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

Food

A full house today for our first wine tasting lunch of the year. Peter Kelso Past President of our society and Chef of the Year on a number of occasions was in the kitchen for today’s lunch. Peter’s known for economy and keeping it simple. In dollar terms our lunch today the value of wines alone at lunch was $130 per person.

Canapes

‘Less is more’ said Mies van de Rohe and there was more.

First up, two types of fried fritters one pumpkin and the other ‘tromboncini’ served with Ajvar condiment.

The ingredients for the fritters came from Peter’s community garden. Tromboncino also known as zucchetta.

Long zucchini-like fruit with a bulbous end. A climbing vine that produces long pale green zucchini-like fruit with a bulbous end. Fruit is used like a zucchini and has a comparable flavour and is tender.

Ajvar is a condiment made principally from capsicum and eggplants.

Good robust flavours in the fritters and condiments.

Peter served some herring sour cream on garlic-roasted bruschetta garnished with paprika. The sauce was made with dill, red onion, garlic, and vodka.

This herring canapé had good texture, integrated flavours, very moreish.

Main

Peter presented ‘turkey tonnato’, a twist on the Italian dish normally made with veal.

Peter had brined ‘skin on’ turkey breast for 48 hours and then roasted and served with a traditional tonnâto sauce on top. It was decorated with parsley, pickled cucumbers, olives, and pickled beetroot.

Served at room temperature the turkey flavour stood through.

It looked simple but a lot of thought and effort was evident in our lunch today.

Accompanying the dish was a salad of endive, radicchio and cos lettuce dressed with a light vinaigrette. A good match for our brace of burgundies on taste today.

Good comments on the food today many thought ‘chef of the year’ worthy.

Thank you, Peter.

Bread a very good sourdough.

Cheese

Cheese master Mark Bradford selected cheese from Gippsland Victoria, Berry’s Creek Riverine Buffalo Blue. It had everyone guessing, no one correctly. Many thought it was a French cheese.

Made with high quality, Gippsland sourced buffalo milk, this innovative cheese is super smooth and creamy. It has a delicate texture and highlights the great understanding of milk and mould types by award winning Berrys Creek Cheese.

I believe it is the first time it’s been presented to a lunch.

A complication with the cheese today, it hadn’t arrived by noon! MB was on the case ensuring it was delivered in time for service.

Peter accompanied the cheese with sliced fresh figs, dried figs and dry roasted walnuts.

We welcomed two new members to our Society today, John McKenzie and Dr Geoff Riiesfeld.

Our new member Society ties are in the post gents.

Wine

Our Wine Master turned it on for us today a veritable cornucopia of excellent Burgundies and some not so well known entrée whites.

We kicked off with an Aligote 2021 from Bichot. 12%. This grape popular in France is a first cousin of Chardonnay, being part of the Pinot family. Very dry with high acidity.

I found the wine somewhat lacking in flavour. A little thin to my taste. My research indicates that this wine is extremely popular in Bulgaria and Romania. They must like this style.

The second entrée wine was a Pinot Bianco 13% 2020. An Italian wine from Erste & Neue. Again, very dry but with a bit more fruit on show compared to the first wine. Clean and fresh with crisp acid. Enjoyable.

First of the lunch wines was the Bichot 2020 Meursault at 13.5%. I really liked this wine. Smooth with buttery overtones and a long satisfying finish. Well balanced. Excellent.

Next was the Colin Morey 2018 Cotes due Beaune Au Bout du Monde at 13% . Delicate with some obvious citrus flavours of peach, pear and lemon. Restrained acid.

We then moved on to what I was thinking would be the star of the show, the Les Clos Grand Cru Chablis 2018. 13%. I was expecting some of that classic steely flinty, taste, but it was not there, at least for me. Perhaps the very rich sauce accompanying the main drowned it out. I always think of a Chablis with delicate seafood dishes, not with a heavy main course, which incidentally was terrific, but for me the coupling was just not right. The wine itself was fine, but perhaps the acid was beginning to fall away a little.

The first red was Leroux Gevrey Chambertin, 2013 at 13%. Deep ruby colour with some strawberry aroma. The acid was falling off a bit, but still a nice finish with faint tannins. Excellent.

The second red was the Domaine de Bellene Beaune Les Greves 1st Cru 2012 at 13%. This wine to my taste was a bit flat, with low acidity, starting to show some premature ageing at 12 yo. Still very drinkable with mellow tannin. Not one for keeping.

Our final wine was a beauty, the Grand Cru Echezeaux En Orveaux 2015, 13.5% An excellent year for red Burgundy. and the wine soon showed its class. Medium to firm mouthfeel, great balance with hints of cherry and strawberry. Great finish suggesting that this wine still has many years ahead. An excellent long term proposition for those special occasions.