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

Food

Canapes

Fourth cook-off for our coveted ‘Chef of the Year’ award today with yours truly in the kitchen with Jonathan Casson, Gary Linnane and Chilly Hargrave assisting with canapés.

Johnathan kicked off canapés with some rice crackers topped with ricotta, fig and Serrano Jamón. Jonathan had soaked dried figs in Pedro Ximénez for three days.

Loved the flavours and texture in this canapé a great idea to marinate the figs. The crackers were a little softened by the cheese.

Gary reprised his signature canapé a white bean anchoïade topped with parsley and served in pastry cases and crackers.

Gary used the Tarbais beans that Society member Scott Witt provided and added some tinned haricot white beans. The beans were puréed with some Parmigiano-Reggiano, cream cheese capers, anchovy, lemon zest and EVOO.

Full of flavour, lemony, salty and creamy with a satisfying lingering aftertaste.

Chilly Hargrave up last with a salmorejo, sometimes known as ardoria or ardorío, it is a traditional soup originating from Andalusia, southern Spain, made of tomato, bread, extra virgin olive oil and garlic. The tomatoes are just roughly chopped and then blended very thoroughly with garlic. The seeds and remains of the skins are then filtered out. The sourdough bread (250 gms to 1kg tomatoes) is then torn into small pieces and added to the tomato mix with the addition of olive oil. The bread is squeezed by hand to ensure complete saturation and softening. After an hour, this is thoroughly blended again, with water added to create the desired texture.

The salmorejo was served cold and garnished with diced Spanish Jamon and hard-boiled eggs. Great balance of flavours in the soup and very moorish.

Many favourable comments about the canapés today.

Main

Our main course today was a chicken, smoked cheese and bacon rotolo.  Served with chicken fat potato gratin, shaved brussels sprouts sautéed in butter and water and topped with a cream sauce. The cream sauce is made with chicken thighs and sherry, chicken stock, cream and caramelised button mushrooms.

The rotolo main ingredients are chicken breast mince, diced salami, onions, garlic, mustard, parmesan, parsley and bread crumbs. It’s then patted out to an even rectangle with mint leaves pressed over the surface. Thin slices of ham are layered and then sprinkled with grated smoked Dutch cheese. It’s then rolled up and covered with bacon rashers and baked for an hour, finally rested for twenty minutes then sliced and served. Decorated with tarragon and chives.

Lots of flavour in the rotolo complemented by the rich cream and sherry mushroom sauce.

Many comments today on the excellent wine/food pairing.

Big bread love by Iggys today.

Cheese

Holy Goat La Luna wheels, a white mould cheese made from goats' milk in Castlemaine Victoria.

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 and 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.

Simply served with some crispy green grapes to highlight the flavour and texture of the cheese, it was perfect and may be the last time we see it at our Society as the producers have announced their retirement.

Paul Ferman provided the coffee and Peter Kelso a warming Armagnac to celebrate his recent birthday.

Wine

A good roll up of members was treated to some great food by James Hill. The entrees and main were terrific and the Holy Goat cheese was wonderful. Sadly we will see it no more, with the owners closing up shop.

To start proceedings we were served a great Hunter Sem, a Tyrrells Stevens from 2018, 10.5% with 2018 rated an 8/10 year. The wine was a delight, crisp with high acid, well-balanced, pale straw colour and beautiful fruit. A great future ahead. Would love to see this wine again in 5 years. A crowd favourite. A great match for the entrees.

The next wine was the Hentley Farm Villian and Vixen Grenache 2022, 14.5%. This wine from the Barossa was a lot of fun, remember that feeling?  The perfect wine to get the party started then let the fun begin! The wine was a riot of sweet-smelling fruit, velvety mouthfeel, high acidity mixed with spice and minimal oak evident. This wine is the elixir for youth, certainly made me feel very happy remembering the days of wine and roses in my youth! Not a wine to be mulled over, just drink it for the pure joy a delicious Grenache can deliver. A breath of fresh air from our cellar which can at times can be too focused on heavy older style reds.  Let’s have more Grenache to lift our spirits and have fun.

The following wine was the distinguished Curly Flat PN from 2013 at 13.5%. This wine from the Macedon Ranges in Vic has a huge cult following, as it deserves. A lovely PN, elegant and polished, but beginning to show some signs of ageing with the acid starting to fall off a tad, but tannins still firm. Still a delight to drink, beautiful quality fruit, but not a keeper for sure.

We then marched onto our 4th Wine, the Collector Tiger Tiger Chardonnay 2021, from the Tumbarumba district, 12.9%.  Collector wines are based near the township of  Collector close to Lake George, but some of their wines are sourced from different regions, such as this wine.  Tumbarumba is a great place for cool climate Chardonnay to such extent it is the preferred area for high quality Chardonnay by companies such as Penfolds for their top shelf white wine. My initial impression was of a delicious Chardonnay, great fruit and just about the right balance notwithstanding the obvious high acidity. I was enjoying the wine with the scrumptious cheese, Chardy + quality cheese = a near-perfect match!  The wine had an abundance of citrus fruit flavour, and I was happy, that condition again! Dear readers, it did not last long. I began to hear voices from around the room, telling me why I should not be enjoying this wine! Palates far more sophisticated than mine, assured me that the wine had serious winemaking faults and marked it down accordingly. It would seem that being happy with a wine is just not enough. You might think you are enjoying the wine but, with a full understanding of its technical shortcomings, your joy should be restrained and moderated. Pray for forgiveness for being happy with a wine of inferior quality. Mea Culpa Lord, it just tasted so good!

The final wine for the day was a Shaw and Smith Shiraz from the Adelaide Hills 2014 vintage 14%. Highly respected winemakers who rarely get it wrong. This wine was a classic cool climate Shiraz with lots of spicy flavours and firm tannins, high acid, elegant yet powerful at the apex of its development at 10 yo. A very enjoyable wine, well balanced, with time ahead for another 5 years or so.