Drink
Before you go
by Keith Stewart
As the year’s end rolls up with all of us far more aware than we were 12 months ago that the planet is close to becoming an unsuitable home for humans, it’s a good time for a list. Not the best of the year, or even the best of the millennium, but tastes that we should all try to experience before they are gone forever.
As the things we grow successfully after generations of refinement and sensitivity to the environment become no longer tenable, we should get in now in case there is no future for snapper or whitebait. So here goes, with my bias being in favour of local things that we do well in this corner of the world.
In the wine field, try to find an artisan champagne produced by the poet of Champagne, Selosse. Very rare, but gettable. On the greatest-wines-of-all front, Comte de Vogüe Musigny is the pinnacle of pinot perfection, Château Margaux is essential if only for a sip, Angelo Gaja’s spectacular Barbarescos are all worth hunting down and Egon Muller Scarzhofberg Auslese is another breathtaking experience.
From New Zealand you simply must try a Neudorf Moutere Chardonnay, Te Mata Coleraine and a clutch of pinots from Felton Road, Ata Rangi, Neudorf and Escarpment. Fromm, Dry River and Rippon rieslings are also transcendental and for a real taste of the soil, Kumeu River Mate’s Chardonnay, Te Mata Elston Chardonnay and Stonecroft Gewurztraminer are extra special. Dry River Pinot Gris began a movement and still moves wine drinkers, while the legendary Cloudy Bay is a must, if only to remind yourself why our sauvignon blanc grabbed its place in the sun.
This is not, of course, an exhaustive list. After all, the column is rather short. The great sweet wines, starting with Château d’Yquem and including Germany’s fabulous Maximin Grünhaus Abtsberg Trockenbeerenauslese and a rare Tokaji essencia, are all extra-special examples of the good things that humans have done with the land, and so, too, are the great vintage ports. Try a 20-year-old Fonseca for the epitome of port’s famous creamy richness and elegance.
Then there are the extreme exotics, like Ridge Zinfandel, Monte_ falco di Sagrantino and Château Pétrus, wines richer than Chinese silk, more powerful than Ferrari. Or if Porsche is more your thing, try Stonecroft or Bilancia Syrah from the best of vintages, or Guigal la Turque Côte Rotie or a Chave Hermitage.
And don’t forget absinthe, the naughtiest of spirits, or Springbank 15-year-old single malt whisky, Delamain Tres Vieux Cognac, Green Chartreuse and a Negroni cocktail. If you are close to Auckland, you must also get your mitt around a Galbraith’s Bitter and Twisted.
Oh, and get a good bottle of chablis and have it lightly chilled with a simple crayfish tail served cold with good garlic mayonnaise. Taste the earth, taste the sea: be happy to have lived while this was all around us, and perhaps give yourself extra incentive to fight to keep it.
Email: keith@sommnet.com
