Sue Courtney's Vinous Ramblings

Robertson’s Well Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 1993

I’ve misplaced my Ah So – my two-pronged cork remover. The Ah So is the only cork remover that works on old bottles for me. It’s been a long time since I’ve used it but where did I put it?

Never mind, I’ll try my winged corkscrew, which I eventually find at the bottom of the odds and sods utensil drawer. The exercise starts off promising as the top of the cork is clean, tight and dry, but then everything crumbles.

I hunt for the Ah-So again. It’s still eluding me. I try a cake fork – unsuccessfully. Prise the last of the cork out with a knife.

Never mind. I’ll pour the wine through a tea strainer. Now where did I put the tea strainer. Haven’t used it for ages as I use tea bags these days. Can’t find it. Never mind, I’ll pour some of the wine into a glass.  The bits of cork I missed picking out float on top of the liquid like flotsam and jetsam.

Never mind, I’ll pour some wine into another glass.  Pick out stray crumbles with a teaspoon.

Ah, at last. I can savour the wine.

It’s a dark mahogany, nearer tawny red than the youthful blackberry and ruby hues it would have been in its youth.

Goody. It’s smells alright – like well-worn leather, prunes, menthol and cocoa.

And then I taste. Thank goodness. The rigmarole to get wine into a relatively free cork-laced glass has been worth it.

This is gorgeous aged Coonawarra Cab with brightness of fruit; depth and the spicy tang of smoky cedar; and Coonawarra’s classic menthol combining with cocoa. I feel the headiness of the alcohol – how much I don’t know as the back label has suffered from the bottle being pulled out and pushed back in the wooden rack so many times.

I’ve put this on my neglected Vinous Ramblings blog as I am rambling on …

Never mind, if you are still reading I hope you are also enjoying a bottle of wine.

I opened this because I bought a wee two-piece pack of fillet steak – on special at the supermarket for $8.  The perfectly cut restaurant piece went into a hot pan where unhealthy amounts of butter was sizzling; the steak cooked one minute each side (after the previous night’s was over cooked); then removed, and into the now brown butter went a generous handful of chopped coriander and after 20 seconds, the herb now well wilted, a splash of fresh cream.

Rare steak, burnt butter coriander sauce and Robertson’s Well Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 1993 a tasty match.

And the reason I’m posting this is so I remember it.

And tomorrow I’m going to look for the Ah So and tea strainer so I’m ready for my next old wine. That’s if I have time!!!