L27 A Food Tour Of Nepal

30 members came together to enjoy a taste of Nepal, put on by our very talented sous-chef Madan & the team in the REX kitchen.

Food report by James Hill

We had our talented kitchen team cooking for us today with Medan ,our sous chef, producing a Nepalese meal based on Newari cooking of Kathmandu Valley.

Canapés 

BBQ Prawn  —  served with Nepalese-style mint achar (pickle).
The prawns were marinated in ginger and garlic for twenty four hours and then char grilled.

Kukhura Ko Jhol  —  spiced chicken soup made with chicken bones stock
coriander,cinnamon,hot oil and cumin.

Haas Ko Choila  —  char-grilled duck, marinated in Nepalese spice, a Newari specialty. The duck was marinated in ginger,garlic, tempered mustard and scallionsand wrapped with Chinese duck pancake.

Mains

Aloo Tama  —  potato and bamboo shoot curry soup made with yellow onion,tomatoes,cumin coriander and chicken stock.

Chicken Thigh  —  Nepalese style marinated in ginger garlic paste
Served with basmati rice,daikon radish and cucumber. The chicken was moist and tender with a crispy skin finish.

The ‘soup’ was served separately to the chicken and rice and we had to pour it over our meal.It looked great,glossy and inviting ,with a lovely depth of flavour with the right balance of spice and heat.
All the food presented to day was very favourably commented on and appreciated by members attending today, high quality, deliciously flavoured and perfectly executed.

Cheese

Our cheese master, Mark Bradford selected a white mould goat’s cheese from France ‘Buche De Lucay’.
It came to the table in perfect condition and a good match for wines on offer.

P.Jacquin et fils produce traditional style goats milk cheeses in the Loire region of western France.  This typical, french log-shaped cheese takes its name from nearby Lucay-le-Male. Fresh salted curds are covered with p.candidum and ripened in humid rooms to encourage the moulds to form a velvety white coat.

Wine report by Stephen O'Halloran

A decent roll up participated in an outstanding Nepalese banquet put on by the very talented REX kitchen team of Amosh & Madan. The Canapes were delicious & the Chicken Main was superb. See food report for full details.

Wine 1 – Minaia Gavi 2021 @ 13%
Wine 2 – Gunderloch Riesling 2021 @ 11.5%
Wine 3 – Castellania Barbera 2010 @ 14.5%
Wine 4 – Magella Coonawarra Cabernet 2004 @ 14.5%
Wine 5 – Mildara Coonawarra Cabernet 2012 @ 14%

Wine wise, we got the party started with one of my favourites the Minaia Gavi 2021 @ 13%. A wine from the Piedmont region made from the Cortese grape. A very popular wine in Italy, for good reason. Quite acidic on the first taste, but dry & mouth filling with high quality fruit. Rich flavours of apple & citrus fruits. Perfect wine for the Canapes. Sadly, our last bottles for a while.

First wine for lunch was the Gunderloch Riesling 2021 @ 11.5%. Crystal clear, a delicious quality Riesling, from the home of Riesling. This wine from the Rhinehessin region was a delight. Gleaming gold in colour, crisp on the palate but dry & full of flavour. A slight hint of residual sugar as one would expect, but overall a lovely wine.

Wine 2 was the Castellania Barbera 2010. 14.5%. A 16 yo wine which may have proved a bridge too far for a Barbera. A mid weight wine, traces of red berry fruits such as cherry, raspberry & strawberry. Juicy flavours on the mid palate with the acid still just hanging in there. I thought it was a perfect lunch wine with it's lightish structure & still plenty of flavour. Maybe drunk a few years after it's prime.

Wine 3 was the Magella Coonawarra Cabernet 2004 @ 14.5%. A vineyard with a very long history in that area, producing some high quality Cabernet in good years. Today the wine presented as a big, opaque wine, full bodied with lots of Cabernet flavours. Some signs of ageing with acid diminishing, but still very drinkable. Tannin & oak balancing out equally leading to an enjoyable finish, still retaining it's deep black fruit flavours of that grape. 2004 was a top year in Coonawarra & at 22 yo the wine is still doing well, but I would have preferred to have drunk it in say 2020.

Final wine of the day was the 2012 Mildara Coonawarra Cabernet @ 14%. This was a lovely wine. Great to see one of our most prestigious labels back in action.

In prior years this was one of our most sought after red wines especially in the 60 ' & 70 's. Any self respecting wine lover would have a few bottles of this wine in his cellar. This was the wine that gained enormous fame from it's famous " Peppermint Pattie ", a 1963 Cabernet, a truly unique wine which I was fortunate enough to taste many years ago.

Sadly, the brand became lost in the storm of takeovers & mergers during the 80's & 90's & it virtually disappeared for years eventually reappearing in the Treasury Wine Estates portfolio some years ago. In any event the wine today was in my view first class. Considerably more elegant than the Magella, but still showing strong cabernet indicators. A medium weight wine, deep garnet red & showing lots of blackberry, mulberry & plumb tastes, & was that a hint of mint I detected? Ah the memories!

Now at 14 yo, fully developed with plenty of time ahead, but don't keep it for too long!. Thanks for the memories.

My wine of the day? You guessed it. The Mildara. I plead guilty to being a sentimentalist.