Nice wines I have drunk recently - Red or White

Princess Fiona said:
I went out for dinner last night in Belfast with a small group of people from my conference. Absolutely superb 5 course tasting menu with matching wines - some really interesting choices and the food was sublime. It's a bit quirky as you don't get to see the menu until afterwards. Highly recommend a visit.
Link to restaurant
http://oxbelfast.com/
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Looks good.
Seems it's a trend to show the menu only after the meal is finished. Had this experience at Vue de Monde in MEL recently.
 
Daver6 said:
JohnM was on the money. Was their 2007 Pinot Noir. Was the last bottle from a 6-pack that one of the members had. Fruit from Margaret River (surprised me). My notes aren't with me now, but it was a seriously impressive wine. Quite full bodied for a Pinot Noir and at eight years of age, had plenty of life left in it. The owner of the bottle remarked that he thought this was the best one and wished he hadn't consumed the previous five so young. Bottled under screw cap.
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One of the few Margaret River producers that has stuck with MR-grown Pinot Noir. Most of it has gone.

The climate is really too maritime for Pinot. MR was seen back in the mid-1960s, even before production ever started there, as a good emulation of Bordeaux by the famed John Gladstones (one of my UWA lecturers, BTW).

Interestingly, the Pannell family who started Moss Wood sold out and went to Pemberton to start Picardy in, as I understand it, an endeavour to produce much more true-to-type Burgundian wines. Personally, though, I've never been blown away by Picardy Pinot Noir. IMHO, the best WA Pinots are from the Porongorups - in particular those by Marchand & Burch (Mt Barrow and Gibraltar Rock labels).

Steve Pannell (one of the sons, I believe), is of course, a famed McLaren Vale producer and on the QF wine panel.
 
boomy said:
Looks good.
Seems it's a trend to show the menu only after the meal is finished. Had this experience at Vue de Monde in MEL recently.
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Yes, Vue have been doing this for some years now. They will print you a menu at the end if you ask.

Just be careful that you remember the price of the wines from the original wine card. They tried to add an extra $80 to the already inflated (3 times retail) price of a Bindi Block 5 for us. After an forceful 'discussion' they 'conceded' but never apologised, disappointing for such a restaurant and given the bill in well in excess of $1K. Haven't been back since.
 
TheRealTMA said:
Yes, Vue have been doing this for some years now. They will print you a menu at the end if you ask.
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They printed one without asking and also sent it by email the next day.

TheRealTMA said:
Just be careful that you remember the price of the wines from the original wine card. They tried to add an extra $80 to the already inflated (3 times retail) price of a Bindi Block 5 for us. After an forceful 'discussion' they 'conceded' but never apologised, disappointing for such a restaurant and given the bill in well in excess of $1K. Haven't been back since.
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Don't get me started on the ridiculous overcharging they do there on their wine list...
 
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boomy said:
Don't get me started on the ridiculous overcharging they do there on their wine list...
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Yes. 3-4 times retail is simply avarice. Twice retail is sufficient to give a restaurant a comfortable markup and collaring charges, especially since they buy at wholesale. That's what's good about Italy and some other European countries, as in many places in the USA and Canada (but not all), that one is not paying through the nose for wine.
 
Half of this tonight. 14.8% - but you'd never know it. Very sleek - but I think the '09 was a little more representative of classic Argentinian Malbec (fuller, plusher, softer mouthfeel.) It will be interesting to see how the other five develop over the next few years.

Privada1.JPG

And - just for QF WP ;):cool::p:lol::mrgreen::

Privada2.JPG
 
TheRealTMA said:
Yes. 3-4 times retail is simply avarice. Twice retail is sufficient to give a restaurant a comfortable markup and collaring charges, especially since they buy at wholesale. That's what's good about Italy and some other European countries, as in many places in the USA and Canada (but not all), that one is not paying through the nose for wine.
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There's nothing quite so bad as a $20-something bottle marked up to $80....
 
JohnM said:
One of the few Margaret River producers that has stuck with MR-grown Pinot Noir. Most of it has gone.

The climate is really too maritime for Pinot. MR was seen back in the mid-1960s, even before production ever started there, as a good emulation of Bordeaux by the famed John Gladstones (one of my UWA lecturers, BTW).

Interestingly, the Pannell family who started Moss Wood sold out and went to Pemberton to start Picardy in, as I understand it, an endeavour to produce much more true-to-type Burgundian wines. Personally, though, I've never been blown away by Picardy Pinot Noir. IMHO, the best WA Pinots are from the Porongorups - in particular those by Marchand & Burch (Mt Barrow and Gibraltar Rock labels).

Steve Pannell (one of the sons, I believe), is of course, a famed McLaren Vale producer and on the QF wine panel.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who hasn't been blown away by the Picardy Pinot.
 
Daver6 said:
Glad to hear I'm not the only one who hasn't been blown away by the Picardy Pinot.
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I thought the earlier vintages of Picardy's Pinot (around 2003-4) were really good.. Been a while since my last taste but I sampled their more recent offerings at events held at Flying Squadron YC a few years ago and wasn't as impressed. I did enjoy some of their other reds though...
 

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