Grant Burge Filsell Shiraz 1993 vintage

So! Nansia had a tattoo done. She admitted it was Painful with capital P, there was no if or but about it. She said no regrets, but don't think she'd ever do it again either.

I thought we should celebrate the occassion. I opened a bottle of Grant Burge Filsell Shiraz 1993 vintage from Barossa Valley, South Australia.

This wine was thoroughly enjoyable. Fifteen years on, the only regret we had was there wasn't more of it! Grant Burge states that "This wine has a character and structure to give it the longevity I required." I'm not 100% sure what he meant, but fifteen years was pretty good, and probably had another 2-4 years aging potential.

Once the wine breathed, it opened up to display flavours of rhubarb, plums, Spice, dusty oaks, black berries with fine grained tannins.

We enjoyed this wine with pork chops pan fried with spanish onions, mushroom and soy sauce.

I think current vintage probably retails around $30 (AUD). A baby brother to Meschach Shiraz which is a AUD $100 plus wine. Both have the ability to age superbly. Grant Burge Filsell is an excellent choice if you aren't in BRW's Top 200 list. ENJOY!

Guigal Cotes du Rhone 2000

Tonight, we uncorked a bottle of Guigal Cotes du Rhone (Grenache Shiraz) 2000 vintage.
Eight years on - Pretty good. We enjoyed it.
The wine tasted dusty with flavours of Aniseed, white pepper, clove and cinnamon.
It was pretty tight at first, but when it opened up, it had a lucious warm and that typical Cotes du Rhone pencil shaving characters.
It probably had the potential to go for another 2 years, but we enjoyed it superbly with a "Norwegian Nachos" dish we invented tonight.
I have tried several vintages of this wine over the years and believe it to be a good value example of France's famous Cotes du Rhone region.

Current vintage probably retail around $30 (AUD).

Norwegian Nachos ala Liquid Dining (the lazy Friday night dinner)

Spanish onions, garlic, kidney beans, tomatoes, can of sardines, salt, white & black pepper, coriander, cumin, papprika.
Served with Jatz crackers.