Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Old growth dry grown vines are where it’s at..
While I could've waited, my experience with the 2008 Glenrowan Shiraz meant, with three bottles of the 2008 1920s Block Shiraz in the mid-year 1870s Club pack along with a couple in the wine fridge from previous packs, that I yielded to temptation a tad earlier than might otherwise have been the case. I had a lump of big hairy mega-rump from the butcher on the corner and I was in the mood for a big hairy red to go with it. It didn't quite work out that way, but I figured with three in the pack we could crack anotherie when Madam returns from her overseas jaunt and stash the other one in the wine fridge with its brothers.
We're talking, after all, about a wine that should last well into the 2020s and there's no guarantee Hughesy will still be around to enjoy it when it really hits its straps.
I'm not a big fan of flowery descriptive terms when it comes to wine, but as I took my first whiff for some reason my mind went back to the dusty ancient leather-bound Encyclopaedia Britannicas that were shelved beside the fireplace in the landlady's half of the majestic old Queenslander where my family lived until we moved north in 1963.
You mightn't think there's much chance of such a recollection surviving in the murky depths of Hughesy's subconscious, but that's what the nose made me think of. Not necessarily a recollection, but a surmise about how those ancient dusty leather bound tomes may have smelled.
I could have sat savouring the aroma for ages, but the lumparump was in the oven, the alarm pinged and there were steps that needed to be taken re. eating, so I took an initial sip before I set about dishing up the evening meal.
Since we were talking big hairy steak I was looking for big hairy tannins, but while they were there in spades, and despite the leather notes on the nose, the mouth-feel was surprisingly silky. Very stylish and quite delightful. While I could've been tempted to gorge on it, I took my time and had a good two-thirds of the bottle left when I finished the steak, a sensible precaution when you're looking at a wine that hits the 16% alc/vol. This is a wine that could easily creep up on you.
I made that discovery after I'd retreated to the armchair in the office with the rest of the bottle and, quite honestly, was amazed when I sighted the figure on the back of the bottle. Based on this first taste, I'm looking forward to the next excuse to open one of these. If we had the cellaring space I could easily be tempted to invest in a dozen.
There's already a wonderful complexity to the wine and it'll only get better with time. As the title suggests, old growth dry-grown wines are where it's at.