The Brix Café & Bistrot, Fitzroy

This is going to be a small and quick post because I have to go and pick my daughter up from her mates place. The Brix Café & Bistrot in Fitzroy is The Dope. Its The Shit. Its The Place. Its The Place Right Now. NOW!!! And it will be the place that will be responsible for me putting all that weight back on that I lost last summer. Beautiful oysters - $10 for 4 thankyou very much! Beautiful black pudding. Beautiful little wine list. Thats all I have. Just go. Beautiful!

The Brix Café & Bistrot
Rear 412 Brunswick Street,
Fizroy VIC 3065

(03) 9417 6114

Padre Coffee, Lygon Street Brunswick; Guatemala San Francisco blend

After 10 years loyal service to Atomica Coffee for my stove top, amounting to fortnightly trips down Nicholson Street to the Brunswick St digs, I have come to the decision that the good folk at Padre Coffee in Brunswick East - a mere 4 minute walk down the street - will now be my preferred coffee at home.

I know it sounds like a big wank, but I take my coffee at home very seriously - OK, I like my coffee at home. So for 10 years it was the dark roast from Atomica that went into the stove top each morning. Not only did I have Atomica at home, but also at A Minor Place, the ever-so Brunswick cafe on Albion Street. Trouble with A Minor Place though, is they take sooo long to get the coffee in a cup, that once you have it 20 minutes later, you've downed it in 45 seconds flat (my preferred temperature I must add).

Apparently, the Guatemala blend has dark, brooding flavours of chocolate and spice - sweet as a nut!

So, hello Guatemala San Francisco blend, adios Atomica dark roast - for now......

Leo Buring Clare Valley Riesling 2007 and Lemon Tart from Babka Bakery, Brunswick Street Fitzroy

Quite possibly Australia’s most consistent wine – period! Year in and year out, Leo Buring Riesling can be counted on to produce young and vibrant wine, or with careful cellaring, a gorgeous glass of stewed pineapple and kero. Every wine list that I have run has had Leo Buring on the Riesling page, and I have no doubt that the next one will have it also.

So, on to the wine. Leo Buring Clare Valley Riesling 2007.

Viticulturaly speaking, 2007 was pretty ordinary in the Clare with little rain after flowering coupled with extreme heat in December and January. Riesling tends to favour conditions that are more on the cooler side, with plenty of rain when it is needed; in 2007 this did not occur. Yet this wine, through skilled wine making, offers all that is great about Riesling.

The colour still has a straw look about it, but you can already see a little bit of yellowy gold coming through. On the nose there is wax with a little bit of pineapple, un-ripe pineapple, also. In the mouth there is a wee bit of spritz with prickly acid being the primary feel. There is a little hole in the mid-palate, with more pineapple towards the end. After an hour the wine really gets going with stewed pineapple coming out quite big. It is here that I would recommend decanting wines such as Riesling and Pinot Gris so as to get through the initial acid whack and enhances the aromatics to come through, and I would use a cornetto decanter for this job.

The tart in question from Babka bakery in Fitzroy was really a side note for this wine. It was only the next day that Erin bought this home for me, and within three seconds of the tart being shoved in my gob, I realised that there was about a glass left of the Leo Buring. I left the rest of the tart and decanted the remainder of the wine and went back to it an hour or so later. Pure delight!! This worked because of the contrast of acid that the tart and wine both gave out; lemony puckery acid from the tart and prickly warm acid from the Riesling. Balance can be achieved through contrast. Acid with the acid and richness with the pastry and stewed pineapple.

Great balance, great length with the right amount of complexity for a young Riesling. And yes, mucho fantastico.

Drink till 2019
Drink with lemon tart from Babka in Fitzroy
17.8/20
Screwcap $19