Where was my invite?
CellarTracker tells me I have a bottle in the cellar of that. Guess who I won't be sharing it with?
Now, now.
This was a meet-up of my 1966 school leaving class at the home (in Subi, so not far from you
) of one of the guys who has a 1000 bottle cellar that he likes to share with his old school mates once each year about now. It had been happening for about three years prior to 2020 when Covid killed it for last year. Unfortunately, I had never been because I was always overseas. So this year was special for several reasons.
You would not have liked it - many of us spent time coughing about the grief our kids about your tender age have caused us (and, in your case, how much you continue to cause me...
)
.
OK, more seriously, Pete lined up 16 scraps and we had 14 starters. Sadly, a few of the blokes have health issues that in some cases limited their intake to virtually zero. They were there for good camaraderie. And Pete also knows how to rattle the pans, so the food was also the schmick for a collection of aged reds.
Anyway, we got through about 12 or 13 before some of the guys had to drift off home. Three of us got into the Talijancich fortified shiraz at the end. I'm usually not big into fortifieds - but OMG, that blew my mind!
Funnily, I was the last to leave...
Bottom line: all were very good. Not one corked or over the hill.
For me, the Kalimna 2002 nudged out the Basket Press 2000 for all-round appeal.
The surprise wine: Talijancich 2000 Grenache had 'em coming back for more. (A total contrast to our recent 2014-onwards grenache tasting. It was browned-off and looked thin, but boy did it have some character.)
Fabulous day!