just a delightful presenter and dinner companion. Her knowledge of the wines and not just the wines themselves but the history and the stories that go in is wonderful. Looking forward to having her back in NY in the future!
2015 Penfolds Shiraz St. Henri
Australia, South Australia
This wine has been my surprise of the week. I had never paid too much attention to it although I know it's fairly well available in the US. Does seem like there's real value here. This is all old oak and love the cleanness that creates. A certain crisp and fresh feel to it. Lots of berries which show well. A hint of spice (although that is more secondary to the berries). Well balanced. Nice wine.
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2016 Penfolds Shiraz RWT Bin 798
Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley
This for me is that friend that gets along with all of your friends and yet somehow never quite rubs you the right way. And I think it's probably mostly because it's a very young wine with a lot of oak and no time for all of that to have resolved. So whereas most others get lots of flavors here, I get a very dominant mouthful of splinters and only with some concentration can tell that there is fruit and other stuff going on behind it. Would be interested to try one from the 90's to see how these evolve and whether it does integrate in. I suspect so. Somehow also the oak seems to hide the natural acidity I find in most Penfolds wines.
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2016 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 707
Australia, South Australia
Bonus bottle in the line-up! I have really not spend much time with the cabs from Penfolds at all and now we've had the 707 three times in the last week. It's really well done. Very nicely structured, great fruit, great balance, a bit of the floral and more elegant pieces. Overall, a very nice wine.
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2014 Penfolds Grange
Australia, South Australia
Ah - the main event. Of course the baby brother of most of the evening and it's evident. This is a nice wine and enjoyable now, but with so much exposure to the old ones you do feel quite a bit of infanticide opening it up. There are Grange vintages that are more power than finesse and those that are more finesse than power. The '14 is the later. I don't entirely understand why, but somehow this wine always feels balanced right from the beg (unlike say the RWT). Oak is already fairly integrated. The eucalyptus is right there. The fruit. The major difference is young Grange doesn't quite get to those secondary spices and tertiary meat notes that make the wine so special. But still quite good.
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