The Shoo Fly, Laughing Magpie, Hermit Crab and the Dead Arm

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Added: Fri Mar 7th 12:12pm
Posted in: Cuisine

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I walk into a tasting with the usual suspects at our Thursday Wine Group. This is a search to find great wines at great prices that are from small, cool and groovy vineyards to serve at several great restaurants in Orlando. This is the industrial panel...no swallowing, no verbal opinions ( til the end), wines are all tasted blind so we can't see who the producers are....We went through 50+ wines to find 5 wines we could use for By the Glass possibilities for our panel. My wife will not accept that this is actually work, but I have to tell  you that this was a marathon...but that's not the story. I'm actually writing a about a dinner that was held after that tasting....so...

After that almost 3 hr wine marathon ( that produced some ridiculously good wines for our group) it is off to the restaurant Kres in Downtown Orlando for a Birthday dinner...a killer menu, super people and some pretty cool wines. Ralph Oliver is the chef there, and he set up a menu to match some wines from two McClaren Vale Wineries in Western Australia, two from Shoo Fly Wines and three wines from the venerable D'Arenberg Winery.

It starts with a salad with Warm Duck Breast...and crumbled Maytag Blue Cheese, Tupelo honey and poached pear. We drink the Shoo Fly 'Buzz Cut' White...a blend of Verdelho, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Riesling and Chardonnay. Flavors like citrus and cut grass, yellow apple and stone fruit..the Viognier adds a little jasmine aroma to the glass...but still, the wine is pretty angular at first...and then as you taste the salad with it, the wine softens...and everyone is amazed at how it changes. First lesson; Bitter flavors ( like vinegar or carmelized veggies, etc) makes wine softer. Better...and we go through this with every cool dish and every wine...

Next we are served poached Atlantic Turbot with  white beans and  charred escarole. The fish is fresh and pure...you can almost smell the salt air from sea. With it, we try the D'Arenberg ' Hermit Crab'...it's a white made of Marsanne and Viognier. It's incredible with the fish. Marsanne  has a round, rich flavor like Chardonnay, but has more baked apple and spice in the nose and mouth. Viognier gives it a floral note and softens the wine. Once again, we taste it first and it is more one dimensional. Then we taste it with the Turbot and Escarole, and it opens up, gets softer, more round. Great course.

The next course is Braised Short Rib with Apple Spatzel. I haven't had spatzel since I cooked with Ken Brown and Clair Epting at our old restaurant in Maitland. My mind wanders to that time, and I find myself wishing I was cooking with Ralph in the kitchen to see if I could still manuever on a hot line. But back to reality...how good was the rib? I rarely eat meat. I would've eaten this every day. We serve arguably one of the most highly respected McClaren Vale red, The Dead Arm Shiraz, in one glass, and another rightly famous wine, The Laughing Magpie Shiraz /Viognier, in the other. Both are so different...the Dead Arm is from a vineyard that is dying. The vines have a disease that can only support one cane to grow grapes ( the other cane is dead...so it's the dead arm....) the Shiraz is big and deep and dark. Spicy, Powerful. The Laughing Magpie is lighter, but more elegant. Like many Southern France Rhones, the red is cut with white ( here it is Viognier, 6% of the cuvee). I think I like the Magpie better...more refined, smoother. The name comes from the Kookaburra's that are around the vineyard...the winemaker's daughters call them Laughing Magpies. I call it really good wine. I want another rib.

Last we have a dessert...it's a Molten Turtle...with praline ice cream and caramel. We are served the Shoo Fly Shiraz with this. Now the second lesson...sweet flavors make wines stronger. The dessert is incredible...but it makes the wine very strong and tannic. What to do? I got everyone a lime slice in water and ....the bitter flavors ( the lime) make the wine softer ( see lesson one). The Shoo Fly Shiraz is a softer, berry style Shiraz...tasty and good and is priced right. We picked it because it was softer that the others, and hoped it would work with the chocolate in the Turtle...but not all things are meant to be! Next time, we go to a sparkler at the end..

Meanwhile, the Turtle beckons...I hate it when I actually finish a dessert, it's against my rules...but finish I did, and then we end the  dinner with a rousing round of happy birthday for our friend Scott.

See you all next time...