The House at Mount Prior (3)

Another beautiful morning greeted us as we woke and the sultry air promised a very hot day. Part of our routine at The House at Mount Prior has been to get an early morning cup of tea from the dining room. The kitchen which is next door is alive and throbbing with energy very early as the team prepares for guests to wake and stagger from their rooms seeking sustenance.
This morning Jocelyn had cereal, fruit and yoghurt, a poached egg on toast and a pot of coffee. Being a creature of habit, I had exactly the same as yesterday except the eggs were scrambled. We then lazed in the courtyard outside our room reading books and emails until about 11am when we decided to do some more exploring.

First stop was the Black Dog Bakery, where we bumped into a delightful young lady who recognised us from some years ago as her first ever waitressing customers at another Rutherglen venue when she was learning the trade. She has grown in confidence and has been working wherever she can around town so that she can go overseas at the end of the year before commencing University in 2009. She served our coffees with aplomb demonstrating a skill which she can now use to get work anywhere in the world.

Then we spent some time at the Keg Factory which had shifted to the Main Street of Rutherglen, ordering a huge platter for our daughter Robyn as well as a sign for the door to my cellar. I mentioned to Jocelyn that I was looking for a Port or Tokay barrel and her response was that can be your birthday present, GOAL!!

From there we went on to the Pickled Sisters Cafe which is situated on the site of Cofield's Winery in Distillery Road Wahgunyah, for a delicious antipasto platter and a glass of Cofield's 2oo4 Cabernet Sauvignon.

This place has an atmosphere akin to the hustle and bustle of a Mediterranean seaside cafe, waitresses smiling at, and talking to their customers, writing, and discussing requirements with the chefs and the barista. This, against a constant background noise of people arriving, greeting, relaxing, talking and laughing as they found seating on the deck and even spilling out onto the lawn where there are now two huge umbrellas to provide shade from the summer sun. People left following their meal to be quickly replaced by others, anticipating a great luncheon experience. And as I watched, I marvelled at the ability of the chefs to make magical dishes in front of my eyes in a space no bigger than our spare bedroom.

After we paid the bill I thought we would pop down to the Cofield's cellar door and buy a couple of bottles of vintage port and increase my supply of the 2003 Quartz Vein Shiraz.

We had the privilege of bumping into legend Max Cofield, now retired. Max had been recruited to the cellar door to cover for other family members who were supporting the AFL grand finalists. We had a long chat with Max and ran past him the idea of getting him involved with our blog and your ongoing interest. Watch this space for future developments.

We returned to the House at Mount Prior in the mid afternoon and spent an hour or so once again soaking up the atmosphere of the courtyard. At 4pm we ordered a 2004 Merlot from Lilliput Wines, this is a winery that uses no animal products in it's wine production and can therefore be enjoyed by vegans, vegetarians and the rest of us.

We were joined later by our new friends from Wagga Wagga and spent some time chatting about the wine sale that occurs on the Sunday morning after the conclusion of the show which is commonly known as 'Smash and Grab'. When wine is to be judged the exhibitor sends four bottles of the competing wine and an entry fee to the society. At the end of the judging and the various tastings all the wine remaining is sold to raise funds for the Wine show society. We all agreed that we would go with our friends and help them get the best out of the experience and Rose said if we could persuade her other guests to go, they would all go along as well. Something we bore in mind as we went to the dining room for dinner that evening.

For dinner Jocelyn ordered duck and I ordered steak which we preceded with another antipasto platter. I think that comprised about 25% or less of the choices offered on an extensive menu. When the platter was served, we looked at each other and thought, how are we going to get through this and a main meal. I have never seen such an extensive array of anti pasto and was even more impressed to learn that the majority of what was presented had been produced by either Paula or Rose. Everything on that platter from the pate to spiced eggplant and red peppers and various other gourmet delights had been the product of Rose and Paula's creativity. Now I know why that kitchen always has someone present in it. To accompany our meal we ordered a bottle of Stanton and Killeen Park View Dry Red which complimented our mains to perfection. When my steak was presented accompanied with relishes and mustards it was just another example of the manner in which this business understands what suberb customer service is about

During the meal we talked with the other guests, two couples from Gippsland and they were very keen to join us to following morning to the 'Smash and Grab' which meant that we were going to be a contingent of twelve on the mornings adventure.

We all met at 7 am the next morning and drove in convoy down to the wine show building and waited in line until the doors opened at 7:30 am. Our group then dispersed to areas of interest to each individual couple. At about 7:55 Malcolm Campbell gave us our instructions regarding:
1. Payment: at $9 per bottle we were not going to strike too many bottles that were not value for money;
2. Behaviour; respect each other and the wine-makers who have produced the best they know how.

At 8:00 am the bell to commence was sounded. Five minutes later from several tousand bottles of wines on the tables there was no wine remaining. All vanished into boxes. Jocelyn and I managed 4 dozen bottles of Red and Rose wines.
Back at the House at Mount Prior as we ate our farewell breakfast we discovered that each of the groups had purchased roughly the same amounts of wine and declared the foray a unqualified success.

Footnote: of our 4 dozen wines we found that we had scored 26 medal winners. We gave a friend 3 of these in the six we had purchased on her behalf leaving us 23 medal winners for the cellar. The remaining wines are being drunk as we speak and to date we have enjoyed each one very much. You may hear about the others if you continue to follow our journey with wine.

The House at Mount Prior (2)

Hi everyone,
Jocelyn is saying, that's her image on your left, that I should be calling the last post and this, the"The Rutherglen Wine Show" I thought about it and you know "whatever rocks your boat". It is about the Wine Show, but it is also firmly focused on the efforts of two couples to provide outstanding hospitality services to visitors to North Eastern Victoria and South Eastern NSW in general and the famous Rutherglen Wine Region in particular. I love food 'n wine and have great respect for the people who put in the hard yards to make our experience as good as it can get.

From the window in our bedroom in the Courtyard we look out onto the house orchard in the foreground then vineyards stretching down to the road and beyond that, we can see the outline of the great Murray River. I watched as flocks of larger birds, ducks, geese and even cockatoos, crossed the skyline, and marvelled at the precision of their flight routines almost as good as watching the RAAF Roulettes. Then there were the smaller brightly coloured birds that swooped down did loop the loops, squawking and chattering in a crescendo of sound and then they were gone. How they don't collide with each other I don't understand. Distracted by these events we lazed our way through the beginning of the day taking several hours to do what is normally achieved in a handful of minutes.

Breakfast at The House at Mount Prior is an experience that is much more than the eating. The casual elegance of the dining room, the country cooking smells emanating from the kitchen, dishes of home made jams and preserves like little works of art on each table, the almost immediate appearance of a cheery face looking to alleviate those hunger pangs all combine to make the experience memorable. Rose and Paula will prepare almost anything you want for your breakfast although anything really exotic might require advance notice! This morning I had what has become a very easily formed habit. Fresh fruit and yoghurt is a banal description of a fruit platter that encompassed at least seven fruits and a huge bowl of yoghurt followed by the best full english breakfast I have had in a while, 2 slices of toast, eggs cooked any way you want, bacon, mushrooms, sausage, baked beans and tomato. Following that feast I was invited to have more toast and taste those jams. I had to decline or burst.

Jocelyn and I spent the day in and around Rutherglen.
We visited Anderson Winery and were guided through their wines by a young woman who did her employer proud. Her mixture of knowledge and enthusiasm led to us to purchasing some of their wine. The 1999 Methode Champenoise Shiraz and the Gold Medal Winning 2002 Methode Champenoise Shiraz, as well as a few bottles each of their 2004 Cellar block Petit verdot and 2002 Cellar block Shiraz.

Lunch at the Rutherglen Wine Experience, was a Flat White from the coffee machine and an intriguing little salad of apples, pumpkin, walnuts, and rocket with a balsamic and olive oil dressing. The flavours in that salad were superb and I plan to try to emulate it sometime soon.

The afternoon was a meander down to Wahgunyah and along the backroad past St Leonards Winery to the House at Mount Prior.

Tonight is the night of the public tasting of entries into the 2008 Rutherglen Wine Show and once again we were being chauffeured to and from the event courtesy of our friends at the House of Mount Prior. This time we shared our transportation with a couple from Wagga Wagga, on a weekend away provided by their children. (Jocelyn and I have seven between us so we might start hinting in the near future.) Armed with the Wine Show Results book, an 80 page document and a tasting glass, we started to work our way through the medal winning wines and those from our favourite vineyards for those varietals and blends we favour.

Wine shows do not necessarily produce a winner(Gold), second (Silver) or third (Bronze) in every class, but may produce more. The wines are awarded scores by the three senior judges in each panel thus making for a possible score of 60. The standard for receiving a Gold Medal is 55.5 or more, for a Silver Medal 51 - 55 and for Bronze 46.5 - 50.5. For example in the class 211 2007 Vintage Cabernet Sauvignon in this year's show of 38 entries, there were 4 Gold, 2 Silver and 9 Bronze. So judging is based on the number of wines reaching a specific standard. For an expert precis have a look at Jen Pfeiffer's article here.

While we are on awards, you may like to take a quick look at the method by which a trophy winner is selected, which is part of the ongoing review of the Wine Shows protocols by the Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology.

We had a great evening tasting great wines and I am aware that this is the essence of a public tasting, however I need to raise one issue that is of concern. That is the provision of sufficient food for all the 350 ticket holders at the tasting. The advertising on the letter we get in the mail talks about the cost of a ticket covering the tasting glass, the wine awards book and a smorgasbord meal. A meal is not light snacks, canapes or hors de oeuvres, it is a meal, something lasting and substantial. We need to promote the responsible drinking of our favourite beverage both in terms of road safety but also to extend wine drinking options. A Public tasting with it's copious amounts of alcohol open to those to help themselves to taste, needs to have plenty of food available. If enough can't be provided for at the current ticket price, then the price needs to be increased. I would happily pay extra if I am going to get more than a bottle of water and eight slices of cabana sausage. I saw a small amount but nowhere near enough to satisfy the number of people present, of sandwiches, chicken and other delicacies coming out of the kitchen and being swooped on before the plates even hit the tables and long before I could crab my way to the centre aisle of tables. Those same plates remained empty for most of the evening. For a number of years I have noticed that many people arrive laden with hampers containing supplementary food and this year I understood why this was happening.

We and our new friends from Wagga Wagga left the tasting early after phoning our hosts and requesting that they pick us up. This was the Wagga Wagga's couples first time at a tasting and they echoed the comments that I was hearing throughout the evening, in relation to the lack of available food which we had been asvised would take the form of a Smorgasboard.

Back at the House at Mount Prior our lack of food during the evening was discussed at length and in contrast to what we had just experienced we had our hosts offering to cook something to take the edge of our hunger. While most of us said no, I do sympathise with the person who raided the weetbix overnight: all I can say is Jocelyn wouldn't let me so I was not the sinner!

The House at Mount Prior

The next couple of posts will be about our recent four days at the Rutherglen Wine Show, Australia's second largest, with 2300 entries, and a Mecca for all those who love food n wine. We stayed for three nights at the fabulous House at Mount Prior. We previously stayed with Rose, Graham, Paula and Paul in June and were returning as we had been so impressed by the way they were providing a stand out experience for their guests. On our previous visit we had discovered that we could book a room in the courtyard and this would give us access to a pet friendly area of the property so that we were able to bring our dog Claude on the holiday with us. We arrived on the Thursday afternoon and were greeted by Rose and Paula while Claude was greeted by his four furry friends and disappeared with them within minutes of his arrival. We took a little longer to unpack the car and get our gear into our room. Rose came down to check that we were settled and to offer us tea or coffee, however as we had brought a bottle of Devil's Lair Fifth Leg Red 2006 with us, we just asked for some glasses. This blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz (Syrah), is a very interesting mixture of complexity and easy drinking which will make it a great wine to accompany food and one which I will return to at a later date.
Sitting in the courtyard with our bottle of red and just "blobbing" out we were pleasantly surprised when Rose arrived with a bowl of nuts for us to nibble on.
Thursday was the night of the Rutherglen Wineshow Presentation Dinner and we had arranged for Graham to drive us into Rutherglen and pick us up after the event. While we are away Claude is being babysat by Rose and Paula.
We arrived at the Soldiers Memorial Hall in Rutherglen in time for the serving of canapes and aperitifs.
The canapes were:

1. Blended mushroom and Milawa Blanco cheese, cooked and in mini tartlets. Very yummy, every time they came round I was asking for one for Jocelyn long after she was declining them.
2. Warm pea and mint veloute. Veloute is one of the four base sauces of French Cooking and I have usually encountered it as a dressing for ham and pickled pork dishes, in particular. Last year in Auckland I tasted an ice cold pea and mint veloute as an appetiser at Mechanix on the Mission Bay Waterfront, but never as a warm soup style. This was served in shot glasses and the creaminess of the peas and the roux were countered by the zestiness of the mint.
3. Duck, spring onion and ginger cigar. This is a blended mixture of the aforementioned wrapped in spring roll pastry. Let me tell you they were to die for.

The food was accompanied by:

• An Oloroso Sherry- The Seppelt Museum,
  
• A Pinot Chardonnay 2004 Methode Champenoise, Sparkling White from Josef Chromy
• An Anderson Sparkling Cellar Block Shiraz 2002 also a Methode Champenoise, but a red. This was the wine that Jocelyn and I drank with our canapes. It was deep purple in the glass, with a density of 7 plus, as with most sparkling wine produced by this method the nose is full of yeast and in this case by dark fruit aromas, rather like Christmas cake.

We were then ushered through into the dining area, where we shared a table with Ewart and Beryl Henderson, for the second year in a row. Ewart is retiring this year, from his role as secretary of the show society which incorporates the wine show, after 36 years in the position. He and Beryl intend to spend their retirement as grey nomads, traveling with their caravan.

At the table we started with an entree of Confit Chicken and Chicken Liver Pate Terrine served with a brioche. This is basically confit chicken dispersed through a pate and prepared in a terrine. Brioche is a very rich bread with recent history in French cooking but an even longer history dating back to Roman times.

The wines accompanying this part of the meal were:

• The Howard Park Madfish Riesling 2006. This wine lives up to the promise in the tasting notes which stated. "The wine is pale straw in colour with green hues. The nose is wonderfully aromatic showing limes, passion fruit and floral characters while the palate is clean and refreshing with citrus and bath salts to backup the riper fruit flavours. The finish is clean and quite mineral like with a lovely zing of acid down the palate. As with all good Riesling it will cellar well for at least seven years maybe more."
• The Campbells Viognier 2006. This wine won a gold at last years show, and two very significant trophies " Best Dry White Wine from Rutherglen" and "Best Dry White Wine from North East Victoria." The first time a Viognier has wone a trophy at the Rutherglen Wine Show. My notes on the menu describe the wine as follows straw hue in the glass, spicey citrus with floral highlights on the nose. Medium bodied but with a nice mouthfeel and an almost impossible stonefruit flavour against soft citrus. This was one of my favourite wines last year and I think that cellar door has run out, but it is always worth asking. Campbells do go out of their way to accommodate your wishes.
• The Seville Estate Chardonnay 2001. A review in 2005 said this about the wine. Rich with tropical fruits, is light gold with a green tinge, showing abundant aromas of passion fruit, pineapple and lime, with good balance and a velvety palate, ending with a tart green mango finish. In 2008 the fruit had mellowed into ripeness and the toastie characteristics of aged whites were much more prevalent. I am not a great fan of Chardonnay especially when it is aged but this one tempts me to try more.

The main course comprised a seared Eye Fillet steak sitting on a bed of sauteed spinach, braised beef Cheek on a bed of horseradish potato drizzled with port wine jus and a crispy onion and herb salad. Jocelyn doesn't eat red meat and as soon as this was discovered the chef's from the Pickled Sisters, who were catering the event, had a beautiful chicken breast filled with herb cheese cooked and served for her in very quick time.

The wines that accompanied this course were the reds:

• Boat O'Craigo 'Rob Roy' Pinot Noir 2005. In his 2008 Wine Companion James Halliday rates this as a 5 star wine and makes the following comment. "Lively, spiced black cherry fruit: spotlessly clean; very good mouthfeel and length." It was also a Gold and Trophy winner at the 2006 Rutherglen Wine Show and collected medals at several others. My notes on the night describe the wine as deep crimson in the glass and quite dense, dark fruit and spiciness on nose. Nice mouthfeel with the dark fruit and integrated oak lingering on the palate. beautifully complimented the braised Beef Cheek.
• Majella Coonawarra Cabernet 2006. This bronze medal winning wine and the next both made exccellent partners for the seared eye fillet . It was almost black in the glass and had high density. The nose had floral and blackberry aromas with spicy whispers and the palate was deep brooding full of fruit with hints of cigar and dark chocolate the finish was lingering black cherries.
• Morris Rutherglen Durif. This year is the celebration of 100 years of Durif in Rutherglen with a program of events focussing on the grape said to be the "son of Shiraz." This wine from this vintage was my introduction to the big, high alcohol, tannic Durif's of the area and my one step conversion to the grape and the Rutherglen style of wine. Now a devoted follower of the genre I look forward to cellaring bottles of each vintage from Morris, Campbell's, Warrabilla and Stanton and Killeen. Dark Red almost black in the glass, with an almost onyx density. The first aroma that assails the nose is the tannins, but lurking in the background are stewed plum and spice. As always the wine is full in the mouth and the stewed dark fruit flavours linger in well structured tannins.

The cheese platter consisted of Milawa Brie with quince paste, A Warby Red with pear relish, a Milawa Cheddar with winter fruit chutney seved with oatcakes and lavoche

The Stanton and Killeen Vintage Port 1992 accompanied the platter. Drinking well this port was a fitting tribute to Chris Killeen

Dessert was chocolate bouchon with raspberry puree, muscat and walnut parfait, dark chocolate sauce.

A 2002 Lillypilly Wines Noble Blend, this winery based in Leeton NSW in the Riverina Wine District has been a gold medal and trophy winner for the 2006 and 2007 at the Rutherglen Wine Show,

The meal ended with coffee and butterscotch fudge accompanied by a glass of Chambers Grand Muscadelle.

As we said our farewells to Ewart and Beryl, the Cofields and the Campbells and walked outside we were met by a smiling Graham, who whisked us back to the House at Mount Prior and our comforable room for the night.

Part Two will follow over the weekend

Temperatures Rising

Those of you who are Summer people will be relishing the rising temperatures while those of us who become grease-spots on the footpath in hot weather watch the temperatures moving upward with a dread similar to that evoked by the dentists drill. All I can say is thank goodness I don't have to go outside in the heat to love food 'n wine. This week heralds the return of our popular feature, the History of Wine as well as another entry in the Wine Log. Hope you enjoy both and please feel free to make comments and suggestions for things you would like covered in future posts. Just a heads up! I will be commencing our series where I visit wineries and meet the viticulturists and wine-makers and come up with three special deals for you. So keep returning and I'll keep on writing. Added in this post is the ability to become a follower of the Blog. Please participate in this as I will be using the numbers to leverage better wine deals for you.

THE HISTORY OF WINE 4
While it was the Greeks who initially drove the development of wine as a trading commodity and lauded its qualities as a drink for this life and any that might follow, it was the Romans who developed the fledgling industry into one that was innovative and progressive.
Horace, a Roman writer of some fame wrote "No poem was ever written by a drinker of water." I am not going to test the literal truth of that, but suffice to say that the population explosion in the Roman Empire from about 300BC until the beginning of the Christian era fueled a huge increase in wine consumption, which required increases in production achieved by efficiency gains as well as crop expansion.

The Romans loved their wine, drinking it at least three times a day. Like many a modern wine drinker they consumed large amounts of water when imbibing, but their water was mixed with the wine at rates of 5:1. They preferred sweet wine and their most prized wine was a white from what they considered the best wine growing area called Falernian

Unusual flavors were often added to the wine. The Romans liked to mix honey with this drink to make an aperitif called mulsum. Click here for an authentic recipe. They often added herbs and spices, but were also known to mix wine with salt water which must have given it an extremely bitter taste. Even chalk was sometimes mixed with wine to reduce acidity!

The Romans also strung together improvements in technology such as lifting the grapes off the soil by using props and trellises, improving on the Greek presses used for extracting juice, classifying which grapes grew best in which climate, all these increased yields from the vine and yields from the grapes.

In addition they improved the way in which wine was stored and thus its longevity through the use of barrels and latterly glass bottles which they filled with wine and topped off with olive oil thus reducing oxidization tremendously. This was a pretty important advance as at the same time they were also discovering the value of aging their wines for more complexity of flavour.

In fact here is the story of the "World's Oldest Wine Bottle."

Unearthed during excavation for building a house in a vineyard near the town of Speyer, Germany, it was inside one of two Roman stone sarcophaguses that were dug up. The bottle dates from approximately 325 A.D. and was found in 1867.

The greenish-yellow glass amphora has handles formed in the shape of dolphins. One of several bottles discovered, it is the only one with the contents still preserved.

The ancient liquid has much silty sediment. About two-thirds of the contents are a thicker, hazy mixture. This is most probably olive oil, which the Romans commonly used to "float" atop wine to preserve it from oxidation. Cork closures, although known to exist at the time, were quite uncommon. Their oil method of preservation was apparently effective enough to keep the wine from evaporation up to modern day.

The bottle is on permanent display, along with other wine antiquities, at the Historisches Museum der Pfalz, which is worth a virtual visit or an actual one, if travelling near the area of Speyer, Germany.

MY WINE LOG

Monday night we had pan fried Basa Fillets with home grown Silver Beet and chunky cut oven baked chips. Perhaps a nice Semillon or a floral Sauvignon Blanc, but not us. We had some young friends around to discuss some business and they are fans of red wine, so I broke open a bottle of recently purchased Rymill "The Yearling" Cabernet Sauvignon 2006. The Yearling is just a very young red made for immediate drinking therefore if was a much lighter wine than the Cabernet Sauvignon's that I normally drink, however this wine had intense floral and fruity aromas on the nose and was mouth filling, with a vibrant fruit and tanning blend. I have cellared 6 bottles to see if it has the acid and tannin to last in the bottle and will let you know if you stick around.

The meal comprised imported Basa fillets a freshwater fish that is surrounded with controversy due to it being farmed in Vietnam, on the Mekong River, which is known as a dirty waterway. Click here to read more about this. Suffice it to say that Jocelyn and I have been eating Basa for many years without any ill effects. We believe that the white fleshed fish is one of the most beautiful eating we have had and compares with the likes of Orange Roughy and John Dory.

Coupled with torn leaves of home grown Silverbeet which came from a number of green, red and yellow cultivars. The tearing of the leaves is said to increase the reduction of the bitter taste that can be associated with Silverbeet if it is very mature. The different colour ribbing adds colour breaks in the wide expanses of green leaves. I prefer to blanch as this allows the leaves to retain some crunch, but others prefer to boil to the point where the leaves are totally soft. Please remember that vegetables continue to cook while they are hot, so allow for that when estimating cooking times.

This evening I tossed the Silverbeet in a dressing of olive oil, garlic and crushed pepper.

The chunky cut chips were out of the supermarket freezer and baked in the oven until crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. As they were served I sprinkled Parmesan and poppy seeds over them for extra interest.

Chefs Toolbox Party

Hi all,
You may have picked up that my friend Ainsley Kloeden, is a Chefs Toolbox Consultant. Yesterday I went to Wodonga to support her and another friend Marshall Callaghan who was hosting a party at his home. We had a great spread prepared for us and watched the miracle of modern cooking technology produce a pan baked pizza with toppings at least 3 cm thick, followed by the most amazing dessert of chocolate cases filled with Toblerone mousse. As you may guess I love cooking but I also love good cooking technology and Chefs Toolbox provides that in every facet. Also you might be interested in the huge array of recipes that are provided on the site at

http://www.chefstoolbox.com.au/recipes.aspx?recCat=All%20Recipes

I just loved the afternoon and sat back with my bottle of 5th Leg from Western Australia. That's why I love food and wine.

Well I said I would finish the DOs of Wine Tasting At A Cellar Door this week so here are the final four, of course the list is not exclusive so if you can identify more and want to add them as comments I would be glad to include them.

MORE DOS OF WINE TASTING AT A CELLAR DOOR

9. DO: Extend your Wine experience a little each time you visit a cellar door. Taste and if you like, purchase a new variety or style of wine on each occasion, couple that with the purchase of a wine which you are already familiar with and enjoy and you will be experimenting, painlessly. Also be aware that some wines do not show their full range of flavours and aromas until matched with food, so it is sometimes worthwhile to take home a bottle of wine that the person at cellar door describes as a food wine. Nick Bulleid a Meer of Wine has this to say about what makes a good food wine, in his Reflections on the Sydney International Wine Show.

"This is a Wine Show where wines .......... that show up best accompanying food - ... are rewarded."

He goes on to say:

Those of us who do frequent wine tastings get so used to the comment "that wine would look much better with food" that we still get surprised when the reality is clearly demonstrated. Good wines do taste better with food. And that's what the Sydney International is all about.

The differences between wines tasted by themselves in the first phase, judging and then with food in the second stage, were often marked. Specifically, white wines that showed phenolic characters, that impression of light tannin, mattiness, a touch of bitterness on the finish, mostly looked uglier with food, becoming more chewy and bitter. And with oaky whites, where the oak was not well integrated, the oak flavours became even more intrusive.

Some neutral whites, curiously, were not improved by food at all. Harvey (Steiman) and I sent a fresh, attractive, although rather neutral Chenin Blanc through to the Second Phase judging. Using fresh, but bland whites with food is a characteristically Italian approach to wine and food matching, as the wine is used, to refresh and cut through the flavours and textures of the food. But unfortunately, this wine looked even blander!

The whites which really succeeded were medium bodied wines with delicacy, good balance and depth of fruit. The Semillons, the finer Chardonnays, the less pungent Sauvignon Blancs and even the aromatic Rieslings were the most obvious examples and these wines were often spectacular with the food.

With the reds, again, the oaky wines were not assisted by food, and looked even oakier. It was the softer, medium bodied wines with good flavours and fine tannins that really shone. The full bodied reds did well, provided the oak was well integrated and there was no over-extraction of tannins. As with the whites, the food magnified the imperfections and caused me to pass over wines which, through their sheer strength of character, I probably would have supported in a typical “line-’em-up” wine show."

10. DO: Please store your wine in the coolest part of your car when travelling and if visiting several wineries park in the shadiest spots. I usually try to leave my wine purchases for the morning that I intend to return home from a trip to a wine region or festival. I then sweep round to the wineries from which I intend to purchase, during the cool of the morning and drive home by the most direct route. However I realise that this isn't always possible. Try to avoid direct sunlight, prolonged exposure to heat and too much bumping and shaking as this will damage the wine in ways that no amount of subsequent careful cellaring can rectify. If possible take an insulated carrier bag with you.

11. DO: When you get your wine home, leave it to settle for a couple of weeks before drinking, especially if you have travelled any distance. Believe it or not wine can get a condition called "travel sickness" – a flat, dull, out of balance character that goes away with time. ‘Travel sickness’ is usually the reason that wine tastes so differently at home compared to the cellar door.

12. DO: Appreciate that the cost of providing cellar door tastings is high. A sales tax applies to all wine consumed there. As well there is the much larger labour cost. A minimum cost to the winery for each cellar door visitor would be between AUD$5 - AUD$6. Not surprisingly some wineries charge a small nominal fee if a purchase is not made.

I hope that these tips are useful in increasing the breadth and depth of your wine experience as you explore the wine regions closest to you in the coming months.

MY WINE LOG

As you will discover, if you spend enough time with me on this blog, I love things a little bit different. So if you are a plain eater don't be discouraged, just leave the little extras out of each recipe and they will usually taste just fine.

Today I am opening a 1999 Pizzini Wines Cabernet Sauvignon. Pizzini wines are situated in the head of the King Valley and a substantial source of cool climate wines in the North East of Victoria.
The label on the bottle describes the wine in 1999 as grown in the Lana-Trento vineyard, the 1999 vintage has lush berry fruit flavours and finely textured tannins. The colour is dark ruby while the aromatics are earthy with layers of violets, wild blackberry and cedar.

My tasting notes in 2008 read, 'Deep crimson in the glass. The nose was awash with aromas including leather, tobacco and hints of fresh leaf litter. The palate was lush and full with a complex blend of fruit and tannins softened by age to a velvet finish. A rich and spectacular wine '. Although the 1999 vintage is no longer available at the cellar door, they are currently selling the 2001.

The tasting notes for this describe it as follows:
Rich, deep red in colour. The nose initially shows cassis, dried herbs, and tomato leaf. As the wine opens up, spiced plums, stewed rhubarb, and prune notes develop. It has lush, upfront acidity on the palate preparing the senses for rich intense berry fruit flavours. The wine is finely textured, showing warmth, elegance, good structure and longevity.

Today I am preparing a Korma dish as our evening meal. Korma is a pale mild creamy curry dish, which can have a host of varying ingredients. The herbs usually include Coriander and Cummin
The spices usually include chilli and paprika The creaminess is created by the use of either yoghurt or coconut milk.

I use a recipe that I picked up from a Jamie Oliver TV cooking program and have adapted:

The ingredients of the Korma

1 heaped tablespoon of finely grated fresh ginger
3 cloves of garlic, minced
150g thick (plain) yogurt
1 dried red chilli
2 finely chopped onions
1 tbsp ghee or veg. oil
1 tbsp ground coriander
Pinch of ground black pepper
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
water
75g creamed coconut
salt, to taste
2 heaped tbsps ground almonds
finely chopped Coriander Leaves, to garnish
juice of 1/2 lemon

Preparation of the Korma

1. Liquidise the chopped onion and red chillies, add a little water if you need to. blend till smooth.
2. Heat the oil in a pan.
3. Add the ground coriander, ground black pepper, turmeric and garam masala and stir fry for about 1-minute over a low heat.
4. Turn up the heat, add the onion and chilli paste and stir fry for 10-minutes.
5. Add the chicken and the marinade and continue to stir fry for another 10-minutes.
6. Add the creamed coconut and enough water to *just* cover the chicken and bring to the boil, stirring until the coconut is dissolved. Stir in the ground almonds.
7. Reduce heat to low, cover the pan and simmer until the chicken is tender (30-40 minutes).
8. Remove from heat, add lemon juice and salt to taste. Mix well.

Your choice of Vegetables
I love brussel sprouts and broccoli so they tend to be a feature of my cooking along with a mix of brown, white, and red onions. Some add small new potatoes.
In this case I used all the above except for the potatoes and cooked them in the steamer until crisp.

Your Choice of Meat
My choice of meat on this occasion was bacon and chicken. I marinated the chicken and bacon ends in the Korma for 12 hours prior to cooking, this process acts as a tenderiser. I then cooked both the chicken and bacon in the Korma sauce for 20 minutes on a medium heat.

After 20 minutes I added the vegetables to the sauce and continued to cook them for a further 20 minutes.
The dish was served as a one bowl meal, with crispy papadoms on the side.

Some people have asked when my Journey with Wine and The History of Wine will re - commence. Starting with my next post I will have one of those features and then will alternate them for the next few weeks.

Spring Is Here, Great For Those Who Love Food N Wine

Welcome Back, As you may have noticed we have maintained our position for our major keywords and also now have another top spot for the phrase "My Journey With Wine" The Spiders love us and I hope that you will too. Well in this post we will continue the DOS of Wine Tasting at A Cellar Door as well as have another food and wine match in My Wine Log. So let's begin

MORE DOS of Wine Tasting At A Cellar Door.

6. DO: Take small portions of wine to taste as mentioned previously, but also consider the advice I was given once by the late Ernie Hunter, of Hunter Wines in Marlborough. He said that each taste should be divided in two equal parts. The first should be swirled around all areas of the tongue and mouth, it's purpose to wash out out any previous wine or water. Then use the second portion to make a judgment of the wine.

7. DO: Be patient if a wine you are tasting has a different taste to wines you have had before. This could be for a number of reasons. Firstly it may simply be a style or variety you have not tried before. Secondly, it may be the wine-maker emphasising an attribute of a wine or thirdly it may be the wine maker trying to develop a new style or resurrect one forgotten in wine making history. It is not usually a sign of bad wine.

8. DO: Try to compare apples with apples or in this case a wine of one variety or blend with another from the same variety or blend. In this way you get a true comparison. Also remember that all wines are not styled equally, so the same grape variety can produce amazingly different wine. How about the Orange Muscat grape which is used to produced a dry flinty table wine , a floral sweeter style or a full blown sweet dessert wine by three wineries I know of. Also be aware that some wines have great immediate flavour impact, a Warrabilla Red for example, while other red wines such as Pinot Noir have complexity of flavour that unfolds with each taste.

We will conclude this series in my next post.

MY WINE LOG

Tonight we broke open a bottle of West End Wines 3 Bridges Cabernet Sauvignon 2005. West End Estate Wines is situated in Griffith, part of the Riverina Wine Region. It has been operated by the Calabria Family since 1945, as Calabria Wines and since 1974 under its present name. So this distinguished winery has a history the same length as mine.

3 Bridges is the flagship brand of West End Estate Wines and the grapes for each variety are handpicked at optimum condition.
The result in this case is a powerhouse Cabernet Sauvignon lavishly barrel-aged and loaded with mulberry and blackberry fruit, dark Lindt chocolate and highlights of mint. This wine was mouth-filling and so long on the palate that we only managed a bottle between us.

This wine needs strong flavours in the food that it accompanies and our simple meal of chicken sausages with a mixed green salad, with avacado, red grilled capsicums, tomatoes and onions may have become lost in it's power. To offset this I took the following steps:

I normally slice sausages and fill them with some cheese to keep them moist and add some flavour, but I chose to do two things with them for this meal. I made up a different filling and had each sausage with a poppy seed coat over the bottom half

Firstly the filling
A lemon peel, two tablespoons of crushed garlic and one of crushed ginger were put in the whizz and processed until creamy then a half teaspoon of chilli powder was added and whizzed again.

Preparation of the Sausages
The sausages were then par cooked by boiling, allowed to cool and then the bottom half of the sausage was placed in flour then whisked egg and then poppy seeds and allowed to sit for 15 minutes. They were then split not end to end, but using the following method:

The cut was started 1 cm from the end of the sausage and went to within 1 cm of the other end. Then a second cut is made along side the first and a sliver of sausage is removed. (That sliver from each sausage was added to the mixture in the food processor and whizzed.

Cooking of the Sausages
The sausages were placed in a dish containing three tablespoons of olive oil with foil over the stop to retain moisture. Then put in the middle tray of the oven which had been pre-heated to 180 degree Celsius oven, for 15 minutes.

Preparation of Salad Dressing
Amounts depend on the amount of salad to be dressed.

1 X Balsamic Vinegar
.5 X Hot english Mustard
.5 Seeded Mustard
1 x Olive Oil
.25 Wasabi or Horseradish
.25 Garlic

Drizzle over salad on the plate.

Just Loving Food n Wine

Hi again everyone,

Lots of food and wine over the past weekend that I hope will all be blogged by the end of the week. I will try to post several times a week over the next few weeks so that we can get all those dos for visiting cellar door out to you before Spring is to far advanced.

This week my thanks go to Stephanie and Clive, Vicky and Richard and Gael and daughter Georgina who were my guinea pigs during an evening we shared together over the weekend. Those guys truly do love food n wine.

However before we get to that lets cover some more:

The DOS of Wine Tasting At A Cellar Door

3. DO think ahead during your tasting. The best preparation for wine tasting is to have a clean palate, however using very strong toothpaste or mouthwash shortly before tasting can cause the wine to taste differently than it was meant to. Eating lollies while tasting wine can have the same effect. You may think that when you have wine with curry or cheese that the same thing happens, and you are correct, but this discussion is about tasting the wine, getting to know it without other influences initially. Most wineries will provide water to cleanse your mouth with and some will provide dry biscuits olives and even cheese, use these liberally especially when you are changing wine style or color.

4. DO think about what you want to taste. If you are visiting several wineries in a morning or afternoon it is usually unwise to taste everything that the winery has on offer. Firstly because even relatively small individual amounts of wine can add up very quickly and leave you unable to drive. Secondly and perhaps more importantly in the context of this post, to many tastes does tire the palate and cloud the senses beyond what can be repaired by water or olives, and although this can be deferred by spitting instead of swallowing, that requires a level of discipline reserved for wine judges, who also tell me that at the end of a day tasting and spitting their palates become jaded.
If you are new to wine or wine tasting you could ask to taste two sparkling, two whites, two reds and two dessert wines. This will give you the opportunity to get a feel for the range that the winery offers, and help you make some decisions about which wine you liked best. For instance if you found you really liked the Chardonnay and the Rose you could try those particular wines at each winery you visit during the day. Winemakers and cellar door staff just love to introduce those new to wine drinking or visiting wineries, to their wines and will go out of their way to make sure that you are made to feel at home and given the best experience possible.
If you are more experienced and already know the varietals or blends you love and more importantly those you are not fussed about, telling the person on the other side of the counter will enable them to provide you with tastings that suit your taste, my experience is that winemakers love people who have an opinion, and Jocelyn and I have often been treated to a vertical flight tasting of a particular varietal or blend over a number of vintages, because we have talked about our wine experience, even about wine from other producers.

5. DO taste in the order suggested by the winery. They have the order for a purpose which is to increase your enjoyment of the wine. The order is from from dry to sweet and within that continuum the dry whites are tasted before the dry reds and the sweet whites before the sweet reds. There are good reason for this that revolve around the ability of your palate to remain accurate when it is overwhelmed by flavours. If you try a dry wine after having tasted a sweet wine, the dry wine wine is likely to taste sour, not because it is but because the contrast from sweet to dry confuses the palate. Tasting a red then following it with a white can result in similar palate confusion. This is because, in general, white wines do not present the same range of complex flavors or aromas as do reds. As a result, a white tasted after a red can seem watery and lacking depth. The cases where this rule doesn't always apply is when you have a sweet red, such as a port wine. In this case, it comes down to the particular taste of the server, and the array of sweets on the tasting menu.

MY WINE LOG
There were eight of us for tea tonight and peoples tastes ran from beer to muscat. The beer came from a tasting we had arranged for some of our beer drinking friends some months before.
The White was my last two bottles of a 1992 Semillon from The (Old) Olive Farm Winery in Guildford, Western Australia. That winery has now closed and the family tells the story of their wine making history on their website for the (New) Olive Farm Winery situated in the heart of the Swan Valley
The wine was golden in the glass with the slightest spritz, masses of honeysuckle on the nose
Very full bodied, rich strong honey with exotic fruit on midpalate, blending into an oily finish
Nicely mature with low acid on finish.

This was served with an entree of seafood on a bed of shaved sweet potato.

Ingredients
Shaved Sweet Potato
Three medium size orange sweet potatoes
2 table spoons of dried Chilli Powder
100 grams of grated fresh Parmesan Cheese
50 grams of pepitas ground with the mortar and pestle
Two tablespoons of dried Winter Savory


Seafood
Three large prawns per person
Two calamari rings per person
Two scallops with roe on per person
1 teaspoon of salt
1 table spoon of ground black pepper
Two tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 large Cloves of Garlic

Preparation of Sweet Potato
Each Sweet potato was shaved until all used then placed in a bowl and then the other ingredients were mixed through the sweet potato by hand. The moisture from the potatoes caused the cheese, chill, Winter Savory and Pepita's to coat the sweet potato.
An oven dish was sprayed with Olive Oil and the Sweet potato was placed in eight portions in the dish and placed in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes, until the bottom of the portions was crisp and the remainder was just cooked.
A portion was placed on each plate.

Preparation of the Seafood
The Chef's Toolbox Wok I had recently purchased was preheated and the Olive Oil drizzled onto the hot surface followed by the the cloves of garlic which were sliced finely, and the salt and black pepper. Water was added a tablespoon at a time until there was sufficient liquid to cook the seafood and then the seafood was added Calamari first, Scallops second and Prawns third, keeping everything in the wok moving all the time. After about 5 - 7 minutes serve the seafood onto the shaved sweet potato and serve immediately.

The main course was accompanied by three reds, a Shiraz from Lake Moodemere Wines and a Shiraz and a Durif from Warrabilla Wines both wineries are situated in the Rutherglen Wine Region.

The 2004 Lake Moodemere Shiraz is produced from a vineyard perched above the beautiful Lake Moodemere a natural lake declared a wildlife refuge in 1889. Lake Moodmere has a wide range of bird life. It is also the venue for the Moodemere Masters Ski Tournament held towards the end of January each year. Michael Chambers is part of the family that includes wine making legend Bill Chambers and is a sixth generation wine maker, he is ably assisted by Belinda.
The 2004 Shiraz is a mid weight wine when compared to the Warrabilla offerings. The colour in the glass is rich, dense purple. The nose has a creamy vanillin aroma with spicy violets in the background. The palate is a complex riot of flavours ranging from plums to chocolate mint to leather finely integrated by long silky tannins that linger for a long while.

The 2004 Shiraz from Warrabilla Wines was marketed under their Parola's label reserved only for wines that meet their highest level of quality. Parola's means "words" in Interlingua and Esperanto but I must ask the winemaker Andrew Sutherland Smith and Carol his partner and wife their reason for choosing the name.
This wine was uncorked about and hour before it was poured, to give it time to open up. I think that given it was late winter that I should have allowed two hours as the wine continued to develop after pouring the black/purple liquid into our glasses. The classic spiciness of Shiraz was accompanied by vanillin oak, dark chocolate and blackberry on the nose. Fine tannins and balanced acid are the backbone to strong dark fruit, dark chocolate and star anise flavours that remain on the palate for an exceptionally long period of time. This was a complex wine of great depth.

The 2004 Durif is marketed under the Warrabilla Reserve label, still exceptional wine. Inky black in the glass, the nose is characterised by dark fruit aromas and hints of spicy French oak. The palate is full and has black plum and black cherry in chocolate flavours on long lingering tannins.

All Warrabilla wines are bigger than life, with heaps of alcohol, tannin and acid used to accentuate the fruit flavours.

These wines accompanied the main course which was Sesame Seed coated chicken thigh fillets, on a bed of sweet potato and silverbeet mash, with sides of steamed Courgette and Green Beans.

Ingredients
Sesame Seed Coated Chicken Thighs
1 chicken thigh for each person with four spare
four eggs
1 cup of plain flour

Preparation
Chicken
Lay the Chicken thighs on a tray as flat as possible. Use a meat mallet gently if necessary but remember chicken flesh is more easily destroyed than red meat by hammering.
Put the cup of flour in a dish and roll each fillet in the flour and shake of the excess.
Crack the four eggs into a bowl and lightly whisk
Place the Sesame Seed into a bowl.
Dip one side of the fillet into the egg and then the same side into the Sesame Seed
Place the Fillets Sesame Seed Side Up in a Baking tray that has been sprayed with Olive Oil and cook in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C for 15 minutes or until the seed start to brown.

Vegetables
Top and Tail 4 Green Runner Beans for each diner
Take 4 Courgettes and cut in half longways then in half again, giving you sixteen lengths of courgette.
Place the Green Beans in the bottom tray of your steamer and set the timer for 30 minutes

Peel and Slice Four medium size Orange Sweet potato and place in a pot with a pinch of salt
Boil until the sweet potato is firm but soft

Wash and Slice 15 Large Leaves of Silver Beet and place in a pot with a pinch of salt
Boil until the Silver Beet is firm but soft.

Then mash the Silver Beet into the Sweet Potato until completely integrated.

Serve the Sweet Potato and Silverbeet mash to one side of the plate.
Place the beans and courgettes along side with a sprinkle of grated Parmesan Cheese
Then put the hot chicken on the mash and serve immediately.

The muscat was/is a Bannister blend using wine from, Campbell's, Stanton and Killeen, All Saints and Mount Prior all Rutherglen wineries, but with some interesting variations within the style. The wines are added in no particular order to my 20 litre Muscat barrel and have over a three year period blended into a burnt caramel toffee sweet delight that beautifully complimented the dessert provided by Vicki which was a sumptuous and decadent Chocolate Mint Cheesecake and together made a splendid end to an evening of food n wine.
For those of you wanting to know more about Australian Wine and Food Here is a great book on the Subject:
THE AUSTRALIAN & NEW ZEALAND WINE & FOOD PICTORIAL ATLAS

This post I have some links that will help you cook your vegtables so they are interesting and nutritious.

http://quamut.com/quamut/vegetables/page/how_to_prepare_vegetables.html

http://www.alive.com/2391a7a2.php?subject_bread_cramb=952

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/get_cooking/cooks_guide/vegetables.shtml

http://www.chinesefood-recipes.com/chinese_vegetables_recipes/chinese_vegetables_recipes.php


http://www.ifoods.tv/ingredient/Vegetables/

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/19th_century_recipes/64275

http://www.vegetable-recipes-by-cooking-method.com/