Sporting Chance

It was very sporting of Peteski and Janski and family to host a dinner on the night of a significant football game. SWMBO and I had Radiohead in our company, and with the likes of AC Electric Man and The Relish on hand, there was plenty of conversation. Wine discussion came up against general chit-chat and gossip and of course the big game, but in the end, every topic was a winner on the night.

With the nibbles and starters, we had the whites. A 2009 Telmo Rodriguez ‘Gaba do Xil’ Valdeorras Godello wonderfully refreshing and zingy from the elevated acidity, nice tropical fruit notes, and a genuinely pleasant sipper, surprising a few drinkers. A relatively simple wine, but exactly as it should have been. A great contrast was the 1998 Marc Bredif Vouvray, easily more golden coloured and the most satisfying fresh waxy, but subtly secondary nose, and richly textured, slightly honied, but refreshing palate. A little reduction fitted in with the interest and development flavours. The Relish had enjoyed a range of these earlier and wasn’t quite as happy as I was on this. A treat for me though. The third was a 2009 Martinborough Vineyard Chardonnay. I had been impressed with this earlier in the year, but on the field, it was still a newbie, with potential, but not showing as much as it could. Good ripe citrus and mealy fruit with nutty oak overlay, but no nuance yet. It’ll be better in another 18 months.

Marking half-time, AC Electric Man brought out his 2005 Craggy Range ‘The Quarry’ and it was a tight, brooding and firm beast. It gradually revealed its pedigree. Dark, concentrated ripe black fruits, massive, but fine-grained. A star in the waiting really, but it improved through the night.

Hearty chicken dishes appeared on the table, vegetables and salad, and it was onto the next phase of play with the wines. 1986 was a high-cropping vintage for Hawke’s Bay reds, but it was fascinating to see the 1986 Te Mata ‘Awatea’ alongside the 1986 Te Mata ‘Coleraine’. Both were faded garnet in colour and medium-light weighted, the tannins forming a residual line and thread through the palates. The former showed herby, sappy, blackcurrant leaf aromas and flavours, the coolness and low ripening exacerbated by acidity, the latter moderately ripened red fruits, but with sweetness and a harmonious mouthfeel. This is consistent behaviour for these labels, even when they were single vineyard wines as with these 1986s, and after, when they became blends of sites and made to a style.

Two other Bordeaux-themed reds followed. The 1980 Wynns Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon was also in the cooler, elegant spectrum, but sweeter and richer again over the two New Zealand oldies. Juicy minty notes and a core of fruit made this a good wine. And the extraction of fruit provided the structure where the tannins here were now becoming fully resolved. This wasn’t the case with the 1982 Ch. Rahoul Graves. A solid, chunky wine with earthy heart and a hard edged palate, AC Electric Man enjoyed this, but SWMBO and I saw robustness and coarseness. In its favour, it was still very alive and vital, with no brettanomyces. So it had a good outing and could be counted as a player.

The final tipple was a 2005 Waimea Estates Noble Riesling. Dark golden mahogany and incredibly sweet and concentrated. Huge botrytis ‘flytox’ characters with burnished, broad caramelised and candied fruits. A sip was all that was needed. Over the top and good with it.
It was good to give these wines a sporting chance to show, and they performed as they should have, if not better than expected, making the night a winning one.