It’s an annual event, and this was the 15th time it was held. Sydney’s Quay restaurant was packed with what must’ve been close to 200 people. Tickets to this event sell out fast as you get to taste the best wines Penfolds has to offer with the some of the fanciest food around. All with a full view of the Opera House and Circular Quay.
Why was Best Wines under $20 here, given that the wines here ranged from $30 to $600? And we claim never to go to industry functions because we want to keep an arms’ length relationship with an industry that is full of really nice, passionate and generous people. We got a free seat at the table, just to make that clear.
Once in a while you have to make an exception, to check your assumptions and reference points. If only the people from Penfolds had read some of the harsh things I’ve said about them, they’d have made sure I was stopped at the door. Happily, they live in another galaxy far far away.
Charcuterie and chocolate
Tickets cost $300 but the lunch was a good deal as you can see from the menu below. Kemenys even threw in a bottle of 2003 Grange to round things off.
On the whole, the event was a great success. I could feel a headache coming on just thinking about the logistics – so many courses, so many wines on the tables in huge Riedel glasses, an army of waiters running food from one end of the big place to the other before it got cold … it all went off without a hitch.
A jovial MC from Penfolds introduced each bracket of wines with comments that assumed a pretty knowledgeable audience. I suspect it was mostly that, but a gentleman at my table said he couldn’t see many of the things the reviewers saw in these wines, from the blueberries and violets to the charcuterie and chocolate. I confided in him that I often had the same problem, and this struck a chord. I was in very pleasant company at my table, I have to say.
Raw Meat and Raw Meat
If the frothy sashimi that made up the first course was too delicate, the Wagu Beef Tartare that followed was as subtle as a knee in the groin. By coincidence, it was a sickly shade of purple. It was followed by more rare beef topped with ancient grains. The colours were going further downhill, the brown morel cream fighting with the purple meat. The mashed potato was perfect though, and I was so hungry that I had a second helping and another bread roll. The dessert was pretty nice even with one thing laughing at another. The cheeses were fine too, the Brillat-Savarin melting in the mouth.
The Penfolds whites confirmed my long-held view that there are better whites to be found for less money elsewhere. I can think of half a dozen Rieslings between 12 and 18 dollars that are streets ahead of the Bin 21. And the Chardonnays – Bins 12A and 144 Yattarna – were weighed down by loads of oak and fancy winemaking at the expense of the fruit. Will they be great Chardies in 5 years’ time? Who knows, but there are more appealing options for far less money out there ($75, & $115).
Raw Reds
By now we were into the serious reds, the megastars in Penfolds’ stellar line-up. Yes, the St Henri was probably the best of them, but I don’t much care for the style of these wines. The overriding impression was one of oversized reds, with hot alcohol showing on the nose and more heat on the palate; these wines had clearly been open for some time so all was revealed. I felt myself longing for an elegant red, a luncheon claret as the English call it, a cool red offering cassis, mint and pencil shavings, and some finesse.
I was reminded of Roger Scruton who wrote in Grapes of Wrath (New Statesman): To force Syrah up to an alcoholic content of 14 per cent or more, tricking it into early maturation, so as to put the result on the market with all its liquorice flavours unsubdued, puffing out its dragon breath like an old lecher leaning sideways to put a hairy hand on your knee, is to slander a grape that, properly treated, is the most slow and civilised of seducers. More in Aussie Reds – so much alcohol, so little finesse.
There was little finesse to be found here, but plenty of dragon breath. These things are all 14.5% heavyweights, the Bin Reds as well with the exception of the Bin 9 which lacked depth and substance. The two Granges? More class here and more restraint, with the alcohol better disguised, but over $600 for a bottle of wine just released?
What about Value?
I get the feeling that the people at Penfolds have come to believe their own hype, and drink their own wines most of the time. I suspect they don’t go out and check the competition very often because they don’t think they have any. The marketing and pricing speak of splendid isolation from reality. For example, the street price for the Bin 389 2011 is $65. I prefer the Woodlands Margaret Cabernet 2011 which you can buy for less than $40. Or the Xanadu Cabernet 2011 for $30.
The UK’s Decanter magazine has just completed a tasting of the top Cabernets from Margaret River and Coonawarra. The top wine was Leeuwin Estate Art Series Cabernet Sauvignon 2010, which you can’t buy down under as yet. The 2008 was also rated Outstanding in a similar tasting a couple of years earlier, but you can’t buy that one either. You can buy the 2009 for $55 at Winestar. These are classy reds of great finesse in the style of fine Bordeaux in the days when Bordeaux reds were still fine.
As I sat there admiring the Opera House in the afternoon sun, I thought back to a simple dinner I’d cooked for my partner and her mum the weekend before: fillet steak with onions and mushrooms and steamed veggies. The wine we enjoyed with that meal was Devils Lair Hidden Cave Cabernet Shiraz 2010 – As good as it gets, I wrote 18 months ago: pristine fruit, gentle oak, perfect balance, polished, medium bodied, lots of goodies in perfect harmony. You just want to drink more of it. Very classy for a commercial red made in fair volumes. 14%.
The wine was one of those that makes you wish wine bottles were a little bigger. I patted myself on the back for taking my own advice that time and buying a case of it when it was on special for $17 a bottle. You can buy the 2012 for $17 at Winedirect, and it looks like another winner. It’s still a bit raw right now so just give it a year or two to come to its senses, and you’ll be richly rewarded.
As it happens, the wine is made by Oliver Crawford who used to work for Penfolds. As it also happens, Devils Lair is owned by Treasury Wine Estates, the owners of the Penfolds brand.
Kim
