200922chef200922cana1200922cana2200922cana3200922main200922cheese200922salad200922newmember200922Goldy

Food review by James Hill and wine review by James Tinslay

Mark Bradford was in the kitchen as Chef of the Day preparing a Basque-themed lunch perfect for this bright sunny spring day.

Canapes

Our canapés were ‘pintxos’, which literally translates as a thorn or spike. These are small snacks typically eaten in bars in Northern Spain.

1. Tortilla Espanola cubes with roasted red capsicum and black Spanish olive.

2. Red and green peppers on pintxo wrapped with anchovy and capped with green Spanish olive.

3. Baked dates deseeded and stuffed with fetta and almond slices and wrapped with Serrano ham and then in the oven for five minutes (Dátiles Rellenos).

The canapés were bountiful with complex flavours and perfectly matched the canapé wine on offer today, the 2007 Tyrrell’s Belford sémillon.

There were many favourable comments from the floor on Mark’s canapé offering.

Main

Our main came to the table and immediately appealed to all our senses sight, aroma and lastly taste.

It was a Basque stew of rolled lamb shoulder trimmed, cubed and marinated overnight in Margan Hunter Chardonnay, garlic and rosemary. Braised then stewed for three hours with sweet paprika, roasted red capsicum strips, chopped deseeded tomatoes, parsley, bay leaf, chicken stock and a 2016 Rioja. Mark advised a little reduction was needed.

It was served on a base of turmeric and onion basmati rice and topped with a pea and mint puree. It was garnished with chopped parsley and a slice of rustic bread to mop up the flavoursome sauce.

The meat was perfectly cooked moist and tender with a good flavour and texture and the right balance of paprika and seasoning.

It was a great effort with a lot of preparation and research going into the meal and much appreciated and praised by all for the authentic and interesting food presented today.

Cheese

Agour Ossau Iraty AOP

Our Cheese Master, James Healey, presented semi-hard sheep’s cheese from Larrau, France Basque district in the Pyrenees.

The ewes’ milk cheeses of the Basque region date back more than 4000 years and represent an important link with tradition and regional identity. Ossau Iraty is made for nine months of the year using the milk of black or red-faced Manech ewes, but what makes this particular cheese unusual is the red rind. It contains finely ground Espelette peppers from the region which form a natural barrier to moulds. Matured for nine months the smooth ivory texture has a nutty flavour with a deliciously sweet aftertaste. Interestingly the rind of the cheese had a fishy smell and aftertaste (not unpleasant).

Mark accompanied the cheese course with crackers, dried pears and portions of Jamon and prosciutto.

John Goldsbrough closed lunch today with some personal reminiscences on travelling in the UK and then proposing a toast to the King.

John provided a Bin AD 2000 vintage port called Masterton.

Following the boom of the early 1970s, the late ‘70s were difficult times for the Barossa wine grape growing community. The now legendary Peter Lehmann championed a cause that saved the livelihoods of the growers and their families. So it was by building the winery he committed to the region’s growers. Business was done with a handshake and Peter’s word was his bond.

Phil Laffer advised that this was a wine made by Peter Lehmann and it was at a time that the Barossa was on its knees and Peter persuaded local growers to provide fruit for this wine. Named ‘Masterton’ after the famed American gambler Bat Masterton as it was a big gamble.

During the lunch President Paul Thorne presented a Society tie to our new member Julian Parmegiani.

Wine

As mentioned in the food review above the canapé wine was the Tyrrells Vat 18 Belford Semillon. I am not the only member who finds young Semillon’s not particularly to my taste but wines such as this, with fifteen years of age (under screwcap), are wonderful. The wine was very light in colour, medium to powerful on the nose and a truly wonderful palate. The acid was a perfect match for the lovely fruit.

To match the Spanish food, our acting Winemaster, Nick Reynolds, selected all reds with the main course wines being Priorat and Australian Shiraz with the cheese.

  • 2013 Marco Abella Priorat Loidana. From the first pour, this wine sprang out of the glass with an excellent nose following through with bountiful fruit and excellent structure. Priorat can be hearty and a little extracted, but this wine got the balance wonderfully correct.
  • 2010 Torres Salmos Priorat. Torres is one of the largest producers in Spain with plantings pretty much across the country. The prices range from low to high end and this label in its current vintage is closer to $100 than $50. So, it was disappointing that this wine was barely drinkable. One bottle was so badly corked it was used as an example by our acting Winemaster to have people try so that they know exactly what a badly corked wine smells like. There was a serious brett influence on the bottle on our table. This is very disappointing as I am a big fan of Priorat and the surrounding area, Monsant.
  • 2010 Cherubino The Yard Acacia Vineyard Shiraz. Cherubino has a well-deserved reputation for wine coming from the Margaret River region. This was one of their single vineyard wines and whilst drinking well one feels it may have been better a few years ago. There was a preponderance of oak at the expense of fruit in the wine had become out of balance.
  • 2010 Lindemans Bin 1003 Shiraz. Whilst 2010 was a wonderful year in the Hunter Valley and many other areas, the quality and drinkability of this not-so-expensive Lindeman’s wine was a surprise. At twelve years of age, it lived up to the “Hunter River Burgundy” style with great elegance and freshness. It was an excellent match with the cheese.