Another big day for the Wine and Food Society of New South Wales with some 60 people packing the main dining room for Bill Alexiou-Hucker’s lunch featuring the HV gold medal winning wines from the 2017 vintage presented by Bruce Tyrrell. Bill was assisted by Peter “Canapé Master” Manners and Nick Reynolds.

Canapés. Determined to set a record for the number of canapés, today we had four. Going through the range of Greek dolmades, steak tartare, labne with a dukkha crumbs and taramasalata and baked chorizo on toast squares (to quote Bill “not even Google has a recipe for this one …world first ??”) we had a feast both in terms of quality and quantity. Bill gives the Greeks credit for all the world’s good food. Maybe he is right.

Aperitif wine. Appropriate for a Hunter Valley day we started off with the Tyrrells Vat 1 from 1999 and 2000 both under cork. I was expecting massive bottle variation but in the end, there were a couple of lesser bottles but most of them were drinking extraordinarily well. The 1999 was the more abundant in quantity and arguably the better of the two. Both excellent wines and a great way to start the Hunter Valley lunch.

Main course. Given the wines we were going to have today, young Hunter Semillon, Bill was asked to produce a meal that would not overpower the wines. Bill chose chicken and the cut was chicken Maryland. An excellent choice where flavour is concerned rather than the often bland chicken breasts that are easy to eat but often bereft of flavour. The chicken was cooked for about one hour in chicken stock before being removed and coated in a herb and chili fetta “armour” before cooking. The meat was wonderfully succulent and was served on a bed of Israeli couscous with Greek salad. A simple sounding dish but one requiring much work that hit the bull’s-eye with flavour without interfering with the wines.

The Wines - All 2017 vintage

• Hunters Dream Estate Semillon
• Tulloch Wines Hunter River White Semillon
• First Creek Wines Harvest Semillon
• Bimbadgen Signature Palmers Lane Semillon
• Audrey Wilkinson Semillon
• Silkman Wines Reserve Semillon
• Brokenwood Wines Tallawanta Vineyard Semillon
• Tyrrell’s Wines Vat 1 Semillon
• Tyrrell’s Wines Composite Stevens Shiraz (cask sample of Shiraz)
• Tyrrell’s Wines Composite Vat 9 (cask sample of Shiraz)

Bruce Tyrrell in his usual understated way talked us through the 10 wines that he had acquired for us no doubt by means fair and foul from both Tyrrells and his colleagues in the Valley. On this occasion, there were a couple of wineries that were not well known and there was quite a range of price tags. In the whites, at least from those I spoke to, the Silkman, Vat 1 and Bimbadgen and were high on the list. In general, the wines were drinking surprisingly well, and Bruce explained it was not a year of searing acidity but rather a year where there more concern about the pH levels.

The two reds were fascinating. Cask samples taken the day before and bottled for the luncheon, the old “Hunter River Burgundy” label quickly came to mind. Astoundingly easy to drink. No doubt once the ageing and bottling process is complete they will be very different, but it certainly provided much encouragement for the 2017 vintage.

Cheese and coffee. James Healey provided us with a farmhouse cheddar from Devon, England. A very traditional style cheddar it is matured for 18 months to get a full flavoured style without too much acid and was crumbly to the cut. Very enjoyable cheese. This was served with some pickled vegetables which provided an excellent foil to the richness of the cheese. Bill also served the obligatory ouzo infused Turkish delights and a Greek liqueur, Mavrakis Mastica.

Note: the following was provided by a Greek restaurateur (Dennis Xenos from Xenos in Crows Nest) who a few of our members know:

The most famous mastica comes from the island of Chios off the Turkish coast. Only the trees from that island are the most suitable to make the liqueur "Mastiha".To produce it they essentially stab the Mastic trees with a probe and allow the sap to drip and then they collect it and ferment it to produce the drink I believe. In ancient times the sap was allowed to harden and would be used as the original chewing gum that would claim to have healing properties. The Greek word for chewing gum is still 'Mastiha'.

Coffee by Spencer Ferrier, in absentia, was Kenya Karogoto AA one of Spencer’s go-to beans.

Another great lunch and Keith Steele closed the lunch thanking Paul Ferman for organising Bruce and thanking Bruce for his generous effort in sourcing the donated wines.