L26 Basque Flavours Meet Cabernet Excellence
A sunny winter's day welcomed 37 attendees to our July wine lunch, with Mark Bradford back in the kitchen for the cohort. The same dish earned him a place in the running for COTY last time—can he do it again?
Our Wine Master, Nick Reynolds, certainly delivered some quality 'oldies' to accompany the food, with a stellar line-up of Australian Cabernets going head-to-head with their French counterparts.
Food report by Mark Bradford
Matt Holmes, Craig Smith and Fabian Dwyer assisted with canapés, with some wonderful Cabernets presented to accompany the lunch.
Canapés
These were in abundance.
Matt served us smoked trout on blinis, with sour cream and a garnish of capers, dill and diced onion.
Craig provided balsamic, onion and goat's cheese tarts. These had a baked puff pastry base with a topping of butter, sliced onion, thyme and sugar, then were garnished with additional thyme and EVOO.
Fabian presented colourful Caprese skewers, garnished with a high-quality balsamic drizzle.
Some Basque pintxos – Gildas – rounded off the pass-arounds.
Main
To accompany the Cabernets, the chef of the day cooked Basque-style lamb stew.
This was a rolled lamb shoulder, diced and marinated overnight in Chardonnay, garlic and rosemary. After drying, the lamb was braised and then cooked in a stew of sautéed onions and garlic, chopped, skinned, trussed tomatoes, sweet paprika, parsley, roasted capsicum, Cabernet, bay leaves, chicken stock and white radish (daikon) for 3 to 4 hours until tender.
The meat was accompanied by yellow onion rice, featuring long-grain white rice absorption-cooked in chicken stock with turmeric, butter and onion powder. A green pea and mint purée, strained to remove the roughage, also accompanied the lamb.
Cheese
The Cheese Master selected a Merco Iberico for the lunch, nominally 50 per cent cow's milk, rounded off with half goat's and half ewe's curds. This hard, blended-milk cheese is typical of those once traditionally found in many parts of Spain, where mixed herds of dairy animals were common and the ratios of milk types used in cheesemaking constantly altered according to seasonal availability. The cows' milk provides the volume, goats' milk gives the cheese a white colour and lingering piquancy, whilst the use of ewe's milk provides a rich, buttery texture. Iberico is commonly found all over Spain today.
The cheese was accompanied by Bengali rusk biscuits and honey to offset the piquant fromage.
Wine report by Stephen O'Halloran
Today was one of those special days when being a member of our Society really pays dividends!
The format for the day was a comparison of three top Australian Cabernets from the 1991, 1996 and 2002 vintages. The three French wines were from Bordeaux, all from the famous 2000 vintage, which many regard as one of the best vintages since the famous '82.
For the purposes of my report, I will depart from my usual practice of detailed assessments of each wine and will provide an overall summary of each region's wines.
Before I start, I should mention that with our delicious canapés we had a 2019 Tyrrell's HVD Semillon, which I thought was quite acceptable. However, when pouring the wine for members before lunch, I received some adverse comments. Perhaps we have some fussy drinkers. See the food report for details of our lunch.
On now to the comparison tasting. One of the early comments from the room crystallised the comparison: flavour vs elegance and structure. A worthy comment.
Dealing with the Australian contingent, the standout was the Seppelt Barossa Dorrien Vineyard Cabernet 1991. Put simply, a wonderful wine. Now at 35 years old, the wine was superb: vibrant, dark crimson, with powerful, sweet, chewy flavours of quality fruit. Tannins and oak combined perfectly to deliver a memorable, lingering finish. A real treat. A rich and intense wine.
Second Australian was the Yeringberg 1996 Cabernet from the Yarra Valley. A blend of the five classic grape varieties of Bordeaux reds. Lightish in colour with medium to light structure, this was a very elegant wine with strong hints of dark berry fruit, cedar and earthy overtones. Needs time in the glass.
Third Australian was the Penfolds Bin 407 2002, a straight Cabernet from the Barossa and McLaren Vale at 14.5%. I have often regarded 407 as my least favourite Penfolds red, as to me the wine has always been dull, opaque and unyielding. This continued today until the wine had been in my glass for at least 1.5 hours. At that time, the wine began to show some typical Cabernet indicators such as blackcurrant, mint, cedar and leather. Quite a recovery from a poor start.
Now for the French contingent. All of these wines were at 13%. The Australian wines ranged from about 13% to 14.5%.
First of the French was Château Talbot, a Fourth Growth from St Julien, one of the most respected regions in Bordeaux. A medium-bodied wine, mostly Cabernet, with that intoxicating Bordeaux aroma of cigar box, cedar and leather. God, how I love that unique smell of quality Bordeaux. I think sometimes I would be happy just to smell that aroma and not taste the wine! A graceful wine, with wonderful structure between oak, tannin and acid; it just wants to go on forever! Loved it.
Next was the Clos du Marquis, another St Julien wine. Mainly Cabernet with a hefty slug of Merlot (24%). Mid-garnet colour, redolent with the aromas of Bordeaux Cabernet, cassis, tobacco, cedar, leather and plum. Smooth tannins, with a velvety final taste leading to an alluring finish.
Last of the French was probably the best, the Ch Puy - Lacoste, a Fifth Growth from the Pauillac region, regarded as the pick of Bordeaux. Again, mainly Cabernet, but with a generous slug of Merlot (20%). Once again, medium-bodied and balanced, with an exquisite taste of cherry, leather and cedar. Does it get any better? Now a delight to drink, with no sign of ageing, and indeed all of the French wines have the key elements to continue as superb drinking for another 10 to 20 years at least.
So, after this awesome collection of fine wine, how do we emerge? It is, I think, a matter of personal choice. Powerful flavours from Australia against restrained elegance from the French. I feel that in 20 years' time the French will still be superb, whereas our wines will have long peaked some years previously.
My overall review: the star of the show today was the Dorrien. Silver medallist was the Puy-Lacoste.
Final comment: sincere thanks to Nick Reynolds for putting all this together, and to Greg Chugg, who had the foresight years ago to purchase these outstanding Bordeaux wines.
New Members Introduced
We also had the pleasure of introducing three new Society members to those attending the lunch.
- Gary Edgar – Chemical Engineer – Proposed by Terry Johnston
- David Weisbach – Software Engineer – Proposed by James Hill
- Jordan Muskitta – Software Analyst – Proposed by Julian Parmegiani
Please take the opportunity to welcome our new members when you see them at future lunches.
