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

Food

Paul Ferman was in the kitchen today cooking for our monthly wine tasting. We welcomed member Bruce Tyrrell today, making the trek from the Hunter for our lunch.

Canapés

Canapés were bountiful today and enjoyed with the canapé wines.

Warmed king oyster mushrooms on spoons with polenta cooked with chicken stock/butter/ parmesan, a umami hit..they were full of flavour and great texture.

Home pickled sardines on GF seeded bread, another flavour hit with the taste not overly dominated by the sardine.

Terrine of pork and veal with a layer of wild rabbit ..one of Paul’s signature canapés, it’s a favourite of mine and didn’t disappoint today.

Main

Paul’s theme today was quality, simplicity and ingredients.

He promised "a couple of plump legs of the 4-legged type, slow cooked on a bed of halved potatoes and quarters of onion, lots of oregano, an insinuation of garlic, in a Greekish manner, accompanied by a Frenchish composed set of blow-torched greens with a dust of far-left Labour salt and ultra-right pepper, oh and Dutton mushrooms".

It was marinated goat, slow-cooked over Dutch cream potatoes with onions and lemon. Goat is notoriously difficult to cook and keep the moisture and favour balance, Paul succeeded today.

Great flavour and texture, wonderful mouthfeel and a long lingering aftertaste.

It was accompanied by a Salad Composé mustard and olive oil dressing over autumn vegetables of zucchini, beans, lettuce and Spanish onion.

Well done, Paul, a lunch of plenty.

Bruce closed lunch today by discussing the wines on taste and an overview of winemaking terroir, tradition and innovation.

Cheese

Our Cheesemaster Mark Bradford, in theme, presented two types of goat cheese.

1. Holy Goat La Luna Ring 1.35kg

Tasting Notes

Category: White Mould

Origin: Australia

Milk Type: Goat’s Milk

Classification: Farmhouse

This award-winning, surface-ripened goat’s milk cheese is handmade at Sutton Grange Organic Farm near Castlemaine using ancient cheese-making techniques that were refined in the Loire Valley over a millennium.

Lactic acid fermentation slowly sets the curd over 24 hours before it is gently hand-ladled into moulds, as to preserve its delicate structure. After draining, the young cheeses are moved to the maturation room where they are turned daily for seven days, then matured for another two weeks to allow the wrinkly Geotrichum candidum rind to fully develop.  As it ripens, the chalky centre softens to a soft, fudgy texture. Delicate citrus notes accentuate lactic sweetness and herbaceous flavours from the goat’s milk.

2. Fromager D’Affinois Florette 1kg

A hexagonal-shaped cheese that has the d’Affinois silky consistency that we all know and love and a delicate goat’s milk flavour.

Tasting Notes

Category: White Mould

Origin: France

Milk Type: Goat’s Milk

Classification: Co-Operative

Rennet: Non-Animal

Soft, surface ripened pure goats’ cheese made near Lyons, France.

This new cheese uses special microfiltration techniques that concentrate the rich solids in the goat’s milk ensuring a very smooth texture and delicious rounded creamy flavour.

Fromagerie Guilloteau are leaders in a modern process called “ultra filtration”. Ultra filtration is a technique co-created by Jean-Claude Guilloteau and occurs before the cheese making process. Pasteurised milk is forced through a series of membranes, extracting protein and removing water; concentrating all other desirable components. This results in the production of consistent, nutritionally rich cheeses that have a silkier mouth feel and creamy subtle flavour.

Wine

A very full house for today’s gathering which is excellent for our bottom line in revenue terms. We started the day with a Guigal Cote du Rhone white blend 2018, probably a blend of Roussanne and Viognier 14%. We have had this wine before on several occasions and it gets no better by repetition. Hope our Winemaster is doing a cellar clearout. Bit harsh perhaps, but I am sure we can do better. Enjoyable enough for a glass of wine at a bar with a female friend, but neither would you want to take home.

On a brighter note, the next wine was a truly excellent Tyrrells Semillon 2008, 11.3%. Bruce Tyrrell who was with us for lunch commented that this vintage along with 1971 was the most difficult in his memory. Whatever happened in the winery is unclear, but the finished product was wonderful. A 15 yo Semillon, defying age was fresh, clean, and balanced with no sign of adverse ageing. A wonderful example of a true Australian icon, hard to see how this wine would not go on for another 10 or more years.

Next on the table, we were presented with three wines from the legendary Brian Croser, namely three 2022 Tapanappa Chardonnay from his Piccadilly Vineyard in the Adelaide Hills region. Our Winemaster asked us to conduct a serious assessment of all three wines. Given the fact that all the wines were barely a year old, this was I suspect a bridge too far for most of our members, or at least for me.

Crozer has always made his top Chardys very tight, restrained and disciplined. No excessive oak, acid or fruit. At one year old these wines had little to offer for a tasting, very young and tight. The Tiers 1.5 M Vineyard showed some more fruit than the other two, and some real promise, but how they will develop is a bit like picking the Melbourne Cup winner at the 500 M mark. Would love to be around when we hopefully taste these wines again, when they develop in say 5 years.

The final bracket was a fabulous collection of Tyrrells 2014 Shiraz from the best vintage in the Hunter since 59 or 65 some say. My wine assessment skills are not sufficient to evaluate clinically each of the gems, suffice to say that I think I preferred the 4 Acres to the Vat 9 and the Old Hut in that order. At 9 yo these wines on their current presentation show no sign of adverse ageing and should present well again in 15 years from now. Hope I am around then to taste. We are indeed fortunate to be members of the WFS on occasions such as today.