Gibraltar Rock Chardonnay 2004

Its Friday night and there's always time for a relaxing drink to wind-down a working week. Given that tonight's meal consists of DIY pesto linguine pasta with buttered prawns and scallops, a quick look at the private 'cellar' (wardrobe) and pulled out a Chardonnay from the Porogurup region situated in Western Australia.

Appearance: Clear, young-looking, medium gold coloured wine.

Nose: The wine is quite accessible with slight aromas of lime and peach, while oak is fairly subtle.

Palate: Quite an uplifting medium-bodied wine with good length and balance. Wine is quite approachable with tastes consisting of lime and plenty of zest. I am surpirsed that it hasn't aged a bit more considering its been cellared for approximately 5 years, as it is still quite a young tasting wine. With more aeration the wine showed greater texture and cleaniness driven by citrus flavours.

Summary: Although it is not my personal preference, the wine is fresh, clean and showing citrus characteristics that drinks well now.

Overall: "Good - Every day drinking wine" - 6 / 10

Menghai 7632 Ripe Pu-erh Tea Cake 2008

The #7632 is a classic recipe from Menghai which uses an average of Grade 3 fermented pu-erh.

This is indeed a very good everyday cooked pu-erh tea from Menghai Tea Factory. Upon opening the tea cake gave a hint of a slight sweet, woody fragrance; while colour of the leaves were medium brown coloured combined with lightly coloured yellow leaves covering the cake. Note the cake is quite compacted which requires a bit of care when separating the leaves, to ensure leaves are not broken and creating bitterness when brewing the tea.

Aroma of the cake was quite subtle with mellowing hints of sweetness and floral charateristics, a good example of an above-average cooked pu-erh tea. Once brewed, the taste gives a real sweet, smooth silky taste in your mouth, albeit the finish to the palate was a bit short. Colour of the tea was a bit reddish similar to lipton red from the tea bag, there is absolutely no bitterness or astrigentness to this drink and definitely quite balanced for a beginner like myself.

For Ripe/Cooked pu-erh tea I always use the yixing pot as recommended by many, and normally just a small pot for individual use. I have so far extensivley used this pot, hoping this will be the first to develop a nice coating/shine that retains the flavor and color of the tea.

Overall it is a decent cooked pu-erh tea which is very good for everyday drinking purposes!

Brewing Parameters:
Vessel – Yixing Teapot 125 ml
Tea Amount - Approx 8 grams
Water Temperature – Boiling Water
Infusion Times – 1st brew – 12s; 2nd brew 10s; 3rd brew 15s

Score – 7.5 / 10