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