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

Food

What could be better on chilly winter’s day than roast beef and a glass of red?

Roger Straiton (M. le rostbif) was in the kitchen as chef of the day for our monthly wine tasting lunch.

Canapés

Beetroot biscuits topped with some Swedish smoked salmon paste and a prawn. This was a salmon fish roe from a tube, a Swedish delicacy.

Blinis topped with crème fraîche and parsley, white anchovies and Granny Smith apple and pickled marinated fennel.

Main

Roast beef (scotch fillet or rib eye) gravy and vegetables, charred asparagus, crunchy beans, Brussels sprouts and cocktail potatoes.

Sounds simple but today the beef was perfectly executed, seared then finished in the oven. As members say, presentation is important and today Roger nailed it, looked good, and tasted even better.

A bowl of horseradish mixed with crème fraîche to top it off.

I love the way Brussels sprouts divide a room. You either love ‘em...

The main was served with a French-style crusty loaf baguette, perfect to mop up the rich flavoursome homemade gravy.

Fine fare, stonkingly good, thanks Roger

Good comments on both wine and food today.

Quote of the day

“To me, food is as much about the moment, the occasion, the location and the company as it is about the taste”.

Heston Blumenthal

Cheese

A six-month-old Ossau Iraty, a favourite of our Society but today no one guessed it, this time a little younger than what we’ve had in the past.

Ossau Iraty has a succulent and complex flavour, developing notes of hazelnut and caramel as it matures.

Tasting Notes

Category: Semi-Hard Cheese

Origin: France

Milk Type: Sheep’s Milk

New season ewe’s milk is collected from the shepherds of the Ossau Valley and Iraty Forest, in the Basque Pyrenees to make this traditional hard-crusted cheese.

The method used in making these cheeses is claimed to be one of the oldest surviving in the world and dates back at least 4000 years.

After cooking the curds, the rind is washed and hand salted before being matured in cellars for six months by affineurs.

This cheese is made exclusively with milk from local breeds of sheep (Manech and Basco-Bearnaise). It has a succulent and complex flavour, developing notes of hazelnut and caramel as it matures. Firm, nutty with a slightly sweet finish, this AOP cheese is often only available for six months of the year due to the short lactation period of ewes.

The cheese was accompanied by dried fruit apricot, pear, apple, prune and cashews.

Wine

Today’s lunch wine wise was an all Northern Rhone affair with wines from Guigal and Cuilleron. 2 whites and 5 reds plus a masked red from parts unknown. Moving straight onto the whites served with the excellent pass arounds by Roger Straiton, we were presented with a 2016 St Joseph Lyseras Blanc, a blend I was informed of Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier. The second white was a 2018 Les Vignes Cote Roussanne. A straight Roussanne.

At the beginning of the tasting, I began to feel that it was like Groundhog Day, with yet another barrage of Rhone whites, which I personally do not favour. My impression was that we were having these wines at every lunch, however, impressions can be misleading, and my records indicate that we have only had these wines on 3 maybe 4 occasions this year.  It just seems so much more often. Surely we must be getting close to the end of the bottomless pit of these wines in our cellar.

Anyhow, dealing with the two wines today, I much preferred the Roussanne, which notwithstanding my remarks about these wines generally, I enjoyed to some extent. A very big flavoured wine, a bit on the oily, unctuous side of mouthfeel, but not unpleasant to drink. Would probably go well with chicken or a good cheddar.

The second wine, the 2016 Lyseras was in my view over the hill and far away. Brownish tinges, perhaps a cork problem?  Flat and flabby were thoughts that came to mind.

Having tasted both wines my palate screamed out for a good aged Australian Riesling with a crisp, fresh acidic finish!   So much for the Rhone whites for today.

Dealing now with the red wines from Northern Rhone, my antipathy towards whites from that district is very much not replicated in my assessment of the red wines from that region, in fact, I have been very partial to their reds for many years. We had a delightful lineup of 5 wines from vintages ranging from 2007 to 2012, and in my view, there was not a poor wine among them. We were indeed fortunate to have 5 of the best from the N Rhone.

Trying to write a report about wines from the same region with similar grape composition is not easy, as in my opinion most of them tasted pretty much the same, which was very good indeed. A bit like trying to write a review of 5 Miss World finalists! They all look pretty damm attractive, perhaps just one or two stand out. So for my money wine no 6, the 2010 Cote-Rotie Brune et Blonde was the pick of the litter, a delightful wine with, a great balance between fruit and oak, powerful flavours and a clean lingering finish.  The runner-up was a toss-up between the 2007 St Joseph Vignes de L’Hospice Syrah and the 2012 Cote-Rotie Brune et Blonde.  In a photo finish, 2^nd went to the St Joseph, as I felt that the Cotie was a bit over-oaked.

The final wine of the day was a mystery-masked bottle.  My impression was that most of the room was perplexed by this little number as to my palate an initial tasting was unimpressive and out of kilter with the other wines. Most in the room were divided between a French wine or an Australian.  Time revealed that it was the famous Clonakilla Shiraz and Viognier blend 2017.  As a matter of interest, none of the members who spoke about the wines made any comment about their composition. One would imagine they were all mainly Syrah, with possibly, some  Viognier thrown in.  The point is, the Clonakilla is a blend of the same wines as those from the Rhone we had today, yet to me it tasted quite different.

Finally, a thank you to Roger Straiton for providing us with a fabulous serving of roast beef with horseradish sauce, just the way we like it, and of course thanks to our Winemaster for assembling this wonderful collection of Rhone wines.