Food review by Mark Bradford and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran

Food

On a cool spring Tuesday, Steve Sparkes greeted us with a delicious seafood themed luncheon, prepared to the exacting standards for which Steve is renowned. And such a gastronomic delight it was. We started with Coffin Bay Pacific Oysters – only one per person was allowed – that Steve presented with a homemade Teriyaki sauce which was reduced slightly and served with chives. Designed to be a palate cleanser, it was successfully so with the subtle sauce working well with the flavoursome juicy molluscs from the Great Australian Bight. This was followed by a light seafood terrine served on a cracker, that included prawn, crab and scallop ingredients, with saffron and egg white. Wonderful flavours again, with lots of colours. Finally, to whet our appetite for the main course, Steve presented Wonton wrappers moulded in a muffin tin filled with prawns, crabs, chilli, coriander, ginger, garlic and toasted coconut. This cleanser had us dreaming of lazy holidays in the Maldives.

The main course fish was blue-eye trevalla, aka blue-eye cod, a southern waters fish. Most of today’s diners “guessed” this correctly.  Served on steamed basmati rice, this specially sourced restaurant quality fish was laser cut into 180 gram portions and cooked sous vied to perfection. The curry sauce, Steve mentioned, was that featured in Sydney’s iconic Flying Fish restaurant; Sri-Lankan inspired with seasoning, curry, fennel, coconut and anchovies, but little chilli so as to try to match best the whites and reds on offer.  For most, the closest pairing was with the German resiling.  Being probably the most difficult food with which to match wine, the curry could be enhanced in flavour, for those who dared, with two bespoke chilli sauces that Steve had made some time back that he brought along with him: one hot and one seriously hot. The general feeling was that the Sri Lankan curry was best as presented without the additional chilli that, at least for this reviewer who is a big fan of spicy food, destroyed the palate completely. 

With numbers being a little in decline over some of the previous weeks, we had a full house and rightly so for such a great lunch.  Mention must be made of the impeccable presentation of both the starters and the main dish.  The cheese to follow was a Gippsland Tarago River triple cream from Neeram South, served with ample salad, marinated cumquats and roasted nuts. The cheese is quite different to Brie, with additional cream being added during the cheese-making process.  A great end to a memorable luncheon, and a testimony to the delightful cheeses that are being crafted in south-eastern Australia.

Well done, Steve, with expectations from the gentlemen that this dish will reappear early next year. A massive amount of planning and effort went into today’s lunch.

Wine

We have lunches where the food is the highlight and other lunches where the wine is centre stage. On this occasion, the food by Steve Sparkes was for certain the main performance. Others will comment in detail on the food. but let me say the wine played second fiddle.

We kicked off with a 2017 Frankland Estate Isolation Ridge Riesling from WA. An enjoyable wine. well made but a little bit too much residual sugar for my taste. Very mouth-filling, I would have preferred something dryer. We were then offered two other Rieslings. a Leo Buring and a Yalumba Pewsey Vale. I was only able to taste the Yalumba wine which was, as usual, quite sound. but a little unexciting. A Manzanilla was also offered which I declined. Then to my horror, I saw some bottles of the dreaded 2008 Chambers Gouais appear. I reviewed this wine in my report of the lunch on the 12th of April this year. Cutting to the chase I commented at that time that I hoped never to see the Wine again. My hopes were dashed when the acting Winemaster Nick Reynolds dragged a few remaining bottles from the cellar to finally extinguish our stock of this hideous wine. I think readers will suspect where I am going on this wine. Hence no further comment.

Moving on to the lunch wines. we all know tricky it is to combine wine with fish curry. Overall, the acting Winemaster did an admirable Job in a troublesome task. We started off with a Tyrrells Bin 63 Sem/Chardonnay 2017. Speaking personally. I have long avoided this blend. I do not know what is the problem. but anytime I taste this wine I think that it is a terrible waste of the two components. which are, as we know, enjoyable wines on their own. One would think that a marriage of two attractive grape varieties would produce an offspring of equal quality. but sadly not.

The combination just does not work. The offspring is dull. boring and without any enjoyable characteristics. Anyhow that is my view which incidentally I have held ever since the blend was released in the late 60s.

Having got that off my chest, I now turn to the remaining wines. The next wine on the list was a delightful 2009 O’Leary Walker Shiraz from the Canberra district probably from the Murrumbatman region. These two talented winemakers originated in Clare SA and have now expanded their production to other quality wine-growing districts. I really liked this wine, medium-bodied, beautiful integration of oak fruit, a modest amount of tannin and a classic peppery/spicy finish. Great drinking for a 13-year-old and still very fresh. Next on the list was a Dr Mayer Kabinett Riesling from 2016. An enjoyable wine with no apparent faults. It is just my feeling that the fondness I had for German wines in the 70s has evaporated due to lack of consumption over the years. I find this style now too thick and heavy to be enjoyed with anything but a sweet peach or a mango. 

We were then served a bolter. not on the published List. an Italian Dolcetto 2016. Like most Italian wines it was a food wine. and married up quite well with the fish. I quite like the style. very drinkable without making a fuss. like many of our oaky/tannic reds tend to do.

Finally, we finished up with a Pinot for the cheese. The wine was a 2016 Pinot from Kooyong Estate in the Mornington Peninsular. A very nice wine indeed. tons of flavour, quite a big wine with a delightful aroma and minimal tannin. 13.5%. I wish more Australian pinots were built like this wine. It reminded me of the Pinots from Otago which generally in my view, have more body and flavour than the local product.

Wines Served: 2017 Frankland Estate Isolation Ridge Riesling, NV Valdespino Deliciosa Manzanilla Sanlucar de Barrameda, 2017 Tyrrell’s Vat 63 Chardonnay Semillon, 2009 Nick O’Leary Shiraz, 2016 Dr Mayer Remstal Kabinett Trocken Riesling, 2016 Kooyong Haven  Pinot Noir