Food review by Mark Bradford and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran

Food

A sunny spring day accompanied the end of September with a highly anticipated and utterly splendid tasting of top tier Penfolds wines – in three brackets of three –throughout the lunch.  Our numbers, being capped, were fifty for the day.  Understandably, the focus was all on the wines, but immediate Past President and current acting Food Master, Bill Alexiou, stepped up to provide suitable fare to accompany the wines.

Entrée

Instead of standing glass in hand and enjoying canapés being passed around, we returned to the days of the pandemic restrictions and were seated – five tables of ten – for an entrée with the first wine bracket.  Bill served us a tasty three; cheese spanakopita of Feta, Parmesan and Tasty, with spinach, onion and parsley, wrapped in filo pastry.  Lovely flavours and an excellent accompaniment to the first bracket of chardonnays.

Main

Bill selected brisket to accompany the second wine bracket.  All 21 kgs of it was slow cooked for six hours.  The brisket was accompanied with a corn rib roasted with paprika, chilli and olive oil, as well as a creamy mashed potato and roasted carrots.  These were cooked in chicken stock, then tossed in a honey mustard dressing and roasted in jus.  Some members – including Bill – though the brisket to be a little dry, but it was a worthy accomplishment to the three reds.

Cheese

The final bracket needed an appropriate cheese for the three famous Penfolds Shiraz’s, and after some discussion, a Society favourite hard cheese was sourced by the Cheese Master.  Pyengana Traditional Clothbound Cheddar is handcrafted using the finest milk from the pure pastures of the Pyengana farm in north-eastern Tasmania.  Cheesemaking at Pyengana dates back to the 1890s, and the lush pastures provide a rich diet for the herd of Holstein cows that graze there. The introduction of milking robots reflects how the dairy has brought innovation and tradition together to create their award-winning farmhouse cheddar.  The cheese is produced using the stirred curd method, which develops a fine-textured, crumbly body along with aromas of summer grass, herbs and honey.  Maturation of up to twelve months on pine shelves encourages the natural microflora which play a crucial role in developing the long, sweet and nutty flavour.

Bill served poached figs in syrup and walnuts with the Pyengana.

Wine

Today we were treated to a superb collection of great Penfolds wines organised by Chilly Hargraves and Nick Reynolds. Sincere thanks to both for the time and effort required to put together a function of this kind. The afternoon was basically divided into three brackets of wine, with three wines in each bracket. We were really travelling in the silk purse division of the Penfolds stable. 

The wines were accompanied by a most impressive booklet put together by Penfolds, which was in itself a virtual thesaurus of how to describe what a particular wine tastes like. I will not attempt to go one better; I would soon run out of adjectives. Read the booklet to equip yourself with an array of terms of how a wine tastes, e.g. wet stone, gunflint and so on. Proceed further and you will be the star of any wine show! 

Dealing now with each bracket, I will not comment in detail on each wine, just those wines that appealed to me the most. In the Chardonnay department, by popular acclaim, the 2021 Bin A took all the accolades. A wonderful wine, near the top of the tree in Australian Chardonnay, tremendous depth of flavour, elegance, coupled with balanced power. A  joy to drink. The other two, the 2024 Bin 311 and the Bin 24 A, were both potentially excellent wines, but needed more time. All the required structures were there. 

The next bracket consisted of two Bin 389's, 2023 and 2012  and a Bin 407 2023. My pick of this lot was the 2012 St 389, now 13 yo, but drinking at or near its peak. A high proportion of Cabernet for a 389 (Cabernet 54%, Shiraz 46%). Great integration of oak, tannin, acid and fruit producing a wine of real character and style. Rich with hints of earth spice and cedar, it reminded you of what a really good aged Australian red wine tastes like. The other 389, the 2023 was in my view too young to enjoy now, tannic and acidic, but will, I am sure, develop well in the future.  The final wine in this bracket, the 2023 Bin 407 was for me a real surprise. I have avoided drinking 407 in the past as I have regarded it as the weak link in the Penfolds chain. It has never in the past shown any true Cabernet features, and was a wine lost between Shiraz and Cabernet and tasting like neither. However, today, much to my surprise, the 2023 407 burst out of the bottle with an abundance of Cabernet flavours and trademark deep berry fruit nose and taste.  Well done, Penfolds, you have saved Bin 407, at least for me!

The final bracket was the silk purse department of the Penfolds wines for today, two St Henri and a Grange. The St Henri were from 2010 and 2022, and the Grange was from 2021. 

My first choice of the two St Henri was the 2010. Now 15 yo but drinking superbly. Plush, rich with flavours of chocolate and dark cherry and traces of earthy spice. Everything balancing out to deliver a delightful, alluring finish. The other St Henri the 2022 was to me a bit too young to gain a proper insight into its structures. At this stage, the wine was a huge black thing, brimming with tannin and acid. Huge fruit. Needs much more time, but I am sure develop well. This is a wine for the future, not now. 

Final wine was the 2021 Grange, and this wine, along with the Bin 407, were the surprise packages of the day.  I think it is fair to say that, traditionally, drinking a Grange under 10 years of age would be severely frowned upon. Not so with this little baby! My first sip told me that this wine is almost drinkable NOW!  Could you believe it! I kid you not. Massive vibrant black fruit colour, brimming with plum, chocolate and liquorice hints, noticeable tannin and oak, but somehow not mouth puckering, and dare I say the wine is approachable now. Without doubt, the wine will improve with time to achieve its destined greatness, but somehow the wine makers at Penfolds have, through some process, produced a Grange that would be very drinkable in say 6 or 7 years post-vintage. Perhaps this is Penfolds attempt to cater to the market that is demanding red wines that do not have to be kept for a lifetime before they can show their real class. 

A great day all round. Makes you realise the value of membership of the WFS, special thanks to Chilly and Nick.