68 & 69. Haselgrove Sovereign Series Cab Merlot 2004 and Riparosso Illuminati 2004

I’m afraid that I don’t have a good story to go with these except that Isla and I had a Friday off together (which is rare with my shifts) and we decided to go out to a rustic Italian restaurant about 15 mins walk from the flat.

It was a BYOB and unlike other places we had been before, there was no corkage. Amazing. Next door was a “1st Choice” liquor shop which had one of the best selections of wine I’d eve seen. What struck me most about the place was that when I walked in I asked one of the staff to recommend something to go with Italian food she started jibbering on about all the wines they had.

She then said, “However, these are our premium wines and if all you are having is pasta or pizza then there is a whole bunch of more affordable wines over there,” waving to the far corner of the store. I went straight over there but I wasn’t disappointed as all the crap wine here his the same stuff they send back home. Therefore $10 (less than a fiver) was able to buy me a bottle of Wolfblass, Penfolds, Oxford Landing or Tempus Two. I couldn’t believe how much they sell these wines for.

Anyway, I decided to choose two that I’d not had before and the end result was very pleasant. We drank the Haslegrove at the restaurant and then sat out on our balcony drinking the Riparosso well into the night and chatting to our mates back home on the computer. Amazing.