Last Sunday at The Prince of Wales Hotel in St Kilda, on a cold and wet day, I indulged in a classic roast beef with Yorkshire pudding baked to perfection, standing triumphant on the side of the plate, making my mind race back to my mother’s Sunday roast dinners when I was a teenager.
My mouth began to water just looking at the dish set before me: Three thick slices of tender beef with flecks of pink running through the meat. That lay on top of green beans cooked crisp, side by side the flawless roast potatoes and carrots and that Yorkshire pudding baked to perfection, with a jug of gravy on the side. Everything was exactly right; the stage was set. All we needed was a wine worthy of the meal.
This was exactly what I craved, a roast meal, with a deserving bottle of wine; we chose the Penfolds St Henri 2018.
The wine went into a decanter on the table, and we swirled it from time to time to help aerate it. Hints of earth and black plum filled the nose as the wine hit the middle palate, where bright, approachable, dusty tannins dominated.
As the wine opened up, blackberry fruit became more full-bodied; it is hard to believe the wine has not seen new oak at all, as the tannin/acid offer the wine structure and mouthfeel that, for me, completed the meal, making it an English classic to remember.
The wine is under stelvin and as such will live for years to come; However, for myself, I really enjoy the tannin and acid level of this still young wine.
PS. Penfolds St Henri 2018 vintage – Rated Outstanding.
Michael Lillis
