VIBRANT PARTY GUEST
Bombay Citron Presse
Mediterranean Lemon Distilled Gin, 37.5%
$65 (700ml)
Jim Kellar
I've got eight gins on the shelf in my liquor cabinet. Each one serves a different purpose, rising to the occasion when called. Bombay Citron is new to the party, just in time for summer. Super light, with a touch of lemon, begging for more lemon and lime wedges to be added. I always like ice in my cocktails, no matter how simple the recipe. And, to be frank, you could get away with enjoying Citron Presse over the rocks, naked and alone (the drink, that is), if you take it slow and let it dilute just a bit. It's a stylish yellow-tinted bottle (the gin is clear, by the way), but not too precious, because it's easy drinking, especially with tonic or soda, and could disappear on a hot day in a small crowd.
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KEEP ON GIVING
Lark XO Brandy, Tasmania, 46%
$120 (700ml)
Tim Connell
Presents say things, about giver and receiver. Ranging from "I know you, deeply" to "the servo was open". So, in choosing a drop that's more Yuletide than "you'll do", should you go for one of the Christmas editions glowing like bottle-o baubles? To slightly misquote Santa, no, no, no! You're telling the person you expect it to be drunk by December 31. That's the cut-off. That, or the thing will be drenched in cinnamon. The Christmas Cask, by Tasmanian distiller Lark, is lashings of sugar apple, custard swirls and all you need to know about the above. Sweet, in the way of a five-year-old's birthday. Just as festive, and less restricted by the season, is Lark's XO Brandy. Come for the rum and raisin chocolate. Stay for the oak, fruit and spice finish, long after the tree has come down.
KING VALLEY SWITCH
Meerea Park 2021 XYZ Chardonnay
$30
5 stars (out of 6)
John Lewis
THEREBY hangs a tale that applies to many wine names and it's the case with Rhys and Garth Eather's Meerea Park operation. Its flagship wines carry the name of the brothers' great, great grandfather, who came to Australia from Scotland in 1831 as a 14-year-old convict transported for a theft from an Inverness grocery. He rose to be a Patrick Plains area pioneer, the first Mayor of Singleton and the founder in 1846 of the Singleton Bebeah vineyard, once the biggest producer of wine in NSW. This XYZ tag proclaims the wines' ageing potential over Generations X, Y and Z. Because the usual Hunter source vineyard was damaged, this 2021 chardonnay comes from eastern Victoria's cool-climate King Valley grapes. It is green-tinted straw and has orange blossom and crushed almond aromas and elegant yellow nectarine front-palate flavour. The middle shows fig, lemon curd, brioche and buttery oak and a finish of slatey acid. It would be great with salmon and prawn paella and cellar six years.
ENDEARING AUNTS RED
Meerea Park 2021 The Aunts Shiraz
$40
5 stars
John Lewis
THIS fine 13.5% alcohol, bright crimson-hued shiraz is named for three spinster Eather aunts, Laura, Amy and Hope, who settled in 1832 on the original Meerea Park farming property in Wambo Road, Bulga, and played an important role in the family. This 2021 red has potpourri scents, vibrant blackcurrant front palate flavour, middle palate Maraschino cherry, plum, spice and savoury oak and a finish of dusty tannins. Excellent with roast duck with plum and Cointreau sauce, will cellar well for nine years and it and the XYZ are at meereapark.com.au and the cellar door on the corner of Broke and McDonalds roads, Pokolbin. The shiraz is from grapes from the Milbrodale Road, Broke, Wollombi Brook-frontage Glenguin Estate vineyard of Sydney businessman-turned vigneron and Master of Wine Robin Tedder - who also is the British third Baron Glenguin by virtue of his grandfather being Air Chief Marshal Arthur William Tedder, World War II Allied Deputy Supreme Commander to General Eisenhower.
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