Everything Is Go Astro Bunny

Everything is Go Astro Bunny

The last story in the series on wine labels; we look at a light-hearted but serious project by British Master of Wine Tim Wildmann. 


Project:  Fly to Australia, make a wine on a budget, with a deadline, get on a plane back to England - GO!


Astro Bunny is a project to produce as Tim puts it;
" A wine that has had its primary fermentation interrupted by bottling thereby rendering it naturally (naturel) sparking (pétillant) in the bottle".
Definition: Pétillant Naturel. (origin Fr.) abbrv. pet nat.





So have fun and dissect this 4 part story of wine made naturel:


Harvest Time in Australia

http://pet-nat.com/astrobunny/picking-it-2/

The easy step? - Winemaking

http://pet-nat.com/astrobunny/making-it/

What's In A Name

http://pet-nat.com/astrobunny/testing-it/

Sell, Sell Sell!

http://pet-nat.com/astrobunny/the-story-of-astro-bunny-2014/

Tim Wildman's Bio from webpage:

Tim Wildman is a British born MW who runs his own portfolio wine business involving travel, education and film.Tim became a Master of Wine in 2008 with a Dissertation on Australian wine, which is his professional speciality. You can read Tim’s Dissertation here 

He was awarded the Robert Mondavi Memorial prize for the highest score in Theory and his Dissertation achieved the highest pass mark in his year.With a background in teaching as well as wine Tim has helped dozens of MW students over the years to achieve their goals through his private tuition classes.

Tim has two travel companies specialising in wine tourism. James Busby Travel is a B2B company that takes wine trade professionals from around the world on educational tours to Australia.

Vineyard Safaris offers premium one day wine tours for private individuals and small groups in Australia

Tim is one half of film company Green-Shoot that provides wineries and wine companies with video content and integrated digital media solutions

He writes a monthly column for Australia’s Wine Business Magazine and prefers analogue to digital, in both music and wine. He divides his time between Europe and Australia

Manky Cherries Are A Thing

Wine gets better with age - right? Right? Anyone? Taste is such a personal thing and aged wine sometimes bring characters to them that don't always ring bells for me. The key to the recipe is tannins. Tannins those elusive compounds that apparently make wine the bees knees.

Spanish Tinto

These large complex compounds that are drawn from the wine skins as well as the barrels during maturation are anti-oxidant in nature. You know? the healthy antioxidant.

During the maturation process the tannin compounds will slowly chew up the interesting characters that make a young wine, a young wine. The purple colours and fresh fruit characters.

With their antioxidant effect, the tannins will oxidise these delicate flavours and colours, giving way to the underlying red colour and savoury flavours.

And that is an aged wine. 

Now the Spanish Tinto I tried recently received the following review;

         Well that was a challenging wine.

         Manky cherries, sock-it-to-ya oak 

         spewing out the anise and a slippery 

      acidity to clean it up. One for the wine fans

 #notthattheresanythingwrongwiththat

So if we get serious for one moment, let's translate my dodgy words into a serious tasting note describing this 9 year old wine. And below is a tasting note from the Importer Echelon Wines as a young wine.

Tasting Note:

With a slightly smelly nose that disappears with decanting, the wine is dominated by a slightly over ripe cherry character, followed by a star anise, licorice strongly reflecting new oak that once blended in with the delicate fresh fruit characters. The savoury finish and fine delicate tannins, that sneaks in the end is balanced off with a fresh bright acidity that makes this still a great food wine.

Echelon Wines - 2011
Deep red in colour with purple hues, the VT displays a nose of blackberry, lively spicy fruits, currants, and freshly sawn wood notes. The upfront lifted red fruit palate presents exciting and fun licorice flavors with elegant tannins and a well balanced acid structure.

Is it better? For me no. But for many it is; but the key most importantly is that it is different and that is the joy of wine. Diversity in style, the variation and the unpredictability.  Enjoy.

Rib Eye Fillet and Hunter Shiraz By The Fire

Let’s have a look at food and wine pairing. Just in case you haven’t been outside all week – Winter is here!

What better way to celebrate the change in season, but to get stuck into a big piece of red meat, with a Tower Estate Shiraz and settle in by an open fire.

Now that we have your attention and your mouth watering, we have a great recipe for you. Executive Chef George Francisco has got a fantastic Rib Eye fillet recipe for you to try out.

And if you are in the Hunter Valley this weekend, you can always call into Roberts Restaurant and get George to cook it himself; after all this awesome dish is on the current menu.

download it here

Enjoy.

Rib Eye Fillet and Hunter Shiraz By The Fire

 

Print

Oven roasted Ranger’s Valley rib eye Black pepper blistered green beans, rich puréed potatoes béarnaise sauce, jus.

Author: George Francisco

Recipe type: Winter Meal

Cuisine: Comfort

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• Oven roasted rib eye:
• 2 kilos Ranger’s Valley rib eye
• sea salt
• black pepper
• Black pepper blistered green beans:
• 480 grams green beans
• 100 grams butter
• 10 grams freshly ground black pepper
• 8 eschallots
• 30 grams corn flour
• 120 ml vegetable oil
• sea salt

Instructions

1. Oven roasted rib eye:
2. Rub sea salt and black pepper all over the rib eye. Warm a thick large pan or barbeque until very hot. Place rib eye in pan and brown each side very well. When all sides are browned. Place on baking pan and roast in 200 degree oven until it is cooked to your liking. The recommendation is 40 minutes at 180 degrees and then rest the beef in a warm place for 30 minutes.
3. To serve re warm if necessary in the oven or just slice and plate as it is.
4. It is recommended to serve the roast rib eye with black pepper blistered green beans, rich pureed potatoes, béarnaise sauce, jus and any condiments you find necessary.
5. Black pepper blistered green beans:
6. Trim the green beans of any woody ends. Slice 4 of the eschallots thinly and toss in the corn flour. Heat the oil in a sauce pan until 170 degrees. Fry the  schallots in the oil stirring carefully to ensure they brown evenly. When light brown and toasted remove from oil. Blot dry on paper towels and season lightly with sea salt. Reserve until ready to serve the beans.
7. Soften the butter. Dice the remaining eschallots.Sauté lightly in a sauce pan with a touch of oil until transcucent. Remove from pan and add to softened butter. Add freshly ground black pepper to the butter. Season lightly with sea salt and then mix the butter well.
8. Bring water to a boil in a pot and heat a sauce pan to very hot. Add the trimmed beans to the water and cook until al dente. Remove the beans from the water and immediately add to the very hot sauce pan. This will blister the beans. Saute the beans for a few seconds and then add the butter mixture to the beans and season with a bit of sea salt. Cook the beans until they are well blistered and coated with the butter.
9. Serve in a dish with the fried eschallots sprinkled on top.