Wine Tip

White Food = White Wine
Red Food = Red Wine

Born and Bread

I haven't bought a loaf of bread in 6 months.

I have, however been eating more bread that you can shake a tin of yeast at.

"But, wait! what the..?" I hear you say...

The answer to this delicious conundrum is Mama's Bread Recipe.
For years, my Mum has been making bread from a recipe devised at Domaine De L'arlot, in Bourgogne, France by the Lady of the house, Madame De Smet.

Madame De Smet, playing host year round to visitors at the winery, needed fresh food that was as delicious and easy to prepare as the wine tastings.

Madame discovered a way of making delicious, rustic, crusty bread with a fraction of the effort it takes using the conventional Double Proving method, involving hours of waiting for the yeast to do its work and kneading the dough again and again. She developped a method requiring a maximum 5 minutes' work.

It's as simple as combining the flour, yeast and salt, adding water, mix, put in fridge overnight. In the morning, throw it in the oven, 45 mins later; awesome crusty bread.

Presumably, given the right proportions of ingredients, the technique of proving in the fridge allows the yeast to act much more slowly, circumventing the knead (pun intended) to punch it down repeatedly.

Now, the oven at our place SUCKS and we've discovered that we have to bake for more like 70 mins, rotating the loaves (recipe makes 2) from time to time but we've now perfected the technique and have beautiful fresh bread, hot from the oven every day. (well, every couple of days anyway, even I can't eat 2 loaves in a day)

This recipe has been gradually spreading throughout the kitchens of my family members. My sister makes it (it comes out proud and perfect from her good oven) my Father-in-Law makes it and substitutes a cup of the flour for some mixed seeds, mum sometimes uses half spelt flour or even rye.

The thing is; it works everytime! It doesn't even necessarily look or feel the same every time you make it, but have faith in Madame De Smet, stick it in the oven, do a little bread dance and the reslut will always be brilliant.

So, next time you're having people over, have some of this bread chopped up on the table with some soft french cheese, maybe a saucer of good EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and a bottle of Pinot. WINNER.

So, here's the recipe, use it and never look back, simply laugh callously as you pass the bread aisle in your supermarket...

• 1 kg strong unbleached bread flour (I use Wallaby Baker's Flour)
• 1 tbsp instant yeast
• 1 tbsp salt (don't use less, I tried, it doesn't work)
• 950ml lukewarm water
• Extra flour for dusting and shaping

Place the flour, yeast and salt in a very large bowl. Mix in the water to make a quite wet, sticky dough. Use your hands to mix around well. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge overnight.Next day, take the bowl from the fridge and leave it to come back to room temperature. Prepare two flat trays by lining with baking paper and sprinkling generously with flour.

Using a dough scraper remove the dough from the bowl to a floured bench. Cut the dough in half. With floured hands lightly shape each piece into a round. Place the dough on floured trays and press/pull lightly into flattish ciabatta shapes. Flip them over so that the wrinkled, floured sides are now on top. Place the trays in a cold, fan-forced oven set to 220C. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on wire racks.

VOILA!

Note: In doing some research for the finer details of this recipe i came accross a blog from Pinot Shop which essentially says everything i've just said. Oh well. I'm happy to share blog subjects with such an illustrious cohort.

Wine Tasting Video

Bargain Shiraz

Occasionally a wine comes along which completely surpasses all expectations. A wine that excites and amazes even before you find out that you can easily afford it. This is what I call a wine bargain. Clever name, huh?

In the past it has been Tahbilk Shiraz and Metala White Label, Domaine Des Amoureux Muscadet and Buller Muscat. This time a wine popped up in a tasting that I picked as probably old-world (french, I thought) probably a blend, rich and elegant, smelling of rich aromatics, lifted herbs and ripe fruit with a palate that was even, soft and long as your arm. Flavours of violet and cassis, chocolate and spice. Exciting in all ways. At a guess we thought, $35 at the low end but potentially $50.
Then we took it out of the bag and saw that it was Torzi Matthews Schist Rock Shiraz 2010.
Jaws dropped. Jaws still racing with the flavour of the wine. It's currently on Special at Australia's biggest wine retailer for $15.70.

WINE

BARGAIN!

________________________

2010 Schist Rock Shiraz

http://www.torzimatthews.com.au/detail/?item=PrdctsSchistRo

A perfectly Sanguine Sunday

"Wine's not just a drink, it's an art form. Now where's my brush?"
David Anderson - Wild Duck Creek

The people in this photo are random victims of my kneejerk photography.

We visited Heathcote this weekend, mainly to take advantage of a rare opportunity to visit Wild Duck Creek's make-shift Cellar Door, open only a couple of times a year.

Now, with a little (read 'heaps of') help from Robert Parker Jr, the Wild Duck Creek wines, in particular Duck Muck, have gained a cult following in the USA. RP gave the '97 Duck Muck 99 points and from there the winery took on an ethereal life of its own.

Suffice to say we were expecting some pretty special stuff this rainy sunday, after a two hour drive from Melbourne. The winery was buzzing with excited visitors lining up to try the new releases and we joined the queue; sampling

Little White Duck Viognier
Alan's Cabernet
The Blend Cabernet Merlot
Yellow Hammer Hill Shiraz Malbec
Spring Flat Shiraz

The wines were big and juicy (and shiny for some reason, thanks Mark) but we found they were lacking in structure. Perhaps they need a little time, but they aren't exactly inexpensive so we weren't particularly tempted to find out.

There were barrels dotted around the winery displaying platters of bread and saucers of Olive Oil, hungry after our drive (and hungover from Saturday's Duck and Pinot dinner) we snacked away and really liked the oil. Turns out it is Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil from the winery itself. We bought 9 bottles between the 5 of us, along with some wines for gifts. Despite not loving the wines ourselves, the fact remains that the world at large DOES love them and who are we to pass judgement on THAT.

In the pouring rain we made our way back into the town of Heathcote to visit Heathcote Winery, a widely distributed and fairly reliable producer of such wines as Craven's Place and Mail Coach Shiraz.

The Cellar Door was busy, I suspect due to the overflow from WDC and once our host was available to serve us he was very attentive and professional, a man who knew his job and through him we discovered some wines with structure and very reasonable price tags, an enjoyable flight of very drinkable wines.

Upon enquiring what our next move should be, our host didn't hesitate in recommending we visit Sanguine Estate, which also only opens to visitors without appointment a couple of times a year. The lovely part about visiting wineries which don't have commercial cellar doors is that you often get to just hang out in the winery, and Sanguine was a GREAT example of this.

In contrast to the unassuming entry to Wild Duck, Sanguine has an undulating drive, flanked by grand trees and winding past dams and the Sanguine Vineyard itself. The winery building is as grandiose as the entree, through huge barn doors we're greeted by a huge and very modern looking winery, lined on one side by steel fermentation tanks and on the other by French Oak Barrels.
On the far side there is a bar set up and, from behind it a gentleman calls "G'day! Come in, don't be shy!"

We are invited by Winery founder Tony Hunter and the greeting, along with the atmosphere and as it turns out, the wine is warm and inviting.
Tony talks with authority, knowledge and passion about the wines which are grown just outside those grand walls and made made all around us, pushed by gravity, combining modern facilities with traditional methods.

We tasted

Sanguine 2009 Chardonnay
Sanguine 2008 Cabernet Blend
Sanguine 2008 Tempranillo
Sanguine 2009 Progeny Shiraz
Sanguine 2008 Estate Shiraz
Sanguine 2007 D'orsa Shiraz

And WOW.

These wines are brilliant. The Chardonnay is lean and mouth-wateringly moreish in a Chablisienne style, with an individual chracter seemingly exessive for its $19.95 price tag.

The Temp is also leaner than expected, medium bodied but ripe and generous in flavour, also an apparent bargain at $24.95

My favourite was the Estate Shiraz. A truly harmonious wine, balancing clear and distinct flavour with silky, broad palate and a soft, lingering finish. I can't wait to open mine with a good roast, casserole or ragout pasta.

So Sanguine Estate managed to evaporate any hint of disappointment we may have experienced in Heathcote and it was unanimous that Sanguine is now our favourite Heathcote destination.

Thanks Tony. We travelled home with a glass half full.


___________________________

Address:

ABN: 87 007 007 801
Postal Address:
PO Box 669
Heathcote VIC 3523

Vineyard and Winery address:
77 Shurans Lane
Heathcote Victoria 3523

Phone:

Vineyard Phone: + 61 3 54 33 3111

Email:

jodi@sanguinewines.com.au

This Weekend:

Tahbilk 1927 Vines 2000 Vintage Marsanne
Selbach Oster 2007 Spatlese Riesling
Ata Rangi 2002 Pinot Noir
Farr Rising 2007 Pinot Noir
Torbreck 2009 'Juveniles' GSM
Teusner 2010 'Dog Strangler' Mourvedre