Cork Wine Cafe

- Alex 1 Comment

NOTE THAT CORK IS NOW CLOSED

date of visit: Saturday 3 March 2012

Our dinner reservation was quite late (8:30pm) so it would have been plain rude NOT to go somewhere for a drink first. Cork Wine Café has been on my radar for a while – plenty of people I follow on twitter seem to be semi-regulars there and even my parents have been.

It is one of those awesome little hole in the wall style bars. There are a few tables outside (no use in our case, as it was chucking it down) and even fewer (I think) inside. But one was free and we ducked in and nabbed our spot.

Cork is pretty trendy but not so trendy we were put off. It’s all dim lighting and dark furniture with a long bar behind which sits a really impressive array of wines. The wine list isn’t arranged by varietals (you know – “Riesling”, “Sauvignon Blanc”) it’s arranged by wine styles, so if you fancy a “textural white” you know where to go. Initially I was really sceptical about this but I stopped my huffing and puffing for long enough to read the menu (sorry, wine list) and then I just got really excited.

Cork has loads of wine by the glass and the bar also offers tasting flights – if you simply cannot choose just one “textural white” then try three (in tasting measures) for a single price.

Which is what I should have done. But I was overexcited about the presence of a Picpoul de Pinet on the wine list (a grape variety from southern France which I’m pretty sure I haven’t tried before) and a grower Champagne. I was bouncing around in my seat trying to decide between the two (the price did it in the end – the Champers, at $20 a glass, was twice the price of the Picpoul). Andy’s choice of a Trumer Pils (from Austria) was a lot less traumatic.

I’m not going to write about the Picpoul (I thought it was fab) because this is a bar review. And that is what Cork is – a bar. Apparently if you turn up expecting it to be a dessert café you may get a slightly chilly reception. That was certainly not our experience – service was friendly and my parents report that the staff are knowledgeable.

As it’s a bar, there’s some very limited tapas style food available. As we were heading out for dinner, we didn’t try anything. But I’m more than happy to go back, have a glass of something interesting and sample some food.

And you know what? It won’t matter if the food is dire, because you go to Cork to drink.

Wines of Sicily

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photo by Alister Robertson

I’ve been lucky enough to attend two interesting, but very different, wine tastings recently.

The first of these was held at The Manse and organised by Alessandro Ragazzo, The Manse’s sommelier, and Sommeliers Australia.

The session focussed on the wines of Sicily (the island which is the football to Italy’s boot!). Italy is a happy hunting ground if you’re after the weird and the wonderful in terms of wine. Allegedly the country is home to over 1000 different wine producing grape varieties – so I was confident it wasn’t going to be an afternoon of Chardonnay or Shiraz.

Alessandro had put together 3 flights of 4 different wines: the white and red brackets were followed by a dessert wine and Marsala bracket. We also had a comprehensive handout which covered the history of wine in Sicily, with a few maps and plenty of interesting facts. For example, Sicily is about a third the size of Tasmania and yet annually produces 5 million hL of wine. Australia’s entire output is 11 million hL annually.*

Of the whites my favourite was the Benanti Pietramarina DOC Etna 2007 which is made from Carricante. I happen to have Tom Stevenson’s The Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia sitting next to me and apparently the Etna DOC is the same wine on which the Cyclops got drunk (thanks to Ulysses). Stevenson is somewhat dismissive of the whites: “… a soft but bland dry white” although the Pietramarina is worthy of individual note. My own notes indicate that while the nose wasn’t massively pronounced there were some herbal notes, anise and fennel, while the palate was less herbal but showed rich, ripe citrus fruit with a good seam of acidity. I was undecided if it was marmalade-y or preserved lemon.

Unfortunately (for me), it looks like this wine retails for around $100 a bottle.

I won’t talk about the reds too much (if you’re interested, you can read about the Duca Enrico Duca di Salaparuta 1996). I was struck by how they all really felt as though they needed food. Of the four, the COS Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG 2009 struck me as being the most approachable with a good balance of acidity and tannins and a spicy, red cherry palate.

The dessert wines and Marsala bracket I found really interesting. Like (I suspect) most people, I don’t drink very much sweet wine and I drink even less fortified wine so I love the opportunity to try something new. We started with a Benanti Passito di Pantelleria. It was a 2005 and the bit of age showed in the glass: the wine was really quite amber in colour. The wine’s aroma was dominated by dried apricots with other dried fruits thrown in for good measure. The palate matched this and was suitably pronounced with pelnty of dried apricot, sultana, fig, honey and almost a note of maple syrup.

The concentrated flavours in Passito come about because the grapes are left to dry out before crushing. Traditionally, they’re left on straw mats in the sun. Pantelleria is a small volcanic island off the south west coast of Sicily. And the wine is made from the Muscat of Alexandria grape. Got that straight?

We wrapped up with two Marsalas from Vito Curatolo – a Superiore Secco and a Superiore Riserva. Marsala is made in a manner similar to Sherry and the mass production of the wine is actually thanks to a late eighteenth century Englishman, John Woodhouse, who thought the wine would be popular in England and began large scale production and export. Marsala has something of a poor reputation – which, on the basis of the two wines we tried, is rather undeserved.

The Superiore (aged for a minimum of 2 years) was very Christmas cakey, with plenty of coffee, coffee and cream and a nutty finish. The Superiore Riserva (aged for a minimum of 4 years) was a lot more savoury, with some Fino Sherry like characteristics and plenty of nuts, but none of the coffee.

I won’t be rushing out and buying up all the stocks of Marsala in Adelaide – for me, it will be an acquired taste. However, I think it’s a shame that it doesn’t have a higher profile and that there isn’t more of an opportunity for consumers to try good quality examples.

This was a great tasting: things moved at a good pace, it was well organised and (most importantly!) the wines were all really interesting. Apparently Alessandro hopes to run some more sessions like this in future – I’m looking forward to them already!

* This is taken from my notes and I haven’t independently verified it so please feel free to correct me!

East Terrace Continental – etc

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East Terrace Continental

photo by bram_souffreau

date of visit: Sunday 26 February 2012

I was in charge of organising a weekend brunch/lunch for about 10 people. Our challenging group included at least 2 babies (and possibly more), one vegetarian and a varied collection of tastes. I was nervous when I chose East Terrace Continental as reviews on the internet were mixed.

Still, we were a group of old friends, we used to go to etc when we were at uni, and one of us was visiting from New York. I figured that things could really foul up and I’d be forgiven.

Things didn’t get off to an awesome start … I turned up and I could see no large table set up and ready with high chairs. And at midday on a Sunday you don’t turn up to etc with a big group and expect to wing it. Now etc had done the smart thing and rung me the day before to confirm (I’d had to ring back and leave a message) but I suspect I was looking pretty nervous and ticked off when the guest of honour arrived. After a fair bit of faffing around my booking was found, some customers were moved and our table was pulled together. I don’t know the extent to which this was good planning or good luck on the part of etc, but I commend the staff for their can-do attitude in sorting things out.

Table sorted, our group filtered in in dribs and drabs. etc is very casual which makes it perfect for a large group. You order and pay at the counter. This is perfect if you have people on different schedules (we did) and also if you have people who are money sensitive in any way (ahem).

Also, the café runs a very sensible policy on breakfast – it’s served until 3:30pm (they close at 4pm). This meant that I was able to indulge in a huge smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, with asparagus, while those around me ate a proper lunch, or a sandwich, or whatever they fancied.

I certainly wouldn’t go as far to say my breakfast was the best I’ve ever had – I like my scrambled eggs really soft and these weren’t, and the asparagus was a tad under cooked, and the silly (large) size of the portion meant that everything didn’t stay as hot as might have been ideal. But really – why quibble? The feed set me back $14.50 and I would go back and order the same thing in flash. Or would I? Because there are quite a few things on the breakfast menu I fancy trying. Around me plates were cleared so I guess everyone else was happy too.

Most importantly, the coffee at etc is good!

So decent food, good coffee, not too expensive and a sizeable range of vegetarian options. We ended up staying for about 3 hours and at no point did we ever feel like they wanted to move us on (maybe we drink a lot of coffee …). Yes, etc is noisy and buzzy (and busy) but I think that’s exactly why people go there.

Ignore the internet and give it a whirl!

 

 

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