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

Food

A sunny, cool early spring day saw Ross Laurence in the kitchen for his first lunch. And it was excellent.  Ross presented Sardinian Fregola with vongole and seafood; he was assisted with the canapés being handled by Brian Dunn, Rob Sigg and Foodmaster Bill Alexiou.

Canapés

There was no shortage of canapés today.  Rob served smoked New Zealand salmon on a blini.  The salmon was on a bed of taramasalata and topped with a wasabi mayonnaise and caviar.  Brian put together crab lime mayonnaise on a cracker while Bill prepared a lime marinated salmon ceviche with coriander, cucumber and chilli, served on an avocado smear on a corn chip.

All refreshing morsels and a good match with the Brokenwood Semillon starter wine.

Main

Ross explained that his dish is probably the most well-known Sardinian seafood pasta recipe, and that it is quite unique to the island, so not a dish you would usually come across anywhere else in Italy.  The recipe combines fregola, a type of small, round, toasted pasta, tomato base broth and seafood.

The tomato broth was based on fresh Roma tomatoes, cooked down with garlic, olive oil, fish stock; then blitzed to give a smooth consistency.  The fregola was lightly toasted (some thinking it was pearl couscous) and the seafood was vongole, prawns, calamari and mussels, with parsley to garnish.  Typical of many Italian dishes, the simplicity of the ingredients created great flavours, that were a good match with the Margaret River Chardonnay and Morgon Gamay.  Well done, Ross!!

Cheese

Hopping from Sicily onto the mainland and heading north to the hills of the Lange in Piedmonte, the Society Cheesemaster presented Occelli in Foglie di Castagno, a semi hard cow’s and sheep’s milk artisan cheese.  After 18 months of maturation, the cheese is carefully wrapped by hand in Foglie di Castagno (chestnut leaves).

Beppino Occelli began his involvement in the dairy sector in 1976. His story can probably be explained by his profound love for the region of his birth, the Langhe and the Alps, to which his creations and personal interpretations of traditional products are tied.  The rich alpine pastures of the Langhe provide excellent quality milk, which is matured in the caves at Valcasotto.  Tannins from the leaves suppress mould development on the natural rind as the cheese ages and impart a vegetal character. Wheels are selected once they have developed a dense texture, brown sugar sweetness and sharp finish.

Not being a cheese remembered previously, it was highly regarded by Society members on the day.  Bill Alexiou provided a delicious green salad to accompany the cheese, with rocket, walnut, pear with a honey mustard dressing.

Wine

A roll up of 35 or so enjoyed a French Style Seafood lunch with a variation on a Bouillabaisse theme. Preceding the main were some very delicious canapes, put together by our Virgin Chef du Jour Ross Laurence with the help of Bill Alexiou and the "Stadium Boys". Congratulations all round to those involved, a lovely lunch. 

With regard to the wines, we kicked off for the canapes with a 2023 Brokenwood Sem @ 11%. This was a truly delicious wine. Clean, crisp, light straw colour, wonderful fruit and superbly balanced with fresh and decisive acid. A near perfect finish. I could not at the time believe that a Hunter Sem at only 2 years post vintage could be so charming. It was an ideal wine to go with just about anything in the entree, canape dept. It is unusual for me to tag a canape wine as my pick of the day, however this wine deserved that status in my view. I'm off to buy some! 

Wine 1 was the Nocturn Treeton Chardonnay 2021 13% from Margaret River. An enjoyable wine which took some time to adjust to after the previous wine. To my taste the Chardonnay tasted very sweet when compared to the Semillon, although after a few sips, that dramatic difference between the two began to fade. Towards the end of my glass, I was enjoying the wine with the food, but that initial comparison between the two was a powerful reminder of just how many wine drinkers regard Australian Chardonnay as "too sweet". 

Wine 2 was a Morgon from Daniel Bouland, a Corcelette Beaujolais 2023 @ 14%. An excellent wine, great pairing with the main course.  A good Gamay, medium body, acidic overtones, lively dark red fruit showing some tannin with a powerful alluring finish, inviting another glass or three! Enjoyable. Morgon is a much bigger and more complex wine than the average Beaujolais, a much more serious wine indeed to be treated with respect, not just glugged down, which one would usually do with a cheap Beaujolais over a pizza. 

Wine 3 was the Domane Wachau Gruner Veltliner 2022. We have had this wine on occasions in the past. I have always found it to be very drinkable without being in any way outstanding. Clear straw colour, with aroma and taste of apple, lemon peel and pear. In this bottle the flavours were restrained, and I felt the wine might benefit from another year or two in bottle to fully develop. Currently the wine to me was very acidic. A year or two in bottle might just knock those rough edges off. 

The final wine for the day was a Californian Cabernet, the Kendall Jackson Sonoma County 2019 @ 14.5%. California does make some terrific Cabernet, however we see little of them out here for the valid reason that good ones are prohibitively expensive. Sad, but the fact. We see a few of their Chardonnays out here, but unfortunately Americans like their Chardy sweet ++ so much so that I would not buy any. 

Getting back to the Kendall Jackson Cabernet, I had only a small amount and did not surprisingly detect elevated sugar levels which I was expecting, but what I did detect was huge oak and tannin, reminding me of some Australian Cabernets of the mid 80's, which had similar characteristics as well as high alcohol. Robert Parker, the well-known American wine reviewer, would probably like this wine as it would fit the style he promoted, BIG, blockbuster style reds with alcohol levels of 15% +. To my taste however I found this wine unbalanced and coarse. I suspect that most Australian red wine drinkers have moved away from this wine style to something more elegant.