Vol 1, No. 15 - November
Slow Boat to Trentham...Sensational is the only way to describe our relaxing Sunday afternoon river cruise and winery tour at Trentham Estate!! Our boat, Riverqueen Voyager was the perfect way to get to the winery with an air conditioned cabin, lounges, kitchen, front and back decks and roof top seating. It was total luxury and we all lapped it up. As we made our way we waved to the poor people on the banks and could tell by the sad looks on their faces that they wanted to live the high life as well! The day was well lubricated with such beverages as CUBs newie Pure Blonde, a low carb beer that was very well received by all the gym junkies (!) on board, and how many jokes can you make about a beers name! As well there was a Brazilian beer, A Marca Bravara, which also got a lot of attention and helped break the ice, which was pretty thin anyway. Thanks to Mark Bowering for providing a couple for bottles of his big ballsy Brockville 02 Cab Sav, with more than a couple of tasters saying its definitely a food wine, so big was its structure, flavour and unique varietal character. The women (and men) loved the Dusk, Killawarra’s new strawberry fizz; it certainly got everyone into the party mood which was the order of the day. And by the time we got to Trentham I had to strong arm a few people off the boat for the winery tour! Anthony Murphy was our tour guide and noone knows the winery better than him, as he is the Big Kahuna (head wine maker). We were given tank samples of his 04Viognier and Chardonnay, delicious, from the cool of the tank shed, and we all learnt an interesting thing or two about the process. He then led us into the bowels of the winery and the cask cellar which was so cool and had that lovely woody winery smell, where with a couple of fell swoops of his valance, our glasses were filled with his latest Petit Verdot straight from the hogshead, and if that wasn’t a delicious enough mouthful, we were then treated to his new wine, the big savoury Tannat. This is a new variety in Aust, with a lot of promise and we all agreed. Then it was off to the glorious lawns overlooking the Murray, where Anthony had set up more tastings, and the absolute highlight being a vertical tasting of his Noble Tamingas, starting at 1991 right thru to 03. It had everyone talking and sipping their way through the line up to find their favourite years. His 2001 Noble Taminga (having blown DeBortolli Noble 1 away at a recent wine show) was a crowd favourite, for good reason. Anthony’s generosity didn’t end there, with a click of his fingers waiting staff swarmed the lawn and laid out beautiful Italian and French Antipasto platters for us to tuck into, the consensus was , bloody beautiful! We could have stayed into the night but with babysitters counting the minutes we had to make a move. With a rousing thank you to Anthony Murphy for his time and generosity I gestured everyone to the boat. So with some more strong arm tactics and promises of more loud mouth soup, I managed to corral everyone onto the boat, nearly loosing one into the river!! We set off back to town for a trip that included more wine and beer appreciation, more laughs and a spot of singing and jiving. We really didn’t want the trip to end, but as Wayne gently bought the Voyager in for an impossibly soft berth, it was time to disembark.But at least we the have memories of such a terrific afternoon with new friendships and stories to make our work mates jealous as hell. Only trouble is the bench has been set so high now I don’t know what to do next! Many thanks also to you wine club members that came and joined in the fun! I hope you enjoyed it as much as Kath and I. DrunkBrown Brothers Cienna You gotta hand it to the Brothers Brown, they are the masters of niche marketing and more to the point creating a wine noone has heard of before and making it a household name. Tarrango, Dolcetto and Syrah and Orange Muscat and Flora just to name a few. Their latest wine is, once again, the only one of its type in the mainstream market place and aimed squarely at the first time red wine drinker who is moving away from the ready to drink market ( UDL, Cruisers, etc) and needs a soft sweet introduction to grown ups drinks. The wine has the most remarkable colour, vibrant bright
beetroot purply red; it looks quite unreal in the glass. With a very
inviting nose of cherries and fresh berry fruit, the taste is one
of very sweet fruit with spritzig on the tongue. It’s the type
of wine you have on hand for when Great Aunt Mavis drops in, or for
when your son brings home his latest 18yo floozy for christmas lunch,
should hit the spot perfectly! A great standby wine for only $11.95. FoodFrittata
Feasting on Antipasto the other day at Trentham made me think of frittata, one of my favorites for a nibbles platter any time of the day, anywhere. It’s a pretty easy recipe and you can use just about any ingredients once you have mastered the basic technique. A solid cast iron frying pan that can be put in the oven is required, but if you haven’t one of those, you can finish it off in a baking tray in the oven. Serves 4 6 eggs 1 red capsicum, seeded and cut into 2cm cubes 1 green capsicum, same 1 onion, same again 2 potatoes peeled and cut into small cubes 2 cloves garlic finely chopped ½ cup grated parmesan salt and pepper to taste olive oil
Heat oven to 160. Heat the frying pan with some oil, pat dry the potatoes and place in the hot oil making sure you don’t lose heat; we don’t want to stew the spuds. Fry the potato turning with an egg flip until golden. Tilt the pan to drain the oil to the bottom and remove the spuds, put aside. Repeat with the other veg until all of it has been sautéed. In a mixing bowl crack the eggs and mix with a bit of salt and pepper, add the parmesan and then the veg. Make sure the frying pan is hot with oil in it and pour all of the mix back into it, turn heat on low for a few minutes and then place the whole thing into the oven. (If using a baking tray spray the tray with oil, pour the egg mix in and place in the oven.) In both instances you don’t want to cook it at too high a heat or air pockets will develop and the texture won’t be the same. So when you have determined its cooked through( feel for any softness, if its soft and flabby feeling leave in the oven until it feels firm) carefully take from the oven and let cool slightly before turning out onto a cutting board. Let cool some more before serving with a rocket salad as an entree
or on an Antipasto platter. Delicious! TastingWOODSTOCK WINERY McLaren Vale Don’t miss this very interesting tasting of these McLaren Vale stalwarts at the tasting area 4.30 till 7.30pm Friday afternoon. The winner of last weeks tasting prize was John Foster,
congrats John you have won a nice bottle of Pennyfields wine.
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