2018 Clunes Store and Cellars Chardonnay

The 2018 Clunes Store and Cellars Chardonnay looks like a cleanskin. But it is organic and biodynamic. It has sea salt in its perfume (I swear I can smell the sea in Clunes, on the rare occasion) and nut on the palate. This is a light-spirited wine for summer drinking … or warm, sunny days in winter. 

Morgan and Gill's 2017 Verdelho

Verdelho is an autumnal wine (besides, the two words are, for me, onomatopoeic). I know: we are now into the first month of winter! Drinking Verdelho is like drinking autumnal leaves: changing colour to flutter/fall. Traditionally, the Verdelho grape makes a textured wine of depth, something like a wooded Chardonnay.

When I talk about locabiber/local drinker, I should refer to the Northern Rivers Zone which has one region, the Hastings River, Port Macquarie. That's about 448 kms from Northern Rivers. But there are two other wine zones nearby. The Northern Slopes zone also has only one region, New England, 285 kms from us. Finally, there is the Granite Belt and South Burnett regions in the Queensland zone, 222 kms and 459 kms respectively from us. So I could say that when I drank a glass of Morgan and Gill's Verdelho in the Brisbane Playhouse recently, I was drinking locally. The two winemakers use grapes from South Burnett. They say on their website that this region 'has produced consistently excellent Verdelho'. And this one is excellent in its smooth, gold colour and apple, pear and ginger perfume and deep palate. 

Because I loved that Morgan and Gill Verdelho, I ordered two online for Christmas 2018, and discovered that the one I drank is the 2017. It is excellent in its  smooth, green-gold colour, with apple, pear and ginger in its perfume and on its deep, textured, mellifluousness. palate. The back palate may be a little tart but comes through also with lime sherbet. The 2018 is not as good, or not yet. There is pineapple/citrus in the perfume, but it is more tart in the palate, thinner and not as luscious.

 

 

smooth gold colour, and apple, pear and ginger in perfume and on the deep palate. You can order it online, for I haven't seen it 'locally' in any bottle shop.

smooth gold colour, and apple, pear and ginger in perfume and on the deep palate. You can order it online, for I haven't seen it 'locally' in any bottle shop.

smooth gold colour, and apple, pear and ginger in perfume and on the deep palate. You can order it online, for I haven't seen it 'locally' in any bottle shop.

smooth gold colour, and apple, pear and ginger in perfume and on the deep palate. You can order it online, for I haven't seen it 'locally' in any bottle shop.

smooth gold colour, and apple, pear and ginger in perfume and on the deep palate. You can order it online, for I haven't seen it 'locally' in any bottle shop.

Le Petite Mort Rosé

A Tenterfield Rosé: Le Petite Mort Rosé is blood red in colour, with a tinge of orange. It smells of smoky tomato with an orange edge, maybe even with some aniseed. On the palate it is possibly jubie-ish sweet, but not really. There is a sense of water, with further orange-tomato. It is possibly very good with food, like … veal and pork.

2016 Sirromet Vineyard Selection Granite Belt Pinot Gris

The 2016 Sirromet Vineyard Selection Granite Belt Pinot Gris, although blood red in colour, smells of burnt Turkish delight or roses and tastes of dry butterscotch with pepper and possibly geranium.

Tweed prawns, The Bay Seafood and self-seeding tomatoes

Tweed (NSW border with Queensland, Australia) king prawns from one of the best local fresh fish shops, if not the best, The Bay Seafood Market, Bryon Bay, were big, clean and smooth on the palate. Small, yellow tomatoes, possibly hybridised in our garden, counter-balance, in their sharpness, the sweetish prawns and the salty triple-cream brie.

Don’t you just love perennial vegetables or those that self-seed? Both kinds thwart eternal capitalist commodity consumption of new seed every season. Sterile seed is the formulation of a dark soul, is it not? Although the yellows crossing with the reds has meant, in our garden, all small tomatoes. But that hasn’t bothered me. I’ve just used the tiny red tomatoes whole, and more of them, replacing the normal slices.

Palate's bouillabaisse at Eat the Street, Lismore

Have you ever had a meal, or meals, you have never forgotten?

For me it was bouillabaisse and truite aux amandes, fish soup and trout with almonds, in France in the 1970s. I have been searching for bouillabaisse ever since, as you do, coming upon the best once in Darlinghurst/Surrey Hills, Sydney.

But I also slurped down a yummy one at Eat the Street Lismore this year, from Palate, with prawns, fish, mussels and more, in a dense, aromatic, brown liquid. When I returned from France, I think I deliberately sought out fresh-water trout, although never making it with almonds. It’s a delicious fish, turning dusky pink when baked, and easy enough to get in Adelaide, but harder here on the North Coast. Our snapper, barramundi and whiting, however, are just-fine substitutes.

Pears and mangoes

Are pears and mangoes an unexpected combination? Though unexpected for me, it proved surprisingly apt. The mangoes highlighted the lemon taste of pears, and the pears the coconut taste of mangoes. Hence, the combo comes up with lemon coconut, that irresistible flavour of icing that makes deliciousness of a plain cake.