Food review by James Hill and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran

Food

Chef of renown Steve Liebeskind was in the kitchen today cooking for our mixed lunch, he was assisted by member David Simmonds.

Canapes

• Fennel puree on puff pastry with salmon on top – fennel and fennel seeds cooked with butter and stock, pureed
• Marinated herring on pumpernickel – the herring was combined with red onion, grated green apple and cream
• Steak tartare on pressed puffed pastry – eye fillet finely chopped, onion, cornichons, anchovy, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and tabasco sauce

Bountiful interesting and flavoursome canapés today were much appreciated and commented on by members and guests.

Main

This was a fine dining quality dish today with lots of ingredients that came together on the plate eye-pleasing, flavoursome and textural.

Eye fillet (seared and then in oven) with pepper sauce topped with parsnip chips served with mushroom, red cabbage, potato, parsnip mash and brussel sprouts (last two in bowls for table). The eye fillet was perfectly cooked, and we loved the pepper sauce. The mushroom had some soy sauce in the cap to add another flavour burst to our palates.

Many favourable comments on all aspects of our meal today, a lot of effort and preparation evident today. Thanks Steve and David.

Cheese

Presented by yours truly and requested by Steve, one of his favourite cheeses, Fromager D’Affinois Florette.

A goat’s cheese from France, the name d’Affinois is a play on affinage, the French word for the ripening polices of cheese.

Florette is a hexagonal-shaped goat’s milk cheese with a silky consistency made near Pelussin in the Rhone Valley. As it ripens, the cheese becomes quite runny retaining its delicate creamy goat’s milk flavour. It came to the table in perfect condition and temperature.

Steve accompanied the cheese with a salad of green leaf with roast capsicum and roasted slivered almonds and dressed with a vinaigrette.

We were lucky to have a homemade almond biscuit with a walnut top and dark chocolate base to go with our coffee today.

Wine

It was a mixed lunch at the WFS, and it turned out to be a very enjoyable afternoon indeed. Steve Liebeskind put on a terrific meal of roast fillet with all the trimmings, as well as some delicious pass-arounds. An excellent meal, see Food Report for more details. With regard to the wines, we got the party rolling with the best party starter in the game, vintage Champagne! Us blokes only dream of having Vintage Bubbles, but there it was for the ladies a 2012, Ch Duperrey Brut from Epenay, and very nice it was too! Despite the wine now being 12 yo, it had plenty of fizz and great flavour. An excellent match with the herring.

There then followed a dry white from France, a Blouctet Garnier Bichot Aligote 2021 from the Burgundy. A modest 12%, an enjoyable wine, firm and with a crisp finish due to quite a high acidity. The wine is very popular in France as an aperitif wine, lighter in body and flavour compared to a Chardonnay, but nonetheless a pleasing pre-lunch wine.

We then moved on to our main course wines, three Shiraz all from 2010. No problems with ageing, all bottles were in peak condition.

First, was the Lindeman’s Bin 1003 13%, made from grapes grown on the company’s famous Ben Ean Vineyard, one of the oldest in the Hunter. The wine opened with a massive dark colour, huge fruit flavours of cherry and dark plumb. Some sweet oak was present in the mid-palate. Mild tannin and just enough acid to ensure a smooth, clean finish. An excellent wine.

The second wine was my pick of the bracket, the Tyrrells Old Patch 13.4%. This vineyard was originally planted in 1867 and is the oldest producing vineyard in the Hunter. Tyrrells purchased the land from the Stevens Family several years ago, and Bruce Tyrrell considers it to be his favourite bit of dirt.  To my taste, this was a wonderful wine, much lighter in body, colour and structure than the preceding wine, yet more flavoursome and powerful in the mid-palate. A velvety combination of oak, tannin and acid producing a wine of elegance, flavour and power, despite its lighter presentation when compared to the Lindemans. I think we have all been fortunate to partake in some of this wonderful wine.

 The third wine was the Rosemont Balmoral from McLaren Vale 14.5%. Drinking after the Old Patch was always going to present a challenge to any wine, but in fairness, I think the Balmoral did a fine job. A big wine storms out of the bottle with inky dark fruit flavours of plum, blackberry and black currant. Lots of evidence of oak influence, with strong tannins at the finish. Yet, the wine in its own way was well-balanced and a joy to drink

The final wine was the Tyrrells Bin 63 Semillion/Chardonnay blend 2017,  12.5%. As I made clear in my summation of the wines, I have always disliked this wine right from its inception in the early 1970’s.  With the excellent pedigree of Chardonnay and Semillion as its parents I had high hopes for this style, which were soon dashed with my first taste. A boring wine with no appealing aspects. Why ruin a nice Chardy or a nice Sem by mixing them together? The best features of its parent wines were not reproduced in their offspring, a nondescript, flavourless dullard of a wine to be avoided if at all possible. However, being a fair man, giving credit if and when due, I must say that the wine was a reasonable partner for the pungent strong flavours of the excellent goat’s cheese. Despite this throw away parting gesture of a few crumbs of praise, I can assure you all that there has never been a bottle of this wine in my cellar.