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

Food

A cool winter’s day saw Paul Ferman prepare lunch for a nearly full house. Mr Ferman is known for his use of quality and organic produce, with Feather and Bone being Paul’s go to providore.

Canapes:

Paul started us off with a very tasty vegetable soup. An excellent pancetta stick was produced as well as a good moist vegetable terrine.

Great flavours in all canapes and a good match for the starter wines.

Main:

Paul served a fine Cassoulet.  It contained lots of well-cooked beans, an excellent Toulouse sausage, great confit duck, the meal having lot of texture and well-balanced rich flavours.  The large effort to produce the meal for a full house was appreciated and a good match for the wines.

Cheese:

In theme, the Cheesemaster served Onetik Ossau Iraty, a Basque French cheese and a Society favourite. This is a hard artisan sheep milk cheese. Basque cheese making traditions date back at least 4000 years. Onetik is the largest dairy cooperative in the French Basque region collecting milk from 250 dairies across the Ossau Valley and Iraty Forest. Only milk from the local breeds of sheep - Manech and Basco- Bearnaise and traditional techniques can be used under PDO conditions. An uncooked, pressed curd cheese, the rind is washed, and hand salted during six months maturation which encourages a hard crusty rind.  It develops a succulent firm texture and complex flavour, developing notes of hazelnut and a slightly sweet finish.

Wine

For our wine lunch yesterday, we were treated to an excellent cassoulet from Paul Ferman together with some delicious wines from the Rhone district, finishing with a terrific cheese. Great food and wine, all for $95. The WFS is for sure the place to be at!

A full room of members arrived promptly, if not a little early, to enjoy the aperitifs so much so that when I arrived bang on 12.30 pm, the first apéritif wine had gone! Apparently, I did not miss much as I was told it was oxidised and not worth drinking. Hence, I cannot report on this little number, the Haut Coustias Blanc 2016. Pity, as I enjoy poking fun at a poor bottle, which does not happen often.  We were then provided with a mix of enjoyable white wines, a Toolangi and a Tyrrells and perhaps something else, which passed muster.

We then were presented with 6 red wines from both Northern and Southern Rhone, 4 from the North and 2 from the South. At the outset, just let me say that reviewing wines that are very similar is quite hard work, unlike 6 different wines which is quite easy. We had 5 wines from the well-known producer Guigal, and one from another producer. During comments on the wines, it was mentioned that Guigal wines follow a distinctive wine style, much similar to our Penfolds. I agree strongly with that view. Hence, I found little difference in the first 4 wines from Northern Rhone, all Syrah which were:  

No 1. Yves Cuilleron 2012. 12.5%. Massive deep colour, spicy, complex array of dark fruit flavours, powerful finish, a very good wine.

No 2. the Guigal Cote Rotie Brune et Blonde 2012 13%.  A plummy, again spicy taste, much lighter in texture and colour than the preceding wine. Possibly a little over-oaked, but finishing with clean strong flavours. Most enjoyable.

No 3. The Guigal 2009 edition of the same wine. 13.5%. Again, a lighter style, very elegant, finishing with a firm dry, almost puckery tannic aftertaste. Some oak influence was evident.

No 4. A Guigal 2010 St Joseph 13.5%. Another dense Syrah, big fruit flavours with a delicate mix of tannin and oak. A strongly flavoured wine, but well balanced. An enjoyable wine.

Wines 5 and 6 were from the Southern Rhone district, around the township of Avignon. They were both Chateauneuf Du Pape wines, made from mainly Grenache, with a host of other wine varieties going into the mix, in small quantities.  Wine experts rate the wine as the best example of Grenache grown in France.   This wine is one of the most revered wines of France, tracing its origins to the 14^th Century when Pope Clement V transferred the Papal Court from Rome to Avignon. The wine takes its name from that change of address, meaning in English “the Pope's new castle“ and not the Pope’s 9^th Home, as sometimes suggested.  In any event, both wines were worthy of a Papal Blessing.

Wine 5 was from Guigal 2005 13.5%, by popular acclaim the wine of the day, with good reason.  Smooth and svelte, redolent with sweetish, complex dark Grenache fruit aromas, rich but not cloying. A faint of tannin on the last delicious sip. A really classy wine.

Wine 6 was my favourite, due mainly to its magnificent chewy, stewed fruit finish. Wine 5 was by far a better all-rounder for a meal, but No 6 with the Ossau Iraty cheese was a finish to the day that only His Holiness could bestow on us humble supplicants. To me, an awesome wine, drinking superbly at 25 YO. Just wish I had some!

I will not be there next week, attending a school Grandparents Day for my two youngest grandchildren.  Look forward to catching up on the 9^th.