Comiker Extraordinaire

Now, I don’t intend to use this blog to bore you with my personal life, but this is probably an exception. I went to the Penfolds Grange 10 Year Anniversary Dinner last night with some friends. I’ll just concentrate on what I thought were the highlights of the dinner.

Surprise was the Gewurztraminer, which I quite enjoyed, but the meal that accompanied it didn’t really suit it I found. I was served with sliced raw swordfish, and the wine really overpowered it, so I don’t think they complemented each other well.
I preferred the 2008 bin 311 Chardonnay over the 2007 Reserve Bin 07A. I thought the 2007 was a bit young, and very citrus-y. The Morton bay bugs and scampi souffle that accompanied it was really good.
Now the best part of the dinner: The Main with 4 Granges. Fuck yeah. The 1983 Grange was my favourite. I didn’t like the 1989 Grange as much as I thought I would, a few of us at the table found it a bit too sweet, but then there were some who preferred it; it is a personal preference thing. The 1999 Grange, and the only straight shiraz of the lot, was alright. I liked the 2004 Grange. It’s relatively new, and still has a lot of room for aging, but it was good.
The main dish was wagyu tenderloin, which is a meat I have always been disappointed by. It has always had too much fat or just dry (it doesn’t matter if it’s aged or not), and frankly I prefer a good old black Angus rib eye. Last night’s wagyu was one of the best steaks I’ve had. It was perfectly cooked medium-rare with a layer of foie gras on top served on top of mushrooms and Penfolds Grange jus. Fucking A. It’s funny, because the Grange dinner is at the same restaurant that I usually try wagyu. I guess they went all out last night. I doubt I’ll ever have a steak that good again anytime soon.
As a consequence my mouth went entirely purple. Unfortunately, despite the amounts of alcohol and my best efforts, I did not get drunk nor even tipsy. Fucking tolerance to alcohol went up again. I drank about 4 bottles worth of wine dammit. Probably the food absorbed it or something.
Peter Gago chief winemaker was there and I even got him to sign the complementary book. He recommended a few other underrated Granges, which I will save to get one day. I took home an empty bottle of 1983 Grange as a memento.