Watch those table manners

Press, 21 May 1981, Page 12

Watch those table manners

Maurice Hunter’s

GRAPEVINE

It takes some of us a long time to learn;, and after all I haVe had to say about correct handling of wine, I should not have been caught. I had left it rather late in choosing a wine, Corbans* 1980 Chenin Blanc, to accompany the evening meal of one of my favourite seafoods, large, luscious sole fillets. So I followed my own advice for quick chilling, and immersed the bottle up to its neck in an ice bucket.

Being a male chauvinist at heart, while the other half of the partnership attended to the meal with all the dexterity of a cordon bleu chef, I then lounged back, exercising the imagination with a tantalising mental picture of sole fillets, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and cooked to a light, golden brown in oil and butter, arriving at the table garnished with lemon wedges and parsley. A request from the kitchen to set the table brought me abruptly back to the present.

The pangs of hunger forced me to smother my resentment of such a menial task, but ! complied and, by the time we sat down to the meal exactly as I had imagined, half an hour had passed. It was at this stage that I remembered the wine, hastily rescued it from the ice bucket and unceremoniously filled out glasses. Although I felt that the other ’arf was rather critical when she commented that the bouquet was faint, I took little notice at the time, so engaged was I with the culinary masterpiece. But on reflection I was compelled to agree, and I also considered the acid level to be high and the fruit quality thin. It was not until after the meal, sated and drowsy in front of the box, that I

poured another glass — and the difference was remarkable. The bouquet had strengthened and there was a smooth, full bodied fruit quality which had not been there before. We normally employ three of our five senses — sight, smell and taste — in assessing wine, but on this occasion a fourth one, touch, was brought into play. The “feel” of the wine as it flowed over the palate, and lingered, was obvious, and the lift in temperature had released all the qualities wpich had previously been marked, ' ■ • SO there we have it — an explanation,-,; but not an excuse. '.And the moral is plain. Don’t riiin.a good wine through over chilling. Wine drinkers who are passing through the transitional. phase frortii,white; to

red wines will find a great deal to’ interest them in Corbons Merlot 1980. Merlot is not often produced as straight wine style. It is the grape which is used in the Medoc -, district of Bordeaux for blending with cabernet sauvignon to impart a softness and roundness to the-wine.

Now that it is beginning to be grown in commercial quantity it is quite on. the cards .that it will replace pinotage in our cabernet pinotage blends. The-, Corbans version is certainly soft and round and is- a welcome alternative to-the medium style hybrid reds which have so far been offered.

A further step towards regional identification of wines has been taken by Montana when releasing their 1980 Gisborne Chardonnay. Montana Chardonnay has always been grown in Gisborne, but it will now be policy to say so on the label. National distribution has been made of this distinctive dry white, which is showing excellent development in the bottle. First exhibited in the 1980 national competition in which it won a bronze, it progressed to a silver in the. 1981 Easter Show competition.

Although the volume was only marginally greater than that of 1979, and stocks are not expected to last beyond six months, Chardonnay fans will be pleased to know that the price is unchanged, a rare thing in these inflationary days.

An accolade is given this week to a man who has compiled a wine list with the best combination of aesthetic appeal and practicability which has so far come my way.

Barry Rozynsky, maitre d’ of the Autolodge Motor Inn, in a compact four pages, has listed 40 wines from France, New Zealand, South Africa, Italy, Portugal, Germany and Australia, 21 of the total being. New Zealand-produced.

The criteria for inclusion were, firstly, a wide representative range of styles to suit all tastes, followed by quality and price and, perhaps most important, continuity of supply, thus avoiding the ( embarrassing and frustrating experience of a diner’s not being able to obtain a listed wine.

If this should ■ happen, however, a foreword assures the customer that an effort will have been made to supply a suitable substitute. V