When Good Neighbours Become Good Friends

Almost everyone loves a good wine and cheese session. And yet sometimes you wonder whether you got it right. Was it great? Was it what you were hoping for? Rarely.

Unlike matching wine with a dish; neither the wine nor the cheese can be adjusted to make the perfect match. And I mean perfect, not close, not pretty good - I mean perfect. Fine dining perfect.

So now we get complicated, because there is no way that you are going to open every bottle in the cellar to find that match that is cheese heaven. A good place to start is to look at traditional regions that have been pairing their cheese and wine together for what would appear to be the dawn of time. Usually white mould cheeses like the Ile-de-France Brie are matched with bubbles from the neighbouring Champagne for that perfect match. English Apple Ciders with musty, cloth wrapped Cheddars usually do the trick too.

Lincet Delice de Bourgogne

Saturday was the day to do a bit of wine and cheese matching with the gang at McWilliams Mt Pleasant in the Hunter Valley and we dragged out a range of bubbles from Europe to try with a fun triple cream; the Lincet Delice de Bourgogne. The bubbles to go up against it were Serafini & Vidotto Prosecco, Champagne Taitinger and Soleil Cremant de Bourgogne.

Lincet Delice is not your typical Aussie triple cream full of butter and fat on the pallet. Delice is made tall and maturation is slow. The result is that the edges soften with creamy notes and the centre stays firm, with bright acidity to find the balance. If you wait for the cheese to soften all the way to the centre, you are going to get disappointed. In the time it takes to fully mature, the rind will be funky and full of ammonia and bitterness. The best tip is to look for fully white mould and not wrapped in plastic because this will add to sweating and the mould will keep making the ammonia.

The cheese I bought for the tasting was cut off a fresh wheel so it was in perfect condition for matching with bubbles. McWilliams are the importers of Champagne Taittinger so these guys are huge Champagne fiends and no complaints from me. The desire to hook into the cheese and champagne was high on the agenda, but disappointment quickly sunk in. The tight acid structure of the Champagne just drew out ammonia from the mould rind and what a clash. Harsh astringent bitterness.

The Prosecco did the same thing. Big tight acid structures did nothing for the creamy triple cream. Now the tasting crew had looked at the bubbles first and of course the Champagne Taittinger had got some deep and adoring love, with the Soliel Cremant lagging at the end of the favoured list. Easy drinking for sure, with a dense foam but no way was it going to match food, especially a creamy triple cream. This is where good neighbours became good friends...

Soliel Cremant a 50% Chardonnay 50% Pinot Noir comes from a number of Burgundy regions including Auxerre, which is also the home of Fromagerie Lincet. It doesn't take long reading Lincet's web page to see how much they love the cheese and wine match http://www.fromagerie-lincet.net/an/index.asp .

Did it match? Well yeah! The light acid pallet of the Cremant drew out the creaminess of the Delice with no arguments on the tongue anywhere to be found. The green apple hints of the Cremant lifted to balance. Delicous and satisfying, the McWilliams crew didn't want to go back to work - mission accomplished.

Let me know what your favourite wine and cheese match. Always happy to do a test run.

Creamy Blue's Hit The Spot

Blue Vein is a pretty polarising cheese. Like Angelina Jolie to some, running your fingers down a black board for others. It usually takes time, patients and little bit of subliminal dirty work from a friend to introduce blue vein styles to the unsuspecting.

I normally like to sneak blue cheeses in somewhere, like a salad; unseen, unknowing and slowly but surely BAM! you've got 'em: hopefully.  But it does take practice.

No one would expect to jump into a Barrossa Shiraz when normally all they drink is Moscato. Find the place and find the time. A nice crusty bread and a smooth Muscat to round off the edges will hit the spot.

Saint Agur, made by the French dairy giant Bongrain is not likely to be one of those cheeses that is made for your newbie. This is for the keen foodie ready to take a step up from the simple creamy cheeses to something special without trekking all the way to the peak of cheeses like Roquefort. A double cream style, the creaminess of the cheese rounds out the pepper hot notes and leaves a sweet but pecant length that will hang around for ever.

Being a French cheese there is always advertising: didn't know cheese was an aphrodisiac, but check this TV ad out;

Regional Heroes



Peter Howard



Recently I wrote about Rick Bakas who is one of  the new social media heroes. While it's fun to talk about the latest new hero, it is less frequent to celebrate those that have come before us - quite an Australian thing to do really.  When I think hero I don't look to the TV, I look to the hard workers behind the scences: Peter Howard and Alison Alexander.

Peter has been a great champion of food and wine for decades, running cafes, catering companies and even an impressive stint as TV celebrity chef for the 'Today' morning show during the 80's. But it's Peter's involvement in education that has been his enduring contribution to the Australian industry.

Alison Alexander

In the 70's Peter was a teacher at the North Ryde TAFE and has generated an enormous catalogue of text books and consumer cooking books to inspire and encourage hands-on participation. After 30 years of TV, exhibitions and food shows Peter is finally retiring. It seems impossible to me to have a food or wine show without Peter. After all Peter gave me my first medal back in 2002 at the Australian Specialty Cheese Show and he has been there ever since.

 

I love characters like Julia Child's; brave forerunners of the crowd. Alison Alexander, a champion of Queensland food, is one of these forerunners.

 

She has done everything in food and relentlessly cajoles government to support regional food and wine: and succeeds. A tireless leader, I love how strong she is both professionally and personally. She challenges others to be that committed to excellence as well, and often fills me with fear if I don't meet the mark. Alison's most notable leadership is in the production of the Queensland Masterclass now in it's 15th year. Most importantly though, she tried my very first batch of cheese before anyone else(nearly s**t myself that day).

 

 

After being in the business for 20 years, do I have another 20 years in me - hope so, good examples have been set.

PS: Alison is pictured with me in the Masthea. This photo was taken at the Royal Brisbane Show in 2007
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Don't Buy Cheese. Acquire Bloody Great Cheese

This is an article written by a great Brisbane food writer Natasha Mirosch. http://blogs.news.com.au/couriermail/food/

If you bought a stereo system from Big W you wouldn’t expect it to perform like a Bose. Yet, when it comes to food, we seem to want an awful lot of bang for our buck and balk at paying ‘high’ prices. But like the Bose stereo, if you pay extra for craftsmanship you get better results.

As I learn more about food production, I’m overcome with admiration at some of the people in an industry where it must be very tempting to sell out to mass production, but who choose a different path.

I recently had lunch with Herve Bourgeois who is the export director of Papillon, one of the bigger Roquefort producers in France. Roquefort, as cheese lovers will know, was only allowed back into this country in 2005, following a blanket ban on the importation of unpasturised cheeses in this country.

I knew nothing about how it was made, apart from a vague notion it was aged in caves.

That’s only a small bit of a fascinating story as told to me my M. Bourgeois.

Roquefort is made from ewes milk. Specifically red Lacaune ewes. Papillon have their farmers whose sheep are pastured at at altitudes of 750 and 1100 metres where the best grass is. The milk, which is not pasturised is delivered within hours of milking and it processed to curd. It’s not a pressed curd cheesbe but the curds are allowed to remain loose and aerated which allows the mould to grow. It is turned frequently to get rid of the moisture.

Then the mould Penicillium Roqueforti that gives the cheese it’s blue hue and bitey flavour is introduced.

Incredibly, this is caught wild in the following way according to M. Bourgeois; Papillon have their own bakery, the purpose of which is to bake the bread with which to catch the penicillium. It’s not just a matter of throwing together some dough though-the bread is made from organic rye flour, made from grains grown grown on acidic terrain at 1000 metres altitude where all chemical fertilisers are prohibited.

The bread is baked, M. Bourgeois tells me when there is the ‘moon of a mushroom’. ie a full moon at which time mushrooms and other funghi are said to come up. Once baked, the bread is put into empty caves where it stays for 70 days. By which time, M. Bourgeois says  it is ‘like a piece of graphite’.  This is sprinkled on top of the cheese which is then salted with organic rock salt and pierced with needles 24 times to allow airflow and presumably for the penicillin to penetrate.

The caves, which are laval and have natural faultlines which admit air are a steady 7 degrees with 100% humidity. The cheese stays in the caves for between 17and 31 days for the mould to ‘bloom’ and reach all the way from the centre to the edges of the cheese. It’s then wrapped in tin foil to stop a rind forming and put into a second cave for between 5-8 months.

All processes of the production are organic says M. Bourgeois and has been so since 1976, when ‘’hippies’’ moved into the Roquefort and started producing milk without the use of any chemicals.

Roquefort is was given an appellation d’origine contrôlée’ label in 1925 and among other stipulations can only be made from the milk of sheep that graze in a designated area centered around the village of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, and must be aged in the natural caves near the village.  All Roquefort has a ``red ewe’ symbol on it to indicate its authenticity.

So, next time you go to the deli and have a little whinge to yourself about the price of cheese, just think about exactly what’s gone into it. Or else go get some cheap Woolies brie and be done with it. 

Crusty Old Wine.

Modern winemaking techniques and economic pressures normally mean that most wines we see in the local bottlo tend to be out of balance.

Horror! Most wine makers will seriously get cranky with me but give some of these over tannic monsters time to settle will show a soft and delicate pussy cat. And so why do we put up with this situation?

Alas it is pure economics with most winemakers and retailers looking for cash, turning over stock. For those with the patients and good cellars will know the joy of balanced elegant wines.

Today I had the pleasure of tasting 3 great old Hunter reds from the icons; Tyrells and MtPleasant. Not the big fruit bombs of the Barossa, just fine elegance.

Food & Wine - The Newish Frontier

Regional food heroes are latest new thing! Yes I know of course they aren't, but the increasing ability to communicate with new international audiences means your star has the chance to shine very bright indeed.

One of the brightest stars is Rick Bakas. A US blogger, tweeter and online doco producer. Rick is in Australia for the next 2 weeks and has set a furious pace to pack in as many Australian wine destinations as possible.
                                          This is Rick pictured with MtPleasant winemaker Scott McWilliam

I had the pleasure of having lunch with Rick today and he is delightful company, as well as a foodie with enormous experience. Check out his blog at http://rickbakas.com/

This is my current favourite article which I am likely to less eloquently convert to a Hunter related article.
http://rickbakas.com/7-things-to-look-for-in-wine

Pancake Day

Pancake Day was on Tuesday and Lent continues through to Easter. My sacrifice? Alcohol Consumption. Mmmm - help me.

http://victas.pancakeday.com.au/