Figuring the light red would go down a treat, I needed something in a full-bodied style to round things off and take us through the post-prandial conversation and ended up including a bottle of the 2008 Frugal Farmer, working on the principle that it was, again, a reasonably light style that had a nice link to the preceding Alicante Bouchet. Developed in recognition of a growing demand for fresh, lighter spicy red wines the wine solves the issue of what to do with tannin- and pigment-laden Alicante Bouchet skins by crushing Grenache and Mourvedre/Mataro (at Rockford it's Mataro) onto what may otherwise have been a wasted resource (hence the Frugal Farmer tag).
I'd been hoping for a fridge friendly red and was disappointed with my first try, straight out of the chilling device. Given half an hour to crawl back towards room temperature it might’ve been a different story, but subsequent tastings sans refrigeration were more than satisfactory, so further experimentation along those lines has gone on the back burner. Having failed to finish his Alicante, MacScoffenheimer declined a sample, but everybody else enjoyed it, proving, IMHO, that Rockford's on a winner with this particular style. While it's not as indispensable as the Alicante Bouchet and the White Frontignac there's every chance visitors will find a bottle or two in the wine rack, since it gives me a chance to fill in a second dozen in a Rockford reorder, which is basically what I'd done this time around. One case of the two staples (half and half), one case half Frugal Farmer with two bottles of each of the full-bodied red styles.
Having bought these as winter reds to be consumed with hearty fare on a cool night, Madam's impending departure for a month in Japan meant I needed to sample them before she left. In any case, I couldn't wait. Bearing in mind that these are traditional Barossa red styles they're also going to handle years of bottle aging, but with the wine fridge full, it'll be a case of try a couple each year when they're relatively young. We started with the 2005 Moppa Springs Grenache Mataro Shiraz ($23.50), working on the principle that savoury Italian-style meatballs in a tomato sauce suggested something at the earthy Grenache end of the spectrum, and very impressive it was. A five-year-old red with plenty of body, some spicy characters and plenty of earth, it was a highly enjoyable match to the food, and here's no way I'll be able to get away with sampling bottle #2 on my own.
The 2007 Rifle Range ($35) probably deserved something a bit better (no, make that a lot better) than lamb, mint and rosemary sausages, but with only days to go before Madam's departure they were a better match than the other options that were likely to come up, so out went the cork a good couple of hours before the snags went under the grill. At three years, the Rifle Range is still very much a baby, but a big bouncy full-bodied baby that stands up and demands attention. While it mightn't be one for real long term cellaring, there's plenty of tannin and genuine varietal character, making it a wine to savour on a cool night. Bottle #2 should be well and truly gone when summer rolls around.
After Madam has returned from Japan, of course.