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/