Food review by Mark Bradford and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran

Food

Today saw the much anticipated 100th birthday of the highly popular World War 2 vet, Mr Peter Manners. Happy Birthday Peter for 30 March! A full house on the day of 60 with members and Peter’s son, Andrew. The lunch was a fusion of Wine and Food Society and Escoffier expertise in the kitchen: Chris North and Bill Alexiou on canapes and Nick Reynolds and Ian Mackenzie on mains. As Peter was born in England, the theme was English fare.

Canapes

Our birthday man Peter is known as the King of Canapes, having introduced them in a “formal” way many years ago and being very much a part of a Society lunch. First up was a scallop on a spoon with curried cauliflower puree. We enjoyed “not pigs in a blanket”, dates stuffed with English cheddar and wrapped with English bacon. The third canape was somewhat unusual, “River Cam Pie”, twice cooked beef cheek (in French Onion Soup) in a pastry case topped with mushy pea purée. All excellent; a fitting tribute to the KoC.

Main

The main was Beef Wellington. Fillet steak cooked sous vide at 65 C for one and a half hours brushed with Dijon mustard, with a mushroom, shallot, garlic, and thyme duxelle wrapped in prosciutto. These were then wrapped in crêpes and then in Carême all-butter puff pastry with a puff pastry lattice. The Wellingtons were then brushed with an egg wash and baked so that the puff was well-browned. Each serve was accompanied by a Dutch carrot and two baked Kestrel potatoes. The dish was sauced with a heavily reduced, pressure-cooked, homemade beef stock. A delightful main course with the beef cooked to perfection.

Cheese

The Cheese Master selected Colston Basset Stilton for the day, from Nottinghamshire. It was served with honey-glazed walnuts and dates, and was a good match with the sweet sherry selected for the course.

Colston Bassett is one of the smallest producers of Stilton and has been doing so since 1913. Their cheeses are rich, complex, and long-lasting in flavour.

A limited quantity of Stilton is made at the dairy to a traditional recipe exclusively for Neal’s Yard Dairy using animal rennet, which creates a delicate, friable texture and long, complex flavour. Curds are hand ladled into cylindrical moulds; a time-consuming and painstaking process, but one that helps to preserve the structure of the curd and deliver a smooth, rich, textured cheese.

The piercing takes place later in the maturation process in order to strike the right balance between creamy, flavoursome paste and blue mould.

During maturation, the crusty rind forms naturally, encouraged by rubbing and brushing, and after spiking, blueing radiates from the centre. This is a buttery, silky cheese with an elegant sweetness.

Colston Bassett is one of the smallest producers of Stilton and has been doing so since 1913. Their cheeses are rich, complex and long-lasting in flavour.

A limited quantity of Stilton is made at the dairy to a traditional recipe exclusively.

Dessert

What would a birthday celebration of such significance be without a birthday cake? The light fruit cake, topped with 100 candles, was made from a Larousse patisserie and baking recipe with Pedro Ximenez-soaked golden raisins, mixed peel, mixed glacé cherries and dried cranberries. Birthday boy Peter Manners provided Nick Reynolds with the cake pan that Peter used in 2016 to make Wal Edwards' 100th birthday cake.

A most memorable lunch and a great milestone for Peter.

Wine

Wow! What a day, Peter, can you have another birthday lunch again next year?  Where to begin? At the beginning I guess, is the best place.

Our WFS team in the kitchen together with the Escoffier crew put together a superb lunch, with great pass-arounds and a magnificent main and cheese. See the food review for details.

About the wines, all eagerly awaited, we commenced with a Bubb + Pooley Chardonnay from the Coal River region of Tas, 2022, 13%. I have enjoyed Pooley Chardonnays before, always outstanding, but I am afraid to say this wine was not in the same class.  Quality fruit and well balanced with a crisp finish, but very restrained and tight, like the Brian Croser early Petaluma Chardonnays. The problem for me was that the wine did not have much flavour! There was little to offer on the front palate or back palate. It left the mouth without saying goodbye! No doubt some of our experts will tell me I should have enjoyed the wine more than I did, but I can only assess the wine on how it presented to me. A tad disappointing, perhaps I was expecting too much.

We then moved on to the main attraction three superb red wines, a Bordeaux, a Hunter Shiraz and a Barossa Shiraz. This was an occasion for high excitement, which delivered in spades.

The first wine of this group was the Ch Clos Du Marquis from St Julian, 2010 13.5%, a blend of Cabernet 72%, Merlot 27% and a dash of Cab Franc. The Commune of St Julian boasts of more Classified Growths than any other Commune in Bordeaux. To use a real estate analogy, St Julian is the Point Piper of Bordeaux. The Marquis is the next-door neighbour of the prestigious Ch Leoville-Las-Cases. The wine was to me a very typical quality Bordeaux. The nose, the mouthfeel and the sheer quality of the fruit/oak/tannin mix just stay with you well after the wine has been drunk. In my view, no other wine in the world has that quality. The deep colour and the power of the fruit, but perfectly balanced, finishing with an elegant silky finish is a joy forever. That Bordeaux aroma leaves me in a trance-like state. To try to describe that aroma is a good occasion to fall back on the French expression, “je ne sais quoi“ says it all for those of us who run out of adjectives. I have always thought a Bordeaux like this never leaves the memory, the French have a perfume from the House of Worth “Je Reviens“, which translates into “I will return“. That aroma always does for me.

The second wine in this group was the Tyrrells Johnno’s Shiraz 2014, 14%. The problem with this wine is that it was “batting after Bradman“ as the old saying goes. A hard tag to shake off. But casting that hex aside the wine was beautiful. Medium body, noticeably lighter in colour than the previous wine, but excellent spicy fruit, firm tannic finish with great aftertaste, A lovely wine, with years ahead of enjoyable drinking. Yet another testimony to the fantastic vintage of 2014 in the Hunter.

The third wine of the bracket was the 2010 Penfolds St Henri. More praise to our wine masters past and present for delivering to us today, in perfect condition, a wine I would regard as one of the best Australian red wines made in the last 30 years. This wine is exceptional. I had the good fortune to share a bottle with friends 12 months ago and we all agreed it was outstanding, a quantum leap from St Henri’s of the past which had suffered a decline in quality for a decade or so. The vintage year 2010 was an exceptional vintage for the Barossa which this wine demonstrates. The wine had an alcohol level of 14.5%, but the quality of the fruit and outstanding wine-making ensured that a balance between fruit/acid, tannin and oak produced a superb wine with a chewy, almost sweet fruit aftertaste. It lingered. A glorious wine. I can see it still giving a thrill to those lucky enough to sample it in 20 years. What impresses me about the wine, is that despite its hugeness, it is almost elegant and supple, what higher praise could one afford for a wine?

The final bracket for the cheese was a magnificent old Hunter Sem, the Tyrrells Vat 1 2011, coupled with a Pedro Ximenez Sherry from Spain.  

The Tyrrells was graceful and fully developed wine, which now at 13 yo would be classified as a Trophy standard aged Semillon. There is no other wine in the world like it. Golden deep straw colour, gleaming and clear with a faint aroma of honey and toast overtones. Plenty of acid so the future looks as bright as this wine is at present. Powerful fruit flavours, still fresh and clean, a great match with the Stilton.

The final wine was the Sherry, a Pedro Ximenez. Deep brown, with an aroma of mixed stewed fruits, nuts and raisins. Very sweet and opulent, cuts through the strong flavoured Stilton, leaving a very enjoyable aftertaste.

And so we reached the end of the afternoon, a memorable occasion.  My pick for the wine of the day was the Marquis, I just cannot get past that French connection.

A final thank you to all who put their shoulder to the wheel to make it happen. Our Food Master, our Wine Master, our Cheese Master, the Escoffier team and the REX kitchen.