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

Food

Hal Epstein was our Chef of the Day presenting some ‘osso buco’.

Trawling the archives, the last time we had osso bucco was July 2017, when we had it two weeks running “, one a ‘Rosso’ and the others ‘Bianco’, coincidentally, that was the first time Hal assisted in the kitchen!

Canapés

Yours truly assisted with the first two canapés.

First up, Bresaola with papaya.

Papaya, in season, perfectly ripe, wrapped in air-dried salted beef. This is a specialty meat originating from the Lombardy region of Italy.

A good balance of salty beef with the sweetness of the fruit and a lingering aftertaste.

Mushroom vol-au-vents.

Button mushrooms cooked in butter, then cream and Parmesan added, seasoned with salt and pepper and served warm. Some tarragon was added on top to enhance the flavour.

Hal prepared Stephanie Alexander’s baked zucchini cakes made with coarse-grated zucchini, evoo, self-raising flour, Parmesan and egg to bind, topped with some sweet chilli sauce for a hit of heat.

Main

Hal’s osso bucco was veal sourced from Handler Meat, Rushcutters Bay.

It was served with a sauce made with tomato paste, chopped tomato and a passata, some Hunter Sémillon and white truffle oil.

Mouth-filling, generous flavours, rich and unctuous. The meat was tender and falling apart. It was served on some al denté fusilli with pecorino cheese, salad leaves and pine nuts for added texture and crunch.

Layers of big, hearty flavours today were well appreciated by members.

Thanks Hal.

Bread was from Baker Blue Double Bay. It was country white sourdough with a chewy caramelized crust and moist crumb.

Cheese

Our Cheese Master Mark Bradford, presented a farmhouse French blue goat’s cheese. The cheese came to the table in very good condition, flavoursome and textural, enjoyed by all today. It had been ordered for our CotY dinner but held over, perhaps the extra aging added to its flavour.

An unusual blue goat’s milk farmhouse cheese from France. Ferme de la Tremblaye are located south-west of Paris

Dense, with a creamy texture and a distinct ash coat, the deep blue veins add a striking contrast to the porcelain white paste. Mild and savoury flavour.

It was simply accompanied by some dressed salad leaves and roasted pine nuts.

Wine

A small but high quality gathering centred around Hal Epstein's delicious Osso Buco, preceded by some tasty canapes, was the theme for the day. The Osso Buco was a hit, very tasty and plenty of it. Nobody went home hungry. 

The proceedings commenced with a few bottles of Wynns Coonawarra Chardonnay 2024 @ 12%. It must be 20+ years since I have had a bottle of this wine. It was then and is now a reliable, well priced commercial Chardy perfect for the canapes. The wine was in good condition, pale yellow with an attractive presentation of fruit and acid. A nice clean finish. A good wine to get the party started. 

Wine No 1 on the list was an excellent Antinori Chianti Classico Grand Riserva 2010 @14 %. My wine of the day. A 7/8 year in Tuscany and the wine showed its class. Now a 15 yo Sangiovese holding together well and, in my view, drinking beautifully. My view was not however shared by one of our resident experts on our table, Phil Laffer who considered the wine was suffering from a dose of "Brett" or to those in the wine making trade, also known as Brettanomyces, a yeast found in some wine which can have sometimes have a spoiling effect on a wine. Phil did not like the wine, which sort of left me high and dry having just beforehand commented on how good it was. 

Phil, ever the gentleman he is, assured me that sometimes even winemakers cannot detect Brett! Phew, that was close, reputation still intact, just. In any event this Sangiovese, Brett or no Brett, was to my taste drinking well. Medium body, ruby red colour, a powerful wine brimming with black fruit flavours and combining oak, tannin and acid perfectly to produce a firm persisting aftertaste. I am becoming a true fan of aged Sangiovese. 

The second wine on the lunch list was the Giovanni Rosso Langhe Nebbiolo 2010 @14.5%. A top year in Piedmont. My love/hate relationship with the famed Nebbiolo grape continues, although being the hard, but fair marker I am, I have to say that this wine gained my grudging approval. Rather than the usual defensive structures Nebbiolo exudes, biting acidity and tooth pulling tannin, I found this wine almost approachable. Medium to light body, juicy, with garnet red colour, traces of non-assertive tar and earth, leading to a lingering finish with plenty of flavour. Good to see a Nebbiolo on its best behaviour. 

The final wine that we all shared was a Craggy Range 2011 Sav Blanc from NZ 13.5 %. This was indeed the surprise of the day, at least for me. I normally do not let S/B into the house, however today it proved a real shock. 14 years on from harvest, the wine was mature but still fresh, well balanced and matched the blue goat’s cheese perfectly. I was amazed at how well the wine had dealt with extended bottle age, although it is true that I have tasted a number of Loire S/B's that have drunk well at 10 to 15 yo. The winemaking team at Craggy Range are on top of their game and make superb wines generally. Perhaps it is the skill of the wine maker and extended bottle age has produced a S/B that does not have that offensive vegetative smell of freshly crushed lantana. Wonders will never cease! The wine eventually got a tick from me on this occasion, not to be taken as a precedent. 

That concluded the bracket of wines enjoyed by all and there was then another bottle for each table of different wines which I cannot comment upon. Our table scored an Andrew Thomas Hunter Shiraz 2018, which was excellent. 

Before winding up there is something I want to say about the real benefits of being a member of our Society. This has hit home with me over the last few weeks when we enjoyed the COTY Dinner and the Burgundy lunch last week. On both occasions our Wine Master Nick Reynolds has produced some wonderful and need I say it, expensive wines, many of which I imagine would be in the hundreds of dollars PB range, possibly a lot more. These wines are amongst the great wines of the world, and most of us would hesitate to purchase a single bottle, yet there we are sitting down to have a decent size glass of many of the best the world has to offer. On many occasions I have no doubt that we are enjoying a collection of wines on that day as good as anywhere on earth. Just look at last week’s Burgundy wine list!

Apart from our Society providing a forum for friendship and high class food and cheese, it also allows members for the price of membership and lunch cost, to sample the next level of the world's great wines, which would otherwise be unattainable.