For those that helped with my Port Indecision thank you.
I don't know what happened then. It posted without me pushing the button. So I will continue where I left off.

I got to the house (the wine merchant's where the dinner was being held) at around 7.30 Pm.

Served 1990 RD Bollinger at the door.
Colour: Golden yellow. Bead very fine.
Nose: Yeasty, creamy with hints of apple.
Palate: The bubbles played around my mouth. The texture was creamy with acidity lightly hinting at the edges of the palate. The length was outstanding.
Overall: A brilliant bubbles. Clean but complex. 93/100

Continued to dinner where the first course was a light Crayfish Bisque (Crayfish are like lobster only sweeter.) with scallops.
This was matched with a 1990 Pinot Gris Clos Jebsal by Zind-Humbrecht which I felt to be a little to concentrated for the dish.
Colour: Beautiful golden tinged straw
Nose: Beautiful concentrated peach and stonefruit overtones with pear coming through subtly.
Palate: Excellent sdtructure with the acidity almost balancing with the concentrated sweetness.
The flavour just seemed to go on.
Overall: A stunning wine with both elegance and concentration. 94/100

The second course was blue cheese, walnut and fig stuffed quail served with a light raisin confi. This dish was so rich and thankfully it was served with both a red and a white.
The white was a Domaine Lumpp 1990 Givry Blanc Premier Cru Crausot and although it went well with the dish I felt it was overpowered.
Colour: Golden
Nose: Strong biscuity, meally and vanilla domination with soft truffled characters coming through. Also slight spiced character (?) sort of cumin like. Starting to develop acetic nose characters.
Palate: Well balanced just a touch flabby.
Overall: Good wine but a little disappointing considering the calibre of the other wines. 89/100

The red served was a 1980 Gaja Barolo Sperss
(edited: This was actually a 1982 Fontanafredda Barolo, see below for reasons this was changed)
which was perfect for the dish I felt.
Colour: Browned black.
Nose: Beautiful spiced nose with plum and raisin dominating nose and palate. Hints of aniseed also there.
Palate: Concentrated flavours made this win very hard to easily analyse. Great length and palate weight with beautiful rounded tannins. Acids and tannins were both subdued (I guess the age had taken it's toll) but seemed to meld together to form a nexus of structure.
Overall: YUMMMM. 97/100. This wine stood out through out the dinner.

The third dish was seared big eye tuna served on mushroom and truffled risotto with marinated seaweed and ponzu. It was matched with 1998 Leeuwin Art Series Chard which I felt neither did each other justice.
Colour: Rich gold
Nose: Soft orange and citrus domination with vanilla, butterscotch and meally characters coming through. Slight cheesy notes as well.
Palate: Beautiful mouthfeel and excellent length, great structure and drinking perfectly now.
Overal: Damn excellent, but the dish matched with it detracted from the wine. Still a 94/100

The main was Venison medallions served with kumara ( A NZ sweet potato) and fennel (Sp?).
This was matched with two wines.
The White was a 1995 Lynch Bage Blanc, an unusual choice I thought.

Colour: Golden hued straw
Nose: Soft grass notes dominated by wheat and toastyness. Figs and dates were also evident.
Palate: Well textured with soft acidity playing on the palate. Length was good and complexity was nice. A good wine but not a WOW like some of the others.
Overall: 90/100

The red was a 1990 Georges De Vogue Bonnes Mares
Colour: Red black with browning edges
Nose: Oppulant dark cherry with softer aniseedy spice and barnyard notes. Mushrooms played on the nose as well. I wanted to smell this all night.
Palate: Beautiful sexy texture that just went on and on.
Overall: The star of the night. 99/100

I will do the deserts at another time.

[ 10-02-2002, 08:09 PM: Message edited by: Jeremy ]

Jeremy, it's no secret that I love quail and venison. Sounds like a true culinary adventure. I would have been satisfied with the food alone, and it sounds like the wines were world class. You lucky bugger!!

Sounds great, Jeremy. I'd have loved to taste that '90 de Vogue.

What a great night...I would of had a problem jumping from white to red to white and back to red again...I've always been a fan of Bollinger...great notes...

Jeremy, great notes, thanks! But one thing puzzles me: are you sure about the Gaja 1980 Barolo Sperss? As far as I know, the first vintage produced was 1988 (or maybe 1989).

[ 10-01-2002, 02:18 AM: Message edited by: Marc ]

Great notes, and here it is only breakfast time yet! Please do get invited to more of those, if only for us to read...

Jeremy:

WOW! Sounds like a great evening. Your notes made me feel like I was there.

My local produce market briefly had some kumara in their store earlier this summer. Out of curiosity, I bought some. They looked kind of like red pine cones. I blanched them, sliced them in half lengthwise, and grilled them (with a little olive and rosemary). Very tasty!

If I may ask, what are some common methods of preparing kumara in NZ? I was just winging it.

Cheers,

Otis

Marc,
As the wine was decanted my notes aren't based on the bottle but what the person who bought it said it was. All wines and dishes were outlined on a menu before we were served. You could be right that it wasn't the Sperss, but I'm pretty sure about the vintage and that it was Barolo by Gaja. The gentleman who bought it is also a wine merchant but maybe he got the vineyard confused. It tasted like Barolo as opposed to the spicyness of Barberesco which Gaja made his name on. Any insights would be good, cause I can then ring him and tweak his nose so to speak.

Edit: For Otis- Kumara recipes.

We often just mash them or roast them. There are several varieties including red (which you have tried), yellow and orange. The darker the potato the more creamy the texture of the vegetable.
Treat them as you would potatoes and you can't go wrong, although I have had Kumara Lasagna and hat was pretty damn awesome. Kumara galette is very nice also but make sure you use a slightly bitter cheese as opposed to a sweeter cheese like parmesan. Hope thats of some help.

[ 10-01-2002, 08:30 PM: Message edited by: Jeremy ]

Pull out that envy graemlin. Jeremy? Do you have a hollow leg? The food alone would have put me on the floor. Add those marvelous wines, and then dessert...........OH......you are going to tell us about dessert aren't you?

Dick

Cheers Jeremy. Thanks for the kumara advice!

-Otis

Jeremy, as far as I know, Gaja never produced a Barolo before the first release of the Sperss. As said, this was in 1988 or 1989. Maybe Andreadago could clarify things here...
(edit): A short check in the Internet verified that the first Sperss vintage was 1988.

[ 10-02-2002, 03:09 AM: Message edited by: Marc ]

Marc,
Then obviously someone was pulling a fast one. I will find out what the deal is. It tasted like a Barolo though.... hmmm will do my best to find out. Now you've got me worried that the rest of the wines weren't what they professed to be. Still they tasted pretty damn good. Will update soon.

Jeremy sounds like a wonderful meal. You reminded me that I have four or five bottles of the 90 Bollinger, a sparkler that I love. I will have to get one out soon.

Thanks.

Marc,
I rang Michael (the person who was to have bought the Sperss) and he told me that the wine he was going to bring was the 1988 Gaja but he couldn't find his bottle in his cellar(I think he didn't want us to drink it!!), but instead he bought the 1982 Fontanafredda Barolo(so 1980 wasn't even the correct vintage.) and that when he had rung Peter to correct the menu that the wrong wines had obviously been copied down. He hadn't wanted to disappoint anyone and had actually told most of the people gathered(I left relatively early cause unlike most of them I actually had to work on Monday morning.) after the dinner. It was still fantastic and I will edit the above notes for the wine.
Thank you for pointing this out, Marc. I would have been oblivious to this unless someone had known -cheers.

you're welcome Jeremy, and at least you liked the Fontanafredda as well. I hope however that you'll drink a Sperss somewhen for comparison: the quality difference between a Fontanafredda Barolo and a Sperss is near of that between a Cru Bourgeois and a Firsth Growth.