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

Food

The Tuesday that follows the first Sunday of September has become the Society’s “father and son lunch”, again hosted by Bill and Sam Alexiou.  This time Greek cuisine was thrown aside, and the fare was Chinese – Aussie style – as we have all enjoyed at the local suburban “chow” in the distant past.  However, it was alluded by the chefs of the day that this cuisine – like most others – was probably based on the food enjoyed by the ancient Greeks anyway!

Just like the Aussie “chow”, the presentation was banquet-style; many tasty dishes and in true Alexiou style, in great abundance.  All comments from the floor were very favourable to superb, and a first for the Society members in attendance on the day.  It was noted that September is the choice for many members to holiday in Europe and so numbers were a little lower than other times of the year.

Canapés

China spoons (but with a small ‘c’) were the canapé theme, being used to present both san choi bow and dumplings. These were useful for delivering the traditional lettuce wrap, with the chicken mince sitting on shredded lettuce instead, and so avoiding the inevitable mess of eating the wrap standing with glass in hand.  The filling for the dumplings was lamb shoulder. Wonderful flavours, with both canapes being inspired by the cooking of Sam’s mother-in-law.

Entrée

None other than Peking Duck served on homemade wafer-thin pancakes with a sweet tian mian jiang sauce and thin green croutons.  Again, these Sam Alexiou creations were inspired by his mother-in-law’s skills.  Great presentation and taste.

Main

Being a Chinese banquet, we were presented with two main courses.  The first was tasty, moist and sweet beef ribs off the bone, garnished with coriander and sliced red chillies. The ribs were marinated in Coca-Cola for 24 hours, then slow-cooked in the marinade with cinnamon, five-spice, nutmeg, orange peel, orange juice and brown sugar.  Mention was made that additional chillies could have been offered as a side for those who were more daring when it comes to heat.

The mandatory fried rice was saved for the final offering, sweet and sour pork, which arrived on separate plates from the kitchen.  The rice was exceptional and contained juicy small prawns cooked to perfection. The sweet and sour pork was twice-cooked pork belly dusted with five-spice and corn flour, and garnished with red roasted capsicums, green spring onions and pineapple pieces, providing a colourful presentation to the succulent roasted pork. Very authentic indeed.

Cheese

China ranks first worldwide in the production of most foods – including apples and grapes – but cheese is not of them.  Research on a cheese that may accompany Chinese food suggested a theme of cheddar, particularly of the Monterey Jack type and Colby, all of which tend to be served melted atop hamburgers.  In his wisdom, the Cheesemaster presented Cantal, a cheese known to many of the members as being from the Auvergne region of central France with some characteristics of the hamburger ones. It was served with roasted unsalted cashews provided by the cheesemaster, a nut quite common in Chinese restaurants in Oz.

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 (32 kg), the flavour is mild unless it is matured over a long period, although smaller versions known as Cantalet mature more quickly.  The cheese provided for lunch was at least 14 months old, having developed a moist and crumbly texture and buttery flavour with a little bite.  This was noted by the members.

A truly memorable lunch was served to the gentlemen on the day, and it was evident that an astonishing amount of work went into its preparation.  Thank you, Sam and Bill.

Wine

A smallish turnout for our Father and Son Lunch, but nonetheless enjoyable. Bill and his son Sam Alexiou put on a splendid Chinese-style banquet which was delicious. Hearing about the effort and time that goes into lunches such as this, makes you deeply grateful to our member Chefs who put in the hard yards, something I am always aware of. God bless them all!

Anyhow moving onto the wines for the day, we kicked off with a Pikes Riesling from the Clare, 2022 vintage, 12.5%. I was mystified why we would be drinking a Riesling barely 12 months old when we have plenty of aged Rieslings in our Cellar. Bit hard to make an assessment of a wine so young. All I can say is that it seemed okay, and hopefully will develop well, good fruit/acid, and no obvious faults.

The next wine was in my view the wine of the day, a Tyrrells 2013 Johhno’s basket pressed Sem, 11.5% What a brilliant wine. For the second week in a row Tyrrells Hunter Sems have stolen the show! Last week it was the 2005 HVD, now this week the Johhno,s from 2013. Both vintages highly rated in the Hunter for Sem. This wine is drinking beautifully now at 10 yo with a complex lingering finish, however, it will develop further into yet another Hunter-aged Sem Classic. Please Wine Master, if we all behave ourselves, can we have another bottle in 2/3 years?

Our first red for the day was the very good John Duval Annexus Barossa Grenache from 2015. 14%. I have always been a fan of his wines ever since he left Penfolds in 2002, where he was chief winemaker. Since then he has developed a small but exquisite range of reds from material grown in the Barossa. This wine was up to his usual standard, 100% Grenache, medium weight, striking intense colour with some tannin on the aftertaste.  Very drinkable. Would love to see it again in another 3 years.

We then went back to white wine, the Orlando Lyndale Chardy from Adelaide Hills 2019 13.3%. It was quite a surprise to see the name Orlando reappear after it virtually disappeared from view some years ago, losing its identity to its brands Jacobs Creek and St Hugo. Orlando is one of Australia’s oldest wine companies being founded in 1847 by Joseph Gramp. For decades the name Orlando was the dominant player in the wine market.  No doubt the brand Jacobs Creek has been a runaway success, but why you would want to disassociate that brand name from the highly respected parent company Orlando eludes me. Some corporate wizard might have the answer. Vale Orlando, I remember you well.  Anyhow, getting back to the wine, it was an acceptable commercial Chardy, a bit old-fashioned in style, but with an appealing butterscotch finish. Enjoyable without rising to any great heights.

The final two reds for the afternoon were the well-respected Seppelt Chalambar Shiraz 2009 13.5% and the Torbreck Struie Shiraz 2008 15%. The Chalambar label was a creation of the late great Colin Preece chief winemaker from the 1930s to the mid-1960s. He was determined to create a distinctive Great Western style from fruit grown on the company’s Grampians vineyard, mixed with fruit from other Victorian vineyards such as Bendigo. Seppelt’s Grampians vineyard is right opposite Bests vineyards, the land being sold by Henry Best to Bruno Seppelt.

Since its creation, Chalambar has become one of our most acceptable and reliable commercially available red wines. This wine was in my view a classic Chalambar, juicy with loads of spice and pepper. Unmistakeable. Great drinking now and will continue on I am sure for many more years.

The final wine of the day was a Torbreck Shiraz. 15%. Robert Parker the American wine writer has a lot to answer for in encouraging several years ago, some Barossa red wine growers to produce huge wines with massive alcohol and as a result, they became coarse, heavy, hard and unbalanced. I did not enjoy this wine. In fact, I have never enjoyed any of the Struies I have tasted in the past for the reasons stated. Apologies for ending on a sour note on what was otherwise a pleasant afternoon.