First impressions were the unobtrusive minimalist white decor and the exquisite, antiquey looking serving bowls.

“Otsumami” appeared at the top of the menu, translated in brackets as “Appetisers / Tapas”.

And so we chose a few tapas-sized serves. First up was Soy-burned Roasted Organic Garlic. Four plump juicy cloves, caramelised to sweetness and with a mild, roast  garlic savour.

Next was  Silverbeet Tsukudani, finely chopped stems sauteed with sweet soy sauce and Japanese black pepper – the latter giving the sauce a distinct bite.

There followed organic Zucchini Tempura, four modest slices in a delicate whitish crisp batter along with a mild dipping sauce.

An agreeable Agedashi Tofu served as an interlude and we finished with Vegetarian Futomaki Sushi Rolls.

Seated on a layer of wasabi mayo these were a complex mix of taste and texture centred with avocado, cream cheese, and finely grated pickled beetroot. On the side was a small saucer of  house-made, shaved pickled ginger.

This last was white in colour, delicious, and quite unlike the store bought artificially tinted stuff one often encounters in Japanese restaurants.

The wine we took was the De Bortoli Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2010 and it suited the multiplicity of dishes admirably.

Service was timely and friendly and we enjoyed it all – perhaps the highlight was the silverbeet dish.

Cost for two was $54 including corkage.

Highly recommended.

Jardin Japonesque. 3 Arcadia St. Noosa Junction, Queensland 4567, Australia. Phone (07) 5448 0724. BYO. Lunch Tuesday to Friday; Dinner Tuesday to Sunday.

Two kinds of Tofu

Gary Hounsell, owner of Toolangi Vineyards in the Yarra Valley recently hosted a lunch at Urbane in Brisbane to celebrate Toolangi’s 10th anniversary; your itinerant reporter was there.

Gary showed guests a selection of his estate and reserve chardonnays and pinots dating back to the 2001 vintage. In an unusual approach to winemaking he explained that in its short existence, Toolangi wines were made by different winemakers at a number of wineries, among them Giaconda, Shadowfax and Yering Station.

Standout wines included the ‘o6 Estate Chardonnay – clean and edgy with understated oak - at a blind tasting I would have picked this one as French. The ’06 Reserve Chardonnay was rich and full-flavoured with superbly integrated oak and lengthy acidity. And the three pinots – the ’01, the ’02 and the ’06, were surprisingly youthful, showing generous fruit and none of the tawny colour or age development often associated with older Australian pinot noir.

The 2006 Reserve Shiraz showed highly-perfumed raspberry-like fragrance. Medium-bodied, it displayed vibrant summer berries on the palate, combined with light, elegant tannins.

Confit duck egg

The food

As usual, I had requested an alternative, meat-free menu and Urbane chef Kym Machin came up with the goods. The Japanese inspired ‘Two kinds of tofu’ (pictured at top) came served, picturesquely, on a black slate. Both tofus, one almond and one soy, slid silkily along the tongue and were presented on a smear of shallot puree, along with edamame beans, crunchy sesame ‘pebbles’, and froths of jalapeno and apple ‘air’.

A smoked La Luna goat cheese on a little round of brioche was served in its own cloud of hickory/rosemary/juniper berry/thyme smoke captured under a glass dome.

Then there was the confit organic duck egg (pictured). The soft, unctuously textured egg sat in a smooth potato and leek veloute, the whole decorated with shavings of fresh black truffle.

I knew the wine would be classy but didn’t know what to expect from the much talked about Urbane. This grumpy old critic was impressed.

Urbane Restaurant, 181 Mary St. Brisbane, Queensland. Phone: (07) 3229 2271.

iS is fully licensed but allows patrons to bring their own wine ($4 corkage fee per bottle) and we took along a 2003 Petaluma Hanlin Hill Riesling. Despite its rather warm cellaring in our house it was in excellent condition – sprightly and lemony with just an occasional hint of that aged riesling character that we all know and love yet find hard to describe without annoying winemakers.

From the longish menu we chose Chili mushrooms – in a light sauce/marinade of butter, lemon juice, chili, garlic and finely chopped herebs; Parmesan crumbed artichokes – these were served with the stems (quite edible) attached and looked a little like chicken drumsticks – served with a truffle and lime mayonnaise; Manchego cheese croquettes – crumbed, about the size of pool balls – with a quince paste sauce, and Tempura vegetables on skewers -tiny morsels of crisp veg in the lightest of batter.

The food presentaion was attractive, the waiter was hip and we really enjoyed each dish. The bill for two, including corkage, totalled $42.

Highly recommended.

Senderens, Paris

Alain Senderens recently decided that such prices were way out of line, and that his stratospheric level of cuisine needed to be democratized, made more accessible, cutting prices by over 75% (allowing for inflation) and making it possible to enjoy his full menu for 110€, with a 40€ supplement for wines by the glass to match each course. This is not exactly tailored for the proletariat, but it is within reach of regular blogger folks who occasionally delve into the sublime.

The first impression is a fiery red visual spectacle, as you approach from the cold wind-swept Place de la Madeleine you can see the orange red lighting of the interior of Senderens. The howling wind propels us in through the entrance’s thick curtains and into the warm cozy art-nouveau wood-paneled interior. And you immediately notice the changes, the classic interior is now augmented with the orange hues of the new curved ceilings, which look like the surface of the moon upside down at sunset, and with flowery designs drawn in luminous ink on glass over the mirrors and activated by LED lighting in changing colors. There are no table-cloths; the tables are made of a thick white smooth warm polymer, possibly Corian™, with white backlit flowery motifs.

The full menu-dégustation is tempting, but our choices are driven more by the wine than by the dishes, so we ordered à la carte, where for each dish an optional glass of matching wine is proposed for a reasonable surcharge (11€ on average); a paragraph explains the match for those that might need guidance or miss the sensory experience. The wines proposed are all excellent and varied, of the 18 matching choices, 10 are French, 3 Italian, 2 Portuguese, 1 Spanish, 1 German and 1 Hungarian. Just reading the list makes you confident that you have come to “the right place”, to a place where wine is important and where they truly know about good wine. For example the Sauternes is from Château Nairac, an excellent choice and one of the rare sauternes that never get chaptalized on principle.

Salmon, suckling pig, baby lamb at Senderens

Dos de Saumon mi-fumé à la maison, concombre, pommes vertes et pistou wasabi
Riesling Kabinett, Reichstatt von Kesselstatt 2007, Mosel[-Saar-Ruwer]
Cristallin, épuré à l’extrême, à la fois délicat et charismatique, les Riesling Mosellan sont un symbole de la culture européenne du vin. Les notes fumées, dues au terroir schisteux, prolonge le saumon dans une mélodieuse délicatesse.

During my recent visit at monvínic in Barcelona, I had discovered the superb rieslings of R. von Kesselstatt, straight non-nonsense Rieslings with lots of character. This was the match proposed for the lightly-smoked salmon, superb in texture and taste, accompanied by paper-thin refreshing strips of cucumber and green apple with a light wasabi pesto. A very good match and a difficult one, full of risks: smoked salmon is not normally wine-friendly, and aggressive wasabi even less so, but here the smoking is done in-house and with a light touch, and the pesto manages to extract all the perfume and flavor of the wasabi without any of its sting. The fresh young Riesling’s acidity makes the salmon stand out; the green apple cleans the palate and finds plenty of echoes in the wine. My only nitpicky comment here is that the region name Mosel-Saar-Ruwer has been changed, thankfully, to simply “Mosel” since the 2007 vintage. A wonderful start.

Cochon de lait de Burgos, rougail de poireaux et mangue
Alsace 1er Cru Burg 2004 – J.M. Deiss
La générosité de ce vin tisse une sucrosité raffinée, riche de fruits exotiques, sur la trame d’une chair ferme presque virile, rehaussée de saveurs poivrées

Cathy chose the suckling pig and was rewarded with a superb Alsace wine from Deiss, very rich and mineral with definite botrytis flavors and a surprising aromatic development despite only being 5 years old, with some residual sugar. Nice surprise, a slightly sweet French Riesling right after a bone dry German one (one would expect the opposite) to accompany the light peppery mango flavors of the Spanish pork.

Agneau de lait de Castille rôti, aubergines aux deux façons
Langhe Rosso 2001, D. Roagna, Piémont, Italie
La subtilité aromatique et l’équilibre de ce Nebbiolo de la région d’Alba s’associent au fruité de l’aubergine corsé au massala sans étourdir l’agneau de lait par sa puissance.

The same pan-Europeanism pervades my own choice, baby lamb from Spain (one never forgets how good baby lamb is in Spain) with an Italian wine from Piemonte. A slice of tender shank and a little mound of very slowly cooked meat find a perfect complement in the baby aubergines, cooked in some magic way that makes their interior transform itself into a kind of light sponge, and very subtly flavored with massala. The wine is good but with a hint of reduction that could have benefitted from a long aeration, but it got better in the glass; at the same time, it seemed to be at its peak of development and probably destined to decline in the next years. The Rieslings were more impressive.

Chocolate and quinces at Senderens

Coulant de Samana millésimé 2007, pur cacao de Saint Domingue, noix de pécan caramélisées
Don P.X. 1979, Toro Albalá, Montilla Moril[l]es
Le charisme de ce Pédro Ximenez trouve écho dans la subtile amertume du cacao de Saint Domingue. La réglisse, le café et les noix de pécan sont autant de détonateurs de plaisir.

There is nothing like Pedro Ximenez and chocolate, that was my choice, a large splash of creamy dark vintage chocolate from Santo Domingo with caramelized pecans in a coffee sauce. Another nitpicky comment about the spelling of the wine area, they must have been thinking of morels… that’s ok…

Coing confit au fudge
Tokaji Cuvée Ilona 2003, Királyudvar
Le coing trouve, avec ce tokaji cuvée, un compagnon qui sublime son parfum

Cathy chose this classic quince and botrytis match; the wine is a superb Tokaji from István Szepsy’s joint venture winery, its tastes lingering forever and the perfume amazing, covering all the best features of noble rot, honeyed wax and citrus apple flavors.

Senderens is a great place to eat, feasting your eyes as well as your palate for about 110-140€ per person. Service is friendly and attentive – they simply will not allow you to pour your own water. When a grand master cooks without the stress of having to be 3-star every day, the result is pure laid back heaven, nothing is out of place, and everything is harmonious. Alain is past retirement age, but everything about this place including the dishes comes from him, he simply delegates the cooking now to highly skilled younger chefs. I wonder why it took me so long to try Senderens II, and I sure look forward to coming back.

Most Catalans in the know, like my friend blogger Joan Gómez Pallarès, will tell you that Carme Ruscalleda has been the top chef in Spain for some time, despite her only recently getting that third Michelin-macaron. Only two women in the world have been awarded three stars, the other is Anne-Sophie Pic in Valence, France. Carme also has a two-star restaurant in Tokyo.
My interest in Carme Ruscalleda did not come from the guides: two years ago I purchased her book “Cuinar per ser feliç”, it was a way to get into reading Catalan, and I liked the title “Cooking to be happy”. The book’s introduction reveals much of her attitude towards cooking – healthy, natural, pleasant eating adapted to our modern fast environment, where parents work and children are busy with school and activities. Carme Ruscalleda believes that food can make a difference, making us happier and helping us perform better in our work or our studies. Her book is a compendium of quick recipes based on fresh market ingredients and tradition, food that will be a constant reminder of which season we are in. It is the only recipe book I have ever seen that is organized in four chapters, one per season – this is no trivial innovation, it makes perfect sense!
At Sant Pau the highly complex menu requires many technically skilled and highly trained cooks to prepare such wonderful dishes, but much like her book recipes the basis is seasonal market fare grounded in local traditions, occasionally borrowing from some more distant traditions.
The first impression on arrival is the sharp yet warm design of the dining room, in ochre and fuchsia colours, and the limited seating: no more than 30 other guests are sharing the room with you.
We have an option to order à la carte or the Menú degustació d’Estiu, which is a tasting of many of the house specialties including an introductory broth, 4 small appetizers, 5 entrées, one main dish, a cheese selection, 2 desserts and a final assortment of 10 miniature desserts. The total price per person is 144€.
Given the range of tastes and the number of courses, I asked the sommelier, Joan Luis, for help. He suggested a selection of 9 glasses of wine to match the main dishes, for 54€. We decided to share the 9 glasses, given that I had a 50 minute drive to look forward to after dinner. And we agreed that for fun the sommelier would give us time to guess the identity of each wine.
CR20, Mont Ferrant (Blanes), DO Cava
We begin with a glass of cava to accompany the aperitif dishes.
CR20 refers to the 20th anniversary of Carmen Ruscalleda’s restaurant, which she opened with her husband Antoni Balam in 1988. The wine comes from the Mont Ferrant winery in nearby Blanes.
El Brou de Benvinguda
A welcoming broth of yellow peppers, tomatoes, oil and water, traditional of Mallorca. A fresh light summer taste of peppers.

Els quatre Aperitius del Micro-Menu de juliol
Four micro-starters for the month of july, described in a colourful little menu

• Croquette of courgette flower
• Cod brandade, red pepper, green pepper leaf, pistachios

• Free interpretation of the pear of the Festa Majór of Sant Pol (pear jelly and lamb). I am not sure what the pear refers to, maybe a play on words?
• Sorbet of tupi cheese, olives, almond cake, sweet wine

Cua de Llagostí
Manzanilla Papirusa, Lustau, DO Jerez
Caramote prawn tail, basil leaf, tomato coulis, manzanilla. These are the same large prawns that Italians call “mazzancolla” (penaeus kerathurus). Three pieces wrapped in basil leaves and held together by jelly, served over a tomato coulis with sherry. The match with a finely oxidative wine was very fine, the wine not too potent and quite well chosen to accompany both the crustacean and the tomato; based on recent sherry tastings I supposed it was from Sanlucar de Barrameda, and indeed it was.

Vegetals sobre crema d’arròs – alberginia, carbassó, tomàquet, micro-fulles
Sauvignon Blanc 2008, Ra Nui, Marlborough (NZ)
Aubergine, courgette, tomato and micro-leaves on a rice cream. The vegetables stay afloat above smooth creamed rice thanks to a very thin layer of jelly.
We were sure the wine was sauvignon, very ripe, intensely grassy with some hints of lemon; very different, maybe southern French or Spanish Pyrenees? I should have known, it had New Zealand written all over it…

Cua d’Escamarlà – pell de truita, pa amb maduixot, salsa dels caps, ruca
Gran Caus Rosat 2008, Can Rafols dels Caus, DO Penedès (Merlot)
Crayfish tail with a thin film of omelet wrapped around a cylinder of strawberry bread compote. Great combination and a good match to this fairly simple but fruity rosé not devoid of backbone. I live in rosé country, Provence, and this was clearly from “somewhere else”, fairly dark and intense.

Espardenyes – escuma de naps, liquat d’espinacs, Borrego, ganxet
Lanius 2008, Alta Alella, DO Alella
Sea cucumber with turnip foam, a spinach shake and white beans. The holothuroidea or sea cucumber (stichopus regalis) has to be the ugliest animal on earth, like a giant slug with tentacles; it is a yellow blooded echinoderm closely related to sea urchins, present in huge numbers in the ocean depths. Yet when prepared by expert Catalan hands it is one of the world’s great delicacies. The turnip foam and beans add a subtle texture without masking the delicate flavour of the sea cucumber.
The wine could have been a southern Burgundy, maybe the Maconnais area, a young ripe chardonnay with well integrated oak. It was in fact a local white from Pansa Blanca with some chardonnay.

Lloritos – cogombre, salsa dels interiors, mostassa verda
Idoia 2007, Ca n’Estruch, DO Catalunya
Pearly razor-fish (or cleaver wrasse), cucumber, sauce made from the fish interiors, green mustard. The fish is cooked to perfection, the skin is so crispy you can hear it crinkle under your teeth, yet there is no sign of the flesh being seared and no trace of oil. It is reassuring to see a great chef making a great dish using a “poor” variety of fish, as opposed to the usual bass or bream. The brown sauce is not too strong and adds lots of flavour, the green mustard gives it a little zing, and the cucumber cools things down and adds texture. Wonderful.
The llorito (xyrichthys novacula) is a colourful fish that lives in the Balearic Islands but comes to the Costa Brava in july. Also known as raó, it is known in France as a “Rason” and it is called “pesce pettine” in Italian.
The wine was a dark spicy red from a warm climate, a young Cornas came to mind, but not quite as powerful. It was a syrah cabernet blend from the Montserrat mountain area.
Galta de Vedella de Girona – salsa agredolça, pa cruixent i picant amb cireres, mató i escarola
Furvus 2006, Vinyes Domenech, DO Montsant
Veal cheek with sweet and sour sauce, crunchy spicy bread with cherries, fresh cheese and endive. Incredibly, I forgot to take a picture of the main dish! The veal was tender like no other meat I have ever tasted; I believe it was cooked at low temperature for a very long time.
This young red wine had the colour of Grenache, could have been a Chateauneuf but I suspected it was from Catalunya, maybe Priorat. It turned out to be a Grenache from Montsant, not far off target.


El plat de formatges de juliol
• Bleu de Gex (Franche Comté), vegetals, vinagreta de pinions (leaves, pine nut vinaigrette)
• Castilblanco ceniza (Sevilla), Magdalena de Banyuls (Banyuls madeleine)
• Idiazábal (Guipuzkoa), torré de fruits secs (dried fruit turron)
• Maó (Menorca), pudding amb fruita confitada (cooked fruit pudding)
• Torta del Casar (Extremadura), sindria amb rom (watermelon and rum)
Saint Hyppolite 2006, Gewurztraminer, Marcel Deiss, AOC Alsace
Excellent cheese plate with some superb little munchies paired with each one. I would have not put the blue at the beginning, but with the salad and pine nut vinaigrette it made a clean break from the main dish.
It was fairly easy to guess that the wine was a young Alsace gewürztraminer, not entirely dry, spicy, typical rose and lychee plus citrus, good acidity. It is impossible for one wine to accompany all these cheeses (blues, goat, aged cow cheeses, creamy ewe’s cheese), but interesting to try.
Prepostres : infusió i fruta
An orange sorbet in a vinegar infusion definitely makes a neat break, refreshing your mouth before dessert. The vinegar is powerful but not aggressive, and the pungent acidity blends with the sweet sourness of the sorbet.

Guingueta-09 – préssec, menta, vi negre, gin, arròs, cola
Curial 2008, Mas Ferrant, DOCG Moscato d’Asti
Peach, mint, red wine, gin, rice, cola. Inspired by the local “chiringuitos”, beach shacks serving food and drinks. From the description it sounds like an impossible combination of a peach Nestea, sangria, Coke and a mojito, but it works, fresh and summery, and lots of fun.
An easy guess for the wine: a Moscato d’Asti. Not entirely well matched, sweet on sweet does not work well and Muscat is so hard to match to anything, but it is pleasant enough on its own. Surprisingly, from a local Catalan wine négociant that owns a property in the Asti area.

Origen Sud-Americà – cacao, cacauets, blat de moro, vainilla, iuca, Cachaça
Dolç Mataró, Alta Alella, DO Alella
Cocoa, peanuts, sweet corn, vanilla, manioc, cachaça liqueur. The South American theme works well, and I learned that manioc and vanilla originally came from America. Peanuts are one of the rare foods I do not like, but these roasted peanuts were crunchy and gave the dish an interesting accent, with all elements blending together well and creating interesting contrasts. I was not totally convinced, but the dish looked great.
The wine reminded me of Banyuls, but darker than most and with a hint of thyme. I was not surprised to discover it was a local fortified wine from Mourvèdre grapes.


Els deu Divertiments de Pastisseria
• Caramel d’Aigua del Carme (lolly pop of Aigua del Carme, an ancient lemon balm and alcohol remedy for… hysterics)
• Polo, com una piruleta (ice lolly)
• Mini-gelat – xocolata i vainilla (mini chocolate vanilla ice cream)
• Coca de full i cabell d’àngel (pumpkin pastry sticks)
• Bombó de xocolata amb pera Williams (chocolate bonbon with pear)
• Bombó de xocolata i te de fruits vermells (chocolate bonbon with red berry infusion)
• Bastonet – pega-dolça i sidral (liquorice and fizzy powder)
• Gominola de llimona i yuzu (lemon and yuzu citrus fruit jelly)
• Boleta d’ametlla i fruits secs (almond and dried fruit ball)
• Mirall de xocolata (chocolate mirror)
Our waiter proposed that we move down to the garden to experience this incredible assortment of ten amusing mini desserts, presented on a two-storey tray. Each one is quite surprising, with a wide range of tastes and textures.
As seen from the garden, the visual impact of the restaurant is amazing; the entire front of the building seems to have been replaced by two enormous glass panes, revealing the calm quiet ochre-fuchsia dining room on the top floor, and below it a vivid green-blue kitchen punctuated by moving white chef hats (see the first photo above).

Considering the number of courses served, you get enough time to appreciate each dish fully. The pace was more or less equal to the frequency of the commuter trains that stopped every 10-15 minutes just outside the garden gate next to the beach. At the end of the meal we did not feel that we had eaten too much or too little, it was just right, and driving was not a problem either.
Carme Ruscalleda is obviously fascinated by gelatinous textures; some of the foods are mpore or less gelatinous in themselves (veal cheeks, pig trotters), others have jelly added. I heard that Carme is experimenting with jellyfish. Many of the jellies were served on warm without melting, so I suppose it was agar-agar. Her use of jellies on so many dishes could seem excessive, but they are employed sparingly and for specific functional needs: holding or floating or decorating ingredients, and generally imparting shine and texture to the dishes.
There were no other obvious uses of “molecular” techniques, though I am sure there were many high tech methods used in the kitchen; much like Can Roca, technique here is not used for its own sake, it is subservient to pleasure and bringing out the taste of all those fantastic seasonal ingredients.

All the dishes are visually stunning, the service is remarkably competent yet easy going and friendly, the bread is very good, the setting is architecturally beautiful and comfortable, and I would say this is a truly memorable experience. Having tasted summer at Sant Pau, I feel an urge to come back to experience autumn, winter and spring with Carme Ruscalleda.

Cheat. When entertaining relatives or friends at home – if you still have any, (home or friends – it’s harder to lose relatives) decant easy-on-the-pocket spirits and cask wines into empty, top shelf, brand-labelled, screwcapped bottles you’ve saved. Most of your guests will never know the difference. (The ones who do will cough politely at the first sip and ask for a glass of soda water.)
Dodgy cocktails: have an employee shake and stir no-frills booze with no-name mixers out in the kitchen – where no one can see further evidence of your despicable, penny-pinching behaviour. And what’re a few headaches among soon to be former business associates?
Ditto with cheap fizz. Transfer into used French (tautological) champagne bottles you’ve salvaged from behind the local restaurant your failed company used to have an account at.
If it’s really awful bubbly, add a few crushed strawberries to each glass to disguise the taste and float a rose petal on top. As you hand out the drinks say ‘I think chef saw this delightful trick in Vogue Entertaining!’
Small is more. As your liquidators – Shard & Freud Pty. Ltd. – have undoubtedly sold off your Riedel Sommelier goldfish bowls, go to the Reject Shop and buy small wine glasses. You’ll get more serves out of each bottle. Under the illusion that they’ve had their usual ration of wine your guests will go home earlier than usual. You’ll get a good night’s rest and they’ll be bewildered by your apparent generosity.
Buy a still. These are legally sold in Australia – but only for distilling water or essential oils (nudge nudge, wink wink). But remember, it is illegal to distil spirits at home – not so in New Zealand.
However, if you’re into the risks associated with dodgy moonshine (you do know a lot about risk venture capitalism), you can distil the aforementioned home brewed beer into whiskey and the cask wine into brandy. Remember though, always serve your hooch from branded bottles.
Domestic espionage. When you go to dinner at friends’ mansions, surreptitiously check out their booze supply – in case they’re using any of the techniques outlined above. When this is the case, a well-secreted hip flask of your own white lightnin’ can be handy.

At Whiskey Gully Wines, I tucked into a gourmet pizza and salivated over owner John Arlidge’s baker’s dozen of vintage guitars adorning the walls: Martins, Gibsons, Nationals and more.
Jim Barnes of Hidden Creek showed me a still very youthful 2005 chardonnay, with a lemon and peachy nose and a hint of toasted oak. At Robert Channon Wines, the standout was a superb 2008 verdelho – with a distinctly limey nose and a palate like a freshly cut dish of lychees and grapefruit.
We then headed off to the Granite Belt’s major olive producer, Mt Stirling Olives, where owner Jim Miller fed us a range of spiced and herbed olives and a slurp or two of his green and grassy extra virgin olive oil.
As we continued our sippin’ and spittin’ tour of Granite Belt wines, the vintage and the apple harvest were in full swing. Backpacking pickers were everywhere and the vines were mostly netted to prevent birds joining the fruit gathering.
As you tour the wineries, you can’t miss seeing Sirromet vineyards all over the place. Sirromet has the largest plantings in the region – but no local outlet. Their current strategy is to feature cellar door and restaurant facilities at Mt Cotton, much nearer to Brisbane and Gold Coast punters. Some locals, we noticed, have a touch of the Hyacinth Bucket – “Boo–Kay!” – about them. They spin up the name Sirromet to Sirromay – as if there’s a French derivation in there somewhere. Hardly likely, it’s simply the owner’s name – T.E. Morris – spelt backwards.
At the Shiraz Restaurant in Ballandean, we sampled local wines by the glass as I tucked into an entrée composed of grilled Turkish bread, extra virgin olive oil, and tangy macadamia dukka. For the main, I enjoyed a creamy dish of ravioli stuffed with mushrooms, pine nuts and fetta.
At the next winery, Tobin Wines, the 2008 Jacob Tempranillo was first class: a sweet tobacco pouch nose leading to a dryish palate of cherries and leather.
Golden Grove Estate has been making wine in the region for decades. Grace Costanzo related that in the early days her family would send bulk wines by rail to Italian canecutters in northern Queensland. I was taken with their 2007 durif, a nearly opaque, gutsy number, full of dark cherry essence and thick, chewy tannins.
Along with its many wineries, Stanthorpe boasts the Queensland College of Wine Tourism. This is a world-class facility where high school, TAFE, and university students study winemaking, tourism and hospitality. They have their own vineyard and a smart 60-seat training bistro, which also serves wines made by the students.
Last call was lunch at the rustic Sutton’s Cidery, where Dave Sutton showed us his lip-smacking dry cider and a superior apple brandy he’d distilled from cider and aged in small oak.
Wine quality and Queensland verdelho
Like most wine drinkers who’ve grown up on wine from the southern states, my experience with Queensland wines has been very limited. The more Queensland wines I taste the more I believe that if there is any variety particularly suited to this and other Queensland regions it is verdelho. I’m happy to report that the general quality of Granite belt wines at most price brackets is comparable with wines from the more familiar regions.

I consult the wine list while enjoying a surprising little starter, a carrot velouté with turmeric and pistachio oil with spring onions. The wine selection is very good and prices are reasonable, finally a place in Provence where you can enjoy wine! To name a few: in Champagne, Roederer, Ruinart and our friend Francis Boulard; also Dagueneau, Dauvissat, Raveneau, Henri Milan, Jean Thevenet’s Domaine de la Bongran, Beaucastel, Trevallon, La Janasse, Pibarnon, Luc Baudet’s Mas Neuf, Gauby. Also a lot of local wines that I am curious about, for example, I spy a bottle labeled “Hocus Pocus” being prepared for service, apparently a very small cuvée from a local winemaker.

Our choice is Clos Syrah Leone 2002 from the Domaine de Peyre Rose of Marlene Soria, one of the top wineries in the South of France (in the same category as Clos des Fées and Grange des Pères). This powerful syrah is superbly balanced, for two hours it evolved continuously from a strong black fruit perfume to an explosion of spices, with a beautiful roundness. At 80 €, this wine is priced in the restaurant barely above a wine merchant’s price, and there is no charge for aging…
The Menu de la Maison at 40 € (salmon tartar, stewed lamb, coconut ravioli) would have been fine; not being a fan of coconut we thought about the Menu de Saison (60 €), but 6 courses seemed too much… No problem, we are told that if we skip the cheese and the monkfish we can have a light version of that menu for 40€. At this price, we are talking about value for money in line with my recent discoveries in Barcelona, and unthinkable for a star restaurant (Eric has just been awarded his first Michelin star).

We begin with early local asparagus and late melanosporum truffle, fried egg and chicken sauce, a successful combination of winter and spring produce mediated and bound together by the egg and the sauce, the grassy asparagus flavor rounded out by the egg and the scent of truffle. The wine is powerfully aromatic and has no compatibility issue with the asparagus, the truffle scent goes well with the subtle earthy flavors of the wine.

We continue with roast pigeon breast, thigh ballottine with foie gras, stewed new turnips with coriander, cabbage stuffed with offal, simply superb. The turnips are remarkable, slowly cooked and reduced to a fraction of their size, shaped and colored like miniature cannelet pastries. The stuffed cabbage is delicate and creates the right texture contrast with the pigeon, very tender yet crispy on the outside. The stuffed thigh is wonderful – just how does one debone an object so tiny, then stuff it with foie gras? Catherine’s favorite dish is pigeon, she confirms that Eric Sapet’s ranks right up there with the one she experienced at Fulvio Pierangelini’s Gambero Rosso.

For dessert, chocolate tart with stewed tangerine, bitter orange sorbet and a tuile with cocoa nibs. The tuile is crunchy, the chocolate creamy; the tangerines seem to be a little too present, but this may be just my personal taste. We match the chocolate to two shared glasses of 2003 LBV Porto by Ramos Pinto and a wine from the Montilla Moriles area, a Pedro Ximénez Viejo Dulce “1927″ by Alvear. Two definitely different styles. The Porto seemed to demand a darker chocolate, I think the Andalusian wine went better, with its hints of cocoa and raisins.
To end the meal we get a tangerine mousse and a small cup of caramel panna cotta, a panna cotta the way it should always be made, and not comparable to the gelatinous mass that is served under this name elsewhere.
Eric Sapet is far removed from the “verrines” and mousses that every trendy restaurant is serving now (and yet Eric in a previous life had made us some fabulous verrines). Eric Sapet’s cuisine is all about long cooking times at low temperature, precision and subtle balance in combining ingredients and spices, and the use of top local seasonal produce. When Eric asks you whether you liked your meal, it is not a routine question, he really wants to know what you think. It’s very good Eric.
Strengths: welcoming atmosphere, the use of high quality local products, precise cooking, the choice of wines and their prices, the environment.
Weaknesses: the fact that it’s too far from home to eat there every week.

César Cánovas welcomes us with a guided tour of this wonderful place built around a miraculous cellar created to represent the extraordinary richness and diversity of wine, that product of vitis vinifera grapes that can assume so many incredibly different forms, from the sweet noble rot wines of Northern Europe to the important growths of Burgundy to the great Canadian ice wines to fortified sherry. The association of ” Amics de Mon Vínic” allows members free access to these spaces.
This place grew out of the ideas of Sergi Ferre-Salat, CEO of a local major pharmaceutical company. We can not say that Mon Vínic follows the rules of a normal commercial activity, I think it is rather a case of patronage and passion. This logic extends to the marketing of Mon Vínic: there is none! This explains why, during this week when Barcelona is invaded by 50,000 visitors to the Mobile World Congress, when it is almost impossible to find a table at a restaurant, this place is still serenely quiet, a few regulars are in the wine bar and in the restaurant there are about fifteen guests. At the weekend it remains closed – too bad, I would have taken my wife Catherine to experience it…

By mutual agreement, the evening will be almost entirely in Catalan, a good opportunity for me to practice what I have learned after a few weeks of study…
After visiting the kitchen, we sit at one of the two long tables and we immediately get a little appetizer of chickpeas, thyme and black pudding, accompanied by a glass of Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt, Scharzhofberg, 2006 Riesling, extraordinary Mosel riesling from the legendary Scharzhofberg vine, the one that this winery shares with Egon Müller, and available here by the glass for… 5 €.

The evening menu is displayed on the wall by a projector. We choose to start with Amanida of Carxofa I Pernil ibèric – the famous Joselito iberico ham with artichokes prepared in two ways, boiled and pickled. Riesling gains nothing from the confrontation with artichokes, proving once again one of the few dogmas about wine: it does not like artichokes (but maybe a sherry or a structured rosé from Bandol?). Oh well, I’ll just have to drink the wine with the ham … I have to say objectively, as an Italian living in France, the best ham of this peninsula has no equivalent in Italy or France … even the best culatello must bow in front of perfection…
We continue with Pèsols amb tòfona I cansalada – young green peas with truffle and pork bacon, with Zarate, Rias Baixas, Tras da Viña, 2005 Albariño, excellent Galician wine with good balance and a taste of tropical fruits and herbs.
As a main course we take a Peix de llotja amb verdures I bolets – generous portions of market-fresh Saint Pierre with mushrooms and vegetables and a glass of Barbadillo, Manzanilla en Rama, DO Jerez, Saca de Otoño 2007. This wine is extraordinary, it is a Fino sherry from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, therefore entitled to the descriptor “Manzanilla”, in addition, “in Rama” means that it is bottled directly without filtering and without stabilization, thus bringing with it a bit of the magic “flor” lees responsible for creating the very special taste of these wines. This is even more intense than Vin Jaune from the Jura and three times more powerful in the mouth, a real explosion of concentrated aromas of smoky hazelnut and almond that demands to be accompanied by very tasty dishes.
There is no room for dessert, except maybe in liquid form, a chance to make another step in the discovery of this vast world of southern Spanish wines, with a sweet 1979 Toro Albalá, Pedro Ximenez, DO Montilla Moriles, superb expression of this grape with scents of coffee, chocolate and dried raisins. The value for money of sherry wines and its nearby cousins is among the highest of any wine, thanks to the fact that they have managed to remain immune from parker-induced speculation (but for how long?), and helped by the fact that they are indeed an acquired taste, and a very rewarding one.
The total, with tips included, 60 € per person.
Mon Vínic is a place of learning and popularization of the pleasures of wine that has no equivalent in the world. Thank you, Joan, for this beautiful discovery.