A night in Paris... Vivre la vie!

Kelly and her boyfriend Ian were the lovely hosts of our third Decanter Banter meeting in June. To be honest, I didn’t think we’d make it past one or two of these meets, so well done to the group for showing such interest in wine! We’re really just a bunch of booze hounds!! :)

The theme for the night took us across the other side of the world to France where we tried a sparkling wine and a few red wines. In attendance were Kelly, Ian, Steph, Adam, Lim and Wayne.

Unfortunately for Kelly, she had an accident playing soccer the day before, and therefore could hardly walk, so what was going to be a wonderful French feast, turned into Thai take-out. I don’t think any of us minded, especially as the local Thai take-away was probably the best I’ve ever tasted!

To start the night, we cracked open, or should I saw popped open a bottle of Champagne (Leanne Hayward would be proud for teaching us the correct way to open a bottle with… non-other than a tea towel!!) The Champagne was a Piper Heidseicke Champagne Brut (non-vintage). As none of us were experts in tasting sparkling wine, some of the comments probably reflect this. “It smells like socks” – Ian, and “It’s kind of got a biscuity/dough smell” – Adam. We all agreed that the aroma was buttery with a crisp apple flavour. To taste, it was very acidic with up-front lime and citrus characteristics and good length. It contained a lot of bubbles – very typical of the Method Traditionelle. Overall we scored the wine 17 out of 20 (average score).

With no one bringing any French white wines, we moved straight into the first red wine of the night – Les Vignerons des L’enclave des Papes – 2009 (CÔtes du RhÔne region). The wine was still quite young, showing a light red colour around the rim. The aroma carried very fruity notes, in particular cherries and plums. Overall the wine had good length, was very light bodied and fruity with only slight tannins. Wayne described the wine as “a young, succulent red.” We scored the wine 16 out of 20 (average score).

The second red wine was a Château Poitevin – 2008 (Médoc region). The wine displayed the aromas of liquorice and black pepper and contained some spicy notes – similar to what we would pick-up in an Australian Cabernet Sauvignon. Adam described the wine as “not delivering on taste, and tasting too much like meat – beef ribs!” On taking a more detailed analysis, the wine had good tannins but lacked any residual sugars/fruity notes to give it a good balance. Overall we scored the wine 15 out of 20 (average score).

The last wine for the evening was a Christian Moueix Merlot – 2005 (Bordeaux region). It was interesting to compare the sight of this wine with the previous two, as it was much browner in colour – resembling its age. It also carried earthy aromas mixed with stone fruits like red currant and plums. On the palate, the wine had good tannins, with hints of chocolate. But it lacked the balance as you couldn’t really taste the fruitiness that was so apparent on the aroma. Overall we gave the wine a 16 out of 20 (average score).

And that concluded the wine tasting for the evening. Compared to our last two nights, it was probably a little more civilized than normal, but another very enjoyable evening. I guess it made us realise though just how little we know about French wines! Perhaps we should stick to the Australian wines next time…



It's the Class That Makes The Difference

So it's been a few months now, and Decanter Banter has had a couple of successful wine club nights! It's great to see that we can share a common interest whilst enjoying ourselves and making new friends at the same time.

(l-r) Lim, Kelly

(l-r) Steph, John

All of this wouldn't be possible without our wonderful wine tutor, Leanne Hayward who taught us all we know about wine - how to taste it, sniff it and swirl it! We even feature on her Testimonials page - "The Class that Makes the Difference"

I'd encourage anyone who lives on the North Shore to try one of Leanne's classes - they are available through the Mosman Community College.

Bringing the Margaret River to Lane Cove

By Steph

(l-r) Steph, John, Kirsty, Wayne, Kelly

Our second Decanter Banter meeting was hosted by Adam and his wife Kirsty in their Lane Cove apartment. After being given the grand tour of the place (and can I tell you they have a nice place!), we sat down to a selection of dips and cheeses while we waited for everyone to arrive. In attendance was Kelly, John, Wayne, Adam, Kirsty and Steph. But there was one person missing – Lim! When we phoned her to ask her if she was lost, we were surprised to hear that she thought it was on the following Tuesday night – luckily this confusion was avoided otherwise Adam and Kirsty may have been re-hosting again next week!

The theme for the night was Margaret River wines, and we had a selection of 3 whites and 2 reds.

White Varieties
We decided to start the whites over nibbles, and cracked open the first wine, a 2009 Swings & Roundabouts Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend. The wine had a very pale, clear colour, representing its younger age, with Adam suggesting it looked like apple juice. The wine had typical Sauv Blanc characteristics of grass and weeds along with Semillon characteristics of apple. All in all it had a good length with well balanced acidity and Kelly thought it was a “good quaffing wine” with maybe some “touches of Chardonnay.” We ended up scoring this wine a 16 (based on an average score).

Before trying the second wine, we discussed the scoring of the wines – as our wine tutor, Leanne Hayward, had mentioned that she thought we were hard taskmasters in our scoring. We decided to make a conscious effort going forward to disregard our personal preference for wine and focus instead on the grape variety and on whether the wine presents the characteristics typical to that grape variety and score it accordingly. Hopefully this would mean that our scores would go up – and Adam would stop giving 10 out of 20 for wines (him being the hardest marker!)

The second white was a 2009 Evans & Tate Chardonnay. Being a Chardonnay, the wine was a little more golden in colour and had very Oakey, earthy, buttery tones with a touch of citrus. It was evident the wine had been fermented in French Oak due to the buttery/butterscotch aromas. It was a balanced wine, with good length. We scored the wine 16.5 (average score), which put it in first place for the wines on the night.

The last white for the evening was a 2010 Castelli Riesling, from Denmark. Technically, Denmark is not actually in the Margaret River and therefore Adam’s wine selection did not fit the criteria of the evening – something that Steph also confessed to, and so we managed to overlook this (after all, who’s going to say no to free wine hey?) This wine was definitely paler in colour than the other wines and had a soft aroma, with slight citrus notes. Overall the wine was well balanced, but had an upfront acidity but lacked any length – it was probably a wine that needs time to age a bit longer. Overall we gave this wine an average score of 15.16.

After a very yummy and large dinner of pasta and garlic bread, we moved on to the red wines.


Red Varieties

The first one we tried was a 2007 Becketts Flat Cabernet Merlot. Both Kelly and John remarked that the wine smelt like both Kangaroo meat and Fairy Floss – an odd combination, but possible, especially from the combination of the Carbernet (tobacco, and capsicum notes) with the Merlot (strawberry and sweet berry notes). The wine delivered a good length, with a balance of tannins and residual sugar. We scored this wine 15.58

The last wine for the evening was a 2007 Forest Hill Shiraz Viognier.  The colour of the wine was a deep red/brown colour – typical Shiraz characteristics. On the nose, we were picking up liquorice, blackcurrant and red berry characteristics. Adam even thought he could smell Nutella and Ribena aromas. Overall we all really enjoyed the wine and thought it had good length, medium/earthy tannins with a good balance of fruit. We scored this wine 16.5, and place it in second place for the evening.

Overall, another enjoyable evening and another boozy night! Wayne was a little concerned about his mates in the ‘force’ so decided to take the back streets home – probably a lesson to us all not to drink and drive! And Kelly summoned her boyfriend Ian – lucky enough to have someone to come and fetch her! A great evening and one we will do again in June at Kelly’s house.

(l-r) Wayne, Kelly, Adam, Steph, John

A bit of Riesling and Shiraz and a campfire sing-a-long

By Steph

Monday 18^th April marked the first “meeting” of the Decanter Banter wine club. The host for the night was John, who kindly put on a mini feast of dips, cheeses and pizza for the six of us – Kelly, Lim, Adam, Wayne, Steph and John. Having pre-chosen the wine theme, we ended up with 3 Rieslings and 3 Shiraz’s to taste in the evening – a lot of wine for 6 people on a Monday night!

(l-r) Lim, Adam, Steph, Kelly

Before cracking open the wines, we discussed how the evening would be run. Thanks to our wine tutor, Leanne Hayward, we had a tasting sheet and wine scoring sheet handy to rate each of the wines. As with a typical wine judge, we would score each wine out of 20 – up to 3 points for the Sight, 7 points for the Smell and 10 points for the Taste.

Riesling varieties

With the official business out of the way, we got stuck in to our first wine – a 2007 Cook’s Lot Riesling from Mudgee. Steph described the wine as a deep yellow to gold colour, while Lim noticed some sweet honey and passionfruit characteristics on the nose along with the citrus, which is a distinguishing feature of a Riesling. We all agreed it was a well-balanced wine, with a touch of acidity and it scored a 13.3333 (based on average score).

We then moved on to the second wine, a 2008 Forest Hill Block 1 Riesling from the Margaret River. Before we had even had the chance to have a good whiff, Adam proclaimed that the wine smelled like corn-relish – something we all initially laughed at, but then agreed on. John added that it had a touch of kerosene notes, which may sound funny, but it is a known fact that Riesling wines tend to acquire a petrol note with age, so a good pick-up by John! Overall we described the wine as having balanced acidity with a lingering minerally finish and scored it an 11.5.

The last Riesling for the night, and the “wine of the evening” was the 2009 Tim Gramp Watervale Riesling, Clare Valley, courtesy of Kelly. We scored this wine a 14.6667 and felt that this was a classic example of a dry, cool climate Riesling. Wayne said he “could smell sponge cake” and on further examination, we all noticed the buttery/lemon notes on the nose. The wine had good length, well-balanced acidity and seductive lime, lemon and floral aromas.

Shiraz varieties

Once we dug into the grub – gourmet pizzas from Marilynas, we moved our focus over to the red wines – and the Shiraz grape variety. Our first Shiraz was a 2008 Port Phillip Estate, Mornington Peninsula. On first smell, we could all pick up some meaty/blood characteristics, with Kelly saying the wine had a “Blood-edge to it” and Adam saying, “It’s Pure Blood, like a drip.” Some would say that after having consumed 3 bottles of wine already, we might be showing signs of inebriation and so our judgement may be a little skewed, but as we let the wine sit for a while, it definitely still showed these meaty/blood characteristics, but also more fruiter notes of blackberry and dark cherries. The wine was not as bold as a Maclaren Vale Shiraz, with mild tannins and we felt it was probably a little too young to drink. Overall we scored it a 10.5.

(l-r) Steph, Kelly

The second Shiraz was a 2009 Wynns Coonawarra Estate, quite the favourite amongst us all. With vibrant red-purple hues and floral notes of crushed raspberries mixed with vanilla and spice aromas, we were all very impressed. On the palate the wine showed gentle tannins, soft acidity and earthy/spicy notes, due to the limestone of the region and we scored the wine a 14.333. For a small second, Steph had a bit of a blonde moment, as she proclaimed that the wine had won the 2012 Gourmet Traveller ‘Winemaker of the Year’ award. Luckily for us, we hadn’t lost a year of our lives, and it was in fact the 2010 winner (phew)!

The last wine for the evening was a blend of Cabernet, Shiraz and Merlot – a 2009 Wynns Coonawarra Estate. Although not a straight Shiraz, we dappled in tasting this wine which Adam thought smelled like Mars Bar. On the palate, it was a good blend of soft fruit plus oak, making it a very balanced and approachable wine. Overall we scored this a 13.6667.

What was left of the evening….

(l-r) Lim, Adam, Wayne

With the wine tasting over, and Lim departing early (well 9:30pm, which really isn’t that early for a Monday night), the rest of us continued drinking what was left of the wines, cracked open a couple more and sang our hearts out to ‘Piano Man’ by Billy Joel and ‘American Pie’ by Don McLean. Luckily John pointed out that even though the music was blaring, and we were ‘a’ screaming, the walls in his unit were thick enough that not one of the neighbours would hear us. Steph attempted to record the “sing-a-long” much to the boy’s dismay, until realising at the end of the 8 minute marathon American Pie song that she hadn’t actually hit record. Next time perhaps….

(l-r) Steph, Kelly, John

And on that note, I think you’ve probably heard enough. Watch this space for more blogs from the fellow-members of Decanter Banter, and stay tuned for next month’s meeting at Adam’s place – we will be tasting wines from the Margaret River.

The end - and the beginning

By Kelly

After sniffing, swirling and tasting our way through eight weeks of Leanne Hayward's Wine Appreciation course, sadly it has come to an end. But how can we leave it there? Especially with our extensive new vocabulary of smell and taste descriptors.....model airoplane cement indeed!!!

At the end of the course we are left with eight people who share a love of wine (all wine) and are partial to a bit of chow as well. So what was there to do but start a club so that we may extend our eight weeks of wine appreciation indefinitely.

What's in a name
After much discussion, a short list and a vote we have decided to call ourselves Decanter Banter as we think it is unpretentious and a bit fun.

We are going to be meeting monthly to score wines we have chosen based on the host's theme, however in the mean time, various members of the group will hopefully be blogging here about themselves and what they're drinking. Stay tuned!

The graduation dinner

Before we were sent out into the big wide world, Leanne, and those of us that were available on a Tuesday night caught up for a meal at Tran's in Mosman. L-r in the photo are: Kelly, Lim, Leanne, Stephanie and Adam. John is taking the photo.


Absent are: Wayne, Steve and Claudia