Tasted: Vino da Meditazione
The 2005 Reserve Cabernet is a wine to be considered – vino da meditazione as the Italian’s might call it! We had this bottle with a simple dinner of sausages, steamed greens and mashed potato and the wine was the perfect accompaniment for this comfort-food meal on a cold winter’s night. It’s dark in colour […]
Tasted: In Defense of Wine
Last night, we enjoyed a bottle of 2022 Catena ‘High Mountain Vines’ Malbec from Argentina (imported by Negociants Australia & purchased from D’or to Door for $35). The Catena Zapata Winery is currently directed by Laura Catena, a fourth-generation winemaker who also happens to be a medical doctor. She trained at Harvard and earned her […]
Tasted: Looking almost immortal!
This wine comes from an outstanding vintage and just after harvest, in May 2002, our daughter Indi was born. That was after, midway through harvest, Rae took a tumble off a vat and the vintage turned into a real team effort, with friends and family stepping in to help us bring in the crop and […]
Tasted: Should be in magnum!
2017 Willi Schaefer (the producer) Graacher Domprobst (the vineyard) Riesling Spatlese (the grape ripeness level) (in case you’re not familiar because I know it can look quite scary but it’s easy if you know how to decode it) Mosel Riesling always brings us a smile, and this one was a standout. We opened it with […]
Tasted: A Winter Wine
On cold evenings, nothing complements a warm fire like a glass of aged red. We used an ‘ah-so’ style cork puller to remove the cork from this bottle as it looked fragile, as though it might crumble if roughly handled. 2003 was a drought year, with low rainfall and high temperatures, and the vines set […]
Tasted: A lovely Chateauneuf
The first bottle we opened a few nights ago was, unfortunately, corked. Still, it was clear the wine was spectacular and thankfully we had a second bottle on hand, so we were able to give it another try. On pouring, a healthy red colour is accompanied by a lovely nose displaying herbal notes (‘garrigue’ in […]
Tasted: 2011 Noon Eclipse
Last night, prompted by an email from Darell (one of our customers) who had just acquired a bottle of 2011 Eclipse and wanted to know how it was drinking, we decided to open one ourselves, as it had been a while since we tasted it. This was the last vintage that we bottled under cork, […]
Tasted: Colin 2015 Chemin des Roses Champagne – it’s raining!
Friday nights are pizza nights at our place, and tonight we’ve opted for takeaway from Pizzateca. To mark the occasion—and to celebrate the rain—we opened a bottle of Champagne. We’ve recorded 8mm in the gauge today, the most rain we’ve had since last November. After months of looking out at a brown landscape and parched […]
Tasted: 2002 Noon Reserve Cabernet
When deciding on a food match for this wine, we turned to one of our reliable favourites: Ottolenghi’s Baked Rice with Confit Tomatoes and Garlic (page 174 of his ‘Simple’ cookbook). The rice is baked with cinnamon quills for a fragrant lift and delivers a natural sweetness from the slow-cooked tomatoes and garlic. Soft and […]
Tasted: 1999 Noon Reserve Shiraz with Pizzateca Arancini
We are overdue in revisiting some of the older vintages in our cellar, so tonight we decided to dig out a Reserve Shiraz. We wanted something earthy and creamy to complement the more delicate texture of this mature wine, so we paired it with black truffle and mushroom arancini in a cream sauce from our […]