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

Food

Our favourite ‘Franglais’ Roger Straiton was in the kitchen today cooking for our Bordeaux wine lunch.

Canapés

Roger kicked off with some room temperature scallops sitting on a Marie Rose sauce and black pudding slices. Loved the combination of flavours of this canapé.

Paul Thorne followed with white anchovy and cream fraîche wasabi sauce on warmed blinis.

Assisting again today James Tinslay prepared our favourite his sausage rolls. Today they were Moroccan style made with a dipping sauce of passata based with garlic, eschallots, parsley and Kashmiri chilly for a touch of spice.

The best ever.

Main

M. Rosbif cooking pork?? Sacré blue …

Not easy to cook for 54. Today’s menu was pork with mash and brocolini.

The pork rack was roasted then portioned into cutlets for plating.

It was served with mash, and a tarragon, mustard, white wine cream sauce to go with the broccolini. Roger made a black apple sauce for the pork, its main ingredient after the apple was activated charcoal.

It not easy cooking pork and getting it right, especially when there is such a large number.

The pork was pink, moist and perfectly cooked. No qualms about pork portion size today.

Roger praised the assistance of our kitchen brigade for their help today.

Merci Roger.

Bread baguettes from Taste Providore Woollahra.

Cheese

Our Cheese Master selected a washed rind cow’s milk cheese from France, Fromager Des Clarines.

Closely related to Vacherin Mont d’Or, this small cheese is designed to be eaten from the box. Made near the village of Cleron high in the mountains of Franche-Comte, it is traditionally made at the end of the milking season, when the limited amount of milk is rich in fat and protein.

Eat it at its best when the orange rind develops a ‘ripple’ and the interior breaks down to a rich sticky, creamy texture that oozes from the centre of the cheese – hence the box.

It was served with spoons as suggested.

Roger accompanied the cheese with Majool dates from California

We celebrated Dennis Cooper’s birthday with a rousing birthday song and a 1988 Armagnac.

Wine

Our Chef du Jour Roger Straiton cooked for us a delicious piece of roast pork, expertly cooked and presented. I am sure nobody went home hungry!  My comments on the wines for the day are hereunder, 

The aperitif wine was a 2021 Muscadet from the Loire district, 12%, An excellent way to begin our festivities with an all French line up, The wine was from Domaine de la Combe, sourced from the Melon de Bourgogne grapes, I have always had a soft spot for Muscadet, since a trip to France some time ago. Without doubt, a perfect wine to go with any seafood, especially oysters, fresh, crisp, beautiful fruit, perfectly in balance with an enduring clean finish. Garcon, a plate of Brittany oysters s'il vous plait. 

This is what I would describe as a happy wine, everyone drinking it has a smile! 

I am afraid to say, however, that is where the bonhomie for the day ends, as my tasting of the red wines to follow was a letdown. I, of course, speak solely for myself, 

Today we tasted our Wine Master's selection of Bordeaux reds from vintage 2010. We had three wines from the Medoc region, one from Graves, all Left Bank wines, and two wines from the Right Bank region of St Emilion. A little bit of geography first. The wine making Left Bank of the Gironde river runs from Bordeaux for a distance of approximately 50 kms to the north and is a strip of land approximately 12km wide hugging the Gironde river, Here the predominate grape is Cabernet Sauvignon, with some Cabernet Franc and a little Merlot, This area is the Medoc, Graves is outside Medoc, still on the left bank and a little to the southwest of Bordeaux,  The Left Bank is home to more rock star wines eg Lafite, Latour than the Right Bank, although it must be said that the Right Bank is home to the world's most expensive wine Ch Petrus, incidentally a wine 100% Merlot, 

Getting back to the red wines today, I must say that generally I was disappointed, save for the last two, the Clos de Marquis and the Haut Bailly, with the exception of these wines, none of the others had anything like that instantly recognisable nose of a quality Bordeaux.  Sadly, to my taste, most of the wines today were hard, tannic and unyielding, with excessive alcohol, causing them to be unbalanced. The average alcohol content of these wines was 14.3% compared to the average of other quality Bordeaux reds which hover around 12% to 13%. My short comment on each wine in the order of service is hereunder.

Ch Lanessan 14% - Dull and flat, hard and unyielding, I for one am not going to hang around for another 15 years for it to open up!

Ch Sociando Mallet 13.5% - A bit more approachable, hints of an enjoyable finish, but still closed, I don't have time to wait, see you later, 

Ch La Serre 14.5% - In my view, the least inspiring of an uninspiring lot. No lift on the palate, sour tasting, acid gone, well on the way out.

Ch La Dominique 14.5% - Again high alcohol, but reasonable balance, plummy fruits, enjoyable finish, the best so far, 

Ch Clos de Marquis 13.5% - At last a wine approaching a good Bordeaux. Excellent oak/tannin/fruit equation. Firm but restrained finish, just wish it would open up a bit more! 

Ch Haut Bailly 14% - Pick of the bunch, just ahead of the previous wine, A fair bit more opened, elegant, seductive and complex. This is a bit more like it, beautiful dark berry fruits teaming up with gentle oak, a lingering finish on the back palate. My wine of the day.