Melbourne Cup Carnival Champagne and Sparkling Wine

Tomorrow is the official start of the 2009 Melbourne Cup Carnival with the AJC Derby at Flemington. Tomorrow is also the start of my son Henry's sleep school - he still cannot sleep!! This will last for four days with Henry and me bunkered down in cosmopolitan Bundoora for four days. So seeing that this racing carnival is all about bubbles and fizz, here are four wines to spend your winning's - if there are any - on when you leave the track sober and head home to regale the days events.

Buxton Ridge 'Molly Jean' Upper Goulburn Valley Blanc de Noir NV - So nothing came home for you at the end of the day and you didn't think to put a 'place' bet on any of the seconds you got - doesn't matter! make sure you have about $50 left in the kitty so you can swing by Blackheart and Sparrows in Brunswick to pick up a couple of these; the 100% Pinot Noir in this wine gives it a great peach pink look to it with gorgeous savoury flavours flowing all the way through - lovely!

Croser Piccardilly Valley Sparkling 2006 - Nice work, you picked the winner in the jumps and got the office sweep and a voucher for $45 at Dan's. This will pick you up an easy Croser on the way home with change for a six pack of imported beer. Crisp, clean and to the point this one.

Krug NV, Reims Champagne - Getting the trifecta in any race is a big win, but when you have the winner in it that pays $101 and second paying $51, well you got a big payout. An NV will give you endless citrus and toast and nuts and deliciousness.Look for this at Vue de monde or Ezard for about $600.

Dom Perignon Œnoteque 1990, Epernay Champagne - So, you just got the running quadrella super whatchamacallit. A massive win like this justifies a massive Champagne and the Dom Perignon 1990 is all of that. This wine should be rich with real forest floor aromas and flavours of truffles yet still displaying the youthfullness of citrus and brioche. Expect to pay fork out at least $1,500 a bottle at Rockpool or Bistro Guilluame at Crown. Make sure you offer a glass to Bart Cummings if you see him, he probably trained the winner!

Boy, that was an expensive exercise! I do hope you have fun out there - good punting and wish Henry and me luck for our sleep school!!

Paringa Estate 'PE' Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir 2008

A very clean and expressive wine. The Paringa Estate 'PE' Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir 2008 has all the hallmarks of a Lindsay McCall wine - fresh, spotless and a cracker to drink now. This Pinot is from two vineyards in Red Hill coming in over a four week period from the very difficult 2008 vintage.

Very Pinot Noir in colour with a pink hue a clear translucency. Dark cherry and rhubarb on the nose is quickly followed by clean and quick acid on the palate held together with spicy oak at the end. This is going to be so easy to drink this summer!

Drink with roasted beetroot and lamb salad

Drink till 2012

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Screwcap 14%v/v $24 from Dan Murphy's Preston

Bindi Bottling 2009 - 2008 Quartz Chardonnay, Original Vineyard and Block 5 Pinot Noir

Having to get up at 6 am these days is a pretty hard slog considering my young son Henry is usually up at 1.00, 3.00 and 4.30 in the AM. Having to get up at 6am towards the end of a cold winter is also a little bit of a turn off. So as the alarm blinked 6.02 am, I slowly pulled myself out of bed and headed down to the kitchen and get my fill of coffee for the drive up to Bindi Wine Growers in the Macedon Ranges to help bottle the 2008 Quartz Chardonnay, Original Vineyard and Block 5 Pinot Noir.

Over breakfast with my daughter Imogen, I had to explain that I was not seeing ‘Bindi the Jungle Girl’ but my friend Michael Dhillon, the wine-maker and owner of Bindi Wines who has been having me up there for the last four years to tinker with him in the vineyard and winery.

So off I headed up the Calder Highway, and thankfully towards clearing skies in the west. As I pulled up to the winery, I could not help noticing that the bottling plant, a portable plant, was somewhat bigger this time around. And it was! Not only were we bottling the wine today, but we were also labelling and packaging in one hit.

It is around August each year that Bindi bottle their premium wines. Now this is not a slight on the other Bindi labels are not premium, just these bad-boys spend a little longer in barrels to eek that ‘something special’ out of them.

In previous years, Michael had enlisted family and friends to perform quite a laboured task. With about eight people, we would swap from dropping bottles in to a rinse carousel, transferring them on to a little production line and watch them get filled with wine (most of the time!) and finally hand them over to the bin stackers. Thrilling stuff, hey?

This year Michael contracted a new outfit, three guys with a great big shiny rig with all the flashy bits on it; don’t ask me what they were, they were just flashy OK. And instead of the eightish helpers, there were only five of us, plus Michael’s dad Bill and Wendy his wife.

The morning unfolded without as much as a broken bottle (to come just before the end) and the pallets were steadily filling up. I was swapping with another fellow, Jason, in stacking the pallets and slapping stickers on to boxes so as not to confuse any of the wines; so this is why I completed my Bachelor’s Degree in Viticulture. Yet as we had completed another pallet followed quickly by another and another it was becoming starkly apparent that we were going to knock this off in super quick time.

Like I said, everything was going along honky-dory like, and it was while moving another pallet in to the winery that something hit me, this whoft that smacked me right in the chops, and it was gorgeous – musk, perfume and damp earth; the Block 5 Pinot Noir was being bottled. Sexy stuff this one.

Before we knew it there were about 250 dozen neatly stacked bottles of wine all snug in their boxes ready for pick up in the coming weeks. And looking at all of this wine heaped in the winery, a real sense of achievement was shared by all who helped out.

But alas, there was a touch of sadness in all this. One of the chores I looked forward to when I was up to Bindi were the days spent in the winery labelling and packaging the wines when it was either too hot or cold in the vineyard and giggling along to ‘Tenacious D’ singing about naughty stuff – it’s a Kodak moment OK. These days are gone with the wine sitting in quiet idle already.So looking at the pallets stacked up, there was only one thing left – lunch. This year Wendy whipped up a great big pot of meat balls in a tomatoee-olive sauce with some creamy scallop potatoes. This was washed down with a few of the day’s wines with some other vintages thrown in for comparison (and just because they were there, really). It is such a privilege when you can sit there sipping some of Australia’s best wine and listen to people like Stuart Anderson and Michael Dhillon give their impressions on what we are drinking, only to have them ask you what you think of it (I also learnt not to use the descriptor ‘meaty’ when analysing wine, cos there are lots of meat out there). I seriously did not want to head back down the highway.

And so the day came to an end and for my services I was sent off with a bottle each of Block 5 Pinot Noir and Quartz Chardonnay. That is why I finished my degree in Viticulture I guess!

Grosset Clare Valley Polish Hill Riesling 2001

Every now and then you need to pull something out of the cellar that a) you haven’t seen for a long, long time and b) you deserve it. The Grosset Clare Valley Polish Hill Riesling 2001 is just that wine. Last year on a golf trip to Tasmania, I took along the 2002 version of this wine where it was received very nicely by the other hackers. Nine into a bottle of wine does not go well however. So the 2001, over a dinner of chicken and blue cheese risotto – a monty for a Susan - had a crowd of three, with one of these participants being a Big 4 (Imogen’s way of saying she is four and a half) and it was Imogen’s comments on the wine that really made me sit up and take notice, and I quote:

“…. looks green and a little spicy on my tongue and its funny.” Imogen Cohen, Big 4 wine critic.

Pouring the wine, it is very hard not to notice the very green hue in the glass with a further big light yellow coming through the rest of the glass. Citrus is still very much up front for this wine, with lime and soft lemon curd being dominant; the longer in the glass a more prickly, spicy pineapple feel comes through also. In the mouth the lime is once again the dominant factor, with acid still playing a major role after eight years in the bottle – very much an Aussie Riesling!

Wonderful balance, length and complexity; oh yeah, it is also funny!

Drink with chicken and blue cheese risotto
Drink till 2021
95
Screwcap 13%v/v $20 – 2001 staff price at Como Wine and Spirits, South Yarra

Summer BBQ time! - CookbooksPart 1: Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook

‘Nature forms patterns. Some are orderly in space but disorderly in time, others orderly in time but disorderly in space.’ - James Gleick ‘Chaos’

A few years ago I bought this book for a little bit of light reading over summer. It turned out that it wasn’t, and isn’t, the type of ‘light reader’ you look for over summer. Though it was while reading this last night that I came across the above sentence that made this post seem all so necessary.

It is sort of getting warmer here in Melbourne, and with that the BBQ is going to get rather busy. There was a time in my life when a BBQ meant burnt sausages and greasy onions, but these days, with a little bit of culture under my belt, I am lending towards a more ‘anything goes approach’ – the Chaos Theory you might say, where chaos begins, classical science – or in this case classical BBQ – stops!

It is with this in mind that I have trolled through some of my more worn cookbooks, and Maeve’s DVDs of ‘Food Safari’, and put together a taste of what will be prepared for the 2009/2010 BBQ season here in Downtown Brunswick. Let the drooling begin!

Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook
A personal favourite of mine with many of the pages stained with sauces. I have chosen three very classic French dishes, with all of them needing the BBQ in one manner or another.

Salade Niçoise – this one will have two versions; no bonjovies for Erin and lots for me and Imogen.
· Salt for cooking and to taste
· 170 grams haricots verts or green beans
· four small red bliss potatoes, scrubbed
· One garlic clove, peeled and crushed
· Extra virgin olive oil
· About three tbsp red wine vinegar
· Black pepper
· Bibb lettuce
· One green bell pepper, cored and cut into thin slices
· Anchovy fillets, white preferred
· 100 grams Niçoise olives. Get these bad boys from a very good deli such as the French deli at the Queen Vic markets for all of you Melbournians
· Four ripe Roma tomatoes
· High quality canned tuna or seared fresh tunaFour hard boiled eggs, peeled and cut length wise in to quarters.

The ingredients follow very easily onto the plate, but a tip is do not leave the blanched vegetables sit too long; pat them dry when you remove them from water. I'd go for something like the Sorrenberg Beechworth Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2008.

Moules Marinières – this was a favourite when I was living in London all those years ago.

· About 150 grams of quality butter
· Two shallots, sliced thin
· 500 mL white wine, cooking – not drinking, yet
· 3 kg mussels, scrubbed and de-bearded just before cooking
· Flat parsley, finely chopped

Melt the butter off in a big pot over a medium flame and add shallots to cook for a couple of minutes. Pour in wine and bring to the boil and season. Throw the mussels in and pop the lid on to cook for about 10 minutes or until all mussels have opened – never force a mussel open; very, very bad for your tummy! Shake the pot as you go and keep the lid nice and secure so you don’t get any of the very hot juices scorching your private bits (always cook with your clothes on). Toss in parsley, stir some more and serve in a massive bowl is you have one. Open a Grosset Springvale Watervale Clare Valley Riesling 2009 with this one being a bit more flinty than the 2008.

Côte de Boeuf – this is the one from my Father’s Day post this year – super mucho fantastico!!!

· 1.5kg rib steaks, on the bone
· Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
· Olive oil, a couple of glugs

This is a big piece of meat, so it is going to be very cold when you pull it out of the fridge; get it out about 30-45 minutes before you put it on the BBQ so to bring it down to room temp.

I am not going to pontificate, but this is best cooked medium rare because it is so big. Only poke and slice until rested for about ten minutes or so. Eat with something like the Penfolds Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz 2007 - masses of rich dark fruit combined with chewy tannins make this one a Susan.

I think it wise at this point to break this post in to instalments, otherwise I will be writing this, and you will be reading, until tomorrow. So off you go, clean the BBQ, get your gas cylinder re-filled and cook, cook, cook!

Vinea Marson Heathcote Nebbiolo 2007

Nebbiolo – you had me at Hello!! I make no bones about it, I love Nebbiolo, and the Vinea Marson Heathcote Nebbiolo 2007 is super gorgeous; dare I say, Nebbiolo is bringing wine sexy back – I know, too far.

Just before I finished up at The Point restaurant in Albert Park this year, Mario Marson, winemaker and proprietor of Vinea Marson came in and showed me his wine; the Syrah – super, the Sangiovese – long and savoury, the Rosé – light and fresh, but it was the Nebbiolo for me that was the easy standout. My notes from May were all gorgeous savoury appeal backed up with spine tingling acid; this one is not much more different.

The colour of this wine is typical Nebbiolo with noticeable translucency and a dirty orange tinge to it. After about an hour in a decanter, the wine still has that prickly furry feel to it, with crushed raspberry and dried herbs coming through. As I said before, this wine is built around the acid structure and tightly built tannin feel. This wine will no doubt reward after a few more years tucked away.

Just a great wine with real Nebbiolo appeal! Super stuff this one.

Drink till 2020
Drink with lamb and rosemary sausages from Jonathan’s in Smith Street Collingwood
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Diam cork 14%v/v $48 from Gertrude Street Enoteca

Brunswick Mo-Bro's Needs You - Movember 2009 is on now!

Well everybody, its here again - Movember - the time for all flavour savers to shine!

Yours truly is growing a moustache for Movember this year and am looking for recruits to join my team - Brunswick Mo-Bro's.

Movember is about raising much needed funds and awareness for men’s health – specifically prostate cancer and depression in men. Important when you learn that close to 3,000 men die of prostate cancer each year in Australia and one in eight men will experience depression in their lifetime - many of whom don’t seek help. The more people I can get onboard, the more awareness and money will be raised and so I am asking you to join my team and either grow a moustache as a Mo Bro, or sign on as a Mo Sista and help out with raising funds. To join my Movember team go to http://au.movember.com/register/23391 and follow steps. Once registered you’ll be sent all the information you need to get donations and get growing as part of my Movember team. 2009 is Movember’s sixth consecutive year. If you are interested in learning more about the work that is being carried out as a result of Movember funds, check out the details at http://au.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs.

Hope to welcome you to my Movember team shortly.

Tim