WTN: Four "S" Wines with Dinner

[Brad Ballinger]

Some friends of ours recently had their kitchen remodeled. This wasn't a planned remodel. They were out of there house for five months due to burst pipes that damaged the kitchen and some other parts of the house. Since we had them over here a few times during their exile, they chose to return the favor. But they did ask me to bring some venison.

When we arrived, there was a bottle of 2002 Duc de Tarente Sancerre already opened. With the 2002 price of Vacheron increased $10 over the previous vintage ($14 up to $24), many are finding a need to find a new reliable Sancerre in the mid-teens. This one may be a candidate. It doesn't quite carry the minerality of the Vacheron, but it does provide an explosion of grapefruit and lemons in the mouth with a small amount of herbaciousness. Bright acidity. A zesty wine that's no pushover.

For the salads we opened a 2001 Inama Soave Classico Superiore that I brought. It was initially too cold to reveal much of anything but some mineral and wax. Warming up, however, it showed a delicate lemon oil and melon character. It didn't have the ebullient acidity of the Sancerre, but the mineral components lended a tight backbone from a structure standpoint. There a many layers to this wine, all of them subtle.

For the main course, our host has a bottle of 1982 Ducru Beaucaillou out, and asked if I thought that would go with the venison. "Dan," I replied with a sullen voice, "as much as I really want to drink that wine, this is not the food to have with it. The meat and sauce will overshadow the nuances of a mature Bordeaux." And then I couldn't believe myself asking, "What do you have for Shiraz?" knowing that he didn't have any California Syrah or even much in the way of sryah-based Rhones.

1998 Greenock Creek "Apricot Block" Shiraz, Barossa. Maybe it was the power of suggestion. Maybe it was the ultra-ripe fruit, but there were yellow stone fruit aromas wafting up from the glass. I've detected that in zinfandel from time to time, but this was the first time in a shiraz. This was a wine all about fruit, fruit, and more fruit that is ripe ripe ripe. It was a juicy, somewhat sweet wine that was low in acid with silky tannins. The alcohol level is only 13.3%, and I began to understand why some producers make wines with higher levels. A bit more alcohol would've given the wine a boost in terms of structure. But maybe it would've made it too hot (which I would've really hated).

Which brings me to the 1998 Fox Creek Reserve Shiraz, McLaren Vale. My host was enamored with Parker's 98-point rating of this wine. On the nose, the alcohol (only 14.5%) was almost too large a distraction to get past, but there was enough oak given it some competition (catch the wry humor). There was more palpable acidity and firmer tannins to make this a structurally superior wine to the Greenock Creek, but the alcohol and oak got in the way of the black raspberry and blueberry fruit. The last pour I had was about 3.5 hours after it was decanted, and the oak was stronger if anything. After the same amount of time, the Greenock Creek was starting to fade, so I gave our host the advice that the rest of his Greenock Creek wine probably don't need decanting.

Our host opened a tawny port for euchre afterwards, but I said that the Greenock Creek wine would be syrupy enough and took a pass.