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

A Society favourite, duck was on the menu today, presented by a very confident Merv Peacock, with the aid of his son Gavin. Numbers aplenty for their “gros canard”. 

Canapes 

Merv got the ball rolling with “tuna spoons”. No, they were really bone china, but they contained finely chopped tuna tartare, a little onion, vodka with tomato tea made from tomatoes, basil and other bits and pieces. 

Next to appear were crunchy toasts loaded with sliced fillet steak and horseradish, along with Merv’s very own homemade spicy chutney. They were both very tasty and abundant, many opted for seconds and some even for thirds. 

Lastly, we were served mini chicken pies made by Merv’s wife.  Thank you, Kerry. They were delightful with chicken, mushrooms, leaks and sweetcorn. A favourite of the Peacock clan, certainly a treat for young and old alike. 

Main 

Our main course was a comfy duck Maryland with cassoulet. It was terrific. “Cassoulet” has a rich history in France, believed to have originated in the town of Castelnaudary and is characterised by white beans with protein on top. There are many varieties and these alter from region to region. Merv chose to confit the Marylands and serve them resting on the cassoulet; the ducks spent 24 hours in a dry marinade and were then confyied over the weekend for 6 hours, remaining in fat until Tuesday morning. The cassoulet was prepared from beans, tomatoes, pork spec, onions and the sausages were a mix of Cumbrian and Italian.  Paul was served gluten free pork chipolata sausages in his mix. Croutons were added at the end. 

The room was buzzing with praise for the main, with not the remotest hint of negativity, and mention being made by many that even in France, a better cassoulet had never been tasted. Well done, Monsieur Paon. 

Cheese 

Our Cheese Master, Dr James Healey, chose a Cantal AOP from the Auvergne, that same French region being the home of cassoulet.  A cow’s milk cheese, it is semi-hard with a fat content of 45%. This natural rind cheese is one of the oldest cheeses still made in France. It has been traced back at least 2000 years when cheese from Gaul was popular as far away as Rome. Being a large cheese, the flavour is mild unless it is matured over a long period, typically 12 to 18 months. It came to the table in perfect condition and attracted very favourable comments on the day. Merv accompanied the cheese with walnuts, dried apricots and sliced pear. 

A memorable meal indeed. 

Wine

We were treated today to a truly excellent Lunch both with regard to food and wine. Sincere thanks to Merv Peacock for a wonderful Cassoulet and to Chilly for his selection of some terrific wines. After a lunch like that who would not want to be a member of the WFS? My comments on the wines served are as follows.

The aperitif wine was a David Thomas Hunter Semillon 2011, coming in at 11.5% Thomas has become a bit of a cult hero with his Semillon, and it was easy to see why. Even with now 11 years since vintage, the wine was a delight. Fresh and clean, great balance between fruit and acid, years still ahead of it. What a great gift Hunter Semillon is to wine lovers!

The first red was a Yarra Valley Seville Estate PN 2013 at 13.8% An enjoyable wine, with light silky tannins with a pleasant PN flavour. A good food wine.

The next wine was a Christian Clerget PN 2014 from Burgundy at 12.5 %. The wine presented with some immediate problems for our table. Some speculated that it was corked, however, after more careful examination it was agreed that it was just a dud! Hardly any detectable fruit, bland and dull. The wine brought back distant memories of a bad date. Superficially an attractive prospect, with just about the desired level of maturity and background. As the evening progresses however it becomes clear that the date is unexciting, dull and boring, leading to increasingly frequent glances at your watch praying that time would fly by to enable the evening to be brought to a respectable finish quickly.  Overall a disappointing night out.  

Our fortunes were mercifully greatly improved by the last three wines, and what a bracket they were. Chilly stand up! Seppelt St Peters Shiraz, Tyrrells Old Patch Shiraz and the Glatezer Bishop Shiraz. What a trio of our finest Shiraz, all well-matured and drinking in perfect condition. Stand by for some generous, but well-deserved praise. Here we go. First in the bracket was the Seppelt St Peters Shiraz 2010 from the Grampians region coming in at 14%. The vineyard under the guidance of the legendary Colin Preece produced a wonderful Shiraz marketed as Seppelt Great Western Shiraz. A superb wine coming from some of the oldest shiraz vines planted in that historic region. Under the helm of the great winemaker of more recent origin Ian Mc Kenzie, the vineyard continued to flourish and in recent years was rebranded as the St Peters Shiraz. The wine today was just superb. Generous fruit, spicy and soft with gentle tannin overtones. Years ahead of it. One of my favourite Australian Reds. The vineyard is in fact very close to the Bests vineyard, just across the road. Not surprisingly Bests top shiraz, the Bin 0 and the Thompson Family Shiraz are remarkably similar to the St Peters.

The next treat was the Tyrrells Old Patch Shiraz 2007. I met Bruce Tyrrell at one of our lunches 10 years or so ago. I commented to him that I really liked the Old Patch wines. His reply was “just hang on to them for the long term“. Drinking this wine today, now a 15 yo, I think his advice was spot on. Not a hint of ageing, massive deep purple colour, but balanced and so full of flavour at 13.5%.  The wine was all class, as it should be coming from what is the oldest vineyard in the Hunter first planted in 1869, and regarded by many as the best in the district. Sold to Tyrrells some years ago by the then owner Neil Stevens, Bruce Tyrrell regards it as the jewel in the Tyrrells crown. Simply a wonderful wine.

The final wine in this glorious bracket was the Glatezer Bishop Shiraz 2012 at 14.5%. Comparing the three wines together, this wine was lighter in colour, with a strong sweet fruit flavour. Of the three I felt this wine was the odd man out, by no means inferior, just different. Barossa fruit from Ebenezer, the wine was dense with layers of modest oak, tannin and velvety ripe fruit. A delight.

Picking a favourite is near impossible and probably a pointless exercise, however, to get the discussion going I will stick my neck out and vote for the Tyrrells.