Grape Expectations - Olympics rings a bell
Max Crus
Matua Valley Estate Series Paretai (Marlborough) Sauvignon Blanc, 2007 [©Max Crus]
They're on the blocks. Heads down, bums up, a living metaphor for Citius, Altius, Fortius, living the dream, doing it for their country, their team-mates, their parents, but mostly for themselves because they don't have any friends.
Why else would you swim?
The beeper...well...beeps and they're off.
Wriggling like a mermaid, then left arm, left foot, right foot, left, foot, right foot, right arm, breath, left foot....
Is this the most exciting thing since we reorganised the linen press?
That's Hacker in lane three, I think, they all look the same.
Oooh, does he knows the way, and when to turn?
Oh yeh, they've been doing it five hours a day for the past ten years.
The Olympics, beauty. 12 hours a day on telly, half the pages of your daily newspaper, then 12 hours debate about why we didn't win. Eleven of them devoted to the world's least likely spectator sport, swimming.
'It's disappointing and we need to spend more on training and facilities to compete on the world stage". Struth, we already spend more on sport than science and what do we get? A bunch of people in tight togs whose only life-skill is sporting commentary.
Co-incidentally, and luckily, since this is wine column, there is a strong corollary in the wine world, namely, would you think any less of a wine because it didn't win a gold at an international event?
No, you'd be happy with a silver or even a bronze against the rest of the world, and even no medal whatsoever. It's not the destination, it's the journey isn't it?
Anyway in the spirit of the games we conducted our own opening ceremony to kick off the week of tedium. It consisted of these and although no gold medals on their labels, who would care?
McWilliams Mount Pleasant Maurice O'Shea 2004 Shiraz, $60.
A perennial favourite so we always try to have it with a perennial dish, such as a barbecue. Red gold. 9.2/10.
Matua Valley Estate Series Paretai (Marlborough) Sauvignon Blanc, 2007, $35.
Look I know $35 is a lot for sav blanc, but if you like the stuff at half the price, you may not like it quite so much after this. 9.2/10.
Adinfern (WA) Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, $22.
Could be forgiven for thinking this is from NZ with the sheep on the label, but it's not. When was the last time you had a really decent cab sav from NZ? 8.6/10.
Michael Unwin Wines, Acrobat, 2005 Barbera, $19.
Had a party sheep called Baa-bara once but that's another story and anyway she's back with Ricardo now. How tasteless, unlike this. 8.8/10.
Topper's Mountain Gewurztraminer 2007, $???
The most amazing smell of lychees outside a Beijing market, could this be the signature grape of the newly gazetted New England region? Suits me. Great gewurz', great gear. 9/10.
Grant Burge Meshach Shiraz 2003, $120.
The smell from the decanter was powerful and St Patrick was happy to use it as his glass.Commonsense prevailed, as much as it can with a $100 wine and all was well with the world. 9.2/10
Stay tuned next week for a detailed analysis of what to drink with trap shooting.
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Max Crus and a cast of children and dogs provide entertainment for their neighbours - there's nothing like a cunning chase to add spice to an afternoon gewurztraminer ... are more entertaining than his column.
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