Saturday Night – House bound

Mick and Amy have missed the last two Saturday night dinners as they were in Jamaica for vacation.  So I was looking forward to getting together with them for this past Saturday.  It was supposed to be my turn to host but unfortunately Amy broke her ankle in Jamaica and didn’t want to attempt to walk/limp/crawl home drunk at the end of the night.  We decided to make things simple and just ordered in some Sushi at Mick and Amy’s house.

 

As we were having Sushi that meant it was time for a sparkling wine to pair with this and I had a new one for us to try – 2009 Cathedral Cellars Brut from South Africa.

While we were waiting for the Sushi to be delivered, Mick decided to augment our Sushi dinner with some fresh oysters so we cracked the wine early to go with them.

The nose on the wine was mild with rose/perfume, yeast and wet hay aromas.  Tasting the wine, pink grapefruit was the dominate flavour with a touch of tangerine in the background.  Structure-wise the wine had good acidity and a decent finish but was a kind of simple.  It was a very good pairing with the oysters and decent with the Sushi.  All in all not a bad sparkling wine but nothing about it will really jump out at you.

Here is the group rating for the wine - Mick – 85, Mark - 87, Kathy – 82, Amy – 85, Overall – 84.75.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine -

CATHEDRAL CELLAR BRUT 2009
VINTAGES 296426
750 mL bottle
Price $ 16.95
Made in: South Africa
By: KWV
Release Date: Nov 10, 2012
Wine, Sparkling Wine, White
13.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Varietal: Sparkling White
Sugar Content: 7 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: D - Dry

Tasting Note - Charming 2009 from refreshing, lemony chardonnay with enriching 11% pinot noir. Fine, creamy mousse; properly brut. Potential to grow. Score - 4 Stars (out of 5). (Angela Lloyd, Platter's South African Wine Guide, 2012)

I do believe my wife was being a little critical with her 82 rating but she doesn’t take price into account for her rating whereas I do.  This wine is solid enough to justify its $17 price point and I feel the 87 rating I gave it was right on the money but I can’t argue with Mick and Amy’s 85 ratings either.

It was good to have Mick and Amy back for our usual Saturday night dinner.  Amy might be switched to a walking cast this week.  That would be good as then she’ll be able to make it back and forth to our house and I can host this upcoming weekend’s Saturday night dinner and I have a new dish I been wanting to try out.

Cheers!

Mark