Lunch 12 April 2016

To mark the 55 years since the Soviet Union’s Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space in 1961, David Madson served us a fine pork based dish. By the way, Yuri was in space for 1 hour 40 minutes, less than a WFS NSW lunch excluding aperitifs and cleansers. He should have joined us for lunch instead when the Hon F M Hewitt MLC was President and Rudy Komon was Cellarmaster. Some of us were at school that day.

Canapes. David served two seafood based starters. Firstly a classic Bruschetta Nicoise comprising tuna with a mixture of terrific white anchovies, black olives, egg tomatoes, capers, celery and other bits all served on olive oil and garlic drenched toasted baguette rounds. Following was smoked eel on both black and “white” rice crackers with mayonnaise, sweet red chillies and assorted herbs. Feedback on both flavoursome starters was consistently good.

Aperitif wine. Paul Ferman served the Tyrrells Vat 1 Semillon 2000 which was under cork. Paul did predict some cork affected variation and he was spot-on. Only one bottle was out of bounds and the others varied from good to so-so with filters needs for some as the corks broke up. Comments from members varied more than the condition of the wine. It was believed that the 2000 vintage of the Vat 1 was the last under cork. The good old days are not always so good.

Main course. Our CoTD served us pork ribs braised in an orange juice and soy sauce jus. This was set on a cumin flavoured carrot and kumera mash accompanied by apple and chilli slaw. The juice of some 30 oranges in the much reduced sauce along with a ginger overtone made it wonderfully sweet and luscious. To say the portions were generous and the pork tender would be an understatement. Some comments were made about the generosity of the slaw quantity but the mostly empty plates heading back to the kitchen indicated something.

The wines.

$1·         Hahndorf Hill Blaufränkisch 2009 (Adelaide Hills)

$1·         Heidi Schröck Blaufränkisch 2012 (Austria)

$1·         Saltram Mamre Brook Shiraz 2004 (Barossa)

$1·         Elderton Shiraz 2004 (Barossa)

Society luncheon attendees are not unfamiliar with Blaufränkisch and some have previously stated that the familiarity is way too close. However, the wines worked glove in hand with the sweet pork dish providing a medium bodied fruity balance, not unlike a matching with Pinot Noir. The general comments seemed to support the younger and finer Austrian wine as being a better match and a better wine.

With the cheese we had Australian monsters from the deep Barossa. Some may say (and some did) that these wines are a throwback to the days of massive, alcoholic and sweet South Australian reds. True, but they are a style much loved by many members and the Cellarmaster will keep smiles on faces by serving them. The Elderton was under screwcap and was a more clean wine (more modern style?) whilst the Saltram was just as big but more traditional.

Cheese and coffee. James Healey presented arguably the best cheddar style cheese in the country, Pynegana from Tasmania. In terrific condition, not yet crumbly, and a Society favourite. It’s so popular, our suppliers have a wait list of buyers.

Coffee, as the President said, was coffee and closed the lunch. We think Illy but we could be wrong as there was no delivery on the day.