Food review by James Hill and wine review by President, Stephen O'Halloran

Food

James Tinslay was in the kitchen today as our Chef of the Day.

Canapés

David Madson assisted, showing a deft hand at making blinis. He topped the first canapé with smoked salmon, crème fraiche, lemon rind, dill, capers and red onion.

The next smoked chicken and mustard.

Yours truly presented some Parmesan custard topped with peas in tartlets. The Parmesan custard was made with Parmesan, Beaufort and cheddar. Good mouthfeel, texture and flavour in the canapés.

Main

We love a pie at our Society, and today was one of the best!

James trialled the pie several times to get it to perfection.

He used beef chuck and cooked it with tomato paste, mustard, garam masala, dried porcini, malt vinegar, soy, Vegemite and anchovies.

The pie was served with some crisp asparagus and duck fat potatoes.

Perfect crust, browned on top.

James made an asparagus puree using leftover stalks, cream, shallots and duck stock.

Nick Reynolds helped with the mirepoix. Paul Thorne rendered duck skins to make duck fat for the potatoes.

As someone in the room said best pie ever….

It had all the hallmarks of a great meal today: timing, presentation, and integrated lingering flavours.

Worthy of Chef of the Year contention.

Bread today was white sourdough from Humble Circular Quay.

Cheese

A French cow’s milk offering today, a white mould not ammoniated, soft and aromatic, Fromager D’Affinois Le Fromager Double Crème.

The cheese is made in Belley, a small town nestled at the foot hills of the picturesque French Alps, surrounded by ancient forests and famous for its many waterfalls, and local farmers supply the dairy with luscious milk from their herds of Montbeliardes and Holstein cows that graze on dense pastures nearby.

With a thin white mould rind and a paste that gradually develops a mild, sweet, creamy flavour, this double crème cheese has a silky mouth feel and creamy, subtle flavour.

A medley of nuts to accompany the cheese.

Wine

Today, we were blessed to have James Tinslay serve us with his special dish, individual beef pies. Cooked to perfection in its own pastry case, and served at the right time, ready to eat, just the right temperature. Well done, James! 

The canape wine was a delightful Muscadet from Domaine de la Combe, 2021 @ 12 %. This French white wine is a joy to drink with all types of seafood, especially oysters. The grape variety Melon de Bourgogne is grown in the Loire district. The wine today was delicious, crisp, high acid, with great fruit and finishing clean and fresh. Do yourself a favour, buy some fresh oysters and drink a bottle of this wine. A winning combination! You will not regret it. 

Wines 1 and 2 on the main course menu were the Bouland Morgon Beaujolais 2023 @ 14 %. The second wine was the 2019 Isole e Olena Chianti Classico Sangiovese @ 14.5 %. I have lumped these wines together as they were both terrific, loved them. The Morgon is a serious wine, deserving to be drunk with proper attention. Mid-weight, luscious red berry fruits, plenty of tannin and acid, an earthy mid palate with a powerful lingering finish. This was a quality wine. A wine with considerably more body than a Pinot Noir and more flavour, but lacks the elegance of a PN. A great choice. The second wine a Chianti, has I feel, become one of our Society favourites. I have reviewed it on a number of occasions over the last 12 months, and I am glad to say it has never let us down and has deserved the big wraps I have given it in the past.  Medium to light body, elegant and flavoursome. Wonderful fruit with noticeable acidity and tannin, but well balanced. The perfect wine for an Osso Bucco. Very hard to select a winner between these two. I think the Chianti just got there as my wine of the day. 

Wine 3 was a Chardonnay, a 2024 from Ox Hardy in the Adelaide Hills, @ 13 %. I quite liked this wine, but following two outstanding reds, it suffered a little from its position in the list, with the red wine flavours still dominating one's palate. Be that as it may, the wine was a well made commercial Chardy, yellow/gold in colour, nice fruit and well balanced acidic overtones. An enjoyable wine, but would have been better served as a canape wine. 

Final wine for the day was a Teusner GSM 2021 @ 14.5 % from the Barossa. This was a wine made by Kym Tuesner, a very accomplished Barossa winemaker. Very dark colour with lots of spice and acid and tannin, made for the long haul.   The wine was well received at my table; however, to my palate, the wine tasted a bit "odd", It may have been my taste buds reacting to the wine, but I just felt there was something out of place here. The wine was a blend of 50% Grenache, 40% Mataro (aka Mourvèdre), and 10% Shiraz. Perhaps a little bit too much Mataro?? A more expert palate than mine might unlock the answer. Everyone else seemed to like it, so I must be the odd man out. Such is life.