Food review by James Hill and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran

Hal Epstein was in the kitchen today answering a call to arms from our Food Master as he needed a ‘volunteer’ as chef of the day.

Canapés

I like it when Hal cooks he usually issues us a challenge to identify a secret ingredient or product. Today it was the salami unusual in that it was a duck salami with juniper berries served on seeded bread.

Next up was rollmops (pickled herring with onion) served on spoons with radish and watercress.

To round the canapés off we had some pork crackling, a commercial pack from Station meats. Tasty and moreish.

Good comments on the canapés.

Main

Hal set the scene with his description of lunch.  

“Spring will be with us shortly.

Imagine being in a Swiss Alps Café overlooking the flowering meadows below.

You might choose this traditional dish which would be on most menus,

the always enjoyable Cordon Bleu schnitzel and to wash it down with a glass of fresh young white or red.”

It was a true Aussie bleu cordon schnitzel and yes bleu it was.

Rose pink on the inside and made with two pieces of meat, the secret here is to have a low melt cheese to meld the schnitzel together. The filling was Emmental cheese and ham.

It worked although Hal thought the meat could have been thinned out a bit more. Some of the servings were a little cool and our ever-obliging chef offered to warm them up.

There were a lot of comments on the meal with a good history of schnitzel provided by our expert on hand Josef Condrau who opened comments today.

This was accompanied by a perfectly executed red cabbage with apple/butter/cider vinegar per Stephanie Alexander and potatoes.

Many asked about how the potatoes were cooked. Something we have not seen before, these were chat potatoes simmered to tender in highly brined water and let dry - salted skin is the attraction. 

Well done, Hal.

Cheese

Our cheese master James Healey presented an Emmental cheese as requested by our chef. It was ‘Chabert Emmental De Savoie’

A hard cheese cow's milk from Savoie in France.

Made from partially skimmed Alpine cows’ milk these huge cheeses are possibly the largest in the world. Made with a natural, oiled rind and large walnut-sized holes interspersed through the body of the pale yellow paste. The whole cheese is matured for a minimum of 12 months and cheese is made during the summer months when the cows graze the rich pastures of the high alpage. The flavour is buttery with a distinct sweet fruity flavour and smooth chewy texture.

The bread was from Organic Bread Bar, baguettes, seeded stick and five seed loaf.

When Paul Irwin cooked earlier in the month many comments were made regarding the quality of the bread. It can be ordered at Bar Mammoni, in the Hinchcliffe House complex. They bake every day and they’re happy to take orders. Just ring the day before.

Wine

The report on today’s lunch wines will be quite brief as there was not much disagreement around the room on any of the six wines on display. Unusual. The opening white was the delicious Tyrrells Belford Semillon 2017. Hardly a critical comment was heard. Balanced, great flavour, lots of time ahead. At five years from vintage, fresh and crisp. Potentially a classic in the making. Review in five years. Perfect with the canapes.

The next wine on the list was served with the main course of veal. The wine was a German Riesling, a Kabinett from Dr Mayer.  Very nice wine indeed, good mix of fruit/acid, medium-bodied, nice wine with food. A bit more thickness on the palate than our Rieslings. Enjoyable. The next wine was from a close neighbour, a Pittnaeur from Austria. The label was of no assistance whatsoever in identifying the grape variety, other than being a red wine, so the experts in the room eventually came up with a suspect, Blaufränkisch a popular Austrian red, much favoured by the local Viennese. The wine was greeted with lukewarm enthusiasm by our group, drinkable, but forgettable. Perhaps a remnant of Paul Ferman’s efforts to expand our horizons.

Wine No 4 was indeed a “sweet little thing “, the literal English translation of the grape Dolcetto. Those at my table regarded it as being an excellent accompaniment to the veal. the producer Paulo Scavino produces some excellent reliable Italian wines and this wine was most enjoyable. Medium body, five years of age, nice fruit, a little thicker than the same grape we see here occasionally. A great wine to glug down with a pizza.

The cheese wines were the Lindemans 2010 Bin 1003 from the Hunter, and a Majella Coonawarra Cabernet hailing from 2004.  In reverse order, dealing with the Majella first, it nearly leapt out of the glass with huge Cabernet flavours and aroma. POW! No mistaking this was Cabernet. After the initial bravado and with ten minutes or so in the glass, the wine began to fall away into a stewed fruit cocktail of various flavours and a blousy flabby finish, no elegance here.

The final wine for review was the Lindemans. Generally regarded at my table as being an excellent Hunter Shiraz. Drinking at 10 yo, the wine had plenty of time left and was a vibrant deep red colour, with an excellent clean finish. Very drinkable. Would very much like to see the wine again in 5 years.

Wines Served: 2017 Tyrell’s Belford Single Vineyard Hunter Semillon, 2016 Dr Mayer Remstal Kabinett Trocken, 2014 Pittnaeur Pannobile Blend, 2010 Lindemans Bin 1003 Shiraz, 2004 Majella Cabernet Sauvignon