Important Update From the Founder
Read message >
Sunday lunch with the Wine-Ark boys
Frank's place in Matraville
Tasted March 26, 2017 by chatters with 338 views
Introduction
Casual lunch hosted by Frank and Emma with the Wine-Ark boys. No theme except the food which everyone attempted to match to.
Flight 1 - Bracket one - On arrival (1 note)
Broke the standard habits and decided to have a glass of fizz for a change
White - Sparkling
2002 Pol Roger Champagne Vintage Brut
Muted lemon, gentle mousse, cream, slight toast and fresh bread. Honeyed notes. Complex. Pleasant and quaffable.
2 people found this helpful
Comment
Flight 2 - Bracket two - entrée: Scallop Crudo and Oysters (with optional vietnamese dressing) (4 notes)
Crikey. I felt like a bloke who thinks he's got a big knife then it turns out everyone else is carrying firearms. Both the 95's were in excellent nick and very good.
White
1995 Mount Pleasant Wines Sémillon Single Vineyard Lovedale
Aromas of honey, slight lemon, butter, fresh cut grass, little toasty notes as well as touches of muted green apple. Juicy and grassy with more green apple here and a little prickle on the mid palate. Medium plus length…Quite lightweight. The nose is better than the palate but this is rather splendid regardless.
White
2004 Louis Sipp Pinot Gris Osterberg
Muted rock melon, slight ear and sweet spice and the beginnings of what felt like some cork taint. That slight rockiness is on the palate as well. Pear, bit of mid palate burr and plentiful spice. The wine didn't get any corkier over time so I won't mark this as flaw - the cork did crumble a little on opening which may have impacted.
White
2016 Shadowfax Pinot Gris
Medium plus aromas of pear and melon…more of the same n the palate tending to rock melon. Fresh, long, touch of pear skin bitterness on the finish. Hmm, it's quite lively at the moment so I'd give it another six months to integrate. Okay.
White
1995 Josmeyer Gewurztraminer Hengst
Pronounced aromas of rose, lychee, honey, sweet spice and almost leathery touches. Fat, round, cream, honey…plenty of breadth and glycerol. Medium plus length. Very good. With time this wine blossoms. This is incredible. A great wine. Superb.
Flight 3 - Bracket three - main course: Pork belly, Kohlrabi slaw, boiled spuds (6 notes)
Had a mini taste off between the two Condrieu' s first then tucked into the reds…
White
2015 Jean-Luc Colombo Condrieu Amour de Dieu
Muted apricot, slight minerality with time opens up a bit with blossom; almost honeysuckle, and sweet spice. Slightly dusty notes and raw ginger. Again, as time passes the apricot notes on the nose gain more weight and ripeness. Quite sharp but still broadish on the palate with a fair touch of intrusive bitterness on the finish. Hmm. As I've mentioned with time the nose improves but the palate seems a little more reticent.
1 person found this helpful
Comment
White
2012 André Perret Condrieu Chery
Spiced, rich, apricot, ginger, smells like it's going to be broad to the point of flabbiness on the palate. And in the mouth, yup, broad and quite oily textured with flavours of apricot and ginger here as well. finishes slightly warm and spicy with touches of almost white pepper. shows quite good typicity for me. Kind of yummy.
Red
2010 Head Wines Syrah The Contrarian
Muted blackberry and black pepper…Quite Crozes in a ripe year…I also get some soy, leather, liquorice and animal mustiness. More of the same on the palate but very broad and quite thick and dense. Despite old world techniques ('m guessing whole bunch and probably some whole berry) this is very much a child of the Barossa. Based on this outing I'm going to have to try more of these wines when they have some age on them.
Red
2009 Curly Flat Pinot Noir Williams Crossing
Quite warm and slight funky; touches of wild ferment methinks. With time cherry, black over red, sweet spice and a little chocolate. A little tart on the palate with the cherry elements to the fore. Nominal tannins. This wine is a little anonymous in this line up.
Red
2009 Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier
Medium minus intensity aromas of green and black peppercorns over blackberry and plentiful sweet spice. Juicy, fleshy and peppery on the palate over the black berry fruit. Drying tannins as well but not out of whack My palate must be having a funny day - I enjoyed this. Good
1 person found this helpful
Comments (2)
Red
2005 Domaine de Beaurenard (Paul Coulon et Fils) Châteauneuf-du-Pape Boisrenard
Ripe red berry especially strawberries and raspberries over leathery spice and a fair amount of alcohol heat. With time some meaty notes and peppery spice as well. Alcohol heat ton the palate along with talc textured tannins and spicy raspberry compote. Quite long. Bit oofy and chunky, the other bottle can be left for 10+ years to see if it descends into that Pinotesque state. But this is rather nice as it is.
Flight 4 - Bracket four - pudding & cheese - Angel food cake with berry compote and various glorious cheeses (2 notes)
Tidied up the reds with the hard cheese and applied the dessert/off dry wines to the soft & blue cheeses…
White - Sweet/Dessert
2007 Törley Tokaji 5 Puttonyos St Stephan's Crown
Oxidative. Nuts, especially almonds, slight honey, spiced apricot and orange marmalade. Juicy acidity, honey, marmalade, touches of apricot and sweet spice - for some reason cinnamon - and a slightly gritty mid palate grip. The note doesn't really do this wine service. it's jolly nice.
White - Fortified
N.V. Les Dolomies Macvin du Jura
oxidised and spirituous. Like a single distillation alcohol or eau de vie. Mineral, wet stone, and almond, honey and bees wax. Off dry, more honeyed and touches of almost maltyness on the palate. Quite grippy on the palate also with sweet tea. Hmm. interesting and kind of nice.
Closing
Wow. What a lunch. The food was sumptuous and the wines, well, crikey. This was great. A bucket load of truly superb wines. Difficult to pick a single one out of this lot so I wont - the Josmeyer, Mount Pleasant, Clonakilla to name but three. Of course, the company and conversation was scintillating and sparkling as well. Brilliant