james halliday’s
drink
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c o m p a n i o n
200
ew the nssa
baro
2s5ons
rea go to
wines tasted & rated
Say hola to
ARGENTINA wine, FOOd & tOO much Fun
beef five ways Delicious Drinks to match
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DISCOVER PALE ALE
it’s all about the flavour
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VIRGINIA’S WAY
why vasse felix is flying
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wine authority
TEMPRANILLO
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we love this sPanish red
James halliday
Reveals his pinot noir picks
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Chef &
Cook &
Chef & author
restaurateur
food produCer
marion grasby
adrian riChardson
Shares his top indulgences
On her wine highs and lows
Meets the beef brief
tetsuya wakuda
IN THIS ISSUE APRIL/ MAY
EAT
UPFRONT
CONTENTS
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58 65 66
44
70 73
Vasse Felix winemaker Virginia Willcock shares her story.
24
Do you judge a book by its cover?
Wine labels
30
Tempranillo
80
My Cellar
88
Marion Grasby reflects on wine
36
James Halliday on...
How to explore pinot noir
38
Share plate wine matches
Diet wines
We look at this growing market
Memories of great wine
Wine writer Ken Gargett on the wine that changed it all
Regulars
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Photography / Catherine Sutherland Stylist / Sonia Paterson Glassware / Schott Zwiesel
Mendoza
What to see, eat, drink and do in this beautiful area of Argentina
The Barossa Valley
We break it down to 25 must-dos for any Barossa itinerary
Barossa wineries
Discover just some of the Barossa’s proudly regional and quality producers
Pale ale
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Cover Contributors
Dessert and drink duos
Four decadently different desserts and their drink pairings
A brilliant first step to different beer
50
www.winecompanion.com.au
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How to pair wine to many flavours
41
LE
The importance of flavour
Food grower Andrew Wood shares his thoughts on fresh produce
TRAVEL
The rise of this great Spanish red
34
APR / MAY 2012
d’Arenberg chef Peter Reschke
DRINK
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Restaurant review
Take a day out around Mt Tamborine, Queensland
We chat to Peter, who loves what he does at this family owned winery
Virginia’s Way
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Beef five ways
Our story on Argentina inspired us to get creative with beef
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Welcome
6
Letters
8
News
10
Events
16
Q&A
18
For & Against
20
Bin End
130
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200 TasTing Ting nOTEs James Halliday’s tasting notes
• Tasting notes and details for 100 current Aussie releases • 50 top picks from Australian Wine Companion 2012, including pinot noir and termpranillo.
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Ben Edwards on imports • 50 international wines, including ncluding Argentinean malbecs for anyone inspired by Ben’s story on page 80.
80 34
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Contributors
Writer Tempranillo { p30}
Tyson sTelzer Tyson is a wine writer who was named International Champagne Writer of the Year 2011 in The Louis Roederer International Wine Writers’ Awards. He has written and published 13 wine books, and contributed to Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine. He regularly writes for 13 magazines, including Decanter.
there’s nothing better than slow-Cooked ribs … you can get both hands in there and just piCk it up and eat it.
Photographer Cover image The beef brief { p58} Sweet talk { p73} CATHerIne sUTHerlAnD Catherine specialises in editorial and lifestyle photography. Her portfolio is particularly strong in food, interiors and travel, with her atmospheric work featuring in award-winning magazines. This issue, she takes us on a delicious journey, having shot our recipe spreads that feature beef and a range of desserts with their drink matches.
Chef The beef brief { p58}
ADrIAn rICHArDson
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46
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Despite almost pursuing life as a pilot, Adrian has gone on to cement himself in the food and media world. With La Luna Bistro in Melbourne’s Carlton, two books and several TV cooking programs to his name, his passion for quality produce is second to none. This issue, Adrian provides five mouthwatering recipes to showcase beef in all its glory, including a step-by-step guide to making sausages.
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winemaker
wild
at heart Words campbell mattinson PHoToGrAPHY Frances andrijich
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M Vasse Felix winemaker Virginia willcock is a Force Pbe reckoned with and you can almost taste it to LEwines. she’s now set herselF the crusade in the oF bringing the estate’s wines back home . O N LY
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Wine authority
James Halliday
How to
ExPLoRE PInoT
APR / MAY 2012
www.winecompanion.com.au
Pinot noir is the doyen of the ‘lighter’ red wine grapes. Some consider that it makes the world’s best wines, full stop. James Halliday walks us through one of his favourite wine styles.
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hen did I become obsessed (as I am) with pinot noir? By the end of the 1960s I had accumulated a lot of knowledge about Australian wine, and had embarked on the search for what became the Brokenwood winery a year or two later. Pinot noir was an oddity: I purchased some bottles of 1966 Seppelt Great Western Bin U36, and belatedly realised the worst of its many problems was that it had re-fermented in bottle.
In the late 1960s and the first half of the ’70s, under the ever-present tutelage of Len Evans, I drank a lot of great (cabernet-based) Bordeaux and assembled a now thoroughly depleted Bordeaux-biased cellar. But then something happened: Len served me a glass of red wine as I stood standing with a few others in the living room of his house in Greenwich. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck as I smelt – and after some time, tasted – the wine. It was above and beyond any wine, red or white, that I had ever encountered. It was a 1962 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tache. I had been served the second-greatest red wine in the world and from that day forward I became utterly
25 reasons to visit the Barossa
the Barossa valley is a road well travelled but here we bring you 25 ways to get the very best from the region – just like a local. words // Dave Brookes
Mendoza SA
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Food, wine, adventure and play makes Argentina an irresistible destination. Throw in a journey to the Mendoza wine region and its stunning surrounds, and you may not want to leave. wORDS ben edwards
the magic of
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beef Wine Match
Beer will refresh against this dish but if you want to cut through the richness, seek out the 2009 Tikal Patriota Bonarda Malbec blend from Mendoza, Argentina.
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There’s noThing hing beTTer Than slow-cooked ribs ThaT are sweeT, sTicky and delicious. you can geT boTh hands in There and jusT pick iT up and eaT iT. T T. PictUReD Smokey Texan beef ribs
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Wine authority
James Halliday’s
James Halliday
tasting notes
t Culreraesn es re
This issue, we bring you some outstanding current release wines from right around the country and all come highly recommended. While you will find more pinot noir notes later in this section, for this issue, I have selected three interesting examples to highlight below. Trying to unscramble the eggs where three pinots from three regions by three different winemakers come together is likely to provoke headaches or matrimonial dissent – or both. Here, at least, we have one winemaker who has not sought to be all too clever by changing winemaking techniques, nor has he felt constrained to use precisely the same techniques. He has – or may have – made minor changes to allow the terroir of each region maximum opportunity to express itself. Why not get a group of friends, blindfold the bottles and see if you can reach a meaningful consensus on the origin of these three wines?
95 2010 Farr Rising Regional Dirt Berrys Creek Gippsland Pinot Noir Clear crimson-purple; a wine with very different mouthfeel and flavour spectrum to the Geelong Pinot, more stemmy/spicy and with a finely detailed, almost slippery, palate. 13.5% alc.
RRP $40 2017
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94 2010 Farr Rising Regional Dirt Merricks Mornington Pinot Noir Bright purple-crimson; a fragrant bouquet leads into red berry/cherry flavours on the light-bodied but intense and long palate, notes of spice and stem coming with the tannins on the finish and aftertaste. 13.5% alc.
RRP $40 2016
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Farr Rising bbbbb www.byfarr.com.au
94 2010 Farr Rising Regional Dirt Tarrington Henty Pinot Noir
Similar colour to the Regional Dirt Merricks wine; the wine has the greatest range of flavours contrasting spiced plum with lemon zest/herbal savoury notes, the latter persisting on the finish; as with all four wines, whole bunch characters are obvious. 13.5% alc.
RRP $40 2016
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