Alec Saunders SquawkBox

It’s almost three hours since we opened the d’Arenberg Galvo Garage.  Dinner was one of my favorite fall dinners — beef, stewed with a medley of root vegetables, mushrooms and a few of those serrano peppers I’ve been harvesting all summer. The wine was a terrific accompaniment.  The tannins cut the richness of the beef, and the fruit was powerful enough to be a complement to the spice of the peppers.  It’s got a taste of black currents, bitter cherry, and perhaps a little black plums, with a long, slightly tannic finish.  It’s very drinkable now with the kind of meal we ate this evening, albeit with prominent tannins.  With another year or two in the cellar, this could be a fantastic wine.   

I’ve just decanted a bottle of d’Arenberg’s "The Galvo Garage" 2002, which I found in my local LCBO for C$29.95. I picked it up on a whim, not knowing anything about it other than the fact that I’ve enjoyed just about every d’Arenberg wine I’ve purchased.  It’s a classic Bordeaux blend — cabernet sauvignon, merlot, petit verdot, cabernet franc. 

It opens up quickly, with a slightly alcoholic, but very fruity nose.  Classic bordeaux flavours — cassis, dark berries, and almost a green apple tartness, and a nice finish.  Dinner isn’t for another hour.  We’ll see how it evolves by then.

We sat and watched The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension tonight, while sipping on a bottle of Jacob’s Creek Chardonnay Pinot Noir Brut Cuvee. Hilarious movie.  Great bottle of wine.  You can go read the review on the link.  Suffice it to say that at $13 Canadian, this is one unbelievable value.

Tonight we drank the only bottle of 1998 Sandalford "Margaret River - Mount Barker - Swan Valley" Shiraz in the cellar.  This was a limited edition wine.  No Shiraz was produced by Sandalford in 99 or 2000, and to my knowledge, they haven’t done a release with named vineyards like this since 1998.  Very perfumey on the nose. The bottle claims rose petals, and I think if you closed your eyes, and imagined very hard,  you might agree.  Very soft, very fruity.  Lots of thick berries with a little smoke.  Nice long finish.  I like this bottle a lot, although it was not garnering great reviews even three years ago.  Apparently it has improved with age.

Geoff Merrill 2001 Shiraz Grenache Mourvedre is another fantastic Australian wine I’ve recently discovered.  At C$19.95 it’s underpriced.  Nice nose, dense flavours of berry and spice, and a little heat on the tongue to finish.  We had this with pepper-crusted roast beef a couple of nights ago, and with cheese again the next day.  Excellent!  I am going to get a case of this.