Departure Lounge

Marking a departure, we set up in our lounge and set out to have a few drinks with the Young New Trader and AC Electric Man. It was a pleasant time reminiscing over good times and discussing plans for the future. We settled in and the bottles began to flow is we laughed and joked and solved the problems of the world.

We set off with a trio of 2010 Sileni Estates Hawke’s Bay Chardonnays, the ‘Cellar Selection’ quite light and simple but with a really attractive sweetness that made it very drinkable. Up a step was ‘The Lodge’, rich, citrussy, mealy and beautifully textured from the barrel-fermentation. This is drinking so well now, and is surprisingly elegant for all its richness packed in. However the ‘Exceptional Vintage’ was something else with its extra depth, concentration and weight. This wine spoke ‘potential’, because at this stage it was restrained in flavour.

The next step was to journey to Australia, and explore two classic styles. A 2009 Wynns Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon had richness, softness and breadth, with a core of blackcurranty fruit. The palate was mouthfilling and sweet, and fully textured with soft tannins. This was a solid, but fleshy number. We went 30 years back in time to a 1979 Wynns Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, a multi-gold medal winner in its time. Lighter, with herb and stalky notes and considerable acidity. Intriguingly this morphed into dark berry fruits and smoke, chocolate and toast in the glass, and then back to the cooler herbaceous side, then to the complex expression again. The good thing was that it was spotlessly clean with no animal or grubby characters. Then a relatively youthful 2001 Lowe Hunter Valley Semillon. Bright light golden, this flowed with waxy, toasty herbal aromas and a soft textured shy-flavoured lanolin-herb and floral palate that suggested it could handle another decade of bottle-age. This was much tidier than the previous bottle a few months ago.

The destination next in line was Europe. The 2006 Telmo Rodriguez ‘Altos de Lanzaga’ Rioja was extremely fine, tight and New Worldy with slick dark red berry aromas and flavours, ultra-smooth and fine tannins, and a healthy dose of cleansing acidity. It could have come from nearly anywhere bar a savoury sweetness that hinted of its origins. We were surprised by how grunty and fleshy the 2006 Ch. Leoville-Poyferre St Julien was. SWMBO was distracted by the detracting brett, but the rest of us were quite accepting of its influence. Ripe enough, with lots of bacony-charry oak that went gamey, then fruity. Another multi wave, multi-layered wine of significant presence.

After a round of pizzas to soak up the savoury whites and hearty reds, we needed palate refresheners, so it had to be Mosel Riesling! The 2009 von Kesselstatt Kaseler Nies’chen Riesling Kabinett was a beautifully nuance wine with nuances of yellow flowers, and substance. An eye opener because this site usually provides delicacy, cut and steel. Sealed in cork, this may have matured a little more quickly than in screwcap. It overshadowed the 2009 Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett, which was tight and a little reductive. That’s what can happen with scewcaps. However, the legendary slate showed through, and we believed this will come right in time.

The night was drawing to a close, so a forage in the cellar found a rare 1975 Cooks Vintage Port. Cabernet Sauvignon-based with a swag of gold medals behind it, this was more the sweeter Portuguese-family style rather than the dry British-family based style. Faded rose colour, with a very fine, elegant, ethereal-fruity nose, the palate balanced sweetness of fruit and sugar with drying tannin grip. The most faint secondary character was beginning to show. Was this still young, or was it just a simpler wine? A tough point to debate, but the essential conclusion was that it was very drinkable. So it was drunk!

It was time to close the departure lounge. The AC Electric Man hopped into a taxi and departed home. The Young New Trader lounged downstairs to retire. We headed upstairs and departed to the land of nod.