Dan and I polished off a bottle of the 2001 Charles Melton Rose of Virginia tonight. Now, that was something. That wasn't like anything I've had before, it was very good value at about US $8, and I'm very impressed. Thanks Julian for the recommendation.
We also stopped by the near-original Dan Murphy's today. The actual original store is now lying derelict across the street in Prahran, but its replacement was staggeringly good. I could easily have spent all day there fantasizing about ways to shoplift, but instead I chose three bottles and got out of there.
Now, Julian's talked about Hunter Valley aged semillon, but the store only had three different kind-of aged semillons. One was a Rosemount from 1998 that looked fine at $20, another was something probably rilly good from the Hunter at $42, and I settled for a 1995 Clare Valley semillon from Mitchell. It may well be over the hill but I didn't really want to pay more than $20. (I'm also ignorant enough not to have known at the time that it may be too old.) I also went home with Chandon's first red sparkling wine (pinot/shiraz) which has only very recently started shipping at $18, and a bottle of 1996 Tahbilk marsanne, which I'm really looking forward to. (That was $20.)
Dan picked up two bottles as well: an incredibly beautifully packaged bottle of McLaren Vale zinfandel, and a 1995 Penfolds shiraz/mataro/grenache blend. In fact, the Zin is probably the best looking bottle I've seen since I got here. Woooohooo. Well, we'll get around to it sooner or later!
