Leigh Hall was back in the kitchen this week after a stint in Scandinavia which resulted in the meal today. John young was assisting him in the kitchen and on canapés. Today was also a pleasant moment for the Society with Viv Thompson, the patriarch of Best’s Wines, attending as a guest and presenting a range of his wines. Thank you to Stephen O’Halloran for organising this.

Canapés. Leigh served us three canapés to start the lunch. Many of the ingredients came from the Swedish store IKEA which specialise in such fare. First off all were pickled herrings on toast followed by mustard herring on pumpernickel.

The final canapé, which I personally thought was the best, were meatballs inside a pastry cup on a layer of lingonberry and mash. Very tasty.

Aperitif wine. This being the Best’s wine day we began with two of their Rieslings from 2017. The first was the House Block Riesling which was made in a Germanic style with some 16 g/L residual sugar. Whilst this sounds like a lot sugar the acid perfectly counterbalanced that residual sweetness and worked perfectly with the canapés. A kindly reminder of its residual sugar content was that the wine was only 10% alcohol. The second Riesling was the classic black label Great Western and it was terrific. Wonderfully fresh fruit matched by an acid that whilst not searing will settle down given some time to produce a long-lived and memorable wine.

Main Course. Leigh had previously explained to us that for centuries the Portuguese purchased dried and salted fish from Norway and over time the Norwegians learned to make some Portuguese style dishes. Today we had one of these the Norwegian bacalao. The dish was made using salted cod and was served in a bouillabaisse style which included potato, onion, black olives, tomato, fish stock, garlic, capsicum, chilli and which was garnished with aioli, parsley and green beans.

There was not an abundance of fish and each plate despite using over 6 kg in its preparation. However, the flavour of the dried fish was very evident, and it made a very flavoursome dish to eat. Potato played a useful role adding to the texture of the dish.

The Wines.

• Best’s GW Dolcetto 2017
• Best’s GW Bin 1 Shiraz 2011
• Best’s GW Chardonnay 2017
• Best’s Concongella Pinot Meunier 1994

Looking at the fish main course and the wines above it would be easy to say that this was not a match made in heaven. We had the 2017 Dolcetto followed by the 2011 Bin 1. Being a firm Piedmont fan, I was pleasantly surprised by the elegant and beautifully crisp and clean young fruit on this Victorian Dolcetto. It did not have the dry finishing tannins that you would get from Italy, but it was an excellent southern style and one that we in Australia should support. Most of us know the Bin 1 Shiraz and in this case, we had the 2011 vintage which was surprisingly soft at 7 years of age. 2011 was a very difficult year for Great Western and Viv indicated during his presentation to us that he was very surprised that this wine picked up the Jimmy Watson trophy in 2012. It is a very good wine.

With the cheese we had a fascinating combination of the 2011 Great Western Chardonnay followed by the 1994 Old Vine Pinot Meunier. My initial thought was that the 1994 wine may be tired but I was proved wrong. Starting with the Chardonnay at 7 years of age it was showing that age and whilst drinking well lacked a little bit of interest. The Pinot Meunier on the other hand was in fabulous condition and interestingly of the 6 bottles opened under cork there was little variation. A great variety that is well known in champagne as a minor component does particularly well in the Best’s vineyards and was a delight to try today.

Cheese and coffee. Cheese today from our acting Cheesemaster Gary Linnane was another local cheese in Jensen’s Red Washed Rind from Tarago River in Victoria. At room temperature the cheese was soft to the touch with an orange, stinky-aromatic rind. The texture of the interior was soft and supple with a well-balanced creamy full rounded flavour on the palate.

Coffee from Spencer Ferrier today was Sumatra Aceh Gayo. It is an Arabica bean and was a heavier but smooth style.

Leigh spoke to the easy working relationship that he had with the chef at the Royal Exchange, Leo, and explained at some length the basis of the food and his learnings over a number of weeks in Scandinavia.

Viv Thompson was a guest of member Stephen O’Halloran today and in a very sprightly way gave us a history of Best’s over at some 150 years of operation. He spoke to the climate of Great Western changing to a warmer climate in recent years and the still unknown background of why Pinot Meunier out was originally planted . His assumption was that it was grown to make Australian sparkling wine in the Champagne style.

Viv and Leigh were thanked for their contributions to another well attended and enjoyable meal on this cold and rainy Sydney day..