This past Saturday night our usual band of four got together with Jan and Chris to celebrate Jan’s Birthday with some good food and wine. We have had a number of dinners with Chris and Jan over the years and I wanted this dinner to special. I want three dishes that were very good and that Mick or myself hadn’t done for them yet. About a week and half ago I went through my recipe book and then discussed the menu with Mick and we put together a nice line-up for the night.
Mick’s Baba Ghanoush which he makes from barbequed Egg Plant and the usual ingredients but also adds sundried tomato was the first course. This was paired with two white sparkling wines - a Roederer Champagne and a Graham Beck Sparkling.
We have reviewed the Roederer before so I will just focus on reviewing the Graham Beck Sparkling.
The nose on the Graham Beck was bigger than I would have expected from a sparkling wine as you certainly didn’t need to swirl your glass to pick up its aromas; aromas of yeast, citrus (lemon/lime) and pink grapefruit. Tasting the wine, the main flavours were lime and vanilla with ripe green apple on the finish. The wine wasn’t quite as dry tasting as I would have liked. The difference in dryness was more obvious when I tried it against the Roederer. I preferred the Roederer over the Graham Beck before trying any of the food. On the other hand that slight sweetness to the wine made it a much better pairing than the Roederer with the Baba Ghanoush. Considering the Graham Beck is less than a third of the cost at $19 a bottle than the Roederer, it did quite well as a comparison bottle.
Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick – 89, Mark - 89, Kathy – 84, Amy – 88, Overall – 87.5.
Here is the LCBO information on the wine –
GRAHAM BECK BRUT SPARKLING WINE
VINTAGES 593483
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 18.95
Made in: Western Cape, South Africa
By: Graham Beck Wines
Release Date: Mar 17, 2012
Wine, Sparkling Wine, White
12.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Varietal: Sparkling White
Sugar Content: 11 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: XD - Extra Dry
Tasting Note - (a 54/46 blend of pinot noir and chardonnay) Pale copper-tinged gold. Tangerine, spicy oak and a hint of exotic fruits on the nose. Fruity and harmonious, with a yeasty complexity adding depth to the fairly dense, harmonious middle palate. Comes across as sweeter and fuller than the Blanc de Blancs, but finishes dry and crisp, with a bit more length. No shortage of flavor here. Score - 89. (Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, March/April 2009)
As you can tell by the group rating my wife was a much bigger fan of the Roederer than the Graham Beck. Different strokes for different folks…
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