One of Australia’s most respected and beloved wineries, Yalumba, has reached the extraordinary milestone of its 175th anniversary. As part of their celebrations, Yalumba hosted one of their famous Museum tastings. Few wine events anywhere are more popular. It’s a tough job, but Ken Gargett takes one for the team.
This is the third of our trio looking at some of the best wines from New Zealand. Ken Gargett confesses that Bell Hill, located in Waipara in the South Island of New Zealand (North Canterbury), is very much a personal favorite.
If you do not know what black pudding is you may be thinking a decadent dessert, perhaps a very dark chocolate cake type of thing. If you do know what it is then you are either suddenly thinking of how delicious it is and how long before you can next enjoy one or you are running for the hills, thinking how utterly disgusting and how on earth could anyone even look at one, let alone eat it. Here is all you ever needed to know about black pudding.
Singleton 40-Year-Old Malt Whisky in Ken Gargett’s opinion is alluringly mellow but with undoubted power, there is amazing length. If a hedonistic malt is your thing, then you will find this a majestic malt.
The gem in the Bilancia wine treasury is six hectares known as Roy’s Hill. This is where the Syrah vineyard known as La Collina is planted. And in Ken Gargett’s opinion, it is sensational!
In Ken Gargett’s opinion, the Chivas Ultis XX exhibits a depth and complexity that puts to rest any argument that blended whiskies cannot sit with the finest malts. We have a burnished orange colour. The aromas move through toffee and cinnamon, vanilla and red apples, caramel, cigar box and more. Balanced, mellow, complex and ever so long, this is a gorgeous whisky.
Ken Gargett recently had an extensive immersion into New Zealand wines for a couple of weeks, including those of Hawkes Bay, so it seemed an ideal time to look at the latest Selection, from the 2021 vintage. The other reason for doing so is that the quality of this latest Selection lifts it above anything else he has seen from this project.
Australian Master of Wine, Andrew Caillard, has finally finished the Australian wine industry’s, magnum opus, ‘The Australian Ark.’ If there is a comparable work detailing the history of wine in any other country, in such depth and in such a riveting manner, Ken Gargett is not aware of it.
Heidsieck Monopole Gout American 1907 is the world’s most expensive champagne. This is the famous “shipwreck champagne” and it has a truly extraordinary story to tell, much more interesting than simply the prices it has achieved.
The first description Ken Gargett ever heard of the durian fruit was that it was like “eating custard over an open sewer”. He never forgot that . . . but it made him curious. He he reveals why despite its obnoxious odor, durian is considered by many as ‘The King of Fruits.’