Food  notes by James Hill (in absentia) and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran

It was a full house for lunch last week as we welcomed Ray Kidd back to our Society and lunch after a Covid enforced exile. Steven Sparkes, a chef of renown, was our chef of the day with a theme of ‘home style’ Italian based on countess meals served by and to his wife’s family. A lot of work and effort was evident in the preparation for lunch.

Canapés

There were three canapes served:

- A tuna pate (Pate di Tonno)  topped with some finely diced Cornichons and served on a small round of toast.

- Baby Mozzarella with Basil wrapped in San Daniele prosciutto

- Pork and chicken Terrine with tomato relish served on a cracker.

The terrine was the more complex of the canapés.

It consisted of pork mince, chicken breast and thigh, chicken livers, baby spinach, pistachios, sage, asparagus, green peppercorns and some lemon zest. All diced, mixed and compressed in a mould lined with prosciutto. The relish was homemade and added a nice tang to the dish. A note from the chef ‘the French did steal the idea of terrine from the Italians!!’

Main Course

Ambitious is a word that comes to mind when you’re serving pasta for 40 plus members and Steve succeeded with many favourable comments from the floor on the quality, flavour and overall execution of all the food served today.

The pasta was homemade tagliatelle with three 'variations'.

-  White:  standard mix of eggs, flour and water

-  Red: eggs, flour, water with a capsicum puree added for colour, taste, and texture

-  Green: eggs, flour and water with a spinach/parsley puree added for colour, taste, and texture

The ragu was duck and porcini.

Duck marylands were used with some being rendered and braised in the base sofrito which consisted of onions, celery, carrot, fennel and a touch of chilli. Rehydrated porcini, fresh button, fresh shiitake and swiss brown mushrooms went in next along with a bottle of red and about a litre each of homemade passata and chicken stock.

The rest of the duck marylands were cooked confit style, cooled and coarsely shredded. Just before service, this confit, as well as fresh Swiss brown and king mushrooms, were added to the ragu for texture.

Rather than the traditional topping of parmesan, a fresh pangrattato was served.

This is in fact the poor man's substitute for the cheese and consists of dried bread crumbs, walnuts, anchovy, parsley and lemon zest all blitzed and pan roasted. This version was a bit special in that the skin from the marylands had been removed before cooking and rendered crisp in the oven, cooled, diced finely and mixed with the pangrattato.

A simple salad was served as a bridge between the main and the cheese course which is also very traditional.

Cheese

James Healey, in theme, presented a Cravero Parmesan Reggiano an Italian hard cheese made from cow's milk.

Parmigiano Reggiano is the king of Italian cheese and certainly one of the world’s most important benchmarks. Produced by almost 350 small dairies in a strictly designated area of northern Italy its age and origin is guaranteed, but some cheeses are better than others.

The Cravero family has specialised in maturing Parmigiano from small dairies in purpose-built storerooms in Bra since 1855. This rare two-year-old ‘mountain’ cheese has impeccable regional provenance. It is handmade in the San Pietro dairy in the Appennini hills of Modena from the raw milk of a small herd of less than 100 cows. After meticulous maturation at the dairy for twelve months, the finest cheeses are graded by Giorgio and taken to Bra for ripening.

At two years old its succulent moist nutty texture has a complex fruity caramel sweetness that is very different to the dry and often bitter cracked cheeses matured by the large cooperatives.

Accompaniments to the cheese course were a fig, date, prune and nut roll made about 6 weeks ago and some brandied cumquats (vintage 2018) which seemed to match very well with the delightful Parmigiano Reggiano.

Wine

Today members gathered in booked-out numbers to celebrate the outstanding work of Society member Ray Kidd of Lindemans wines. Ray was the CEO of Lindemans between 1962 and 1986, a period of enormous growth and change in the Australian Wine Industry. Between 1960 and 1990 the industry had grown in those 30 years to become one of Australia’s major industry success stories. Lindemans was right in the middle of that transformation and Ray was at the helm for 24 of those 30 years, developing the Company into a  significant, if not the major player during those years.

Apart from being an outstanding CEO, Ray’s great successes were the creation of the famous Ben Ean Moselle, and the creation of the fabulous Trio of Cabernets from Coonawarra, St George, Pyrus and Limestone Ridge.

Ray has been an active Society member since 1969 and we were honoured to have him here today.  He would very much enjoy introducing us to some of his great-grandchildren who are also with us today, namely, a collection of Hunter River reds and whites and a Coonawarra Cabernet.

Bin 1155 Semillon 2011

Fresh, clean faint citrus flavours, well-balanced fruit/acid. Ageing well. 12%.

Bin 1150 Reserve Semillon 2011

A more developed style, thicker body on the palate and more luscious than the preceding wine. A wine similar to the Bin 1155, only with more power and flavour.  Great ageing potential.  12.5%

Bin 1003 Hunter Shiraz 2010

A wine from the famous Ben Ean vineyard, now at 12 years of age. Lovely wine, full-bodied, a treat to consume.  An abundance of quality fruit, big colour no ageing evident. 13%

Bin 1403 Hunter Shiraz 2014

Just when you thought a Hunter red, like the previous wine, could not get any better, along comes the 2014 and blows the competition away,  Wow, what a wine. 2014 has for a long time been regarded as one of the great Hunter vintages of all time.  I can see why.  Massive colour, powerful yet elegant, years ahead of it.  Many in the room considered it to be the Wine of the Day. 14% 

Bin 1350 Reserve Semillon 2013

Fresh and clean, Lemon/vanilla overtones. In great shape for the future. A great example of the Hunter’s ability to produce near bulletproof Semillon, which can in good years last for decades.  Would love to see this wine in 10 years. My pick of the whites. 10.5%

St George Vineyard Cabernet 2008

A wine produced by one of Ray’s understudies, Sue Hodder, now a celebrated winemaker in her own right. Very strong fruit flavours of classic Cabernet.  To my taste a little out of balance with stewed fruit aromas. No doubt many others would have rated the wine highly.  For those who seek out blockbuster Cabernets, this is your wine! 14%

Overall a terrific afternoon, our thanks to Chilly Hargraves for his careful selections and of course to Ray for his lifelong dedication to the Australian wine industry. We have all benefited. And special thanks to Philip Laffer for organising the Rays to attend and his comments on the range of wines.