December 2015 Wines – Part 1

December 2015 Wines – Part 1

December 3rd was Wine Exchange Asia‘s very own Minion’s, Bob, 150th Birthday, as well as Jen’s 21st (or was that her second or ?? 21st, can’t tell), Jen is a Brown Bag Club member. As the 3rd was a school night the party was held on Friday Dec 4th.

bob

As the Minion thinks he knows a bit about wine we all had to bring out our best magnum or larger format, so it was going to be BIG night, especially as there were 4 magnums of Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Réserve NV to start with.

December 2015 Wines
Bob’s 150th Birthday Line Up

I did not get to try everything and as it was also not the sort of night where you take notes, I am only posting the details of the wines, no comments. Also I am missing a couple as it was not exactly a small lineup, will add the missing wines as soon as I can find out what they were!

wdt_ID Wine Photo
1 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Réserve

Vintage: NV
Region: Champagne France
Varietal: Pinot Noir Chardonnay Pinot Meunier
Alcohol: 12.5%
Format: Magnum (4 of them)
2 Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay Art Series

Vintage: 2009
Region: Margaret River, Australia
Varietal: Chardonnay
Alcohol: 14.5%
Format: Magnum
3 Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay Art Series

Vintage: 2012
Region: Margaret River, Australia
Varietal: Chardonnay
Alcohol: 14%
Format: Half bottle (750ml)
4 Giaconda Estate

Vintage: 2004
Region: Beechworth, Australia
Varietal: Chardonnay
Alcohol: 15%
Format: Magnum
5 Pierro

Vintage:
Region: Margret River, Australia
Varietal: Chardonnay
Alcohol: 14%
Format: Half bottle (750ml)
6 Burch Family Howard Park Abercrombie

Vintage: 2007
Region: 91% Mt Barker, Great Southern; 9% Yallingup, Margaret River, Australia
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon
Alcohol: 14%
Format: Magnum
7 Burch Family Howard Park Abercrombie

Vintage: 2009
Region: Mount Barker, Great Southern 53%, Margaret River 47%, Australia
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon
Alcohol: 13.5%
Format: Magnum
8 d'Arenberg The Dead Arm

Vintage: 2006
Region: McLaren Vale, Australia
Varietal: Shiraz
Alcohol: 14.5%
Format: Magnum

Dead Arm is a vine disease caused by the fungus Eutypa Lata that randomly affects vineyards all over the world. Often vines affected are severely pruned or replanted. One half, or an ‘arm’ of the vine slowly becomes reduced to dead wood. That side may be lifeless and brittle, but the grapes on the other side, while low yielding, display amazing intensity
9 Hewitson Private Cellar

Vintage: 2005
Region: Barossa Valley, Australia
Varietal: Shiraz Mourvedre
Alcohol: 14.5%
Format: Magnum
10 Hewitson Private Cellar

Vintage: 2006
Region: Barossa Valley, Australia
Varietal: Shiraz Mourvedre
Alcohol: 14%
Format: Magnum

As you can see every one of the 26 people who attended “pushed the boat out” as one of the either attendees likes to say. What a great line up, lots of diversity, all of a very high quality and most with a decent bit of age.

With the wine was flowing freely I decided not to worry about bringing my camera along and take photos of the food, as usual at the Tower Club Chef Frank did a fantastic job, the food was great!

FYI, the only wine that was not finished on the night was the Exile, about half the Jeroboam was left. It did not go to waste as we drank it the following night at the after party, that post will be coming shortly.

One of the ramifications of this night is that a 750ml bottle is now called a half, some were heard to say its a magnum or not worth the effort to open, I wonder how long that policy will last!

For those of you who are wondering why Bob was 150, it is because he is not that good with dates and numbers, this was the third year in a row that he was 50. We did suggest that he check is passport just to be sure a few times. Thankfully for WEA he is not the one responsible for the books!

Oz’s Wine Reviews

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Cheers!

2 thoughts on “December 2015 Wines – Part 1

  • January 4, 2016 at 5:33 pm
    Permalink

    A massive night mate – thanks for helping make it the hangover of the year for 2015!

    Reply
    • January 4, 2016 at 5:37 pm
      Permalink

      Must have not been that bad a hangover as you made it to the after party and stayed until the very end!

      Reply

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