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!