Coopers Vintage Ale Launch Lunch

July 11, 2013 - Alex Prichard Leave a comment

disclaimer: I attended the lunch as a guest of Coopers Brewery.

date of lunch: Friday 5 July 2013

You may recall that last year I enjoyed the Coopers Vintage Ale launch lunch at the Earl of Aberdeen.

This year I was lucky enough to be invited again, and, as a teaser, a beautiful box of the soon to be released Vintage Ale arrived on my doorstep the week before. It’s a tough life when you not only get a free lunch but also some free beer!

I almost had to miss the lunch this year* but luckily the planets lined up and lunch time saw me at the Earl of Aberdeen, ready to taste the new Vintage Ale, as well as a couple of back vintages.

Proceedings started in the bar with Celebration Ales all round and canapés in the form of chorizos wrapped in filo, baked and presented as cigars. Sausages wrapped in filo pastry should definitely become a ‘thing’!

This year, there was more dining space opened up for the lunch, as well as a seating plan. This was great because it meant the Coopers staff were spread amongst the diners and (hopefully) gave everyone a chance to chat to someone from the brewery.

The menu, put together by the Earl’s chef with Masterchef runner up, Michael Weldon, really focussed on using beer in food. To accompany lunch, we were served the 2007, 2009 and current release Vintage Ales. Entré (easily dish of the day, for me) was scallops and prawns, served with linguine and a Coopers Pale Ale beurre blanc. This was great: the scallops were huge, the seafood was beautifully cooked and I loved the presentation. The sauce had a richness to it which I guess came from the beer but it wasn’t overwhelmingly beer-y in anyway. The pasta also deserves a mention: it was perfectly cooked and delicious.

This was followed by a 2007 Vintage Ale sorbet. I was very indifferent to this but I suspect part of the problem was the HUGE portion. I’d expect a palate cleanser to be two mouthfuls at most but this was almost dessert size in proportion and I found the vanilla notes (also present in the aged Vintage Ale) really over the top.

Main course was beef cheeks – cooked in the current release Vintage Ale, naturally. Last year’s epic steak was a really tough act to follow (and seriously, everyone I know who went last year remembers that steak!) but this was a tasty and hearty meal – quite essential on what was a freezing (by Adelaide standards!) day.

Lunch wrapped up with panettone, served with (you guessed it!) Vintage Ale custard.

The lunch is held annually (first Friday in July – if you want to mark it in your calendar!) and is a great way to taste some back vintages of the Vintage Ale, as well as have a big lunch! It’s a lighthearted way to learn more about both Coopers and beer.

The 2013 Vintage Ale is available now, until sold out, at about $76 a case. Selected pubs will also have it on draught.

* Regular readers may know that my household includes a toddler. He has recently made an unscheduled, but thankfully short and successful (if that’s the right word!), trip to hospital. Everyone is home, happy and healthy. Having seen first hand the smile it brings to a small person in hospital, I’d encourage you to consider donating a bear to your local hospital. If the feel good factor isn’t enough, your donation will help raise funds for cancer research AND be a tax deduction.

Esplanade Hotel, Brighton

July 8, 2013 - Alex Prichard Leave a comment

Salt & Pepper Squid – coming in about average

date of visit: Monday 24 June 2013

My parents are, as you may have gathered, our chief babysitters and their payment (in kind) is being taken out for meals. Sometimes I am a bit sharper on this than others, and sometimes the meals are more exciting than others.

On Monday afternoon I had a meeting (that had been rescheduled – forcing dinner to be rescheduled) in town and so I hatched a plan that I could collect Andy and we could meet my parents at the Esplanade (Espy to the locals) for an early dinner.

Best laid plans and all – not only did this meal take three goes to actually happen, but my meeting ran later than expected and Andy and I caught every single traffic light on the way down to Brighton from town. So it wasn’t such an early meal and the toddler was rather beside himself. As plates passed our table he looked at them mournfully, exclaiming “want one!”.

Fortunately, the Espy has a salad bar. On a Monday night I thought it a pretty sad affair (nowhere near as comprehensive as that at the Warradale). The hot selection was potatoes, cauliflower and broccoli and the bowl of green leaves looked a little wilted. Still, we are lucky in that Mr 2 embraced the cauliflower and broccoli and absolutely loved the pasta salad and that kept the worms at bay while we waited for our food.

I ordered salt and pepper squid (mindful of the small person shouting about food near me), Andy chose (as always) the beef schnitzel with gravy, dad opted for the liver and bacon and mum tried out the special fish (as in, the whiting from the specials board, not the no-name fish from the menu).

Mum seemed to be the definite winner here. She was really happy with her fish and rated it much more highly than that available in some other local eateries. My salt and pepper squid was pretty standard pub issue: tender and at least in this instance the batter was relatively crispy (thus beating the Exeter at Semaphore out of the water, so to speak). Andy was decidedly ho-hum about his schnitzel and, while dad demolished his liver and bacon, and rated it more highly than that he’s had in other places, the liver was horrendously overcooked.

The slices of liver were so thin, and then subsequently deep fried, that there was no way the liver was going to be anything but overcooked.

Overcooked liver with a big pile of mash

As far as pub meals go – the Espy falls into the OK category. Service was friendly and reasonably efficient, although there was an inexplicable delay in our bottle of wine arriving at the table.

The dining room is spacious and pretty basic, and there is also a children’s play room (very much NOT a plus, in my books). The Espy offers various meal deals depending on day of week (and you may find vouchers for additional discount on the website). It is also in the Entertainment Book – which we used on our visit.

After discount, our meal was around $80, which, for four people and a bottle of wine is not too bad. Just set your expectations accordingly!

Hentley Farm Dinner at National Wine Centre

June 28, 2013May 19, 2016 - Alex Prichard Leave a comment

disclaimer: I was the National Wine Centre‘s guest at this dinner.

date: Wednedsay 26 June 2013

If you follow the Eating Adelaide calendar (and the sporadic Friday posts on Facebook) you’ll know that throughout the year, the National Wine Centre (NWC) has been hosting a series of wine dinners. In my pre-baby life, I would have been all over attending events like this but those kind of activities have slowed down somewhat in the last almost 4 years, so while I’ve been able to tell you about them happening, there have been no first hand accounts.

Luckily for me, the National Wine Centre extended an invitation to attend the Hentley Farm dinner. I was thrilled that I was able to accept (thank you, Andy, for not only taking on baby sitting duties but also dealing with the flat battery due to some idiot leaving the car’s lights on) but also very interested because Hentley Farm is a winery that has a good reputation (both for its wines and its cellar door restaurant). It’s somewhat remiss of me not to be familiar with their wines so this was an opportunity to fix that.

So I spent a good month looking forward to this meal, and finally headed along to the centre’s Vines dining room, feeling a bit self conscious that I’d be walking into the event solo but figuring that I would at least recognise Lucy from the NWC.

The evening started with mingling, the Hentley Farm Riesling (the only wine for which grapes are not sourced from Hentley Farm’s Barossa estate) and delicious kingfish canapés, served with finely shaved radish, kohlrabi and fennel and finished with a Meyer lemon purée. These worked really well with the vegetables providing texture and layers of flavour and the lemon purée finishing off the morsel cleanly with a tasty citrus zip.

It came time to sit down and I headed off to my table, and sat down next to a couple. I turned to introduce myself to the woman next to me. “Hi, I’m …” I started, only to have my sentence finished. Yes, only in Adelaide can you head along to a dinner and randomly sit next to someone you went to school with and haven’t seen in the last n years!

Katie now works for the design company which does lots of work with the NWC, but since leaving school she’s done a couple of degrees, worked in the US and done the family thing. So there was a reasonable amount to catch up on.

Also at the table was Andrew Quinn and Keith Hentschke, Hentley Farm’s winemaker and owner respectively, as well as some NWC staff and guests. Both Keith and Andrew spoke between courses to introduce the wines and Hentley Farm story. I thought that they struck the balance between being informative and entertaining really well and I loved that they chose not to use the lectern but wander around the room a little (something that only works if you’re confident and can project your voice!). It made their talks feel more like chats and I think it definitely encouraged questions.

First course was a trio of entrées: belly pork, duck confit and black sausage, served with haricot beans. While I really liked the concept of this dish, I thought that the black sausage was a little bit lacklustre. My time in England was spent eating a lot of full English breakfasts and forming some very strong opinions on black pudding and I’m yet to find one in Adelaide that cuts the mustard. Which is a shame because pork belly and black pudding is one of those really classic combinations. The entrée was served with the 2012 “The Stray Mongrel” (a Grenache Shiraz Zinfandel blend) and the 2012 Zinfandel. My pick of these two wines (both in terms of the wine and the wine and food match) was the straight Zin. In particular I thought it worked really well with the anise flavours in the duck.

Next up was, what was for me, the star dish of the dinner. Venison loin, served with chestnut and celeriac, date compôte and pickled blueberries. I love venison and celeriac but have to admit I was a bit nervous about the date compôte. I’m a bit funny about fruit in savoury things – especially something that might be so obviously sweet as dates. But my goodness – it worked really well and next time I am cooking something gamey (probably relatively soon, as I have some pheasants coming my way) I’ll definitely be experimenting. I was also really impressed that the venison was served beautifully pink. Well done to the kitchen. Too often meat served at functions will be overcooked and dried out – something that is both easier to do and avoids any complaints from the well done brigade. Congratulations to the kitchen at the NWC.

This course was paired with 2011 The Beauty and 2010 The Beast. Both Shirazes but wines that receive very different treatment. The Beauty is 3% Viognier (cofermented) and sees 40% new French oak, whereas The Beast is 100% Shiraz and sees 80% new oak. Now, based on those descriptions alone, I would probably choose The Beauty as my pick, but on the evening, The Beast really stood out as the stand out wine (of the dinner) for me.

The final course saw the 2010 Clos Otto Shiraz served with Ossau-Iraty: a French sheep’s milk cheese (which also happens to be one of my favourite cheeses). The cheese came with some hazelnut baguette and black cherry jelly. While the baguette was neither here nor there for me, the black cherry jelly was excellent (served with some crushed hazelnuts on top) and a really clever change from serving quince paste.

The meal wrapped up with door prizes, some wine specials if you wanted to buy wines and, naturally, coffee and chocoMe chocolates.

I think it’s obvious that I had a great time: some of my favourite things to eat were served, along with some very classy wines. The real litmus test with events like this is – would I spend my own money? And unreservedly, I can say I would. The dinners are usually around $100-$120 a head and they are set menus, so if you are a picky eater they might not work for you. But if you like food and wine you should have a ball.

And you might even sit next to someone you went to school with …

The next dinner is on Wednesday 17 July and it will feature wines of the Hunter Valley. More details are available on the National Wine Centre site. The dinners do usually sell out so if you are interested in heading to one – don’t dawdle!