The Eight for the night lined up the next day

A wonderful selections of wine was had with the first Paella of the new summer season, eight bottles in total and what a selection, we started with a;

Mchenry Hohnen 3 Amigos 2008
A seductive and unusual blend of Marsanne, Chardonnay and Roussanne described by the winery thus.

‘The primo amigo in this trio is marsanne, grown at the McLeod Creek and Calgardup Brook vineyards. Chardonnay is sourced from Rocky Road and the third amigo, rousanne, is grown at McLeod Creek. These vineyards lie in the southern half of the Margaret River wine region which has a strong maritime influence from the Great Southern Ocean.

Tasting Notes
Apple, fennel and coriander seed is splayed out on a wall painted with white nectarine. The round and generous palate is kept linear with lemon citrus and pithy lime peel. The chardonnay’s contribution of stone fruit gives an attractive peach seed grit whilst the marsanne delivers an orange pekoe tea finish, and the roussanne some sweet coastal rosemary. Viognier the cousin, sticks a head in the room this year to sweeten the nose and give a kiss of classic white Rhone phenolics, adding a fourth dimension to this eclectic blend.”

Ryan Walsh, winemaker

From the cellar, purchased directly from the winery $25.00 a bottle in a Dozen, this was the last bottle, will have to stock up with the 09 as it is an absolute bargain.

McHenry Hohnen Vintners Margaret River

This was followed by what else, but a;

Howard Park Chardonnay 2008
Now you can’t go wrong with a Howard Park and we certainly didn’t with this little gem, a very elegant Chardonnay that displayed subtle fruit and mineral qualities, I would need to go back to another bottle to describe this better as cooking was taking up my time and others had their eye on the wine and it did not last long.

Supplied by the Gardener, approx. $45.00, a good value mid range Chardonnay, you could do a lot worse at this price point.

Howard Park Wines

On to the reds as dinner is not far off

Started with a Pinot from Tasmainia
Dalrymple Pinot Noir 2010

An enjoyable well structured Pinot that was probably needing just a little more bottle age to open the fruit up a bit, would look at it again to see if I prefer the style of Stefano Lubiana’s wines as an expression of Tasmainian Pinot.

Supplied by Acepfv, stored in the Cellar

Dalrymple Wines

Moved on to a Central Otago, the

Mt Difficulty Long Gully Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2009
Followed with this as it was always going to be a bigger wine than anything from Tasmania. Not from my cellar, but I have a few tucked away in there, so very interested how this one drank. Steve Tanzer sums it up

“Medium-deep red.  Dark berries, spices, licorice and gunflint on the nose; less herbal than the Target Gully.  Spicy and intense but tightly wound, with good cut and a classic dryness to the middle palate.  The spice character carries through on the slightly drying finish, which features edgy tannins.  I’d give this a couple years in the cellar to harmonize.”

Would have to agree with that, it was a tight ball wrapped up in tannins and needs time in the bottle or an hour or so in a decanter if you can’t wait. One of the great things about Central Otago Pinot is that even when the wine needs time to open up to its full potential they are still relatively approachable compared with most age worth Burgundy.

Supplied by the Frock Salesman, he purchased this from Mt Difficulty on our recent New Zealand Rugby/Wine trip and cellared it for a total of 2 months.

Mt Difficulty

The four others will follow in Part 2