Well not quite but they were consumed over a warm summer's evening last night
Schloss Lieser Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr Spätlese 2007 Slightly muted nose with a rich palate of flowers, green apples, white peaches and ripe pineapples. Starts sweet as one would expect but has a surprisingly dry mineral-like finish. Went extremely well with the dolci gorgonzola at the start of a long dinner. By itself the next day, the wine does leave a slightly unusual almost metalic aftertaste which I suspect is due to the acid levels
Leo Buring Eden Riesling 2005. A friend had suggested this wine was starting to enter its drinking window. Not for my palate it is not. Still tightly coiled even after all this time. Ok it is starting to open up a little but I won’t bother opening another for 3-4 years. By then it should be an excellent Riesling on a warm summer’s night with seafood given the underlying acid structure.
CJ Pask Gimlett Graves Chardonnay 2007. The importer must have gone bust because these wines, which cost mid $30s in NZ and are a very drinkable kiwi chardonnay, are being moved along at $7-8 pb through a local online site. Judicious and restrainted use of oak, with balanced fruit, it has quickly become the house quaffing wine.
d’Arenberg, The Coppermine Road 1998. 11 years on and this wine is still a robust pup. A friend brought it over to have with slow cooked lamb. Reasonably typical Australian style Cab Sav, robust dark blackberry fruit, still with strong tannins. This was the first bottle out of the case, the rest will easily last a decade without any concern.
Nicholson River Pinot Noir 1999. One of the great things about collecting wine is the unexpected bottle. The one you expect so little from and yet gives up so much. In redoing the cellar recently, I came across a half case of this wine from a coastal region just north of Melbourne in Victoria. To be honest I had some fear that the wine would be poked after all this time. To the contrary it opened up in the glass to be a revelation. Sadly I have an appalling sense of smell and yet I spent a good five minutes just drinking in the bouquet of this wine before I even took my first sip. As it opened up over the evening it delivered roses and violets, earthy forest and bygone days of youth. On the palate, the wine was elegant and balance opening with that special PN peacocks tails as it moved through the mouth. The velvet like tannins embraced the fruit and delivered up a wonderful depth and complexity from a wine I held such little hope for at the beginning of the evening.