We just had a wine dinner on the theme of all the wines having been given 90 points by Robert Parker and his wine appraisal team. We had 1 champagne, 2 Chardonnays, 7 reds of which two are Pinot Noirs and finally a Rieslaner Auslese for dessert. The backbone of the evening was provided by France with 1 champagne, 1 Chablis and 3 clarets, then 2 German wines, and one bottle each from Australia, Italy, Chile and California. As you can see, the evening covered a lot of ground, with a wide range of styles included.
Even within the same style, there was a good deal of variation. Of the five Cabernet-Merlot blends, the Tuscan example was more different than the others. It could be the Sangiovese in the blend, but pairing it with a prawn bisque might also have influenced our impression of the wine. (Pairing prawn bisque with a Bordeaux style red is a food matching which will be dealt with in another entry.) However, the Carruades de Lafite 1998 and the Pontet Canet 2004 did not show very well that night. Jim Barry The Cover Drive Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 on the other hand was performing quite nicely, thank you. Considering that the Ozzie wine (at around $200) was a quarter of the price of the Pontet and only 5% of the current market price (hugely inflated by speculation) of the Carruades, I'm sure you can guess which wine I'll buy again. In that way, wine dinners like these could be considered somewhat cost-effective!
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