I think enjoying a bottle of Grange is something that should be on every wine lovers bucket list - one, however I'm yet to do.
It's been quite a while since my last post, but seeing the Grange reference here has reminded me of the Grange 2010 that five of us had over a Friday lunch a couple of years ago.
The lunch was put on by a very special long time friend who got his partner to drive two kilometres to the local dannys and buy a bot. It was decanted for about 10-12 hrs I believe and it was good. I wouldn't say is scored more than a 7 in my eyes, but in Tyzer Steltson, or Stelvin or whatever his name is, he gave it a one hundred saying this 2010 was the best young red he had tasted in his life. However, the wine is not the main issue here, namely I have often referred to that mate, Peter, who suffered from motor neurone disease over the past 42 months, in some of my wine banterings as we both go back nearly forty years enjoying our Aussie wines. No more I wish to advise. Peter's funeral was this Monday and a stunning send off to all of us could not have been any better. The latter stages of this Beast of a disease are terrible, and euthanasia is often thought about. My secondary school mate Peter, being an engineer, often didn't muck about with things and timed his exit exquisitely just over a week earlier. Everything was perfectly planned, even his own funeral, and even though the forecast was for rain, peter even made the sun shine right through the day. Truly an amazing day, but a very tough day. His daughters speech was too touching.
We had a 2001 Tahbilk Marsanne at my brothers place later in honour of him and this was one of his faves. It is holding up beautifully, and once again, as it warmed, it got tastier.
Next night I had a 2017 Jim Barry watervale Riesling for it was Peter who really put me onto Rieslings in the first place. This is a cracker of a wine, almost faultless but not quite as well rounded - yet - as the 2016 was at such a young age.
There is nothing much better nor simpler in life to enjoy than having the company of a great mate or mates who just love their wines and can put together a Queens birthday sunday extravaganza with a barbie, some videos, some great music, hopefully some outside sunshine to feel the radiance from and finish off a dozen nice wines over the course of about 11 hours. That special June day with Peter and Russell will be sadly missed, but should return in memory of our great mate.
