An idea to have a tasting with friends of New Zealand Bordeaux wines, with some age in the bottle, turned into a superb evening of food and wine when one of the group persuaded Phil Clark of Kingsland Social to open his doors on a Friday night to a dozen of us with our precious cargo of bottle as BYO. It is fairly rare to be able to match such great wines – including some now extinct wines – to such excellent food. You can see why Phil is an award-winning cook – his mastery of the proteins on his menu, in particular, was superb. With some 20-30 year old reds, you definitely want to be able to eat cooking of the quality that came out of his kitchen. The beef, lamb and duck (my choice) courses were very high standard.
Onto the wines.. we decided to serve them in two sections – pre-2000, and post-2000 vintages, with the wines served blind – in pairs – until the group had plenty of time to enjoy and assess them, then revealed (to many oooh and aaahs). Would some of the older bottles have stood up OK? Certainly some of the corks were fragile – one failing to make it out in one piece and the wine having to be decanted.
Some had chosen to double decant the wines before bringing them to the restaurant, and I do think that this is worth the effort if you have bottle with 20+ years on it. Just open, pour into another vessel (a jug should work well), and rinse out the bottle to remove sediments. You can either dry the bottle as best you can, or sacrifice a splash of the wine to put back into the bottle, and rinse out any residual water with that. Water can have a disastrous effect on red wine – I would not recommend rinsing a glass out with water between tastings, unless you can, again, rinse out with an other wine afterwards. You then carefully refill the original bottle ready for presenting at your destination. I also keep a stack of ‘robust’ newer corks for putting into these older bottles to travel – often the 20+ year old cork is now not in fit shape to re-seal the bottle.
Our first wine was the oldest – a Goldwater Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot 1991. With a stunningly pristine label (looked like it had been made yesterday) and a remarkable freshness for a 30-year old wine. From pioneers on Waiheke Island, and a wine that many people drank and considered a classic back in the day. You’d be hard-pushed to find an old vintage like this now, but the label does continue – as “Goldie Estate”, and actually re-opened its Cellar Door again this year. Well worth a visit and the wines are great value. The wine was juicy and bright, with green herb and olive notes alongside the cassis and plum core flavours.
Another wine from Waiheke came next – with Stonyridge Larose 1996. The classic Bordeaux style from the island, and much loved by collectors and auction houses, it would seem. This one was a little more advanced in appearance and aroma – brick red to the edges and with a leather, cigar box note on the nose. Dark fruited and sour cherry flavours in the palate. Did I expect a little more from this, especially with a great vintage? Good, but not great; which is a shame since the 2010 drew a 97/100 score from me earlier this year – www.winefolio.co.nz/?p=5610.
The embarrassment of riches continued as we opened more mid-90s Bordeaux reds – only to discover that one of our gang had cheekily snuck in any actual frenchy. The Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou 1996 really did show as being European – a few of our end of the table were leaning towards identifying it as such, so no great surprise when it was revealed. A beguiling St Julien wine, often spoken of as a favourite from lovers of fine reds, and reasonably good value compared to the higher echelons of nearby appellations. The ’96 had smoked meat and cherry on the nose, with dashes of bay, herbal and tomato leaf in the palate. Elegant.
Back to New Zealand for the next wine, and over to Hawke’s Bay. You know if it’s a Bordeaux tasting that Te Mata is going to feature, and the first one out of the blocks is an Awatea 1996. Fairly identifiably Hawke’s Bay in style – dark purple and juicy, showing plenty of blood orange and plum flavours over a line of iron-earth savouriness. And we rapidly move on to the iconic Te Mata Coleraine – another wine that features in Auction House lots a-plenty. This 1995 was struggle to unveil – the cork disintegrated, and there was a borderline conversation about whether it was spoiled, but after finding a jug and leaving it to open up for half an hour, it seemed OK. A bit on the dusty and very dry side, with some dried plum, bramble notes over more savoury mocha and leather flavours. Not really floating my boat.
A San Leonardo 2000 was perhaps a (very clever) leftfield choice. Ok, it has won the Gamberro Rosso Tre Bicchieri award over twenty times, but there was a few head-scratching moments around the table as Martin Cahnbley, who brought the wine along tonight – and imports it from Trentino in Italy – explained to us exactly what, where and who it was!? Still a baby, with a bright nose, dark and focussed fruit, tannin galore and a truffle savoury element. It was a superb match to our food, and a wine I’d certainly look out for, now I know about it.
The next half of wines took us forward a few years, into Bordeaux style wines with around 10-12 years of age. One of the points of these evenings is to take a look at the evolution of wines (as well as drinking some blooming good stuff), and it is fascinating to look at wines that are pretty much ‘in the zone’ at this stage, and compare them to wines that are potentially nearing the end of their life. Most of us around the table have also tried the new releases of these wines (see this article looking at the last 3 vintages of Awatea – https://winefolio.co.nz/?p=5335) so there is that information locked away somewhere in the vaults as well.
Another wine I’ve tasted recently – in fact it was my bottle that I opened in May – is the Destiny Bay Destinae 2010 (see the review – https://winefolio.co.nz/?p=5632). This wine has a decade of development ahead, but drinks just beautifully right now. Polished and focussed, with a brisk cassis/elderberry freshness to it. So much balance and poise. A delicious ‘good bitterness’ to the finish. The best of the younger wines on show.
A wine that will become ever more rare now, the St Nesbit 2011 was, I believe, their last vintage. With the vineyard now swallowed up by housing in Karaka, there won’t be any more. A majestically structured wine is led by the most lifted and perfumed nose of the night – lavender, violet, rose petal and chamomile. Taking the best aspects from the style of both Waiheke and Hawke’s Bay reds and merging them, is my indicator for this epic Auckland red. Bold, elegant, characterful. Worth finding.
I’d wondered on the journey over to the restaurant if this tasting might accidentally turn into a Coleraine-fest, and the next wine in the glass was from the superb 2013 vintage of this wine, but this was the second and last edition of the wine on show tonight. Te Mata Coleraine 2013 is a rare treat – rich, inky and smoky with great power and length. Delicious cabernet-led palate. If you’ve drunk great Cabernet, you know its signature – and this had it. A baby with two decades ahead of it, at least. Streets ahead of that older version.
Toby Gillman couldn’t make it tonight, but one of his wines did. The Gillman 2012 was another wine with a long future ahead of it. Starting a run of Matakana wines to finish the evening, this was my favourite of the trio from that region. This was young, and showing a force of dominant, delicious oak – which was quite refreshing after an evening of some restraint. Dark berries, clove, resin, forest floor, vanilla and rosehip. Full-bore, ripe, brooding and spicy… the New World on show.
Until it happened you couldn’t have believed it, but the last two wines of the night were the same label, just one year apart. Considering one of them had been sourced/bought only the day before.. this was some serendipidity. Providence Private Reserve 2005 and 2006 were therefore the climax of our journey. Jim Vuletic crafts wines that are designed to rival great Bordeaux, and in great years like these two, it certainly seems on point. Like the Gillman wine, this seems Cabernet Franc led, and the 2006 has a foxy, tamarillo, green herbal edge to it. Plenty of (lovely) tannin and acidity. The 2005 had more agility although also seeming bigger, with more muscle and a oak reference point with more ‘char’ to it. I’ve never hugely warmed to these Old World look-alikes, and this confirmed again tonight. I’d go Gillman Vineyard every day if I was choosing Matakana.
All done and dusted, except the customary scramble for photos for the ‘Gram, and quick chat around the group looking for pointers on favourites. Again big kudos to Phil and his team for food that totally complemented the wines. For the record, this is what I had to eat:
(for the table) Parmesan fries and Calamari
24-hour slow-cooked Beef Cheeks on duck fat potatoes
Canterbury duck breast, cepes and mushroom risotto, pickled plum with a truffle garden salad.
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