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

Food

In the kitchen was Chef Steve Liebeskind with assistance from David Simmonds cooking the fourth COTY cook-off.

Canapés

Today we had Steve’s homemade gravlax topped with a mixture of sour cream, horseradish, dill and lemon topped with fennel fronds on some sliced baguette as one of the canapés.

As I’ve said before I’m a big fan of this dish. It’s a perfect example of gravlax and was eagerly consumed by members.

In making gravlax there’s always some leftover fresh salmon so Steve created ceviche that was served on spoons. It was a mixture of red onion, coriander and fresh salmon pieces that had been mixed with an Asian sauce (spicy with citric acid). The salmon was cured by the sauce with the onion, coriander, lime zest and chilli adding flavour and texture to the ceviche.

The last canapé was some pastry cups filled with goats' cheese and topped with beetroot and caramelised onion chutney. There was a lot of flavour in the chutney.

Main

Confit salmon with herb beurre blanc, tarragon, chives, parsley, fried capers and finger lime topped with crispy salmon skin.

Loved the textures in this dish …..the crispy salt of the salmon skin sitting on the salmon, was perfectly cooked. It was sitting in a herby beurre blanc broth not overly buttery with some lively acid burst from finger lime. We were able to spoon the broth up as well as dunk some of the thick sourdough bread that accompanied the main to clean our plates.

The salmon was accompanied by asparagus and a puree of potato and parsnip. Good quality produce with heaps of butter was the order of events.

This is Steve’s signature dish and we saw why today he was selected for our coveted Chef of The Year award.

Many good comments on the dish today.

Cheese

Cheesemaster James Healey presented the cheese today. This is one of Steve’s favourite cheeses and it came to the table running off the cheeseboard.

D’ AFFINOIS DE BREBIS FROMAGERIE GUILLOTEAU

It comes in 1kg wheels, is around 6-8 weeks old and according to James, is an extremely well-priced cheese for the quality that is delivered.

This cheese is made by Fromagerie Guilloteau near Pelussin in the Rhone Valley. This cheese utilises ultra-filtration techniques and modern lactic fermentation techniques to boost the protein and calcium levels in the curd. Made with added cream and ripened for three weeks under a thin white mould rind covering the cheese and gradually develops a mild and rich texture that is savoury, building complexity. These modern lactic fermentation techniques boost the protein and calcium levels, it had a good sharp finish.

Accompanying the cheese course was a dressed salad of English spinach, iceberg lettuce, char-grilled red capsicum and roasted peanuts.

Wine

In my never-ending efforts to make my reports informative, at times amusing and hopefully, of some educative value, I strive hard to find that elusive, but essential requirement, inspiration! When searching for this, my mind wandered back 60 years to my school days studying Shakespeare. For some reason, the line “oh for the Muse of fire that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention”,  the opening line of Henry V, has always stuck with me. So it would seem that even the Bard himself had to search deep for inspiration at times. Without trying to put myself in the same league, so do I. I digress.

The first wine yesterday was from the Watervale part of the Clare, a Wines by KT Riesling, 2017, a 10/10 vintage for Riesling in that region. As many of you would know by now, I am a great fan of Clare Riesling, but not this one. Better palates than mine would detect the problem, but to me, the wine lacked that lovely acidic crispness of good Riesling from that region. At 6 yo the wine would normally be drinking at its peak, however, I found the wine to finish with a flat effect. The wine went easily with the excellent pass-arounds by our talented Chef De Jour Steve Liebeskind, however, I was hoping for something a little better.

The next wine was the Lindemans Bin 1155, 2011 Hunter Semillon. Several comments around the Room indicated that 2011 was a poor year in the Hunter for whites, however my research, according to Halliday, regarded it as a fair year 7/10. Some other vintage charts regarded it higher. Anyhow, the bottom line was that I enjoyed the wine to some extent with fine delicate flavours, but lacking in the attractive qualities that a good aged Semillon can possess. The finish was of a fading wine, dare I say insipid. Fruit and acid falling away.

Our third white was the legendary Tyrrells Vat 47 Chardonnay 2013. 13.5%. By all accounts an excellent vintage in the Hunter. I really enjoyed it. Maybe at 10 yo it would have been better if drunk 2/3 years ago, but to my taste, it was still excellent. Now it would seem, I am walking into Tiger Country. So I am putting on my Pith Helmut, my asbestos undies and picking up my trusty Remington 308 with a full magazine. Off I go.  I am sufficiently old enough to remember the first release of Vat 47 in 1971. In fact, my grandsons at Riverview think I am so old that I must have been personally acquainted with St Ignatius! I digress to inject some levity into the developing debate. Anyhow, I think it is fair to say that Vat 47 has always been highly regarded since its first release, with of course a price to match! The wine has won many awards over the years. I have always enjoyed the wine when on offer. So it is against this background that I note that at our last two lunches when the wine has been served, it has met with some unflattering remarks from persons whose opinions I respect. On the first occasion, I thought the comments perhaps related to the particular bottle, but on the second occasion, a different vintage, the same outcome. So what is going on here? Have I been guilty over the decades of worshipping a false idol?

I am aware that some in the wine industry do not regard Chardonnay as a suitable grape to grow in the Hunter. There are others who simply do not rate Australian Chardonnay, too big and blousy, too much alcohol and unbalanced, too sweet, over-oaked and so on. All at times valid criticisms. But I do not think that any of these faults existed in the Vat 47s we drank. I like to think that my comments about our wines are by and large shared by the room, as I often seek the opinions of others at the table.  With the last two Vat 47s, I thought they were quite sound and very drinkable, but others disagreed. Perhaps we should have an in-depth seminar on why some of us do not like Vat 47. I would imagine we have a fair stock of it in our cellar, so it could be an important exchange of views.

Moving right along, the first red wine was the By Farr PN 2016. Bottled under cork @ 13.5%. Now a 7yo. I would have preferred this wine to be served with less chill on the bottle. Sandwiched between the Chardy and the following big Coonawarra Reds, I felt the PN was lost and out of place. Perhaps it was the chill masking the PN flavours and aroma, but in the end, I found the wine underwhelming.

The final two wines for the lunch were two Society favourites, the ever-dependable Wynns Coonawarra Cabernet from 2008 and the Wynns Coonawarra Shiraz from the same year. Vintage 2008 seems to have been regarded in that region as quite reasonable, and despite both wines now being nearly 15 yo, they were holding up very well. The Cabernet was my pick, great fruit, well-integrated tannins, 14% but in nice balance. An excellent wine. The V& A Lane Shiraz was just behind, an attractive wine drinking beautifully, but just eclipsed in terms of flavour and overall appeal by the Cabernet. I have always felt Cabernet is more suited to that region than Shiraz. In the event, we must recognise Sue Hodder the principal winemaker for her achievements at Wynns for over 25 consecutive vintages, almost all universally good. That’s dedication.