A Must!

Two weeks ago I flew to Perth for an in and outer – sounds lewd I know – for a mate's 40th. So there I was on the Saturday afternoon with 5 hours to kill and wearing my best Hawaiian shirt and effectively nowhere to go. Staying in the CBD I ventured down to Balthazar, but alas, they were shut. After this I shifted up to St Georges Terrace to Greenhouse, but that was too noisy (and I was the only person there without ink or piercings) with some douff douff or whatever blaring out of the speakers. Fortunately all was not lost and a quick taxi ride (Perth’s traffic lights are possibly the slowest in the free world!!) I was at Must Wine Bar & Restaurant in air conditioned comfort and in the company of the very erstwhile Stefano, Tim and Aaron. Here is where my 5 hour lunch started.


There was so much good stuff that those boys put in front of me; steak tartare, oysters, parfait, pork belly and more stuff and more.... There was also a lot of wine and cider, and it was this gem that was the standout; Piero Mancini Cucaione Vermentino di Gallura from Sardinia. Very Vermentino in the glass with a mature Chardonnay look about it. The nose was a mix of brine and custard; sounds odd but it was all working really well, so well that I reckon I was sniffing it for a good 5 minutes before it past the laughing gear! Like the nose, the mouth was a combination of brine and acid and burnt cream, or crème brulee, and once again it worked and was pretty spot on with the tartare. An awesome day fella's. Thanks for everything!

I made sure before I left the boys that they give me the details of the importer, so expect to see this gooden’ beauty down at Albert Street Food & Wine sometime in the New Year.

Head Brunette Moppa Syrah 2010

This wine is not built on sun but rather the minerality that is below the ground. The Head Brunette Moppa Syrah 2010 is still very young in the bottle, but speaks to as if it had been around for five or so years. Beautiful and dark in the glass; a perfect example of ox blood if there was one, the Brunette 2010 like the 2009 has a great hallmark of tart red and dark fruit, but none of the JABS characteristics of stewed fruit and blood curdling alcohol. As I said, this wine speaks with a very mineral accent that drives both luscious tannins and squeaky clean acid. Lucky there are 5 bottles left in the 6 pack; needed to see what the little fella looked like!

Drink with rare venison
Drink till 2020
96
Screwcap 13.8%v/v $40ish www.headwines.com.au

Mitchell Harris Pyrenees Fumé Sauvignon Blanc 2011

This is close to the best wine of the year for me. The Mitchell Harris Pyrenees Fumé Sauvignon Blanc 2011. In past posts I have mentioned that I am an unabashed Sauvignon fan; done right that is and not to a regional formula. So the first thing to say is that I should not be confused with the ‘Savvy Bashes’ and secondly buy this wine. Full of cracked white pepper and fennel on the nose, the palate also too surprises with a crisp and, this next one I had difficulty with, unctuous and almost tangible herbal note to it. This persisted throughout the bottle. The only trouble with this wine was the glass and a bit I left in the bottle for the next day had no impact like the first three. So I went back to Albert Street Food & Wine the next day and picked anotherie up. A truly great Australian example of how to do this grape justice.

Drink with goat’s cheese
Drink till 2013
96
Screwcap 12.5%v/v $24 Albert Street Food & Wine, Brunswick

Best's Great Western Young Vines Pinot Meunier 2010

This was a real head turner! The Best's Great Western Young Vines Pinot Meunier 2010 is one of the best wines tasted this week and a no-brainer for the new winelist at Albert Street Food & Wine. Gorgeous tart red fruit on the nose and also in the palate, with biting acidity and tame and polite tannins makes this wine a wonderful summer red as well as sticking away for a couple of years I reckon.

Drink with slow cooked kaiserfleisch
Drink till 2015
94
Screwcap 12%v/v about $25

Radford Eden Valley Menagerie 2009

It's been a while but I'm back.

For the last 2 weeks I have been toiling with constructing the wine list (not only restaurant but also wine retail) for the soon to be opened Albert St Food & Wine in downtown Brunswick. I reckon I have swilled and and garbled and spat out close to 1000 wines, with yesterday accounting for about 150; some crackers, some not so cracking. This one was is a cracker! The Radford Eden Valley Menagerie 2009.

As it says, this wine is a collective of Mataro, Grenache, Shiraz and the earthiness that is Alicante. Deep garnet in the glass with a wonderful smack of sweet morello cherry,spice and dried herbs on the nose, the Menagerie has a real velvet mouthfeel combined with a flavour I cannot quite pinpoint, suffice to say it felt quite meaty in a sweet way - that was a good thing, not bad.

This is such a great wine and pays respect to Southern Rhone with acid balance and spice all at the same time pitching the wild card Alicante in for good measure. A great outcome.

Drink with steak tartar
Drink till 2016
94
Screwcap 14%v/v about $32 at Albert St Food & Wine in 2 weeks

Tim made pork and pistachio sausages

My first batch of Brunswick-made sausages. And they tasted better than they look....

Pork and pistacio mix
1.5 kg pork neck
300 grams pork fat
80 grams pistachio's, blanched then skinned
20 grams salt
15 grams black pepper
pork casing
1/2 glass white wine

Wine Fact #4 - Temperature matters

Its too cold. Its too hot. Its too windy. Its too cold. Its too sunny. Yes, as you can see I am from Melbourne. One day its 32°C and the next its 15°C with rain coming in sideways; a temperate split personality you might say. This is typical of Melbourne. Something that is also typical is our wines are served either too cold, as in Riesling or Champagne, or too warm as in Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz. This my friends is a wine fact!

How many times have you been to a restaurant and have ordered, say a viognier, and have the waiter present the bottle for taste only to be met with an ice-cream headache instead of ginger or apricots. Most fridges these days are set between 2-4°C because of safety concerns with milk. This may be fine for milk, but it aint fine for viognier, or champagne, or chardonnay or anything wine for that matter. Same to goes with reds. Beaujolais is seen as a red wine – no arguments here. Problem is Beaujolais is best served slightly chilled, so therefore should be stored in an appropriate wine fridge. Same with Madeira. Just cos it’s a fortified doesn’t mean it should be drunk at 25°C – a temperature that a lot of people know as room temperature, which is true. Thing is, room temperature and wine temperature are two vastly different subjects. The average ‘room temp’ for whites is about 8-9°C and red about 15-17°C, not 4°C or 25°C, and that’s a wine fact!

Temp C
36.8° Body temperature
25° Laboratory room temperature
19° Vintage Port
18° Bordeaux, Shiraz
17° Cabernet Franc, Red Burgundy
16° Pinot Noir, Rioja
15° Chianti
14° NV Port/Tawny, Madeira*
13°
12° Rosé, Beaujolais
11° Viognier, Sauternes/Botrytis wine
10°
9° Chardonnay
8° Riesling/Bordeaux Blanc
7° Champagne
6° Ice Wine
5°
4°
3°
2° Fridge Temp
1°
0° Water freezes
-18° Freezer Temp

*Madeira can also be served slightly chilled