A celebration on board
November 22nd 2006 17:35
I do enjoy a champagne sunset
A celebration an board:
I was lucky enough to have on of my landmark birthday celebrations on board a charter catamaran I was to skipper the following day. I had some premium wines left over in my very depleted cellar that were begging to be drunk, so I was happy to comply.
1992 Tollana Botrytis Rhine Riesling x 2
1982 De Bortollis Botrytis Sauterne x 1
Champagne & orange juice cocktails with VB throwdowns as pallet cleansers.
For dinner I did the following.
Canapes: Eggs boiled & halved, stuffed with yolks creamed with salt, pepper, paprika and sour cream, garnished with a twist of Lebanese cucumber.
Estonian sweet and sour bread croutons, buttered & topped with smoked Baltic sprats and sliced king prawn, garnished with a sprig of dill. Sweet and sour dill cucumbers.
Entree: Salad of cottage cheese flavoured with hot chillies, fanned half avocado, peeled king prawns and cold smoked trout.
Main course: Fillet of beef mignon on mescalin salad topped with Hollandaise sauce.
Sweet: Rum soaked Stollen with Mocha custard.
Cheese & Fruit: Chilled & cored apple slices with double Gloucester and Stilton.
large entertaining saloon
Cork problems. My brother and I both acted as wine stewards for the small intimate family gathering and over the years we have opened thousands and thousands of wine bottles of various vintages. Never have we ever corked so many bottles and had so many cork breakages. We were using a proper waiter’s friend to open the corks and other than having a huge pneumatic bench top opener we don’t know how we could have done differently. We shrugged and had to pop the half corks into the Rhine Riesling. This was the colour of mahogany! The aroma was outstanding and though we have drunk most of the thousands of wines we have opened we are not into using the traditional methods of describing wines. This was unctuous full bodied and flavoured. The taste of strong raisins due to the very late pick of the grape and the Botrytis Cinera effect balanced by a dry finish. Grapes came from Eden Vale and the Coonawarra. 4 gold medals at the time of marketing. Ideal with the strong chilli and seafood flavours.
The Grange: What can I say, the poor bottles ended up with bits of cork in them and we were determined not to let that spoil our wine. It was much later that I read it is very strongly advised to decant this wine but on board the boat this was not practical. I read the tasting notes that came from Southcorp wines prior to drinking and they are the busiest notes I have ever read. To say the first bottle was nice is an understatement but I can’t say that one particular taste stood out. Other than the tannin due to the new French oak. Certainly there was coconut, cherry/plum and sweet berry but it was so faint and all tastes so married together. This perhaps is how it is supposed to be but I am used to reds getting up and giving me a kick with their up front tastes.
The second bottle seemed to have more body and the flavours were more individual but then we may have been looking for them. I was not disappointed but it was not impressive enough to knock my soxs off and I am glad I didn’t pay restaurant price for these. Ideal with the beef and would be just as happy to share many stronger flavoured meals. Grapes from the Barossa, Clare and Modbury vineyards using 99% Shiraz and 1% Cabernet Sauvignon.
Hoarded for twenty years, yum!
The Botrytis Semillon of the Sauterne had done a lot of work on this wine. Not as dark as the Rhine Riesling perhaps several shades darker than a rose but with more autumn leaf tinge to it. This was a sticky I was saving for pudding and the fruits. Wow! And I can understand why it has won 43 national and international gold medals and that was when bottled, how many since then? Easy enough to drink this with your coffee instead of a port. This cork came out with a resounding pop, but it was soft and crumbly so we were lucky not to damage the wine.
In all we were very pleased with the wines but disappointed by the corks. Perhaps this is why the company offers to have the Granges tested and topped up and re-corked these days. I honestly feel that it is an outrage to have to do that when the wine is not so cheap to buy in the first place. But if you seriously intend to use the wine rather than just collect it, (our vintage was best from late 1998 to 2010) get the company to have a look for you. It perhaps is and argument for plastic corks but despite the poor corks I don’t feel the wine was at all damaged.
How did we manage all the cooking and drinking and partying on board a yacht. It was a charter catamaran with a huge dining area, good refrigeration and a great little galley and to top it all off a small but intensely hot gas barbecue. Plan the menu, do as much prep as you can at home and just leave the fiddly bits for on board. The best bit was not having to drive home!
"Serrano
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