My New Year Wine picks.

[Skeeter]

Happy New Year, everyone. (It's nearly 1am New Zealand time) Had an excellent roast beef dinner with the in-laws and cracked a couple of cellar-dwellers to see in '09.

2000 Villa Maria Reserve Merlot/Cab Sav: I baptised my new Speigelau glassware (won at a staff Xmas "funny money" auction) with this one. Probably in it's prime, but not ready for the retirement home just yet, with a nice ruby rim surrounding an amazing and still-deeply coloured heart. Needed a bit of swirling to open up, with the slight "nail-polish remover" aromas I'd read about in online TNs being present on opening. Soon became more like black liqourice, though. Super-smooth, will all the tannins having slipped into the background, leaving the plum and blackcurrant fruits to merge into a complex, ever-changing mouthful. Top-class stuff.

For dessert:

2006 Daniel Schuster Late Harvest Riesling: Not a super-sticky wine, just clean and balanced with ripe tropical and citrus fruits and maybe a touch of botrytis. (It's been in my wardrobe since Xmas '07, so the technical details have long left the ol' brainbox.)

A good way to finish the year. Now, where's that bottle of whiskey liquer to start of '09 in equally good form?