Food review by Steve Sparkes and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran

Food

An excellent turnout of more than 50 members was treated to a wonderful lunch presented by Roger and Dennis. As we have come to expect at a wine lunch, and all lunches for that matter, our Wine Master presented an outstanding bracket of wines to match the food and for our enjoyment.

The canapes started with a cucumber round topped with a lovely creamy sauce and lightly smoked salmon.

The next was potted prawns on a handmade Melba toast. This was very rich, certainly not lacking for butter and had a fabulous mouthfeel.

Both were extremely tasty, generous and a great way to kick off the lunch…thank you Dennis.

Roger presented a very interesting and well thought out main course with a twist that both surprised and delighted members.

The meat was cooked to perfection. Roger used a Scandinavian recipe of twice-marinated fillet steak, being marinated once before it was cooked and again afterwards.  

It was served with a light vinaigrette and accompanied by steamed broccolini, an eggplant rotolo and a very tasty potato salad.

The twist, of course, was that the dish was served at room temperature and whilst this may not sound appealing to some, in my opinion, it worked a treat! It both looked and tasted great!

The cheese, a soft-ripened cheese, complemented the meal perfectly and was very well chosen by Mark.

It was served simply with some juicy dates and good bread and had most members guessing as to just what it was! It was:

Le Conquérant, Demi Pont l'Évêque by Will Studd.

Origin: Normandie, France

Milk: Cow's Milk

Type: Washed Rind

This pungent monastic PDO-washed rind cheese comes from the heart of the Pays d’Auge in Normandy, France. Traditionally made by monks, washed rind cheeses were used as meat substitutes during fasting periods and have strong aromas and savoury flavours. The word demi refers to its small size, which influences how quickly this traditional, soft surface-ripened cheese will ripen compared to its larger cousins.

Le Conquérant Demi Pont-l'Évêque is wrapped in wax paper and a poplar wooden box to form the ideal microenvironment for maturation. It is best enjoyed when the chalky centre has broken down to a soft fudgy texture with a deliciously mild creamy finish.

Well done Roger, a great lunch, it is terrific to be served a quality meal that varies somewhat from the expected norms occasionally!

Wine

A bumper crowd of 50+ were attracted like fish to a lure to the prospect of a mouth-watering filet of beef, cooked to perfection by our Chef du Jour Roger Stration, served with some silk purse division Cabernets from France, Italy and Australia. Yum! Beef was amazing! See Food Report.

With regard to the excellent lineup of wines, we kicked off with a pair of Chardonnays from across the Ditch, a Kumeu River 2022 13%, and a Craggy Range 2010 14%. The Kumeu River wine was quite acceptable, an entry level Chardonnay which was quite ok as long as you did not think too hard about it! The wine came and went without much fanfare. The second wine was however a delight. This vineyard is where my 2^nd son and his late wife Anna were married amongst the vines on a memorable afternoon in January 2009. I accordingly have a strong emotional attachment to wines from this vineyard. Being as objective as possible, I thought this wine was truly excellent, with great depth of luscious ripe fruit, gentle oak and sufficient acid to ensure a lingering finish. Some comments from the room suggested that the wine was now too old at 14 yo, however, I would strongly disagree. There may have been some bottle variation in the room, however, my glass or two showed no adverse ageing, quite to the contrary, as I commented to others, how fresh and balanced the wine was for its age, with no browning, fresh and clean and full of life. So it goes.

Moving now into the red wines for our lunch the first was a Ch Talbot 2009 from St Julian in Bordeaux, a Grand Cru, a 4^th Growth 13.5% This is a very old chateau, circa 1400 named after the last English Commander of Guyenne, John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. Military history treats Mr Talbot unkindly, remembering him more for his numerous defeats in battle, than his too few victories. What however cannot be denied is his wonderful legacy to wine lovers of the world, the glorious Ch Talbot. Consistently high quality, many Bordeaux experts argue that the wine should now be elevated well above its 1855 classification. My love for quality Bordeaux knows no bounds and this wine fully lived up to my expectations, Deep ruby red, gentle tannin, sweet chewy fruit, the usual other flavours of that region, leather, cedar and the hint of tobacco. A great wine. Many thanks to our Wine Master.

Our second red was an Italian, a “Super Tuscan“, an Argiano 2008 Solengo Toscana 14.5%. A Cabernet blend including amongst others, Merlot and Petit Verdot with a dash of Sangiovese I enjoyed this wine very much. Deeply inky dark with powerful tannins, perhaps a tad over oaked some commented. A very powerful wine, but a lovely food wine. Great finish.

Our third wine was a 2010 Ch Teyssier Pezat from Bordeaux 14%. This vineyard is about one meter outside the strict border for the St Emilion designated wine region. A Merlot with just a dash of Cabernet Franc. Much lighter in colour than the two preceding wines and in my view a step down in quality. By no means to be avoided, the wine was enjoyable, plummy merlot overtones, but just did not have the intensity of flavours of the Super Tuscan and the Talbot. But it has to be said, it was a hard duo to follow.

The fourth wine was another Super Tuscan the 2010 Tenuta dell Ornellaia Le Serre Nuove 13.5%, quite a mouthful, the name that is. Just in case you were wondering what exactly is a Super Tuscan, I will tell you, shortly and I hope simply. Back in the 1970’s a group of Tuscan wine producers, all becoming frustrated with Italy’s wine bureaucracy, decided to go offshore so as to speak, and started planting Bordeaux-origin grapes, such as Cabernet and Merlot amongst others. There was a great deal of fuss at the time, as heretofore only wines indigenous to Italy could be grown, such as Sangiovese. The eventual success of the new wines, basically Cabernet blends, becoming so popular, forced the hand of officialdom so that by the early 1990’s these maverick blends restricted to Tuscany, obtained official approval. So now you know.

This particular wine was a blend of Cabernet, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cab Franc. Very dark in colour with intense fruit flavours. Silky smooth. Firm tannic finish with great length. Drinking at peak maturity but plenty of time ahead. The plummy Merlot influence was clear, being 45% of the blend. A splendid wine.

Our 5^th and 6^th wines brought us back to Australia for some homegrown Cabernet, from our two top Cabernet regions Coonawarra and Margaret River.

Wine 5 was the Lindeman’s St George, 2008, 100% Cabernet. A vineyard planted in 1967 has produced some memorable Coonawarra Cabernets over the years. The vintage of 2008 was regarded at the time as being a good, if not great year. A flavoursome wine deeply coloured, showing classic Cabernet overtones with strong oak and tannin, but I could not help but feel that at 16 yo the wine was beginning to show some age. The colour was still good, but with acid fading the finish was falling away. Still very drinkable, but not one for keeping.

The final wine for the day was the Leeuwin Estate Art Series 2013 Cabernet. A 9/10 vintage year in that region, and the wine was excellent. A straight Cabernet with just a dash of Malbec, 4%. I have always felt that Margaret River Cabernet in a good year is about as close as we get to the Bordeaux Cabernets we love. This wine was elegant with a superb balance of fruit/oak and gentle tannin. It had to my taste, strong Bordeaux like aromas, and a similar finish. A very different Cabernet to the St George, lighter in colour but more elegant and stylish. Plenty of time ahead to mature into something wonderful in 5 or 6 years.

The wine of the day for me was the Talbot, with the Leeuwin and the Solengo sharing equal second place.