‘Tis the season to be jolly.
Make that jolly good eating; jolly good drinking; jolly good fun.
Indeed, given the dislocation to normal life we’ve experienced during the past nine months, fun ought to be the centrepiece of our festive celebrations this year.
You don’t need 15 rules on matching food and wine. Eat and drink whatever you like.
Fancy a few festive tips?
Sparkling Rosé. Image courtesy kaboompics.
Choose your food and wine to match the occasion and the amount of time that’s available. If your seasonal meal is likely to be a large or raucous affair, its casual nature will give you licence to serve food and wine of a similarly casual nature. Leave your 98-point wines in the cellar. Pour something guests are likely to enjoy without being obliged to perform handstands in response to your generosity.
If guests are few, and the atmosphere intimate, a degustation is a neat idea. Offering little tastes of various foods and wines can be fun and relaxing, especially if it’s managed over a couple of hours.
If time or money is tight, make one dish or wine the feature of your day. Decide beforehand if it’s the food or the wine that’s on show. Want to serve a lavish dish that’s really complex in its preparation? Partner it with something reliable, to perform a supporting role rather than that of a cameo or leading player.
If opening special bottles, choose wine-friendly foods.
Avoid dishes with excessive heat or spice, and those laced with vinegar or sugar. Match the weight or intensity of flavour in a food dish with a wine of similar weight or intensity.
Nude foods and simple dishes made from quality fresh ingredients can provide the perfect foil for interesting, left-field dry whites like Arneis, Grüner Veltliner and Savagnin. Conversely, rich trifles and hefty Christmas cakes and puddings are best left to the fortified wine delights of North-east Victoria.
If there’s one wine style that can be poured and enjoyed from the moment guests arrive until they finally leave, it’s sparkling wine.
Tyson Stelzer. Image supplied.
Freshly shucked Tasmanian oysters make perfect partners for top-notch sparkling. Bottles labelled Blanc de Blancs – especially those from Pipers River or Pipers Brook – will have been lovingly crafted from Chardonnay that’s well suited to showcasing the minerality of our world class seafood.
Writing in his 2020 Australian Sparkling Wine Report eBook, Champagne and sparkling wine expert Tyson Stelzer gives high praise to this state’s ultra-fine fizz.
“Tasmania has shone as Australia’s effervescent sparkling state again, topping the charts by every measure,” Stelzer concluded on tasting 240 Australian wines for his annual report.
“Its top estates have ascended to a new level of finesse, thanks to the release of their finest cuvées yet, achieving a standard above every other sparkling region outside Champagne itself.”
Young Riesling offers another safe choice for oysters and similar tasty morsels from the sea.
“The citrus acidity in the wine is like squeezing fresh lemon juice on the oyster, enhancing its natural briny flavour,” says Rebecca Duffy from Holm Oak.
Rebecca Duffy. Image courtesy Chris Crerar.
Young Sauvignon Blanc and crisp dry whites like Arneis and Pinot Grigio may also work well. If fresh Tasmanian scallops are likely to be on the menu, try a fuller-bodied Pinot Gris.
“The slightly oily texture of Gris matches well with the silky texture of the scallops, whilst the acidity of the wine adds some freshness and zing,” Duffy adds.
If your shellfish, scale fish, white meat or veal is to be served with a butter or cream sauce, choose a medium-bodied Chardonnay to pour with it. Simple pan-fried or baked fish or poultry will be better suited to a crisp, more delicate Chardonnay.
“If it has feathers, it probably goes well with Pinot Noir,” says Tasmanian Wine Show chair of judges, Huon Hooke.
Whether your feathered friend be chicken, turkey, duck, pheasant, pigeon or quail, it matters not, according to the Sydneysider.
“Pinot Noir is arguably the most adaptable red wine of all with food,” he notes.
“Its light to medium bodyweight and light, soft tannins make it compatible with most medium to full-flavoured savoury foods.”
Hooke suggests serving light-bodied Pinot Noir for lighter meats like chicken. Fuller-bodied wines suit birds and red meats with darker coloured flesh, along with venison.
“Red wine and cheese are not natural partners,” says Nick Haddow, cheesemaker at Bruny Island Cheese Company.
“I know that is going to be hard for some to get their heads around (especially some of my winemaking mates), but there, I’ve said it.”
As the award-winning author of Milk. Made. A Book About Cheese (Hardie Grant Egmont), Haddow notes that tannins and astringency are public enemy number one to most cheeses. That applies to both white and red wines.
“Wines with softer structures or those that have been bottle aged will nearly always work better,” he adds.
“(But) if there was ever an all-round, go-to drink that both complements and contrasts with cheese, it is beer.”
That’s Christmas for you. Eat and drink whatever you like.
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Vineyards in the limelight
It’s been 14 years since Melbourne wine communicator Rory Kent founded Australia’s Young Gun of Wine Award, to showcase the quality handiwork of this country’s young and emerging wine labels and their makers.
Among the Top 50 Winemakers nominated in the 2020 awards earlier this year were seven from Tasmanian wine companies. They were: James Broinowski (Small Island Wines); Greer Carland (Quiet Mutiny); Ricky Evans (Two Tonne Tasmania); Jonny Hughes (Mewstone Wines); Gilli and Paul Lipscombe (Sailor Seeks Horse); Hugh McCullough (Wellington & Wolfe).
It was an incredible achievement for Tasmania’s small scale wine industry. Our winemakers produce just one percent of Australia’s total wine production yet received 12 percent of the nominations in the nationwide competition.
Now Tasmania’s growers and viticulturists look set to receive their share of the limelight with the names of the 50 finalists being revealed this week in the inaugural Young Gun of Wine Vineyard of the Year awards.
The list includes Andrew Jones and Marty Smith (Invercarron Wines, Jordan River Valley), Ben Pietsch (Kayena Vineyard, Tamar Valley), Gerald Ellis (Meadowbank Wines, Derwent Valley) and Luke Andree (Mewstone Wines, Huon/Channel).
Meadowbank Vineyard. Image supplied.
Five highly respected experts on agronomy, viticulture and sustainability were engaged by the organisers to assist leading wine writer Max Allen determine the shortlist.
From a potential pool of 6,000 grape growers nationwide, 22 nominees were selected from South Australian vineyards, 15 from Victoria, five from Western Australia, and four each from New South Wales/ACT and Tasmania.
“It’s an incredibly exciting field, and it’s time the growers – whether they’re making their own wine or selling the fruit – were recognised,” said an award spokesperson.
“The intention of the awards is to shine a light on our best vineyards and give a voice to our best grape growers.”
Six judging criteria will be used to determine the winners announced in February 2021. Award trophies span four separate categories.
Watch this space for further news.
Hobart’s Mark Smith wrote his first weekly wine column back in 1994. Now more than 1700 features and 25 years later, he continues to chart the successes of Tasmania’s small scale, cool climate wine industry with regular contributions to some of Australia’s leading industry publications.
PICK OF THE CROP
Mark gives you his honest opinions about the best wines available right now from Tasmania’s wine makers.
NV Riversdale Estate Crux $38
Riversdale Estate is a hidden gem in the Coal River Valley. Its vineyard and cellar door lie between the University of Tasmania’s radio telescope observatory and Pitt Water, thereby out of view of passing traffic on Richmond Road. Family-owned and operated, the site has been a star performer with barrel-fermented Crater Chardonnay. The variety makes a significant contribution to the focus and length of this soft and beautifully rounded sparkling. It’s not sweet but the combination of lees ageing and bottle maturation help make this a crowd-pleasing wine at a very reasonable price. www.riversdaleestate.com.au
2019 Two Tonne Tasmania MVT Riesling $30
Since launching his business in 2013 with the mantra ‘small parcels, big love,’ Ricky Evans is one of Tasmania’s quiet achievers. The former Bay of Fires winemaker sets high standards for products bearing his distinctive TTT labels. The name references production volumes limited to two tonnes of grapes. This smart Riesling was sourced from sites in the Tamar Valley, one of the State’s best sub-regions for the variety. Its floral citrus notes have an engaging ginger spice element. Then comes a lovely even palate of citrus flavours supported by subtle sweetness. Discrete and elegant.
2020 Invercarron Pinot Gris $29
Andrew Jones built a successful career in the travel industry before turning his sights on Tasmanian viticulture. Since establishing Invercarron in the picturesque Jordan Valley, outside Hobart, Jones appears determined to create stylish, cool climate wines that are appropriately high-flying. His first Pinot Noir was one of seven gold medal winners among 130-plus entries in November’s Royal Hobart Wine Show. This generous, well-crafted Gris opens to a very pale blush hue before offering a vast array of aromas and flavours. Poached rhubarb, white peach, spicy pear and quince – it’s a smooth wild ride. www.invercarron.com.au
2019 Pembroke Estate Pinot Noir $65
An anniversary tasting in September lifted the lid on 30 years of Pembroke Pinot production in Tasmania’s warm, dry Coal River Valley. It revealed an unmistakeable lesson in consistency of style and quality from this tiny Cambridge vineyard. Vintage variation aside, contract winemakers Frogmore Creek have never failed to deliver the Hawker and McKay families attractive wines with abundant colour and richness. The 2019 is a cracker. Its black cherry and subtle plum elements typify the Pinots from this part of the world. Drink or keep, the tannins are fine and supple whatever you decide. www.pembrokeestate.com
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