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

Food

Our first lunch of 2015 saw, yet again, James Hill in the kitchen.  It’s the 13th consecutive time that James has presented the opening lunch and, unsurprisingly, a full house today.  This is always a keynote lunch for the year ahead, cooked to the impeccable standards for which James is renowned.  COTY finalist Rob Guthrie assisted with canapés and Madan, acting as Head Chef at the REX for a while, assisted in the pin boning filleting of the fish and in general preparation.

Canapés

Rob started us off on pastry with mushroom, goat's cheese and an olive, topped with thyme. Very good and enough for two rounds.

Next was James’ take on a Damien Pignolet simple country terrine with fresh herbs with a morello cherry atop, all on oven baked white bread toast.

The final round was Rob’s skewers of haloumi, pesto and basil, wrapped with bacon.

Canapes were aplenty and all a good match for the McWilliams Elizabeth Semillon, as well as a few more odds and ends that ended up in our glasses.

Main

James served us Liam Tomlin’s recipe of blue-eyed cod fillet with prawn colcannon and red wine sauce, topped with crispy pancetta and with sugar snap peas on the side. The colcannon contained savoy cabbage, spring onions and parsley.  Beautiful presentation, given the numbers in the room, and a wonderful juxtaposition of flavours on the plate.

Cheese

In theme with the colcannon, the Cheese Master selected a Cashel Blue cow’s milk cheese from Ireland, named after the Rock of Cashel in Country Tipperary.  A raucous table of gravelly baritone voices – all out of tune – reminded the room that it’s indeed a long way to Tipperary! 

The cheese is firm yet moist, with a hint of tarragon and white wine.  With age, its true character emerges, with blue marbling through the buttery yellow paste.

James accompanied the cheese with a refreshing salad of fennel, apple, celery and cucumber with a dressing of apple cider vinegar and EVOO.

A wonderful start to our 2025 Tuesday lunches.

Wine 

We had a very healthy turnout for our first lunch of 2025. Our Master Chef James Hill with some help from Rob Guthrie on the pass-arounds put on a superb lunch, which was received with uniform approval and gratitude by the room. See the Food report for more details. 

With regard to the wines, the printed list contained five wines that everybody had and there were a few random bottles thrown in, both with the aperitif wine and the main course.

I will restrict my report to the wines as advised, which we all enjoyed. 

The first cab off the rank was a delightful McWilliams Elizabeth Semillon 2018 12.5%.  An inspired recent purchase by our Wine Master. This was my favourite wine of the day!

To my taste this was a very different wine from previous Elizabeth Semillons we have all had over the years. The wine was fresh and lively, great fruit and well balanced with sufficient acid to ensure a clean crisp finish. 2018 was an 8/10 year in the Hunter and this wine now 7 yo is drinking at near its peak, still quite delicious and full of life. My pick of the litter for today. 

The next wine was the Tapanappa Picadilly vineyard Chardonnay 2021, a Brian Croser wine. I have the greatest respect for Mr Croser, but being honest, as I always try to be I did not enjoy this wine. Not sure why, but there was something in the aftertaste that put me off this wine. If one were to compare the aftertaste of this Chardy with say, something equally prestigious say a Pooley from Tas, there is a world of difference on the back palate. This wine did not have to me at least, the usual signature of a top Chardy, richness with stone fruit flavours and a lingering sensual finish. Others in the room enjoyed the wine, so perhaps it was me having an off day with my Chardy palate. Perhaps the bottle our table had was just a little off the pace, or perhaps the wine needed more time in the bottle. 

The next wine was the Willunga Trott Vineyard Grenache 2021 14.5%. As soon as saw the Trott name, Wirra Wirra came to mind, Greg Trott being the founder of Wirra Wirra. Then in a split second, my mind was transported back to one of my earlier lives decades ago, when an old girlfriend loved Wirra Wirra late picked riesling as her drink of choice. I had to overcome my dislike of late-picked Australian riesling to ensure harmony! Ah, the memories!   But getting back to the Grenache, it was a dry grown, bush vine wine packing a punch at 14.5%, as usual with this type of Grenache, it was a real fruit bomb, with lots of spice, tannin, acid and overtones of strawberry, blackcurrant and pepper. I was inclined to think that the wine would benefit from another 2/3 years in the bottle. Nonetheless, an enjoyable feisty drink. 

We then moved on to the Wines by KT, a Watervale riesling from the Peglidis vineyard 2017 at 12.5% made by the very talented winemaker Kerri Thompson. This wine ticked all the boxes for a riesling!

Crisp mouthfeel, excellent balance between high quality fruit and a firm acidic finish. Now at 8 yo drinking at its peak. A lovely, chilled wine to be consumed with a peach on a hot afternoon. 

The final wine for the day was one of the Society favs, the Wynns Black Label Coonawarra Cabernet 2019 at 13,8%. Another Sue Hodder triumph!  This wine is in my view our answer to the Guigal Cote Du Rhone reds. With both wines you know what you are getting, consistent quality and good value for money. Today's wine was a very typical Coonawarra Cab, rich and intense, oak, tannin and acid all coming together for a perfect, powerful finish. Plenty of time to fully develop into a Coonawarra Classic.