Food review by James Hill and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran

Food

The room was packed for our Burgundy wine tasting today with Chef of the day, Keith Steele, presenting his ‘famous’ beef cheeks.

Our President, Stephen O’Halloran, began proceedings today, welcoming David Barnett as a new member of our Society.

Stephen took the opportunity to present a trophy for Seafood Chef of the Year to Bernard Leung and a “best accompaniment to a salad” trophy to David Madson.

Canapés

Greg Chugg first up with a calf’s liver pâté made with brandy, butter, and topped with pickled guindilla peppers and red peppers. Served on garlic and thyme biscuit, a good mouthful, very taste. Why don’t we see Greg near the kitchen more often?

David Madson followed with some homemade mini quiche made with satay sauce. When David cooks, there is always something with a twist. Today the quiche, served warm, was made with satay sauce. Delicious!

James Tinslay’s canapé was medjool dates stuffed with Gorgonzola and cream cheese, topped with a pecan and dusted with Kashmiri chili.

The canapés, all with a little variation of heat, were bountiful today and much appreciated and enjoyed by members attending our lunch.

Main

Today’s main course went perfectly with the wine theme selected by our cellar master today. The sweetness of the beef cheeks and Pedro Ximénez was just perfect for the tannin expression of the wine presented today.

It’s a Frank Camorra recipe from Movida ‘Beef cheeks with Pedro Ximénez’.

The beef cheeks are simmered with six bottles each of PX sherry and red wine, plus carrots, garlic, and onion. They were cooked for three to four hours until they reached the right consistency.

Tender and full of flavour they were served on a bed of creamy potato made by our REX team. The mash very well under the beef cheek, with the sauce lovely, rich, unctuous, and full of flavour. We had some crisp green beans on the side and plenty of bread to mop up.

There were many favourable comments from the floor on all the food presented today.

Well done team.

Sourdough from Cornucopia, Naremburn.

Cheese

Keith requested his favourite cheese for lunch today, a firm raw cow’s milk cheese from the Savoie region of France. Simply accompanied with some dried apricots and walnuts.

Welcomed back our Cellar Master Nick Reynolds from a month’s research and education in Europe.

A shout out to Phil Laffer who stood in for Nick.

Good to see Josef Condrau and Peter Laycock, long-time members of our society, in the room today.

Yes, I lost a bet to Keith and had to wear a Lion’s jersey all lunch.

Lunch was closed with a 70th birthday toast to Hilton Chapman, who generously shared some bottles of XO Château Laubade Bas Armagnac with us.

Wine

A full house, some excellent food and a very impressive wine list, who could ask for more?  Our Chef du Jour Keith Steele provided us with a splendid meal of beef cheeks, proceeded by some delicious canapes. Mark Bradford sourced a terrific cheese, and Nick Reynolds treated us to a selection of Burgundy wines. See Food Report for details of the food. 

The canape wine was a Tiger Tiger chardonnay from Collector Wines near Canberra. This wine was however grown in the Tumbarumba region of NSW, home to some of our best Chardonnays. 2017 vintage @ 12.9 %. A really good wine for the canapes. Now at 8 yo the wine is fully developed, mature and well balanced. Lovely traces of melon and grapefruit, firm acidity producing a crisp persistent finish.  Good choice. 

Wine 1 on the wine list was a Moreau Naudet Chablis/Chardonnay 2022 12.5%. This wine was to me a bit of a surprise, in that it tasted more like a white Burgundy than a true Chablis. I did not detect any of those classic hallmarks of Chablis namely, steely flint like first sip, biting acidity and overall tight, austere structure. To me the wine was mouth filling, rich and opulent, very much in the White Burgundy style. Climate change is I understand making it difficult to produce the true classic Chablis. That said I did enjoy the wine, blotting out confusion in my mind of what I was drinking! 

Wine 2 on the list was Girardin Puligny-Montrachet Les Vieilles 2018 Chardonnay @ 13%, 7/8 vintage. Now with 7 years bottle age, the wine is beginning to hit its straps. Light golden brown/yellow colour, taste soft and classy. Firm stone fruit flavours with a hint of buttery overtones and a trace of honey. Great balance, an excellent wine. Will drink well for another 10 years. 

Before we move onto the red wines, I must declare my hand, I am a Bordeaux Man! The reason? In my view the wines from Bordeaux are generally more consistent and reliable than those from Burgundy. The Pinot grape is thin skinned and troublesome to cultivate and is more easily affected by adverse weather conditions which often occur in Burgundy, unlike the Cabernet grape grown in Bordeaux which is a thick skinned grape and is more resistant to weather factors. I have had the good fortune in my life to have sampled the best from both regions, and although I have tasted some superb Burgundies, I would say that if you had a spare $200 in your pocket to buy a bottle from either region, sight unseen, a Bordeaux would be a safer bet. Anyhow, that's my view, fire away at will all you Burgundy lovers.

Moving right along to wine 3 the 2016 Chambolle Musigny @ 13%, a 7/8 vintage, I found the wine to be medium bodied, ruby red, a complex wine with strawberry overtones. Slight oak noticeable, but generally well balanced. Rich and seductive flavours with a cherry like finish which persisted on the back palate. 

Wine 4 was the Chambolle 2015 Musigny Clos de l'Orme @12.5%, a 7/9 rated vintage, my wine of the day. Ruby red in colour, spicy but classy, rich on the palate. 

Beautiful balance of oak, acid and tannin producing a silky smooth velvety wine of great character and charm. Drinking now at it's peak?? Hard to see it getting any better. Time will tell how it presents in say 10 years’ time. I suspect it will be a classic. I will now deal with wines 5 and 6 together as they are both Vosnee -Romanee from the same year 1995. My research indicates that 1995 vintage wise in Burgundy was a "generally good year, with however some mixed results" make of that what you will. Of the two wines, I preferred the Les Rouges @13%. Both of these wines are now 30 yo and are drinking beyond their prime. The Les Rouges was to me holding together better than the Orveaux, which was certainly beginning to fade. The Les Rouges still had good colour with some noticeable browning around the rim, deeply matured flavours of spice, black fruits and earthy overtones. Just enough remaining acid to ensure a positive finish. A grand old wine that at its peak would have exuded style and class. 

The same comments would also apply to the En Orveaux which I am sure at its zenith, maybe 15 years ago would have been a top flight burgundy, but the ravages of time seem to have affected this wine more so than the Les Rouges, leaving us with a slightly sad bottle of a quality wine. I hate seeing that.