Lunches
23 July 2024 Nick Reynolds
Wine review by Stephen O'Halloran
The theme for today was Spanish, which is just about my go-to style of cooking these days. Nick Reynolds was wearing two hats today, taking on the cooking role as well as his normal duties as Wine Master. The pass-arounds and main were delicious, well done Nick. For more details see Food Report.
For starters, we enjoyed an Albarino, a white from Spain 13%, 2022. An excellent choice, fresh with prominent fruit flavours of pear and citrus, but quite dry, with a firm crisp acidic finish. The wine was perfect for the pass-arounds. I think we should congratulate our Wine Master for introducing us to this style of wine from Europe, which along with the Soave we had a few weeks ago makes a rewarding alternative to our usual entrée wines such as Riesling and Semillon. Nothing at all wrong with these, but a change is enjoyable as well as being an insight into wine styles we are not familiar with. I was assisting with the wine pours and this wine received uniform praise. More, please.
The lunch wines were a collection of four good quality Spanish reds of various vintages ranging from 2010 to 2022. First was the La Vendimia 2021 14%. A blend of Garnacha and Tempranillo, spicy, medium body, tannic and acidic overtones, a lightish wine style built for immediate consumption, a happy wine, just the drink to go with a big plate of garlic prawns. Nice clean flavours, very drinkable.
The second wine was the Joven Mencia from the producer Guimaro 2022 12.5%. Sadly, a bottle of this wine did not find its way to our table, so I am unable to comment further.
Wine no 3 was the Marco Abella Priorat Loidana 2013 14.5%. A very impressive wine in my view. A blend of Garnacha and Carigan drinking beautifully. Very well rounded fruit flavours of black cherry and leather. Strong robust colour of deep red. Some gentle tannin and acid carried it through to an appealing finish. A very rewarding drink.
Wine 4 was the 2010 Torres Salmos 14.5%. This was by any yardstick, a big wine. Deeply coloured red/blackish, with an alluring aroma. The bottle had one of the longest labels I have ever seen, running nearly the length of the bottle, written in both Spanish and English in fine print. Despite all this information the label failed to tell anyone what the wine was made from! This seems to be a habit of European winemakers who seem loathe to share the composition of their product. Not to be deterred, I consulted Dr Google and found that the wine was a blend of Grenache, Shiraz and Carignan. I really enjoyed this wine with its sweetish chewy dark berry flavours. Well balanced combination of tannin and oak produced a strong, powerful finish that lingered. For a wine that is now 14 yo, it showed no sign of ageing, although it was clearly a wine with plenty of bottle age. A great choice.
I noticed that some tables shared a bottle of Ch Rochemorin 2014 from Bordeaux, however, I did not taste the wine, so there is no news on that front.
16 July 2024 Rob Guthrie
Food review by Mark Bradford and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran
Food
Banging the pans today was first-time Chef of the Day Rob Guthrie, with Paul Mitchell doing the canapes. A very cold winter’s day but ideal for Rob’s rack of lamb. As is usual for this time of year, numbers were down a little because of northern hemisphere travel and a few local cases of flu.
Canapes
Paul gave us three canapes today. We started off with pea and mint fritters topped with crème fraiche and chilli jam. Good colours and taste, these fritters were served at room temperature.
Next up were parmesan cheese and paprika pastry tartlets filled with red pepper, tomato paste, harissa, cheddar cheese, double cream and chives, topped with sliced cherry tomatoes. Again, lots of colour and flavour and they were served warmed.
Paul’s final offering was somewhat unusual. Inspired by his wife Louise, these were haloumi, mint and pistachio nut baklavas, drizzled with honey syrup.
Well done Paul with much effort being put into preparing these vegetarian starters to get the lunch underway.
Main
The main course was a crusted lamb rack, inspired by the late Bill Grainger. The crust was made from oven toasted sourdough bread broken into crumbs and mixed with Italian parsley, garlic, olive oil and lots of lemon zest and seasoning.
The lamb which had been French trimmed was prepared by searing the fat side, then coating with Dijon mustard and pressing the crumbs in. It was cooked on high heat to crust and crunch the crumbs and allow the lamb to come to the table pink. It was served with cherry tomatoes on the vine that were roasted in olive oil with garlic pieces.
The jus was made from roasted veal bones and vegetables reduced over 18 hours then strained to form the demi-glace. This is later combined with chicken stock and further reduced then seasoned.
The side dish of French beans and mangetout is an Ottolenghi recipe, the beans and mangetout were blanched, dried then combined with roasted hazelnuts, orange zest, chives and flaky sea salt. The dressing was a mixture of hazelnut oil, olive oil and orange juice. It was served at or close to room temperature.
The mash was made by running cooked potatoes through a potato ricer, then blending with butter and sour cream.
All was accompanied by wholemeal sour dough from the Organic Bread Bar in Surry Hills.
Comments from the floor were absolutely full of praise for an excellent high-quality meal that required a large and lengthy effort in its preparation and presentation. Well done Rob.
Cheese
The Society Cheesemaster presented an Aphrodite barrel-aged feta, selected by Will Studd. This is an authentic hand-made Greek feta, well-known to the Society, made with sheep and goat milk, that is carefully ripened in small, old beech wood barrels using traditional techniques that date back to the time when nomadic shepherds roamed the hills of northern Greece.
The barrels enable small amounts of oxygen to reach the salted curds as they ferment under whey, and the natural flora in the wooden staves helps to encourage a unique yeasty aroma. Each barrel is filled with curds by hand and after the cheese has been removed, it must be broken down stave by stave, washed and rebuilt by a skilled cooper. After three months maturation in the barrel, the feta develops a soft milky texture and a seriously creamy peppery finish that is well suited to lamb dishes.
Wine
A smallish group (25?) gathered to sample the Board of Fare prepared by our most recent new Chef Rob Guthrie, ably assisted by his Sous Chef Paul Mitchell. I think it is fair to say that we all went away with very favourable opinions about this team’s abilities with the pans. Some enjoyable pass arounds, followed by perfectly cooked lamb racks arriving on the table in ideal condition. Delicious. See the food report for more details. With regard to the wines, our Cellarmaster was conducting another clear out and as a result, there were only a few bottles of the same wine drunk by everybody. My report is accordingly briefer than usual. The aperitif wines were two sparkling wines, a Champagne from Jacquart NV and a Seppelt Salinger Sparkling 2010 12.5%. As a matter of interest and pride in one of our members, the Salinger was in fact made by our own resident winemaker Chilly Hargraves! Both wines were enjoyable drinking, and trying to be as objective as one could be, I found the Salinger to be a much superior glass of bubbles. More flavour, persistent beads of tiny bubbles lasting right to the end, of a delightful crisp acid finish. Congratulations Chilly, a fine wine, drinking incredibly freshly for a 14 yo. Sadly, these bottles were the last in our cellar.
Moving onto the lunch wines we all consumed the first which was a Wynns Coonawarra Cabernet 2013 14%. Those members who read my report of last week will be in no doubt about my views on this Australian classic. Ever reliable, it never fails to impress. This particular bottle had that predictable huge berry fruit blackcurrant initial flavour, followed thru by firm tannins and a sweet oak finish with pleasing acidity. Now 11 yo the wine is just about hitting its straps in terms of maximum maturity. A sheer delight.
The second wine we all shared was the Orlando St Hugo Coonawarra Cab 2006. I'm not quite sure what went wrong here, but the wine seemed flat and disappointing. By no means undrinkable, but just not up to the usual standard of this renowned label. Perhaps getting a little tired as an 18 yo, with acid falling away leading to a flabby aftertaste. Sad really, I was hoping for something better from this usually fine producer.
That is all members, as from here on we were all drinking different wines.
9 July 2024 Amoush from REX team
Food review by Mark Bradford and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran
Food
Today’s lunch was presented by Amoush from the REX. Amoush is known for his Nepalese expertise, but a twist in theme this time around. Agreed by all, the result was sensational.
Canapes
We started off with vegetable skewers. They contained paneer cheese, usually made by curdling milk with lemon juice or vinegar, and mushroom shitake. Then hibachi grilled whilst continuously brushed with cumin, coriander powder, mustard, linseed powder, chilli powder and S&P to taste. These offerings were best described as flavour bombs, they blew the members away with their quality of taste.
Amoush then served up a chicken spring roll. It contained chicken thigh marinated in tandoori paste, yogurt, lemon juice and S&P, roasted in the oven. The mix consisted of shredded tandoori chicken, mozzarella cheese, capers and chopped pickle gherkins, all inside spring roll pastry and deep fried.
The second canape was a wonderful counterfoil to the first, much heavier and clearly well-conceived by a top chef. The canapes were also matched well with the starter wines on offer.
Main
Our main meal was a fusion of West and east – a porchetta of pork belly and Asian spices. The pork was stuffed with chopped ginger, garlic paste, roasted tomato, onion, spring onion, Nepalese spices (salt, Szechwan pepper, fenugreek seeds, turmeric, cumin, coriander, asafoetida, and chilli flakes) and then rolled. The pork had a sauce of a curry base (including tomato, ginger and garlic) cooked with pork stock, reduced to a desired consistency, then strained to make a smooth jus.
Amoush served this with a separate chat potato side. The potatoes were roasted in vegetable oil, S&P, and when the desired colour and crispness was reached, mixed with ginger, garlic, toasted Sichuan pepper, cumin, coriander powder, chat masala, chopped coriander and spring onion.
Cheese
The Society Cheesemaster had a well-earned week off. Head Chef Rob Doll served a Manchego; in theme, as the la Mancha region of central Spain is known for pork dishes, often with Manchego stuffing. Accompanied by a wonderful salad.
To this scribe, one of our best meals on offer today.
Wine
I think today was one of those occasions when you just hunker down, draw the wagons together, light a fire and just hope for better days when spring arrives. With a very small turnout,( maybe 30?) and some very unexciting wines, it could have been a very dull affair, but into each life, a little rain must fall, to make us appreciate the better days. The day was however saved by the superb roast pork loin served by Amoush. Read more in the food review.
About the wines, we had a bit of a cellar clear out, nothing wrong with that, so we had an array of wines on which I will only comment on the ones I tasted. The first was a German Riesling we had a few weeks ago (12 June) a Gunderloch from the Rhinehessen 2021 11.5%, a fine Riesling with, great balance between fruit and acid. Dryish with a lovely crisp finish, perhaps one of the better Rieslings going around. The second wine I happened upon was the Hugel 2019 Gewurtztraminer 14.5%. This wine on its own would be regarded as a little too cloying and sweet for the Australian palate, but a well made wine. However drunk on the heels of the Riesling, the residual sugar was too much to be ignored for an aperitif wine.
Moving onto the lunch wines we started off with a Brian Croser Tapanappa Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay 2021 14%. In my experience over many years, Croser has always made a distinctive style of Chardy, tight, restrained and disciplined, some times It seemed to me that flavour was a secondary consideration. His Petaluma range of wines both Chardy and Cabernet were however much sought after. A corporate restructure was carried out in the early 2000s with Croser establishing the Tapanappa label in 2002 with fruit grown in the Piccadilly Valley of South Australia. The wine today a 2021 Chardy was to me a letdown. I accept that being critical of a Croser wine is akin to heresy, being arguably our greatest winemaker in the last 30 years, but from my perspective, this wine had little to offer. Unyielding, mean and tight with little fruit flavours, no real joy. Some at my table said the wine improved when mixed with the flavours of the pork main, which were delicious, however for me, the wine never recovered from that frosty initial first meeting.
The second lunch wine was a Vinden Estate Basket Press Shiraz from the Hunter 2010, 13.5%. By no means objectionable, just a little tired. Probably hiding in our cellar for 6 or 7 years beyond its best drinking date, the wine had lost acid and had become flat and flabby. No real joy there, sad really to see a good wine left in the cellar too long. Our Winemaster is on the right track in conducting regular cellar clearouts to reduce the frequency of failures such as the poor old Vinden Estate did today.
The third wine was a terrific Fraser Gallop Parterre Chardonnay 2014 from the Margaret River region 12.5%. To my taste, this wine ran rings around the Tapanappa. Right from the first sip, the wine was warm and generous with mouth-filling flavours of mixed stone fruits. Great balance leads to a rewarding clean finish. A great partner for the pork main. A lovely wine.
The final wine for the day was the ever-reliable Wynns Black Label Coonawarra Cabernet 2009, 14%. Here’s to Sue Hodder and her team at Wynns for producing year after year a consistently high-quality Cabernet. I can always remember having my first glass of this wine, a 1965 vintage, drunk at the Burning Log Restaurant near Dural in the very early 70s. I can still recall the powerful berry fruit flavours which have remained with me ever since. 50 years + have gone by, but the initial impact remains clear in my mind. The Wynns Cabernet has become a Society favourite, with good reason. Great value always, I am sure I have never had a poor bottle of this wine. Today’s wine now 15 yo showed full maturity, wonderfully integrated oak and tannin with that unmistakable Wynns flavour of mature Cabernet, powerful and lingering. Drinking at its peak now, but with all the required structures to go on for at least another 5 years.
2 July 2024 Steve Sparkes
Food review by James Hill
Food
Steve Sparkes was in the kitchen today cooking an American-themed lunch based on the food of San Francisco.
Steve was assisted by our Cellarmaster Nick Reynolds.
Canapés
Nick prepared the canapés today. First up, smoked ocean trout on a bagel with cream cheese, onion and capers.
Then followed sliders or burgers based on the famous Shake Shack burger. If you have ever been to the States this is the go-to place. Very authentic. Nick used Martin’s potato rolls, fried the inside and then melted some Kraft cheese over not a quarter pounder but an eighth of a pounder and topped it with lettuce and tomato. The sauce was made with mayonnaise, ketchup, yellow mustard, dill pickle, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne pepper mayonnaise, ketchup and American mustard.
Who doesn’t love a burger?
We all did, the burgers were perfect and moreish as were the bagels.
Professor Mark Bradford told us the story of the name hamburger originated. It was the diaspora of the Germans in the late 18th century who used to walk around eating steak and bread. Most of them were from Hamburg therefore they became known as hamburgers.
Main
Steve presented a meal that he had when he was first in San Francisco, it’s known as Cioppino and is considered the signature dish of San Francisco, a seafood stew. The ingredients today were cuttlefish, gemfish, prawns, pippies and mussels. The sauce was made with tomatoes, onion, capsicum, celery, leeks and chilli adding herbs oregano and basil.
Loved the flavours and the seafood was perfectly cooked.
Steve says this is normally served in a loaf of sourdough however somewhat difficult to replicate at our lunch so he purchased provided sourdough from Baker Bleu in Double Bay to go with the Cioppino.
We had the sourdough country roll with the stew perfect for ‘scarpetta’ as the Italians say. This is the indescribable pleasure of sopping up the sauce.
There were some comments on the warmth of the broth. Steve advising it was it was boiling when it was plated and obviously lost a little bit of temperature between the kitchen and the dining room not so much as to the detriment of the flavour.
Loved the seafood dish today, plenty to go around. No one went home hungry another great meal from our team today.
Thanks Nick and Steve.
Cheese
Our Cheesmaster, in theme, presented a cow’s milk cheese from Vermont USA.
It came to the table at a perfect temperature, moist and creamy with a pleasant sweetness.
This clothbound cheese is the result of an unusual collaboration and is now recognized as one of the finest traditional cheddars produced in the USA.
Cabot Dairy Cooperative make the cheese with milk from a single herd of Holstein cows and their own unique starter cultures at their huge facility in Vermont. The wheels are then transported to Mateo and Andy Kehler’s picturesque farmhouse dairy at Jasper Hill for expert aging. After being carefully bound in cheesecloth and smeared with lard, the 16kg wheels are matured for at least 12 months in the underground caves carved out of the green hillside.
The result is crystalline-flecked, moist and crumbly cheddar with a sweet, tangy caramel flavour.
Steve served this with dried apricots and candied pecan nuts.
The crunchy and crusty baguette from Baker Bleu was the perfect bread to go with the cheese.
25 June 2024 Paul Ferman
Food review by Mark Bradford and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran
Food
A cool winter’s day saw Paul Ferman prepare lunch for a nearly full house. Mr Ferman is known for his use of quality and organic produce, with Feather and Bone being Paul’s go to providore.
Canapes:
Paul started us off with a very tasty vegetable soup. An excellent pancetta stick was produced as well as a good moist vegetable terrine.
Great flavours in all canapes and a good match for the starter wines.
Main:
Paul served a fine Cassoulet. It contained lots of well-cooked beans, an excellent Toulouse sausage, great confit duck, the meal having lot of texture and well-balanced rich flavours. The large effort to produce the meal for a full house was appreciated and a good match for the wines.
Cheese:
In theme, the Cheesemaster served Onetik Ossau Iraty, a Basque French cheese and a Society favourite. This is a hard artisan sheep milk cheese. Basque cheese making traditions date back at least 4000 years. Onetik is the largest dairy cooperative in the French Basque region collecting milk from 250 dairies across the Ossau Valley and Iraty Forest. Only milk from the local breeds of sheep - Manech and Basco- Bearnaise and traditional techniques can be used under PDO conditions. An uncooked, pressed curd cheese, the rind is washed, and hand salted during six months maturation which encourages a hard crusty rind. It develops a succulent firm texture and complex flavour, developing notes of hazelnut and a slightly sweet finish.
Wine
For our wine lunch yesterday, we were treated to an excellent cassoulet from Paul Ferman together with some delicious wines from the Rhone district, finishing with a terrific cheese. Great food and wine, all for $95. The WFS is for sure the place to be at!
A full room of members arrived promptly, if not a little early, to enjoy the aperitifs so much so that when I arrived bang on 12.30 pm, the first apéritif wine had gone! Apparently, I did not miss much as I was told it was oxidised and not worth drinking. Hence, I cannot report on this little number, the Haut Coustias Blanc 2016. Pity, as I enjoy poking fun at a poor bottle, which does not happen often. We were then provided with a mix of enjoyable white wines, a Toolangi and a Tyrrells and perhaps something else, which passed muster.
We then were presented with 6 red wines from both Northern and Southern Rhone, 4 from the North and 2 from the South. At the outset, just let me say that reviewing wines that are very similar is quite hard work, unlike 6 different wines which is quite easy. We had 5 wines from the well-known producer Guigal, and one from another producer. During comments on the wines, it was mentioned that Guigal wines follow a distinctive wine style, much similar to our Penfolds. I agree strongly with that view. Hence, I found little difference in the first 4 wines from Northern Rhone, all Syrah which were:
No 1. Yves Cuilleron 2012. 12.5%. Massive deep colour, spicy, complex array of dark fruit flavours, powerful finish, a very good wine.
No 2. the Guigal Cote Rotie Brune et Blonde 2012 13%. A plummy, again spicy taste, much lighter in texture and colour than the preceding wine. Possibly a little over-oaked, but finishing with clean strong flavours. Most enjoyable.
No 3. The Guigal 2009 edition of the same wine. 13.5%. Again, a lighter style, very elegant, finishing with a firm dry, almost puckery tannic aftertaste. Some oak influence was evident.
No 4. A Guigal 2010 St Joseph 13.5%. Another dense Syrah, big fruit flavours with a delicate mix of tannin and oak. A strongly flavoured wine, but well balanced. An enjoyable wine.
Wines 5 and 6 were from the Southern Rhone district, around the township of Avignon. They were both Chateauneuf Du Pape wines, made from mainly Grenache, with a host of other wine varieties going into the mix, in small quantities. Wine experts rate the wine as the best example of Grenache grown in France. This wine is one of the most revered wines of France, tracing its origins to the 14th Century when Pope Clement V transferred the Papal Court from Rome to Avignon. The wine takes its name from that change of address, meaning in English “the Pope's new castle“ and not the Pope’s 9th Home, as sometimes suggested. In any event, both wines were worthy of a Papal Blessing.
Wine 5 was from Guigal 2005 13.5%, by popular acclaim the wine of the day, with good reason. Smooth and svelte, redolent with sweetish, complex dark Grenache fruit aromas, rich but not cloying. A faint of tannin on the last delicious sip. A really classy wine.
Wine 6 was my favourite, due mainly to its magnificent chewy, stewed fruit finish. Wine 5 was by far a better all-rounder for a meal, but No 6 with the Ossau Iraty cheese was a finish to the day that only His Holiness could bestow on us humble supplicants. To me, an awesome wine, drinking superbly at 25 YO. Just wish I had some!
I will not be there next week, attending a school Grandparents Day for my two youngest grandchildren. Look forward to catching up on the 9th.
18 June 2024 Nigel Burton
Food review by James Hill and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran
Food
A nearly full house for Nigel Burton, Chef of the Year contender for 2023 and past joint COTY award winner, cooking a Marseilles Bouillabaisse.
Canapés
Greg Brunner and new member George Winyard assisted Nigel. Greg made mushroom pâte with garlic and thyme on a cheese biscuit with thyme and pepper. It had a good texture and flavour with a little heat.
Then pissaladière puff pastry, oily. I liked it. Onions, capsicum, olives and anchovies on puff pastry..loved it.
George’s canapé, West meets East, was a duck salad served in a crunchy wonton wrapper topped with sesame seeds and spring onions. The salad consisted of duck, hoisin sauce, lemon juice, sesame oil and cucumber. Big on flavour.
Main
Residents of Marseille are adamant that French fishermen eked basic sustenance from their unsightly leftover fish bits concocted this fish broth/soup/stew on the shores of the now sprawling metropolis. The name for this dish is derived from two actions bouillir (to boil) and abaisser (to reduce or simmer).
Nigel invited ast President John Banks to lunch today to give his verdict on Nigel’s efforts in the kitchen. John is renowned for his Bouillabaisse having produced it for fourteen years for our Melbourne cup lunch when our Society met at Lower Fort Street.
The stock was made up using the bones of traditionally Mediterranean fish Rascasse (known here as Scorpion) and Monkfish. To these fish, prawns, scallops and calamari were added to make up this traditional Bouillabaisse.
The Rouille was made using traditional ingredients of saffron, chilli, egg yolks and white vinegar, served on a slice of baguette.
Nigel’s signature “pommes frites” were a bonus!
It’s no easy feat to serve different types of seafood and have them come to the table with the integrity of the flesh preserved. Much research preparation and effort evident in today’s lunch. Thanks Nigel.
Pressure on the kitchen meant Nigel was unable to serve the broth at optimal temperature.
Many favourable comments on the dish today confirmed the verdict; yes Nigel, a success!
Cheese
Our Cheesemaster Mark Bradford, in theme, selected a goat's milk log ‘Buche de Montresor. It came to the table a little cool however the flavour profile was still very much evident.
Distinguished by the straw that runs through the centre, this cheese has been made for around a thousand years. The ashed rind makes a stunning contrast to the ivory-white centre.
Tasting Notes
Based on the traditional log shape of the region, the distinguishing characteristic of Buche de Montresor is the straw in the centre of the cheese. For 4 generations, this family run dairy has been making traditional goat’s milk cheeses on the borders of Touraine, Berry and Sologne, in the Centre region of France. Matured under a wrinkled geotrychum rind, each cheese is covered with salted, ground charcoal and cellared for 4 weeks.
When mature, the cheese looks quite rustic with flecks of blue mould on the rind. The ivory white paste is sweet, salty with a slightly acidic flavour and the fine texture changes as the cheese ages from soft to firm. The straw is placed in each cheese after the moulds are filled with curds, to provide strength by acting like a back bone to the delicate cheese.
Nigel served mixed-leaf salad dressed with tarragon, white wine, olives and garlic chives to go with the cheese.
Wine
Proceedings kicked off with a very enjoyable Soave from Monte Tondo 2021 12%. This wine from the Veneto region of Northern Italy was greeted by all with acclaim. I know because I was assisting with the wine pours, quizzing all and sundry what they thought, as I cannot recall us having this wine before. I did not detect one discordant note from the whole room, which is just about a first! we are a fussy lot. Anyhow this wine which is very popular in Italy is made from mainly the Garganego grape. Dry, but mouth filling, hard to describe the flavours, possibly a mixture of orange and honey with melon overtones. Nice clean finish. Overall a great success as a starter with food. More please. The 2023 is selling at Vintage Cellars for $18 PB. Gotta love that!
The next two wines were both Chardys, the Collector Tiger Tiger 2022 12.9%, from Tumbarumba fruit. We tried the 2021 of this wine a few months back, and it received a mixed response. This vintage however received an almost uniform negative assessment from the Room. The fruit content seemed reasonable, but there were a few things wrong. No typical flavour and no real crispness due possibly to a lack of acid balance. I will leave this one to the winemakers in our group to sort out the problems. Overall a rather sad wine.
The second Chardy the Toolangi 2018, 13% did not fare much better. 4 years older than the Collector, we were hoping that the extra bottle age might bring some joy after the disappointing first Chardy. Alas, we were bound for sorrow again. This wine seemed to replicate the faults of its predecessor. Looks like a joint failure on the Chardonnay front today! Most unusual.
Wine 3 eventually brought some joy to the room. The Yalumba Menzies Cigar from Coonawarra 2008 13.5%. Wonderful wine, just what was needed as Balm for our injured palates. This was a wine that Mr Menzies himself would have been proud of. Deep cabernet flavours of blackcurrant and blackberry resulting in a lingering powerful wine, dark almost impenetrable colour, tannin and oak blending in with perfection right through the middle palate till the satisfying finish. You guessed it, I really enjoyed this wine. Drinking at its peak at 16 yo. Looks like it could easily go on for another 10 years, all the required structure is there.
The final wine for the day brought us back to earth with a thud, in what has been an unusually poor day for our wines, with only 2 out of the 5 wines on display being up to our normal high standards. The 4th wine was a French Syrah from the reliable Northern Rhone grower Yves Cuilleron, the Les Vignes d ‘a Cote, 2014. 13%. Just what went wrong here is anyone’s guess. I was stumped. The wine did not even taste like a Syrah, no spicy pepper, no vibrant fruit at all. The wine had a faint trace of unripe fruit, or maybe at 10 yo it was tired, losing or had lost acid, leading to a flabby finish. Another one for Autopsy by our resident winemaker there on the day, Phil Laffer. Been a busy day Phil!
Today was an example of what Len Evans said decades ago, “you pay your money and take your chances“.
11 June 2024 Varun from Manjits
Food review by James Hill and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran
Food
Today’s lunch we saw the return of Varun and team from Manjit’s restaurant King’s Street wharf. Varun was introduced to our Society by member Grant Montgomery, they specialise Northern Indian style food. We had a feast with dishes ranging from street food to tandoori to their famous butter chicken. Famous because it was invented by their uncle. The main ingredients then were canned tomato soup, cream and chicken tikka. Food of quality and quantity, we sat for our canapés and entrees with wines served to the table. It was all there; colour and movement, texture and flavour, spice and heat, all handled and presented as we’d expect from a restaurant of this quality.
Canapes
Mini veg pakoras (fritters)
Chicken Sri Lankan rolls
Entrée
Chicken Banjara - the chicken is coated in a spicy marination of yogurt and then grilled in the tandoor.
Lamb Seekh Kebab (minced and skewered lamb)
Aloo Tikki Chaat, fried potato patties topped with sweet and sour tamarind chutney, spicy green chutney and yoghurt.
Mains
Rice
Butter Chicken
Lamb Roganjosh a very popular curry.
Dal Makhani lentil dips made with ura dal spices, cream and butter.
Bangain Bhartha. Bhartha is made with eggplant and tomato, and seasoned with cumin, turmeric garlic and ginger. Served with fresh naan bread.
Dessert
Gulab Jamun with ice cream, a ball of deep-fried paneer boiled in sugar syrup.
We gave our Cheesemaster a day off, this was a great way to finish dominated by cloves and rose water it was palate cleansing.
Wine
We were treated to some very fine Indian food which always makes it a bit tricky to assess the accompanying wine. Before I present my report on our lunch.
I just wanted to say how touched I am by the level of support I so often get from various members of our Society. Producing a weekly report to a gathering of wine experts and actual winemakers is a daunting task, however, from the outset, I discarded any self doubt and ploughed on regardless, determined to report with integrity, on how I saw the wines on that particular day. From comments I receive it seems I get it about right a lot of the time, other times very much not so. On such occasions, I imagine some may think, “this guy could not pick a Chardonnay from a glass of caustic soda!” It goes with the territory.
What however I do try hard to do is produce something interesting, informative and at times amusing, but above all else, never boring. Just keep those letters and cards rolling in folks, your encouragement is appreciated. SO’H.
Today we commenced with a Mosaique Champagne NV. Nice fine bead, with little bubbles, quite dry with a crisp acidic finish. More than adequate for an aperitif.
The first wine with the spicy food was a Gunderloch German Riesling 2021 11.5% from the Rhinehessen. An excellent wine, with great fruit, not at all sweet, balanced and finishing with an appealing aftertaste. Most enjoyable.
The same could not be said for the next wine, an Andrew Thomas Hunter Sem 2023, 8.5%. I am normally a fan of his wines, a top quality producer, but what on earth was he doing with this horrible little number? Over sugared, excessive acid, released after only 1 year from vintage, this was a wine that took me back 50 years to some of the truly horrible white wines that were sometimes produced in the Hunter at that time. I can understand how our Winemaster picked this wine to combat the strong spicy flavours of the food, and I suppose a sip of this with a mouthful of hot Indian food would override the excessive sugar, allowing the wine to be swallowed, but left to itself without any food, the wine had little to offer. Nasty.
Wine three was a Hugel Gewurztraminer 2019. Now this is a bit more like it, a great food wine for the spicy stuff, well balanced, mouth-filling but not cloying, clean finish. It is very hard to have a wine that satisfactorily complements Indian food, but this wine is about as close as you can get in my opinion. An excellent choice.
Wine four was my favourite of the day, the John Duval Entity Shiraz 2015 14.5%. I love his wines, being head winemaker at Penfolds for many years says it all about his ability to produce superb red wines. Since leaving Penfolds he has done consultancy work as well as producing magnificent wines from Barossa fruit under his own label. This is one of them. This wine exposed dark cherry, plumb and spicy Shiraz flavours, some tannin and oak, all of which came together in the mid palate producing a superb array of rounded flavours. My style of Shiraz, just wish my pocket felt the same way! John Duval must be our Patron Saint of Barossa Red Wines.
The final wine was the Eden Rd 2019 14.5% Shiraz. This attractive wine was grown in the Canberra wine region as it is now known, roughly between Lake George and Yass. Despite the fact that it was batting after Bradman, as I have frequently said about a wine following a star, this wine was excellent. Lighter than the Entity, this wine was, medium body, but great spicy Shiraz fruit with a clean, but enjoyable tannic finish, much less dense than the Entity. I could not help but think how this wine would compare with the Entity if it were 4 years older. Very favourably I would think.
Some terrific reds were a great way to finish the day.
4 June Hal Epstein
Food review by James Hill and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran
Food
‘We few, we happy few, band of brothers, ‘ said the bard of our Society, Peter Kelso, introducing comments on lunch today with Hal Epstein as our Chef of the Day.
Canapés
First up, chicken liver pâté made by yours truly served on crusty toasts topped with a pickled onion. This is a Thermomix recipe with an unusual ingredient of tomato paste. Moist lightly textured and flavoursome. It did need a little salt.
Next up Hal, to the Italian theme, prepared some buffalo mozzarella topped with sun-dried tomatoes on buttered ‘village‘ loaf sourdough.
Then came some warmed spinach and feta rolls made with filo pastry.
Main
Honeycomb tripe with fennel and tomato base in the passata and chopped styles combined with chilli and topped with hand-grated pecorino. Presented with mixed couscous (pearl and ordinary) and roasted cauliflower with a nice border of green arugula.
This dish had all the hallmarks, quality, texture and flavour. The combination of ingredients worked well and looked perfect on the plate. Hal used long red chilli, so the heat wasn’t dominant.
Tripe, like the various pastas, provides texture and has a neutral flavour. It’s the perfect carrier for the ingredients prepared with it.
Of leftovers, there were none!
The meal and canapés were greatly appreciated by those in attendance today. Hal yeah! said Paul.
We had bread from baker Bleu Double Bay, a village sourdough and a crusty baguette, very good.
Cheese
Our choirmaster reprised an artisan cow's milk cheese from Cornwall, England ‘Cornish Kern’.
‘Kern’ is the Cornish word for ‘round’ and suitably describes the shape and flavour of this cheese. Created by Lynher Dairy, this modern British hard cheese is made in West Cornwall to an adapted gouda recipe using milk from nearby farms.
Each wheel has an attractive coat of thin black wax that allows the cheese to be matured for 16 months without losing too much moisture. The result is a dense, fudgy texture and complex flavour profile that is intensely savoury. The lingering caramel sweetness is accentuated by a proper dose of salt.
Wine
Hal Epstein’s tripe dish was terrific, pity more members were not there to enjoy it. There were I think 18 members present and so on a cold winter afternoon we hunkered down to enjoy the food and the wines, it was a cosy little group with a good atmosphere in the room.
The first wine was a Society favourite, the Tyrrells HVD Sem 2014 10.5%. The wine was in perfect condition, pale straw, clear, with a slightly sweetish taste on the front palate which quickly vanished leading to a crisp finish. Excellent fruit and moderate acid kept any undue sweetish overtones in balance, thus producing a fine, still-fresh wine with no indication of ageing. A great future is expected, a keeper.
Wine 2 was the Corcelette Morgon 2021. I really liked this wine. Vibrant, juicy and joyful are terms that come to mind. Medium body with strong Gamay fruit, intense flavour. 13%. Very easy drinking inviting you to have another glass (bottle?). Having enjoyed this wine before, I can well understand its universal popularity. On my table, there were several dissenting views about this wine, with some preferring the following Grenache. I don’t understand why but to each his own.
Wine 3 was the Villian and Vixen Barossa Grenache from Hentley Farm. 14.5%, a very typical gutsy Grenache, light body with pinkish hues of crimson. Strong fruit flavours with a tannic finish. To me, the wine was thin and lacked depth of flavour. Not exactly my cup of tea. Others liked it, so there you go.
Wine 4 was the Brokenwood Beechworth Chardonnay 2014, 12.5%. A really fine wine, holding its age very well. Excellent fruit with sufficient acid to hold it together, delightful finish. The wine was a perfect match with the English Cheddar. A wine that met with strong support from our little group. Should be drinking well for a few years yet.
Wine 5 was the Yabby Lake 2015 Pinot Noir 13.5%. This is a high quality vineyard producing top class Chardonnay and Pinot. This wine showed Pinot flavours in concentrated form. I thought the wine was excellent., but others suggested that at 10 yo the wine had seen better days. To me, there was still sufficient acid to ensure a firm finish, with lingering Pinot flavours. I really enjoyed it.
28 May 2024 Paul Thorne
Food review by Mark Bradford and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran
Food
Today’s Chef of the Day was Paul Thorne, assisted with canapés by James Tinslay and James Hill. On a sunny and cool late spring day, numbers were aplenty for Paul’s meal and the accompanying northern Italian wines for the monthly Wine Lunch.
Canapés
James T started us off with Anchovy Palmiers. These French biscuits have puff pastry sheets that are layered with Philadelphia cheese spread, anchovies, dried tomatoes, freshly grated parmesan and mozzarella cheese followed by an egg and butter wash prior to baking. So well liked, these savoury treats literally flew off the plate.
Next up, James H presented some Acciughe Salate. These are Sicilian anchovies; once caught the head is lopped off and packed in tins sealed with salt and EVOO. They are best rinsed in wine to remove the salt crust. Today, the fillets were prised off the spine, rolled and served on oven-baked toasts with Gary Linnane's popular tuna and anchovy butter.
Finally, Paul gave us homemade prawn and pork dumplings in a Duck Consommé; the broth being one of Paul’s specialties. The dumplings were a little too large, or the cups a little too small, to extract the flavoursome dumplings, but great taste.
Comments on the canapés from the floor were highly complementary.
Main
Paul served us wagyu beef cheeks today with star anise on a bead of potato mash with Dutch carrots, glazed with brown sugar. The cheeks were marinated for 24 hours with a mixture of onions, garlic, celery, carrots, bay leaves with lots of red wine and duck stock. This was then cooked low and slow, at 160 C for one hour then for three hours at 140 C.
Paul had first told us he would cook duck, then pork neck and finally settled on beef cheeks. Luckily so as they were a perfect match for all of the Italian reds. Usually not being one to blow his own trumpet, Paul knew the main was seriously good, and this was reinforced by all comments from the floor. It was considered to be outstanding.
Cheese
The Cheese Master provided a Milawa Cheese Company Goughs Bay Goat Brie. The Gough family farm is an hour’s drive from Milawa, and they have supplied goat’s milk to Milawa for generations. Within hours of its arrival, the milk begins its transformation into cheese. A blend of cultures and non-animal rennet is added to the milk and the resulting curds are scooped by hand into moulds to remove excess whey. The young wheels are salted in brine, then placed in the maturation room, where slowly they develop a white velvety rind and mushroom aroma. Over their two-week maturation, they are carefully turned by hand each day, before being wrapped and delivered.
The consensus was that this was not the members’ favourite cheese. Comments included lack of flavour and texture.
On a brighter note, and as a winner of the inaugural Ross MacDonald Cheese Award for 2022, Paul served an excellent salad for the cheese of dried figs soaked in whisky for three days, pecan nuts glazed in maple syrup and Tunisian dates.
Wine
Should anyone be in doubt about the value of their membership fees for the WFS, today’s lunch would have blown away any lingering uncertainty. In a word sensational. Great food and outstanding Italian wines were the theme for the day. Paul Thorne did a terrific job with the beef cheeks. The pass arounds were also delicious, Richard Gibson kindly donated many of his prized Piemonte Reds and our Winemaster pulled it all together like a master conductor. A wonderful afternoon. The quality of the wines was such that I had no chance of poking fun at some hopeless joke of a wine. My day for some fun was however saved by the cheese, a Milawa goat cheese. Something went wrong here. Tasted like and had the texture of plasticine!
The lunch began with a wine now becoming a Society favourite, the Minaia Gavi 2021 13%. I have reviewed this wine before. Made from the Cortese grape in Piemonte. A very appealing wine, mouth-filling without cloying, great balance of fruit/acid. Rewarding finish. From my travels around the room doing a few pours, there was almost universal agreement that this is perfect aperitif wine.
We then moved on to the first red, a Dolcetto 2017 from Paolo Scavino 14.5%. Again, I have reviewed this wine not too long ago. Always a welcome visitor to our room, very popular amongst our group. This wine, aka the sweet little one, really punches above its weight, as it is regarded as an entry-level Italian red. Excellent structure, medium body with a distinct sweetish taste on the first sip. As the wine travels down the red lane, other flavours appear, soft round fruit flavours with some tannin. A clean finish. Teamed well with the food.
The second red was the Barbera d’Alba from the same producer 2017, 14.5%. Much darker in colour and more intense fruit concentration. Most enjoyable, excellent food wine.
Wine 3 was the Vietti Langhe Nebbiolo 2016 14%. Again, medium to light body with evident tannin, a feature on Nebbiolo. Sufficient acid balanced it all out to produce a fine dining wine.
Wine 4 the Vietti Barolo 2016 14.5%, was again a light-bodied wine, with strong tannin and acid. Having said that the wine still had great texture and balance. Needed food support.
Wine 5 was my favourite, the Gabutti Barolo 2016 15%. This was a truly excellent Nebbiolo in every sense, medium body, deep cherry and that “tar” exotic aroma and greater depth than the earlier wines. Powerful finish. A stand-alone wine to be enjoyed without food. Thank you, Richard.
The final wine for our Italian venture was sadly my least favourite, the Cavallotto Barolo 2018 14%. In terms of overall structure, very similar to all the preceeding wines, but had a poor finish. Not sure why, but these wines seem to need plenty of time in the cellar and I am inclined to think that a 6 yo Barolo is just too young for drinking today.
Many thanks to all those who made a fantastic day possible, well done.
21 May 2024 Jonathan Casson
Food review by James Hill and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran
Food
First time chef Jonathan Casson was our Chef of the Day showing his skills in the kitchen all done with one hand! Mediterranean influence on the cuisine today.
Canapés
Peter Kelso and yours truly assisted today with Peter preparing a rich flavourful tapenade on toast topped with cornichons and preserved lemon.
Up next were some ‘Acciughe Salate’. These are Sicilian anchovies, once caught head lopped off and packed in tins sealed with salt and EVOO. They are best rinsed in wine to remove the salt crust.
Today the fillets were prised off the spine, rolled and served on oven-baked toasts with crème fraîche.
Main
Perfect on this cool autumn day Jonathan presented lamb shanks served with a luscious red wine sauce, some pearl couscous and leek. The leek was baked in wine and butter and a good complement to the course. The lamb shanks were simmered for three hours, and fell off the bone, the pearl couscous perfectly cooked with the red wine sauce adding a great depth of flavour.
Many favourable comments on the meal today.
Big bread love from Iggy today.
Steve Sparkes presented Jonathan with his COTD apron and Jonathan responded by saying how much he enjoys the comradeship of our Society and the new friendships he’s formed since joining.
Cheese
Our Cheese master sourced some artisan cow's milk cheese from Cornwall, England ‘Cornish Kern’.
‘Kern’ is the Cornish word for ‘round’ and suitably describes the shape and flavour of this cheese. Created by Lynher Dairy, this modern British hard cheese is made in West Cornwall to an adapted gouda recipe using milk from nearby farms.
Each wheel has an attractive coat of thin black wax that allows the cheese to be matured for 16 months without losing too much moisture. The result is a dense, fudgy texture and complex flavour profile that is intensely savoury. The lingering caramel sweetness is accentuated by a proper dose of salt.
John Rourke spoke of the passing of member Terry McDowell. Terry was a member of our society for more than thirty years. John recalled meeting him at our Society after having been overseas for a number of years. He joined Terry’s table at WFS which he was hosting with his sailing crew. John went on to join the crew as well as many adventures in the kitchen with Terry.
Terry had a passion for food and wine, a good cook with an extensive cellar, he is well remembered and sadly missed.
Quote of the day:
‘One of the most generous things you can do for someone else is to cook them a meal’
Josh Niland
Wine
Today we had a new Chef Jonathan Casson, who treated us to a fine meal of lamb shanks. Delicious, looking forward to your next plan for us. See the food report for more detail.
With regard to the wines, we started with a Seppelt Drumborg Vineyard Riesling from Central Vic 2018. I am an unabashed fan of this wine. 11.5% pale straw, clean and fresh with a terrific fruit/acid finish. A delight. You may remember we had a Drumborg Chardy last week, a much inferior wine to the Riesling today from the same vineyard. Last week’s wine was from 2016 which may explain a few things. Anyhow, the Riesling today was a winner.
The first red was the Stella Bella Cabernet from MR, WA. 2019, 14.3%. Very dense fruit almost black. Big fruit, with assertive tannin on the finish. This I think is a very good wine, but needs more time, another 4/5 years would be just about right.
The second red was from the same district, a Vasse Felix Cabernet from 2010, 14.5%. Equally dense with huge fruit, but well-balanced oak and tannin showed the advantage of extra bottle age. A rewarding clean firm finish, sufficient acid keeping it together after 14 years.
The next wine was a white, a Tyrrells Bin 63 Semillon/Chardonnay blend. I understand this is Bruce Tyrrell’s favourite Hunter white, Humm, not sure why. When this blend was first released in the late 70’s I think, I was eager to sample it, coming from a fine pedigree of Hunter white grapes. My impression at the time having consumed a few bottles over a period of time, was that it was a waste of a good Chardy and a good Sem. In my view at the time, the offspring of these fine parents was an uninspiring ugly duckling, which was a disappointment to both parents. For that reason, I have not consumed a Bin 63 for 40 years or more. I always thought the wine was flabby and lacked a clean finish due to insufficient acid.
The wine today was from 2017, 12.5% a very good year, but that did not save it from being a wine without much character or attractive flavour, unlike its parents, when drunk alone. I really don’t think I have missed much over the years. Anyhow that’s my opinion, fire at will!
Today's final wine was the Hewitson Mad Hatter Shiraz 14.5% 2013 from the Barossa. Despite the comical name this was a serious wine. I really liked it! Big Shiraz fruit, but good balance. Despite its age of 11 years, the wine has plenty of time ahead, a rewarding and enjoyable drink.