A Good Wine Adds To The Occaission

Good enjoyable wine becomes even more enjoyable when you discover something new to enjoy it with. It’s one of the fun things about good wine: it never ceases to offer you something new to learn or something new to taste and experience.

A recent family visit by my son and his girlfriend during the celebration of my wife’s birthday offered just such an opportunity. The cuisine was Thai with an assortment of chicken, seafood and vegetable dishes. I’ve long been a fan of enjoying a good sake’ with Thai food, nigori in particular. However, since the meal was in honor of the fetching Mrs. Wine Guy, who is no fan of sake’, I reached into the cellar for a 2003 Grant Burge Barossa The Holy Trinity.

Grant Burge is a fifth generation vigneron in Australia’s famed Barossa Valley, renown for great Shiraz. The Holy Trinity is a Grenache, Shiraz, Mourvedre blend. All grapes are sourced from Burge’s Barossa vineyards and are all old-vine sourced. The vines range in age from well over 50 to 120+ years. That and some careful winemaking in the Southern Rhone tradition produces a wonderful blend that has drawn critical acclaim for a number of years. My 2003 vintage had received a 91-point rating from Robert Parker at release five years ago and also scored a 91 at the recent 2010 Australian Wine Competition. This silky wine offered complex aromas and tastes with a smoothness that balanced and complimented the myriad flavors in the Thai dishes on our table. While I have long been a fan of Grant Burge Wines in general and The Holy Trinity in particular, I truly enjoyed the discovery of a pairing that, somewhat to my surprise, worked extremely well.

It was at the conclusion of the meal that the significance of this enjoyable experience really hit me. We had enjoyed a traditional Thai family dinner preceded by a Mexican appetizer served with an Australian wine that was produced in a traditional French manner and aged in a combination of French and American oak.

Isn’t the exploration of the versatility of wine a wonderful thing?

Go and enjoy some exploration of your own.