Success is Sweet

Every year we head out to what is the back of beyond for many people.  But there, we party with the Why New Martians, and sometimes they’re off this planet!  They seem to be a peaceful and sedate group who may be a little older demographically, but there’s a twinkle in many an eye and a razor sharp wit and tongue, all bound with an infectious sense of joy and humour.  That’s why we make the trip.

This time of year brings the end of the year to mind, and it’s a good reason to think about the sweet victories and the successes.  The Why New Martians put on a real spread of food and there’s plenty of bottles open.  This year, SWMBO and I added a couple of older sweet wines to mark the finish of 2013, these having been found in the dark depths of the ‘long left cellar’, and wines which we had consumed recently, knowing they were still in good nick.  Who would think that local sweet wines made over a quarter of a century would still be good?  Sugar is a preservative, as we know, but you’ve got to have everything else there, and not too much of anything corruptive or out of balance.

 

The 1987 Penfolds ‘Ne Plus Ultra’ Late Pick Riesling, made from Marlborough fruit looked, smelt and tasted of caramel and toffee, honey and figs, and all rich, luscious, rounded and very alive with good acidity.  Late picked fruit with some botrytis?  Definitely raisined, but now well into its tertiary stage of life.  A ‘wahoo wine’.  The 1985 Montana Auslese wasn’t too far off it either.  Similar in all respects, but a little less fruit sweet, maybe beginning to dry, and somewhat more pronounced acidity.  It could have been Muller-Thurgau – or was it Riesling?  Maybe a mix and with other varieties too?  Who knows where from!  It had a feeling of freeze concentration, or maybe I’m guessing, as I think I remember these words used then – 25 plus years ago.  The bottles were sampled tentatively, then a little more gusto.  The sweet wines were a success.