A breakfast gathering to watch the All Blacks smash the Wallabies during the Rugby World Cup semis turned into an impromptu weber braai in our courtyard. It’s one advantage of experiencing this tournament on an impractical timezone - you have the rest of Sunday to socialise, eat and relax once the sport is out of the way.
Wine mates were present so after we’d opened some uncomplicated South African whites, I dug into my collection for an Aussie wine to see out the losers. I wondered if there were any analogies between Aussie wines and the Wallabies’ usual style of play: world-class and a force to be reckoned with, yet almost passionless in their textbook execution of the moves most times.
The Wallabies took their game up a notch so that description didn’t apply this time. To my delight, the Australian wine didn’t disappoint either. Rockford Basket Press Shiraz 1996 was delicious and elegant, full of cedarwood and spice. I’ve stored the wine since I visited Adelaide in 1999. It’s from a great vintage and its juiciness and backbone sum up great Australian, Barossa Valley Shiraz. Worked with South African steak, lamb chops and boerwors too!
There was no doubting the rugby outcome but the wines had us divided - one friend raved about Eben Sadie’s Sequillo Cellars Red 2008, a worthy Swartland candidate, dominated by Shiraz, with a Mediterranean mix of varieties. It was a great wine, but in my view the Aussie wine shone.
Flipping through an old ‘James Halliday Wine Companion to Australia and New Zealand’ copy on my bookshelf, I found this Aussie wine writer’s description of Rockford as “some of the most individual, spectacularly flavoured wines made in the Barossa today, with an emphasis on old low-yielding dryland vineyards”. I think Eben Sadie would appreciate what they’re aiming for.
The All Blacks were immense, yet sadly I seem to have drunk all the fabulous New Zealand Pinot Noirs I thought I’d hung on to. Anyone have a good bottle lying around for next weekend’s final?
NOTE: For those who care about these things, I saw that Parker rated the wine 94 points and it’s selling for A$180…