The Annual Wine Event
Every year we get together with some good friends and have a big wine dinner. We showcase some of the best wines in the cellar and match them to a suitable selection of food. Usually there are one or two special wines that we want to try that we haven't had before. This year it was the Wild Duck Creek Estate Duck Muck Shiraz which none of us had tried before.
Our usual format is a sparkling wine to begin and then two brackets of 3 red wines followed by a desert wine.
Normally we start with Champagne but given this was going to be such a big red wine night we began with a sparkling red. It was a Wild Duck Creek Sparkling Duck 6. We are great fans of Australian sparkling reds and enjoyed this one, which is different to most. It is not as sweet, a little more savoury and complex and was enjoyed by all.
We broke with convention this year and had a bracket of older wines first. We started with:
BEST'S Thomson Family Great Western Shiraz 2001 from the Grampians in Victoria,
DALWHINNIE The Eagle Shiraz 2000 from the Pyrenees in Victoria, and
TAHBILK 1860 Vines Shiraz 2001 from Nagambie Lakes in Victoria.
It was coincidental that they were all from Victoria and hence a little lighter. They all matched well with the entree of Cous Cous vegetable loaf with country chutney. The Dalwhinnie Eagle was the pick of the three.
We then moved on to 3 younger Shiraz:
CLARENDON HILLS Astralis Syrah 2005 from McLaren Vale in South Australia,
ROCKFORD Basket Press Shiraz 2006 from the Barossa Valley in South Australia, and
WILD DUCK CREEK Duck Muck Shiraz 2007 from Heathcote in Victoria.
The Astralis and Duck Muck were the two big wines of the night and made for an interesting comparison. The Basket Press, a wine which we love, was not up to the same standard. The 2006 had previously received mixed reviews and this vintage was a few points below the other two.
The range of flavours and the complexity of the big two was amazing and they were well matched to the main course of beef cheeks in red wine and pumpkin, potato and squash gratin.
Duck Muck was unanimously the pick for wine of the night.
Interesting to note that of the 6 Shiraz, 5 were sealed under cork, the exception being the Duck Muck, which was the youngest of the six, from 2007. I wonder how many of the current vintages of these wines would be under cork?
It is hard to follow a bracket like that, but the CAMPBELLS Isabella Rare Rutherglen Topaque from Rutherglen in Victoria was up to the task. We had tasted it at the First Families of Wine event earlier in the month and were keen to have it again. It was served with desert of individual chocolate puddings with vanilla bean ice-cream and honeycomb crumble.
The Isabella lived up to its "Rare" status and is another great wine.
For tasting notes on all the wines go to the wine reviews page of the website.
