The annual pre-festival get-together at the A-Prentice’s
turned out to be another grand affair, with plenty of food brought along and
even more wine lined up for all to try.
As there’s quite a few of us, ‘small sips’ is the order of the day, so
that there’s a bit of every wine available for all to try, and one doesn’t get
hammered by drinking too much. That’s
normal etiquette and courtesy, of course!
As a bit of a treat, I brought along a 2005 Ata Rangi Martinborough Pinot Noir Magnum. It was given to me by the Rangis for my 50th
birthday. That was just about a decade
ago. It wasn’t my birthday that night,
but it was a good occasion to share it, so that guests could share a bit more
than they might normally taste with a single 750 ml bottle…
The wine was glorious and in fantastic condition. Still dark as dark as red could be. Beautiful aromatics of savoury red berries
wafted from the neck of the bottle and from each glass poured. Still quite sizeable, even after a decade of
age, and vigorous with it. Sweet fruited,
juicy and lush, in the darker spectrum, and plenty of savoury complex dark
herbs and a touch of truffle and undergrowth peeking around the corner, but you’d
hardly recognise it as such. The small
berry-high skin ratio regime operating, but here there was no greenness, which
can appear with time. Perfect structure and grip with no coarseness and just the right amount of acid liveliness. It was truly a
treat.
The only one unsavoury thing – one greedy couple helped
themselves to big pours, not once, but twice, meaning that everyone else had to
have the normal smaller serve size. I’m
sure they thought no-one noticed, but many people did…
No comments:
Post a Comment