The Wines We Tasted

Reception: Banrock Station Sparkling Chardonnay

1. 2001 Concha y Toro Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc, Private Reserve D.O. Chile
2. 2000 Errazuriz Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc, Chile
3. 2003 Wolf Blass Gold Label Clare Valley Botrytis Gewürztraminer, Australia
4. 2003 Margan Botrytis Semillon Hunter Valley, Australia
5. Yalumba Museum Muscat Victoria Dessert Wine, Australia
6. 1998 Laborie Estate Late Harvest Pineau De Laborie, South Africa
7. Paarl Tawny Port, South Africa
8. 2000 D'Arenberg Fortified Shiraz, Australia
9. 1995 Angoves Vintage Port, Australia


The food with our wine was:
savory:
- goat cheese boconccini and tomato confit puff
- stilton, almond and croissant pudding with apple relish

sweet:
- pecan tart
- chocolate ganache demi tasse
- white chocolate dipped strawberries
- fruit tartlett

We have had requests for a dessert, fortified and sparkling wine event for a while. December, with the impending holidays seemed like the appropriate time. Our setting was spectacular for this event. It was a cozy, private room at the Sutton Place Hotel. All that was missing was a fireplace with crackling fire. The restaurant Manager Stefan Mintchev and his staff were exceptional, doing the pouring of the wines and serving us at our seats.

Our speaker, Hermann Schindler, came well prepared for this event. He has attended courses about wine in Germany, South Africa, Burgundy and California. He had also gone above and beyond the call of duty, personally sourcing some of the wines for this event.

Hermann first told us about the history of champagne (thank you to Dom Perignon), followed by the events that lead up to monks harvesting grapes affected by noble rot, which lead to the sweet dessert wines we know and love.

Our reception wine was the non-vintage Banrock Station Sparkling Chardonnay. This sparkling wine had some toasted bread aroma and flavour. It was soft and sweetish. An easy to drink sparkling wine.

We first went through a flight of five white dessert wines. The first two wines were both from Chile and were both from the Sauvignon Blanc grape. The Concha Y Toro Late Harvest S.B. was silky smooth, with good acidity to balance the sugar. It had a honeyed nose and flavour. This wine went well with the goat cheese boconccini and tomato confit puff. The Errazuriz Late Harvest S.B. was our next wine. It had a pronounced peach and melon aroma and flavour. It was not as silky in as the Concha Y Toro, but made up for it with good acidity and pronounced fruit. Both wines were affected by botrytis although it is not mentioned on the labels.

Our next wine was extraodinarily different. The Wolf Blass Botrytis Gewurztraminer was a shock at first after you finished tasting the previous two honeyed wines. This wine had a huge flowery bouquet. No typical Gewurztraminer aromas or flavours here. To taste this wine, one noted ginger, cloves and cinnamon flavours, without being overbearing. Some noted that this was the freshest of the white wines. Truly a holiday wine for the winter.

The Margan Botrytis Semillon was our next wine. Semillon is a traditional blending partner with Sauvignon Blanc and is the key ingredient in most Sauternes. This wine had a very full, round mouth feel. The sweetness of this wine lasted a long, long time. The finish of the previous wines were quite short in comparison to this wine. The acidity was not as pronounced as in the previous wines. This wine went well with the Stilton, Almond, Crossant Pudding.

The last wine in this flight was the Muscat Museum from Yalumba. This wine had the highest sugar content, and alcohol of the first five wines. This wine was purposely oxidized giving it it's dark reddish brown colouration. This wine had a wonderful plum pudding aroma and flavour.

Our next flight of wines were all fortified red wines. The Pineau de Laborie was our first wine. This wine is from the Pinotage grape. It was the first that I had heard of Pinotage being used for a fortified wine. Hermann and others noted that this wine did not appear to be balanced. Some wines take time in the bottle to balance fruit, brandy, sugar, oak and acidity. Hermann had indicated that he tried this wine a few years ago, and it was also awkward then. This wine had a dusty aroma and a faint smell of nail polish, which is one of the aromas known for Pinotage. It was quite hot on the tongue.

The Paarl Tawny Port Special Reserve was also another shock. It was light pinkish in the glass. Most people expected a tawny port to be darker in colour. This wine had a wonderful flavour though. There was an excellent balance with all the elements of fruit, brandy, sugar, oak and acidity. The wine had a bit of maderized aroma and oak and had some coffee/toffee flavour. This went went very well with the chocolate pecan tart. Hermann recommended this wine to have with nuts alone. The D'Arenberg Vintage Fortified Shiraz was the deepest, most flavorful of the fortified wines. It had a very grapey aroma with some leather. It had a deep, opaque purple colour which coated the glass when it was swirled. Good acidity and tannin. Hermann felt that this wine could age for another 20 years and still be quite good. Our last wine was the 1995 Angoves Premium Vintage Port. This is 100% shiraz. As the year denotes, this wine is getting a bit old. It unfortunately was starting to show it's age. There was some brickish colour on the edges of the glass. It did have some spicy, leathery and chocolate notes. This wine went well with the chocolate pecan tart.

Tasting Selection
Our favourite white dessert wines are:
1. Errazuriz Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc, 2000
2. Margan Botrytis Semillon, 2003

Our favourite ports are:
1. D'Arenberg Vintage Fortified Shiraz
2a. Paarl Tawny Port Special Reserve AND
2b. Angoves Premium Vintage Port

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