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I can see my house from up here!
In a moment of weakness a few years ago, I fell
pray to a marketing campaign by one of the
Only after confirming the order
with my credit card, did I actually sit down in front of the computer in
search of a few statistics on my new acquisition. I read adjectives
like: unwavering tannins, harsh, atypical, and ‘possibly underrated but only
time will tell’. No wonder it was on sale! To add to the
anxiety, the bottle was in
Fortunately, a friend was off to
the windy city for
business and gladly agreed to pick the bottle up and deal with boarder
security on the way home – for a price, of course. He somehow felt
that this ‘favour’ was worth a bottle of his own from the auction house.
And so for another 50 bucks, I agreed to his terms and conditions and we set
our plan into action.
Miraculously, the bottles did
arrive unscathed and untaxed, no questions asked on my part. But the
anxiety remained as this ‘atypical’ bottle of Grange stared at me daily from
its tiny cubicle in our cellar. I could sell it, never knowing what it
was like, but then do I really want to pass the burden on to some other
unsuspecting soul? No, I’m a better person than that; the
responsibility shall stay with me.
Two years passed, the debt was
repaid to the generous folks at VISA, but the worry remained. I have
Google’d this wine a thousand times hopeful that someone might pay it an
exceedingly high complement but unfortunately, the comments have remained
rather consistent. Until one day that is, when my search turned up
overwhelming praise for a bottle of ’95 Grange, the same vintage to haunt my
cellar. ‘Bottled Perfection’, the tasting note said; ‘the greatest
wine to ever grace our table’. This is it! The tables have turned, I
thought – and with my
wife's birthday the following week, the timing could not have been more
ideal. Jacquie and I had planned to open a bottle of Haut Brion to celebrate but
suddenly the Grange seemed a more likely candidate for the occasion.
I made reservations at Bistro Seven
Seven, an extravaganza of culinary delight in
My Australian thorn was decanted
upon arrival at the restaurant and by this time had sat open for nearly 2
hours. Our server commented on the significant amount of sediment in the
bottle, an indication of the need to partake sooner than later.
Stephen and I ordered the beef tenderloin; Krista, the beef bourguignon; and
Jac, something slightly more exotic called gnoochi. All suitable
choices to combat the potential wave of tannins about to descend upon us, I
assured myself.
Wine
will never meet your expectations in the wrong environment and will only
taste as good as the setting in which you choose to indulge; the drink
itself, after all, is half atmosphere, and on this evening, our atmosphere
could not have been better. I watched as the Aussie icon flowed from
the decanter into our glasses. The dull red tint revealed its age but
as the decanter passed before me, I captured the reassuring scent of black
fruit – and lots of it. Krista raised the glass to her nose and
declared the scent ‘wonderful’, so with glasses in hand and ‘Bon Appetite!’
pronounced, down-under we plunged.
I keep a mental list of my top-10
favourite bottles and with each new opportunity, the list undergoes a
review. Rarely does anything shuffle the order of these labels but on
occasion, a bottle will rock the boat - tonight was one such occasion.
I can’t help but wonder though, was the ’95 Grange really as good as I
thought or was my mind still feverishly at work convincing my consciences
that this was actually a worthwhile purchase?
For the record, 1995 Penfolds
Grange is a profound wine, massive in both aroma and flavour. I found
no hard edges whatsoever; the alleged tannins were perfectly balanced by a
plethora of fruit that coated my mouth with what is undoubtedly the best
bottle of shiraz/syrah to ever surface from our cellar. I tend not grade
wines on a numerical scale (I don’t agree with the concept), but let’s just
say that if you lived in a building with 100 floors and you stood on your
balcony sipping ’95 Penfolds Grange, you’d be able to see for miles!
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Tyler Philp is a member of the Wine Writers' Circle of Canada Please direct inquires for writing services to: info@tylerphilp.com |
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