The day after the night before

The title sounds worse than it is. It was a good night – food turned out great (except for the carrots that were a little overdone – I put them in too early in the process). The meat was incredibly tender and succulent and very, very tasty – if I do say so myself!

Have a look at some of the photos and then tell me that your mouth is not watering. I looked at the photos again this morning and, despite still feeling quite full from last night, my mouth is watering, but then again I have the luxury of having tasted the meal last night.


I also took a photo of the red wine jus being made but you can mostly just see steam as the jus is reducing, so I didn’t post it. We had so much meat left after last night that we will eat it tonight for dinner and roast up some new veggies and make some new gravy. This means I will have to put off the breadcrumb and pine-nut encrusted lamb racks until Monday night – oh well!

The wine we drank last night was superb – a Heathfield Ridge 2000 Limestone Coast Shiraz. My eldest brother (Phil) gave me a case of these and it is hard not to keep drinking them. The berry aromas and flavours are wonderful and there is a really subtle hint of oak that just adds beautifully to the overall taste. What I really love about this wine is that it stays a long time on the palate – by that I mean that even a couple of minutes after your last sip (providing you have not put anything else into your mouth in the meantime) you can still taste the wine. If you can still find this wine around I can recommend it.

To think that these grapes were grown in South Australia in 1999/2000 and have been cellared in oak barrels for a couple of years (?) and then into a bottle and now some 6 years after being picked they taste incredibly fresh. Wine is amazing.

The best experience I had with this type of thing was when a friend turned 40 (in 2004) and he generously provided a bottle of 1964 Chateau Mouton Rothschild for his own birthday dinner. I can honestly say it is the best wine I have ever had the pleasure of drinking and I was amazed at how wonderfully fresh and alive it seemed to be after 40 years. The competing and different flavours that were coming through in the wine were sensational. I guess this is what the experts mean when they talk about ‘complexity’, but I am not sure.

What is the best wine you have drunk? Please tell me about it and what it was that you liked about it.

Cheers!

Mal

food and drink
wine