A White Dog Point & A Fish
Fishing for food…
I’m in Queensland and the night air is deliciously humid.
I’ve spent the last half hour ripping the heads and guts off some freshly cooked prawns, which I’m enjoying alongside a slice of grilled Snapper and a green salad.
I’m not a huge fan of white wine in general (a copious amount of goon sacks having been drunk my uni days may have had something to do with this), but seafood as good as this calls for a nice white wine to compliment it. The lady at the local Dan Murphy’s is happy to oblidge, recommending a 2011 Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region of New Zealand.
A mouthful of Dog Point Sav Blanc is generously flavoursome and fruity. As far as white wine goes, this bright green drop has a lot of depth, so much that I can only have a couple of glasses before it becomes too sweet to drink. Nevertheless, it works it’s magic on the meal, cheekily enhancing the flavour of the seafood. The tasting notes on this particular vintage hint at lemongrass and passionfriut aromas, which I can’t really pinpoint but must be somewhere there in the mix. The first glass is refreshingly crisp, which is beautiful between bites. The Dog Point label is boring by my standards, but it gets the job done. Love the name.
Overall, the 2011 Dog Point presents itself as a good, solid, everyday drinking wine. Drink a glass or two with your meal then wack it back in the fridge until you next meal calls for it.
A Small Sidestep…
Tonight I faced a conundrum that has undoubtably baffled ameteur white wine drinkers for years = What is the best way to chill white wine?
Enter, Papa Bear.
Always willing to share a long-winded story, and various gems of alcohol-related information, Papa Bear aquired most of his knowledge during his short-lived, but illustrative career working at the Pymble Golf Club (aka. the crappy job that paid for his university degree an aeon ago)
The answer, he pronounces, is simple – wrap a wet cloth around the bottle, and place it in the freezer for about 10 minutes. The wet cloth acts fast, successfully removing the heat from the bottle.
Genius.
Note on the fridge…
I picked up a bottle of Dog Point at Dan Murphy’s for about $24. If you want to pay a little less for a bottle of similar quality, I’d recommend you ask the store manager for the closest thing to an Australian equivalent.
As a vineyard, Dog Point only produce Sav Blancs, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. You’ll find some refreshingly succinct tasting notes on their website here.
On a personal note, I promise to start talking more about white wine on this blog. I will forever be in love with Shiraz, but I’m making it my mission to explore whites as much as I do reds.
Ciao, from your devoted Barfly.
