Committee lunch

Lunch review by James Hill

A great initiative of our committee is to cook the last lunch of the year. This was a concept introduced by our Past Food Master,  Steve Sparkes, and the tradition continues 

Canapés

Greg Chugg made a chicken liver pâté with laksa paste and green Chartreuse served on Melba toast…when we say ‘served’ Greg plonked the pâté on the table and members helped themselves.

Frank Liebeskind served us some mushrooms marinated with chilli and pesto sitting on top of goat’s cheese and a lavosh biscuit.

Jonathan Casson,with a Christmas theme,presented some homemade cranberry and Brie pastry parcels.

Bernard Leung pot-fried some prawn and pork dumplings served with some chive and soy sauce.

Variety, quality and flavours in all our canapés today.

Main 

Main course today,with the season in mind,was roasted turkey breast with apple and pistachio nut stuffing and basted with butter and sage.

This was accompanied by some duck and goose fat cooked potatoes and some green beans and shaved fennel,finely sliced onion slices with almonds and pomegranate arils.

A wholesome gravy made from chicken carcass skins and bone broth.

A feast ! Well received and appreciated by members at lunch today.

Bread was a multi-grain wholemeal sourdough from the Organic Bakery South Dowling st Darlinghurst.

Thanks team.

Cheese

Woombye cheese Sunshine Coast Queensland.

Triple Cream Brie made with pasteurised cow’s milk and non-animal rennet.

This cheese has a delicate white bloom on the outside that hides a deliciously rich, creamy and silky centre. It features a buttery, melt-in-your-mouth goodness that gets more luxe as it ripens.

We finished our lunch and the year with our president Stephen O’Halloran presenting our kitchen team with a note of appreciation from our society to thank them for their help during the year.

They make it all happen.

Wine review by President Stephen O'Halloran

Wine 

Today we enjoyed the traditional WFS Christmas lunch. Fifty + members turned up for a delicious feast of roast turkey with all the trimmings, preceded by some wonderful canapes and finished off with a great cheese. Sincere thanks to all those members who put so much time and effort into making the afternoon a great success with the food and wine. 

With regard to our wines, we were fortunate to have our Wine Master secure us some rare 2012 Orlando Steingarten Riesling, a wonderful wine at 12%, one of my favs. The name is German for garden of stones, and if you have seen the vineyard as I have, you will see that it is aptly named. A rock-strewn hill just outside Rowland Hill in the Barossa, reaching an elevation of 1600 ft. The vineyard was established by the legendary wine maker Colin Gramp in 1962. Given the topography, it must have been a challenge to plant, to say the least. Gramp's efforts eventually paid off with the first vintage coming in 1968. Since then, the wine has enjoyed a stellar place amongst Australia's finest Rieslings. The wine today was in my view, sensational, hard to accept that it is now 13 yo. Pale yellow/green. No sign of ageing, crisp acid with minerality and pure and precise lime/lemon hints. A long, dry, clean, satisfying finish, a real Christmas treat. Our own resident winemaker, Phil Laffer, was one of the team at Orlando that made this wine in 2012, his last vintage. Well done Phil, you should be proud. The wine was a perfect partner for the canapes. What a way to kick off! 

The first lunch wine was the Helen's Hill Reserve Chardonnay 2021 at 13%, from the Yarra Valley.  This was a rich, buttery wine that went very well with the main course. A creamy texture, with some peachy overtones and some gentle oak. A really sound wine, most enjoyable.

Wine 2 on the lunch list, a Port Phillip Estate Pinot Noir 2022 at 13.5%,  was, I think it is fair to say, a disappointment. This seems to be the general feeling in the room.  Thin, anaemic, with no real structure. Lolly water. Pale pink in colour, more like a rose. The wine had very little appeal. Now, at nearly 4 yo post vintage, it is hard to see the wine going anywhere. I just hope it is not heading in my direction any time soon. 

Wine 3, on the other hand, was excellent, a Craiglee Shiraz from Sunbury in Vic, 2014 vintage at 13%. This vineyard was originally established in the late 1800s and went out of production for nearly a century, until being reestablished in 1976 by the current owner, Patrick Carmody. This was a powerful, cool climate Shiraz, full-bodied, deeply red, almost black in colour, with great fruit. Spicy and peppery, drinking beautifully now with no adverse indications for the future.  Excellent balance with a strong lingering finish. A classy wine. 

Our final wine for the day was the Meadowbank Pinot Noir from the Derwent Valley in Tas. 2023 vintage @ 12.5 %. This wine was a cracker! Winner of the prestigious Jimmy Watson Trophy in 2024 for the best 1-year-old Red. A truly lovely wine, powerful for a PN, but at the same time elegant. Wonderful, vibrant fruit, cherry and strawberry flavours coming through, juicy and succulent. Gentle fine tannins on the back palate. A joy to drink. Thank you, Wine Master, for procuring this wine, an inspired choice.

To me, this wine and the Steingarten were the wines of the day. Very hard to pick a clear winner, but on reflection, I feel the Riesling, at least to my taste, got the gong!

This is my last report for 2025. I hope you all have enjoyed my thoughts on the wines we have had during the year and a special thanks to Nick Reynolds for his hard work in producing for our enjoyment, quality wines week after week. 

Merry Xmas to you all, and best wishes for the New Year. See you again in February 2026.

Kind regards Steve O'Halloran