New Year’s Eve 2009 – Part 1

New Year’s Eve at the homestead and I finally had a functional kitchen again. This has been a long year as the renovations started in February with the basement and I have been without a kitchen since late May. The backsplash in the kitchen went in Monday/Tuesday and the table and chairs for the dining room just arrived on the morning of New Year’s Eve. As our annual New Year’s Eve dinner celebration with Mick and Amy is normally hosted at our home, the bonus was that it was also the first proper multi-course meal in our new kitchen.

To play it safe, I decided to keep the menu for the evening simple and straight forward as I didn’t want to get too complicated with the new gas range.

"Great photo, Amy!"

For the first course, we started with two appetizers: Homemade Hummus with White and Multigrain Pita and a Tomato and Feta Salad. The reason for this choice is hummus is a great pairing for Viognier and Mick and I while stocking the new fridge about a week found out I had a shit load of it.

"The savages attacked before a photo could be taken!"

The wine pairing was a 2006 D’Arenberg “The Hermit Crab” McLaren Vale Viognier-Marsanne. The last time we had this wine was in January 2008 so it was fun to retry it again after almost a year. It was a great pairing with the hummus and a good pairing with the tomato and feta salad.

"Great wine at a very reasonable price!"

The nose was a pleasant blend of lychee, citrus and a floral-like component that we couldn’t quite nail down. Tasting the wine, the first thing you notice is a white grapefruit flavour followed by a nice tingling of the tongue as the acidity grabs you. There was a slight oily mouth feel that lingers as it finishes very smoothly. Mick was getting a yeasty, hops-like flavour in the mid-palate; I noticed a similar flavour but not as pronounced as he seemed to.

Here is the group rating for the wine - Mick – 89, Mark – 91, Kathy – 90, Amy 89, Overall – 89.75.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

d'Arenberg "The Hermit Crab" Viognier/Marsanne 2006

VINTAGES 662775

750 mL bottle
Price: $ 17.95
Wine, White Wine,
13.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : D
Made in: Australia, Australia
By: D'Arenberg Wines
Release Date: Mar 15, 2008

Description - Not only did Wine Spectator designate this wine as a 'Smart Buy', it ranked it number 84 on its list of the Top 100 wines of 2007!

Tasting Note - Soft and charming. A beguiling mouthful of spicy pear and grapefruit flavors that linger with focus on the open-textured finish. Not as rich as pure Viognier, but better balanced. Drink now through 2010. Score - 90. (Harvey Steiman, www.winespectator.com, Nov. 30 2007)

This wine is a huge value at $18 a bottle and I would strongly recommend it as a must buy for anyone’s wine rack.


Click here for Part 2