Erin's 40th at Esposito@toofeys - part 3

Sorry for the delay...

So, the final savoury course to come out was the roasted porterhouse with puree potatoes. This was wrapped in alfoil and cooked for 12 hours at 65°C so the meat would be pink all the way through and without losing any mass i.e. not being dehydrated.

Now you heard me sprout on about having to cater for dietary requirements in the first instalment of Erin’s birthday. One of these was for Sharon Mitchell who is vegetarian – or should I say was vegetarian. That’s it, we brought her back from the dark side with this beautiful piece of meat. Sharon had never had steak before this day, and one bite has ensured that she will be savouring beef for a long time to come. She loved it that much; she polished off half of another from her table. I love stuff like that – fair dinkum.

The wine that was served with this was the Yannick Amirault ‘Le Grand Clos’ Bourgueil Cabernet Franc 2006 from the Loire Valley in France. This is a wine that I had used quite often in the past at both Vue de monde and also recently at The Point. Wonderful and intense colour with absolutely no translucency whatsoever. This wine is perfect with rare meat because it has a savoury backbone of chocolate rather than ripe fruit that an Australian Cabernet Franc will give off. The tail of this wine was very long, with a grainy, soft acid finish.

With the last savoury course done, Erin’s BFF (not the other ‘f’ word as I found out) Sharon Clements got up and made a great speech about all of the things we didn’t know about Erin; there were a few eyebrows raised let me tell you!! After this I also got up and said a few words about my Erin; it’s funny how much you love someone isn’t it.

The day was progressing perfectly, with some hard and soft cheese coming out to the tables. There was no wine match for this course as I thought that there would be plenty of Yannick Amirault left for everyone, and there was. This was followed by a pre-dessert of semi freddo white and milk chocolate dish which was accompanied with Mount Horrocks ‘Cordon Cut’ 2008 Riesling – a sweet wine that is not too cloying or large in the mouth.

And now for the cake. From the ‘French Lettuce’, Erin got a lemon chantilly cream dynamo of a cake – spankingly good I tell you! With this we finished off the Mount Horrocks and just sat around and soaked it in.


The day was coming to an end and we really didn’t what it to finish. A lot of our guests started their farewells; hugs and kisses all round. It was the type of day where you could have just kept going and going with new courses coming out at regular intervals, but baby sitters had to be relieved, and it was a school night as well. With pleasantries being made, a decision was made to head to Atticus Finch on Lygon Street to finish off the day. About a dozen headed up there with plenty more wine, beer and scotch consumed (just what I heard of course, I also had to relieve a babysitter you see).

I honestly cannot think of a better lunch or dinner with family and friends. The whole day was perfect; the food, the wine, the restaurant and the company. Since then, all of the people who attended have asked when are we going to do it again (something Erin says everyday as well), and you know what, it was fantastic, and if it wasn’t for the expense, yes we would do it every weekend, because that’s the way you should eat and drink – lots of courses over a long period of time – that’s what savouring is all about.

And just think, there is only about 18 months until my 40th.....

Erin's 40th at Esposito@toofeys - part 2

So where were we....

The big day had finally arrived and all that was needed to do was to get frocked up and then pick the cake up from French Lettuce in Carlton; job done.

On arrival Erin and I had our first drink for the day, a glass Prosecco, and got down to opening and checking the wines with Erin organising the place settings; done, done and done.

Our guests started arriving, and all I asked of Erin was not to hang around the door of the restaurant – you know how easy bottle-necks form. So after we broke up the first bottle-neck the mingling started, and before you knew it, everyone who needed to be there were happily sipping their aperitifs and chatting about whatever they were chatting about. So with everyone there, we got started.

Now one of the main reasons for doing a dego was that Erin was always banging on about how she had never seen me in action, doing the sommelier thing and all, and also not seen me work a group, something that I would do on almost a nightly basis at The Point. This day I was responsible for the food and wine matches and also the introduction and explanation of the food and wine – for Erin and our family and friends. This was not a garden variety group let me tell you.

So, on with matches.

The amuse of Tathra oyster and Manzanilla worked because both flavours are essentially palate cleansers – the salty glycerol of the oyster and again salty, yeasty texture of the sherry.

The first savoury course I think is always the most important. Degustation events are all about savouring and catching the attention of your taste buds. If you don’t achieve this in the first course, it’s going to be a tough trick to bag it after the first. This is why I went with two wines with two different flavour spectrums. So, in having two different flavours in the glass, you need two different flavours on the plate, and this was achieved with the abalone and chicken consommé.

The Bual Madeira is a wine that grabs your attention straight away; a massive spice hit on the nose followed by that brandy spirit hit. In the mouth, the wine deceives the nose by being soft and rich, with an almost fragrant feel. The longer in the mouth, the wine builds in flavour and mouth feel, becoming warmer and warmer with a toffee finish. The Bindi Sparkling was courteous of my friend Michael Dhillon from Bindi. With only 100 magnums produced, the two bottles of the 1994 Blanc de Blanc could not have been fresher with lovely citrus and bready notes in both nose and palate. The idea was the Madeira with the consommé to break through the oiliness and the sparkling with the abalone, with the sparkling lifting the saltiness of the abalone.

Next we had the mud crab with a wine that I just love, the Chateau Jolys Jurançon. This is a style of wine that I dearly hope will one day challenge the Savvy B domination in this country. This wine has an elegant white floral nose that is further pronounced in the palate along with citrus and soft acid, something that I wanted when matched with mud crab. This match was for the wine to accompany the flavour of the crab, not compete with it.

What dego would be worth its salt if there were not game there. What game you say? Barramundi I say! Barramundi is the game of the deep, with almost earthy texture about it, followed by a long clean flavour of sea and salt. With a fish like this, you need a wine that is a stand out amongst its peers. The Tapanappa ‘Tiers’ 2007 Chardonnay from the Adelaide Hills may be a new label, but it is sourced from possibly the best Chardonnay vineyard in Australia.

The ‘Tiers’ Chardonnay had belonged to Petaluma until recently, with Petaluma having recently belonged to Brian Croser, possibly the most respected winemaker in Australia. The Tapanappa label is a partnership with Lynch-Bages of Bordeaux and The Bollinger family in Champagne – a handy alliance you might say. This wine is all white Burgundy, citrus, grapefruit, stonefruit, liquorice and custard, and thats just the nose. The palate is similar with flavours that just seem to go on forever, and yes, the liquorice powder hit at the end was sexy sexy sexy. I think this wine was easily the favourite amongst the group. This whole match was just down to savouring two gorgeous flavours simultaneously. This was a no brainer.

Three courses to go, stay tuned....

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

The wonderful world of the Degustation

degust - to taste or savour carefully or appreciatively.

The Degustation (aka dego); the most pure and beautiful way to eat and drink wonderful food and wine. I’ve said it all. There’s is no real point in writing any more in this blog really, but that would be remiss of me wouldn’t it now?
The true form of the ‘dego’ was introduced to me when I was a sommelier at ‘Vue du monde’ four years ago. Here I would contend with up to eight tables over a service and match wine with their minimum five course dego. Now one table or two sounds pretty easy but when you have seven or eight of the mongrels at the same time, it doesn’t seem so wonderful. But it’s not what I have to go through, it is what the diner, YOU, gets out of it.
As the definition says - to taste or savour - this is what it is all about. The whole idea about getting the right food and wine match is pure sensory bliss – fair dinkum it is!!
You see, degos are designed to take the worry out of deciding what to order. Let’s face it, how many times have you sat there pondering what to have, only to be half way through your meal and wishing you ordered the duck and not the lamb. Same goes for wine – some wine lists out there are like compendiums. My partner Erin used to be a ‘wine list widow’ when we would go out. These days it’s straight to the Burgundy or Barolo page, and if that’s too hard, it’s a bottle of Bindi.
So the plates come out one at a time and the appropriate wine served. Appropriate, you ask? Now food and wine matching for me is all about balance between the flavours on the plate and the glass – simple. But there is a lot more to it than that. A lot of diners expect to have lighter wines early then slowly ascending in body and texture, and obviously going from white to red. Au contraire I say to you!! As I stated before, it is all about balance.
One of the current dishes I am matching is a dish that has abalone and oyster with a duck consommé. This dish offers two real distinct flavour profiles and when you have flavours that are not true, as in predictable to one style of wine, the only option is to offer two styles of wine for the one dish; Champagne with the abalone and oyster and Madeira ‘Bual’ with the consommé. It works – simple. It works!!! The balance between these two flavour profiles on the plate and in the glass is stunning and succinct – they are wonderful I tell you.
The definition above states, ‘to taste or savour carefully or appreciatively.’ With this in mind, when you go for the dego option you must also go for the wine dego option. Now I know a lot of you love your Marlborough Savvy and Barossa Shitaz .... I mean Shiraz ... but these wines are not always the best partner for degos. Though I stated before that the dego does not have to start with the lighter style of wine, traditionally a dego does start with delicate, light flavours and slowly builds up to the final savoury course with rich, textured flavours. In most cases the same should go with the wine.
Now I am not saying that you have an entire glass of wine with each course, rather you should have just enough to complement the flavour on the plate. I also believe you should have no more than about 90mL of wine with each course – degos have been known to go up to 19 courses, so be careful.
If you do decide to go with the bottle option I would suggest choosing two – a white and a red. For a white perhaps a Chardonnay, new or old world, that has not got a lot of oak and not been through 100% MLF (malo-lactic fermentation – the secondary fermentation to dull some of the acid in wine) or a Pinot Gris, something with a bit of mouth feel and not too thin. For a red I would go for a Pinot Noir, once again new or old world, or a cool climate Shiraz, something from, say, Geelong, NZ or the Canberra district.
So next time you go out and there is a dego available, give it a go. Spend some quality time with your partner, rather than with the menu and wine list.