Food review by Steve Liebeskind and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran

Today President Paul Thorne was in the kitchen and as he said at the lunch, he was looking at providing comfort food in the midst of the winter cold and to complement quality wines being presented at the lunch.

Canapes

Paul was given support by a few people to prepare and provide the canapes – lucky boy. We were presented with:

1.            Tuna dip in a pastry cup

2.            Red capsicum spread on a toasted bread round topped with charred eggplant and parsley

3.            Creme fraiche with wasabi in a pastry cup topped with white anchovy

4.            Crème fraiche and goat’s cheese in a pastry cup topped with Tartufata (Mushrooms and truffles in oil).

All canapes were well received and each provided a punch of flavour to start the lunch.

Main

We were served pork neck plated on a base of pea and ham soup. The pork comprised four pieces cooked in the oven for 4.5 hours at 135C. The pork was cooked in trays and sat on a base of onions and duck stock. The pea and ham soup was a combination of many vegetables and legumes/pulses including carrots, peas, beans (2 or 3 types) barley and lentils.  The ham hock flavour was infused and then shreds were throughout the soup.

The meal came to the table smartly presented.  The pork had terrific colour and showed it was cooked perfectly. Pork can be a challenge to get right and, as it rests, it still cooks. The pea and ham soup provided good colour and the broth provided additional flavour and moisture to the pork. Overall, the flavour was delicate and the seasoning was a personal preference. The meal complemented the wines. 

The bread was from Haberfield bakery an old favourite of the Society from years gone past.

Cheese 

Latteria Perenzin Formajo. This is a cow milk cheese that was wrapped in grape skins for added flavour when maturing. The cheese is made in the Italian Alpine foothills. The cheese was semi-hard, had a nutty character, and was sweet and fragrant with notes of fruit. Served with the cheese were caramelised walnuts on the board. In a bowl were dates and hydrated dried figs. The figs starred as they were soaked in orange juice and ouzo. 

Wine

The lunch today had as its centrepiece six Grand Cru Burgundies.  Impressive to say the least.

The aperitif white was a French Chardonnay CH Marsannay 2017 from the Cote de Nuits, near Dijon.

The wine had a medium-deep yellow colour, was well matured and smooth on the palate, moderate alcohol, @ 12.5%. Despite its sound presentation, the wine in my view lacked character.  By no means unpleasant, just not very interesting, perhaps the acid had fallen away a dash.  I would not have picked it as a Chardonnay.

There was a second bottle presented, a  Scorpo from Victoria I am told, as I never saw the bottle, More like what we are used to in Chardonnay, nice wine, despite only having a mouthful.

We were all in a state of excitement as we waited for the arrival of the Main Act,  the Burgundies.  The wines spanned vintages from 1999 to 2009, from the Jewel in the Crown Of Burgundy, the famed Nuits St George Commune. Before preparing this report I did a quick vintage report check on the Red Burgundies on display.

1999 was rated highly, 2002 well regarded,  2003 tricky, very hot year, some excellent wines made, but variable. 2009 is generally regarded as a good vintage, so, all looked promising.

The first two served were the 2009 Maison Roche de Bellene Lavaut St Jacques and the  09  Maison Charmes- Chambertin Grand Cru.  I found these wines hard to separate. Both wines were light to medium body in colour of red brick, just beginning to fade, slightly acidic aftertaste.  Enjoyable, but not outstanding.

Wine no 3 was the  Bichot Echezeaux Grand Cru.  Great wine, just perfect! Velvety and smooth, utterly seductive and drinkable in large amounts if possible. No sign of browning, deep ruby red colour, beautiful PN nose. We were given a real treat by our Winemaster.

Wines 4 and 5 were the 02 Lupe Cholet Chambertin and the 99 Clos Vougeot. My glass of the Chambertin showed distinctive signs of ageing with a flat finish.  Much the same comments apply to the Vougeot, which is disappointing. Both of these wines were I feel struggling to cope with their age, with fruit and acid falling away. I would have loved to drink these wines 10 years ago.

 Wine No 6. Sadly there was no joyous farewell from the 99 Cholet, Latricieres Chambertin. once again I found myself confronting what should have been a superb wine, only to find the peak drinking period had passed maybe 10 years ago. My remarks about this wine are the same as wines 5 and 6, namely, tired and fading.

From  a very personal perspective, I feel the afternoon  became an example of the old saying  “to travel hopefully is better than to arrive“

I fully understand that many others in the room may have a different view, particularly if you like aged Burgundy.

None of these comments is intended to reflect adversely on our Winemaster’s selections who clearly has the hard task of selecting suitable wine from a cellar of several hundred ageing French wines, many highly regarded, but which will have silently slipped past their use by date.

We all know with Old Wine, “you pay your money and you take your chances“.