An Australian Adventure – Opimian Event

The local chapter of the Opimian Society hosted one of its wine tasting events this past Saturday night. Area Representatives Dave Conway and Courtney Escott were our hosts for an intimate gathering featuring wines from one of the Society’s long-time Australian suppliers – Wines by Geoff Hardy.

Wines by Geoff Hardy has four labels: GMH, Pertaringa, Hand-Crafted by Geoff Hardy, and K1. They are located in South Australia, mainly in McLaren Vale and the nearby Adelaide Hills district. Geoff Hardy is the founder of the firm, and one of the pioneers of the region. He is one of the Hardy family, but not associated with the Hardy conglomerate and their wines found at the NLC. I visited Pertaringa (McLaren Vale) and K1 (Adelaide Hills) last spring and wrote about it in this blog posting.

The main feature of the evening was, of course the wine selection, all of which were GMH labels, except for one Bordeaux inserted for comparative purposes, and a Spanish brandy digestive. Our reception wine was the White Meritage, a blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc in the Bordeaux tradition, which was accompanied by a selection of cheeses and sliced meats. When everyone had arrived we sat down to work our way through the reds: Red Meritage – a Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Malbec; Cabernet Sauvignon; and Shiraz.

The reds were tasted with a buffet-style serving of Mexican cuisine from Quesada’s off Kelsey Drive. The New World style reds matched up well with the tasty and somewhat spicy tacos and burritos. We sampled a Château Picard, a Cru Bourgeois from Saint-Estèphe in Bordeaux, for contrast with an Old World style wine. Dessert was matched with a “stickie”, a sweet white wine also under the GMH label, made from Semillon. We finished up the evening with Brigadier Brandy, made by Perez Barquero in the Montilla-Moriles region of Andalusia, Spain.

Wine Notes

GMH White Meritage 2015 (OS $24.70) – Good way to start the evening – good intensity, juicy acidity, delicious. Score: 15/Very Good.

GMH Red Meritage 2014 (OS $23.83) – True to its name, this wine could easily be mistaken for a Bordeaux on the nose, a particularly concentrated Bordeaux at that. The mouth proved fruitier with less acidity/structure than the French style. Great value. Score 15.5/Very Good.

GMH Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 (OS $23.83) – Dead in the middle of what we expect from this grape: cassis nose, good structure, and that little gap in the mid-palate! Score: 15/Very Good.

GMH Shiraz 2014 (OS $23.83) – My top red wine of the night showing intensity, complexity in both nose and mouth, structure, and a long finish. Score: 16/Very Good. Can’t beat the price.

Château Picard 2005 (NLC $41.78) – Represented the region very well, while showing off just how good the 2005 vintage can be. Drinking very well now. Score: 16/Very Good.

GMH Noble Sweet White 2013 (OS $26.17) – Easily mistaken for a good Sauternes – enough said! Score: 16/Very Good.

Perez Barquero Brigadier Brandy (OS $25.50 for 500 ml) – Aged in old Montilla-Moriles (similar to sherry) barrels, this brandy is smooth and supple, a good example of the Spanish style.

Opimian Society

The Opimian Society is Canada’s largest, national, not-for-profit wine club. The Society offers more than 500 exclusive wines a year to its members, all of them tasted and selected by a Master of Wine, Jane Masters. Wines are supplied by small and medium sized producers from every major wine region of the world. Opimian is organized through more than twenty local chapters in every province and two territories, each one supported by an Area Representative. In addition to customer service, the Area Rep hosts local tasting events which are both educational and wonderful social occasions!

Full Disclosure: I am currently a member of the Board of the Opimian Society.