Will Winter Never End?

I don't know about you, but I'm thoroughly sick of winter! Any nice sunny days of meltdown seem to be just to make room for more snow. The only positive I can come up with is spending time in front of the fireplace, with a hearty meal and a robust bottle of wine. That's exactly what we did yesterday, along with a few favourite movies.

The meal was broiled T-bone steaks, roasted potatoes, mushrooms, and peppers, and garlic green beans, the wine was a bottle of 2005 Kilikanoon "The Medley" - Barossa Valley and Clare Valley. This is a Grenache, Shiraz, Mourvedre blend from Australia. It seems funny that a hot country like Australia makes perfect wines to enjoy in the winter, but this blend of Rhone Valley varieties done with an Australian over the top take, is a perfect Winter Wine. It's a big, super-ripe wine displaying all the alcohol potential of a 50% Grenache blend - alcohol 15%!! The nose was full of jammy dark fruit, with a sweetness to the aroma telling the story of these grapes ripening to all their full potential under the hot Australian sun. The colour was dark and inky, opaque saturated dark purple, all the way to the rim. The tears seemed to hang as though gravity did't affect them at all. The wine was rich and mouthfilling, with soft ripe tannins, nothing astringent or mouthdrying here. Acidity was moderate to low, and the taste was a repeat of what was promised by the nose - tons of ripe dark fruit. There wasn't a huge amount of complexity, or new flavours or tastes on the finish, but it did last quite a long time. The similarities to a fortified wine were astounding, although the wine was dry, the ripeness of the fruit played tricks making you think of sweetness. I had some left after dinner, and finished it off with some blue cheese, normally a perfect Port companion, and it worked very nicely.

This is not a very food friendly style of wine, because it tends to dominate your tastebuds - screaming with ripeness, but it was great on a cold night in front of the fire. I don't buy a lot of wines of this style simply because they are hard to drink with a lot of meals, but we did enjoy it a lot yesterday. It's a good wine from a good producer, and that made it as balanced as it could be. I suppose national characteristics do show in wine styles, because this wine was as brash and unashamed of it's in-your-face profile as the stereotypical Australian personality.

What I want is the weather to change, and bring my mind back to enjoying my more usual favourites in the world of wine - a delicate, fruity Pinot Noir - elegant and subtle, the same light finesse displayed in a Cru Beaujolais, the austerity of a Rhone Valley Syrah (as opposed to Shiraz), the structure of Bordeaux. It just goes to show you that there is a wine for all seasons.