Bindi Bottling 2012 - Quartz, Original Vineyard and Block 5

It's the day after bottling and the body is a bit sore and the house is quiet. And the rain keeps coming down. It's also cold! Hemingway I aint?

It should have been a quick day, but things don't always go to plan. What did go to plan however was the quality of the wine. The Bindi Quartz Chardonnay, Original Vineyard and Block 5 Pinot Noir's were all sitting in tank, all looking schmick as, but the mobile bottling truck got bogged at the top of block 4. It's a big truck, and big trucks do not get un-bogged easily.

It was also a slow start down here in Brunswick. All things being equal, I should have been in the winery at 7.30am, which is a 6.50am departure from home. Finishing work at midnight after a 15 hour day means that when the alarm goes off, a flurry a lewd expletives follows, the alarm gets tossed and sleep returns. So waking up at 8.45am, more expletives, a cold shower thanks to gas works and I'm off up the Calder. I pull up to the winery and the Quartz has all been bottled and some usuals, some newbie's, are milling around the winery enjoying cake and morning tea. I am greeted with a glass of Quartz Chardonnay, with Michael nodding, 'What do you think?'. Well, what do I think? I think this is a stunningly linear and focused wine that, the stuff I'm sipping anyway, didn't make it to bottle. Just imagine what it's going to be like in the bottle over the coming years - bit like a 1st year player winning the Brownlow.

It was the Original Vineyards turn next with the gremlins of earlier coming back. After a splutter the bottling line got rolling along nicely and the next thing you know there are 4 palates packed away and lunch is waiting in the winery. The Block 5 Pinot was next and like the Original Vineyard, some gremlins hindered the start but as soon as we knew it we had 2½ palates or so and things were motoring.

The last wine is one that Michael will be experimenting with over the next few years. When I say experimenting I mean that he is taking a sample of juice from the bottom and top of Block K, the highest altitude block on the vineyard, and holding it back for at least 3 years to then release to the thirsty public.

So another bottling done, my 14th, and like all bottling we pulled up seats in the winery and savoured some of Bindi's best wines. This year, like I said earlier, there were quite a few newbie's and they were duly treated to a recently disgorged Blanc de Blanc 1994 out of magnum. What a stunning wine with a beautifully tight bead and golden colour. this was followed with a 2007 Composition Pinot Noir which was pretty much drinking at its peak, a 2008 Block 5 Pinot Noir which is still quite young and not giving away too much and a specially made 2005 Vue de monde Pinot Noir that had all the hallmarks of an aged Bindi Pinot Noir - clean acidity with savoury earthy notes standing over a sun-setting tone of bright red fruit. So, another bottling done, with the end of February already booked in for the 2012 Composition's and Pyrette Shiraz. I will be heading up to Bindi before then for other bits-and-bobs, but it's always a little bit more gratifying coming home down the Calder with a booty of freshly bottled gems.

Matariki Hawkes Bay Blanc de Blanc 2001

The Matariki Hawkes Bay Blanc de Blanc 2001. I’ve had this wine twice and twice I have loved it. This bottle is another treat I completely forgot about so when it turned up after a search through the cellar, well you know, woohoo! Heady of thick brioche and developed roasted nuts, this wine has still got a bone dry look about it in the glass and a delicious fine bead; a very well made wine indeed. This is not a wine that you will easily find at your local wine specialist and certainly not at Dan’s or VC’s, so if you are heading over the ditch, or are already over the ditch, search it out because it is a seriously great wine.

Drink with crumbed oysters
Drink till 2015
95
Quality cork and cage 13%v/v $$$?

Delamere Tasmanian Blanc de Blanc 2005

Sometimes when you pick something up from the wine shop, you just simply want what you pay for with no little surprises; a bit of common garden-variety I'd call it. So when I happened across the Delamere Tasmanian Blanc de Blanc 2005 I was hoping for a little bit of toasted nut and brioche to wash down some oysters and smoked salmon (just another day in down-town Brunswickistan).

Now lets get the checklist out; toasted nuts - check, brioche - check, fine bead - sort of check, brine - check. This is where Play School comes in to it. Which one does not fit! If you chose brine you'd be right. If you chose brioche you are probably wanting the Brunswick Sardine's webpage www.brunswick.ca/

Call me crazy, but the sexxy taste of brine from the Canadian coast is something I really wasn't expecting. And if you did check out the Brunswick Sardines web page, doesn't that Canadian family look so happy jogging along what is probably a freezing beach in Newfounland.

But back to the wine. Brine. Thats all I've got really.

Drink with Brunswick Sardine's
Drink now
82
Quality cork 13%v/v $30 Blackheart and Sparrows Brunswick

wine and kitchen alert!!

Warning: sparkling blanc de blanc and homemade salami and cheese pizza is not a good wine/food match! Make sure you have a plan B.

Also, when leaning over to check the pizza in the oven, make sure your wife/husband/partner/whoever is not closing the dish-washer door - those corners really leave a big lump on your head and hurt like hell!

carry on!!

Hugel Alsace Pinot Blanc 'Blanc de Blancs' 2006

There are a few ways to beat the heat this summer;

1. Buy a pool
2. Live near a pool
3. Live near the beach
4. Spend a shirt-load on a/c
5. Drink crisp white wine

Of the five options above, it is the last one that I am following the most. This summer Erin and I have been drinking a bit of Riesling, but it is this wine today that has me going back time and again - the Hugel Alsace Pinot Blanc 'Blanc de Blancs' 2006.

This is as simple a wine as I have tasted for some time, yet it is its simplicity that I find so enticing. A very faint straw look to the wine with not much on the nose except for a faint waft of wax; it's almost neutral really. In the mouth there is once again a very neutral feel to the wine with more wax and a touch a white flower with tight, clean acid. It all sounds very boring, but this wine is a gem when straight out of cold fridge. An absolute must this summer!

Drink with friends
Drink now
89
Diam cork 12%v/v King & Godfree, Carlton

Gluttony or Gourmand delight - a very busy week eating in Melbourne

“In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.” Benjamin Franklin.

It is, I think, the last day of a very long and large week of eating out across Melbourne; by Monday I will presume that I will be linking my belt one hole back! And it is on this day that I sit here in my study sipping a glass of sparkling wine (I was supposed to go to the gym!) while thousands of service professionals snake their way through tightly set tables serving the corporate professionals lunch on the busiest service of the year. Please do not think I am making light of their endeavour, but I do not miss it one bit!

For far too long now I have been the one who has been doing the serving of wine and food to the endless conga line of Christmas lunch and dinners. Now that I am on the other side of the bookings book, it has been my great pleasure this week to find myself pondering over wine lists and menus, and apologising to the wait staff for taking my sweet precious time.

For me it started on Monday with a lunch that turns into an all nighter. It was the annual Australian Sommeliers Association Christmas lunch at Mahjong in St. Kilda. On arrival I was greeted with a crisp and cold flute of Pommery Brut Royal (a little donation of six bottles for the thirsty sommeliers) and a catch up with thirty or so wine professionals from some of Melbourne’s best restaurants. David and Quentin from Vue de Monde, Sally from Cutler & Co, Lincoln and Penny from Taxi and a smattering of wine reps from JHL Wines, Yabby Lake and Russel Gehring Wines there for the usual trade talk – me included now. It was a set course of plates being dropped off at the tables with dumplings, spring rolls and sticky rice making up some of the delicacies. The highlight for me however was the Peking duck pancakes; melt in the mouth perfection!

After many more bottles of Champagne and other wine blow ins, we headed off down Fitzroy Street and over The Esplanade to The Stoke House bar downstairs. Here we drank more Champagne, wine and beer (and yes, a little bit of water too) and continued on our general stream of bullshit for the day. It was getting a little busy and crowded so the decision was made to head up to Circa, The Prince bar – so off we headed again. More beers and wine and also a good catch up with Travis from Coda, who I never got too play pool with downstairs even though I said I was going to, and Virginia from Cumulus Inc. After far too many beverages it was time to close my account and head home – at 11.30pm!!

With a sore head the next morning (very sore!) I headed in to work to regale Cameron with all the witty anecdotes and try and remember who I spoke with; it took a while let me just say that. With not much on the horizon but a few calls and emails, Cameron and I headed up Burke Road in Camberwell and settled at The Tea House on Burke, a little Chinese place that needs a bit of work on the interior but definitely not in t he kitchen. Another serve of Peking duck and even better selection of dumplings was washed down by some Pinot Noir from Geelong and Mornington Peninsula. Can you believe I had to go back to the office and do some work after the bill – sheesh!!

Wednesday saw the arrival of Jon from Sydney who is the NSW Sales Manager for Vranken-Pommery, and it was at Rockpool Bar & Grill where I joined up with Jon and Cameron. Along the way I had a little catch up with David and also bumped in to Michael Dhillon of Bindi Wine Growers. After a couple of beers at the bar we headed to our table in the wine bar where there is only one thing to order – the Wagyu Burger and onion rings; three all round of course. This burger has got to be one of the best in Melbourne I tell ya! Another glass of Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir – The Oceans 8, and we were back to the office to discuss strategy over some more Champagne.

We were now in a taxi and headed for Matteo’s on Brunswick Street Fitzroy (the clean end) where we sat down with three bottles of Champagne – The Cuvée Louise Rosé 1999, Pommery Blanc de Blanc and Pommery Blanc de Noir. There was a little more wagyu beef as an appetiser - bresola air dried; I know it is supposed to be oysters with Champagne, but it is summer and you should never order an oyster if the month has an ‘r’ in it! All wines were fantastic, but the Louise 1999 dropped away pretty fast unfortunately – we picked the wrong bottle with that one, I guess.

These guys get two hats for a reason. The food was absolutely fantastic. It was just the two courses for me – I’m not really a dessert person I must say – with the Japanese plate of smoked eel, confit salmon and sashimi King Fish. BRILLIANT!! This was hard to match, but the suckling pig was just as good if not better!!! I rolled out of my chair (full, not drunk) at about 11pm and headed home to a very jealous Erin who wanted to know all about it; I just wanted to know all about my pillow.

The next morning I picked up Jon from his Hotel in Carlton and headed in to the CBD to give him a walking tour of some of our better restaurants. We started at Vue de monde where we had a coffee at the cafe and headed down over to Syracuse, Gills Diner and through to the coffee precinct around Degraves Lane. After another stop we headed up Flinders Lane past Mo Vida, Coda and yet another coffee, this time at Cumulus Inc before walking past Verge, Becco, Gingerboy, Bottega and Grossi Florentino and hopping in to the car for the short ride to Cutler & Co for a hello with Adam Cash and a super glass of Felton Road Central Otago Dry Riesling 2008.

We were again in the car out to Camberwell and in the office just before the heavens opened up. Some more strategising and it was time for lunch – again. With our walk cleverly timed between two rain periods, we headed up to Gohan-Ya Japanese Bento Cafe on Camberwell Road. With about 12 seats, this place is always full and if it had a few more seats and maybe a liquor license would be jamming every day. I once again gave in to my smoked eel addiction and the obligatory serve of gyoza dumplings; I was once again truly full!

The week duly finished today with a lovely impromptu lunch with my lovely Erin and the boy Henry as well at Gertrude Street Enoteca in Fitzroy. A serve of pork and duck terrine for me and a goat’s cheese and sorrel tart for Erin and all was well - they even struck a deal in Copenhagen I over-heard someone say there.

With all this done all I could do was to go and pick Imogen up from her very last day ever of daycare and whip down to get her favourite dinner – Fish and Chips! It’s always good.

With the children now asleep and Erin and me down here relaxing in the kitchen area, it was time to open something nice up to celebrate not only Imogen’s last ever day of daycare before she starts prep next month but also the fact that Erin secured some more consultancy work. So to wind up a massive week we sit here sipping the Pommery Cuvée Louise 1998 Grand Marque Champagne – absolutely gorgeous. Have I told you that I don’t miss the restaurant floor?

Agrapat & Fils Avize Blanc de Blanc ‘Terroirs’ NV Champagne

Elegance and charm. The Agrapat & Fils Avize Blanc de Blanc ‘Terroirs’ NV Champagne can easily and succinctly be described as just that without anything else to be said – but that’s just boring and defeats the purpose of this exercise. In the glass the wine has a very tight bead that also displays a straw yellow to it. Leesy brioche and nuts come through on the nose with a crisp bite of green apples and lead pencil on the palate. This is a ‘Growers’ Champagne at its best. Just Lovely.

I am tipping that a few of these corks were released celebrating the now infamous 'Hand of Frog' goal by Thierry Henry. Ohh well, cei la vei.

Drink with scallops in beurre blanc sauce
Drink till 2012
94
Quality cork 12%v/v $100 at Rathdowne Cellars, Carlton North

Chandon Yarra Valley ZD Blanc de Blanc 2005

Another hot one in Melbourne and another hot wine to drink when said day is, well, hot! The Chandon Yarra Valley ZD Blanc de Blanc 2005 has got hot weather written all over it with its clean bone dry feel making it a monty for your next aperitif.

Now ZD is an acronym for zero disgorged. This is when a sparkling wine has the crown seal – its initial closure – released to remove any dislodged yeast sediment. There is generally a little wine lost so a dosage (minus sugar in Australia) is added before it gets its cork and cage. This does not happen with the ZD, hence the crown seal. What you get is a very dry sparkling wine with clean acid, which as I said, is perfect for an aperitif.

The 2005 ZD is fantastic; pale straw in the glass with a very fine bead. The nose is all green apple – very Blanc de Blanc because of the low v/v and 100% Chardonnay; more malic acid than lactic acid. The palate has up-right acid with a lead pencil taste to it, for those who remember lead pencils that is. This is a great wine.

Drink with freshly shucked oysters, a fair dinkum Susan!
Drink till 2012
94
Crown seal 12.5%v/v $35 from Rathdowne Cellars, Carlton North

Erin's 40th at Esposito@toofeys - part 1

Fortieth birthdays are big occasions. This is obvious. People get dressed up, go and get their hair done (for an ungodly amount of money), buy a new pair of shoes or two and generally get caught up in the event. And why not! This birthday marks quite a mile stone in peoples live, similar to the 18th and the 21st birthdays. Yet the 40th is a birthday that is full of reflection, as opposed to starting a journey with a UDL can.

Six weeks ago, 24 of our friends and immediate family gathered at Esposito@Toofeys in Carlton and celebrated my true love’s 40th birthday. But this was no ordinary get together for lunch. With the help of Maurice Esposito in the kitchen and his front of house manager Michelle, 26 diners were treated to an 8 course degustation with matching wine (Maurice was kind enough to let me bring in our own wine) that was quite simply perfect.

About six weeks out from the day, I asked Erin what she wanted to so for her birthday. There was plenty of thought. There was little too-and-frowing. There were not too many options; party at our place – Nope, drinks at a pub/bar – nope, dinner at a restaurant? If we were going to do this, then it would have to be done properly. How about a dego I asked. OK Erin said. Done, now I just have to find a venue.

Toofeys was the second place I contacted with the first venue categorically stating they did not need our business, even though they averaged about 8 covers for Sunday lunch – obviously they did not need the $3,500 that was spent.

Next thing was to meet with Maurice and Michelle and work out a menu. With 20 odd people, there are always going to be some dietary requirements; vegetarians, pregnant women, gluten free and just plain ‘I don’t like that’ so all of this was laid out. Twenty minutes later we had the skeleton of the menu and of the wines also. Simple. And here it is with the matching wines -

Erin Taplin May 29th, 1969 with
Esposito at Toofeys May 31st, 2009


Tathra oyster; red wine vinegar, ginger, soy and sesame
Valdespino Manzanilla Delicioza, Jerez Spain


Chicken consommé with goats’ cheese tortellini, seared Greenlip abalone
Henrique’s & Henrique’s Bual 15 year old Madeira and
Bindi Sparkling Blanc de Blanc 1994, Macedon Ranges, Victoria

Mud Crab with green apple, avocado and spinach essence
Chateau Jolys Gros Manseng Sec 2006, Jurançon France


Wild Barramundi with braised fennel, salad of surf clams, baby mint
Tapanappa Chardonnay ‘Tiers’ 2007, Adelaide Hills SA

Porterhouse roasted, potato puree, exotic mushrooms and 50 year old balsamic
Yannick Amirault ‘Le Grand Clos’ Bourgueil Cabernet Franc 2006, Loire Valley France


Cheese: Bruny Island white mould cows’ cheese and
Healey’s Pyengana Cheddar

Callebaut white and milk chocolate semi freddo with chocolate sorbet
Mount Horrocks ‘Cordon Cut’ Riesling 2008, Clare Valley SA

As I commented before, Maurice kindly let us bring our own wine, something that saved us a pretty penny let me say. Matching wine and food is what I do, and I was very pleased that Maurice let me have some say in how the menu was constructed in order to get the most out of the wines. A lot of chefs will simply flat out refuse this, for what would a sommelier know about designing menu’s. Yeah, what would we know, we just bullshit our way through a service to sell booze!

Now the invitations. Invitations I learnt, are a serious matter. You just don’t send an email or a text and say, ‘hey, want to join us for lunch’. This is where the male and female brain is different – I would have probably done that. If I did my name would be mud.

Our good friend Fiona Sproles (http://fwoglegs.blogspot.com/) in absolutely no time came up with a fantastic invitation – just brilliant. Erin had requested everyone hold May 31, they obliged, and all we had to do was wait.

.... to be continued