A Date with d'Arenberg

Wine Depot had more food and wine moments with one of Australia's more humorous wineries - d'Arenberg. The dinner event featured 6 wines paired with 5 dishes prepared by the adventurous chefs at purple feet.

We were seated somewhere between tables named after d'Arenberg fun facts like "Footbolt" (the race horse that Joseph d'Arenberg sold to start his winery) and "Mclaren Vale" (where d’Arenberg vines are grown. Among the first wine regions in South Australia.)

Some snapshots of the evening...

Special prices for the Money Spider, d'Arry's Original Shiraz Grenache and Stump Jump GSM

The Galvo Garage, Stump Jump Sticky Chardonnay and the Dead Arm Shiraz were also on sale!

 

All ready for a dinner feast... Alex, Lia, Grace and myself

Gian and Kalin

 Brett and Andy

Alex with Toby

  Apple melon mesclun salad topped with Atlantic Salmon Trout, chopped pistachios and drizzled with a green tea dressing. This first course was harmonized with a refreshing white - The Money Spider Roussane. It has fruity hits of melon and an influence of green tea.

Next was the Iberian pork loin on a bed of crispy arugula leaves with rhubarb cherry plum sauce, paired with the Stump Jump - an aromatic red filled with notes of peppercorn, dark cherries and plum.

 Lamb medallion drizzled with licorice coffee and plum jus, complemented by a glass of d'Arry's Original Grenache.

 Toasting to good eats!

  Gourmands, Lalay and Jojie

More satisfied guests, Marly Laraya and Beng Abella

A duet of grain fed beef and Wagyu medallion smoked in tobacco leaves. Chocolate, wild mushroom and mint, and truffle sauce top this succulent dish. The Galvo Garage Cabernet Sauvignon and the award-winning Dead Arm Shiraz bring out the smoky, meaty taste perfectly.

the finale - buttered peach, green apple and orange rind crepe with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream and butterscotch glaze. It's made even more sinful by the Stump Jump Sticky Chardonnay which is packed bold, sweet flavors of marmalade, cumquat, ripe peach and orange butter.

 Good job, Chef Marco!

Looking forward to the next Garden Party with wines from Chateau Ste. Michelle of Washington State!

Guess who came for lunch?

I was thrilled to have my first taste of the notoriously quirky d’Arenberg wines yesterday. This Aussie brand may have stuck in my head for its cool names but I'm now a firm believer that its infamy comes from honest-to-goodness bottles... the kinds that landed it a Winery of the Year Award and a cult following for Dead Arm Shiraz (beating the $550 Penfolds Grange bottle).

Arriving at Purple Feet, I saw the table set for 10 and was curious to see who the surprise guests were that Stephan invited for lunch.

While waiting, I began dipping my hand at the ice-filled wine buckets to see what’s in store for the afternoon. (Ok, partly because it just looked enticing in the heat of the day) We were going to start with a very cold glass of the Money Spider Roussanne. (Roussanne being a white wine grape originally French grown, and known for its russet or reddish brown color called “roux”.)

I took my seat at the end of the table and lo and behold, joining us was Colin Mackay, the man behind the city’s chic trinity of dining spots - Sala, Sala Bistro and People’s Palace; Oliver Kreuzer, EAM F&B of Mandarin Oriental Manila and Eddie Sarton, the new F&B director of New World Hotel.

Suddenly, I got excited to see what they had to say about the pairings, and which wines and courses in particular they would come back for.

An apple melon mesclune salad topped with alfalfa and drizzled with jasmine green trea dressing for starters. Juicy, grainy fruits with some chopped pistachios set off the taste of the Roussanne. Paired with this was the Money Spider, which was Oliver's wine pick of the day. 

Eddy, Oliver, and myself

Across, Brett, Colin and Stephan take in the aromas.

The unanimous choice was the second course! All of our guests chose this Iberian Pork loin as their favorite dish.  Its an exclusive offering at Gourmet Depot, where you get the highest quality meat from the Spanish Iberian pig which feeds only on acorns. Its meat is ridiculously tasty and an absolute must try.

I would dare say its even tastier than rib eye with the fat content and the buttery texture. The trick is, you try to get everything in your fork for a complete flavor experience -the savory porkloin that melts in your palate, the rhubarb cherry plum sauce falling off the sides, then the crispy, feathery thin arugula leaves. Then you dig in for another bite. 

This was served with d'Arry's Original Shiraz Grenache and The Stump Jump.

Though a bit Intimidating to look at, the third course had all the makings of a hearty three-way turf dish. Though an off cut, the piece of grain-fed oyster blade beef proved that its the cooking that matters in making the meat tender and succulent. The lamb chop had a subtle taste to it while the Wagyu medallion was very tender. Giving the meats a richer taste was the tobacco leaves it was smoked in and a decadent topping of chocolate, wild mushroom and truffle sauce.

To accompany the dish, an equally robust red wine like the Coppermine Cabernet Sauvignon that's Eddy's choice and the Dead Arm Shiraz which got Colin's thumbs up.

For Dessert, a buttered peach, green apple and orange rind crepe topped with vanilla ice cream and butterscotch. Probably my favorite part. Especially because we drank it with the Sticky Chardonnay that's so sweet it feels like syrup you can pour on top of fruits or ice cream. Coincidentally, I researched serving suggestions of this wine and found that it is meant to be dribbled over dessert. Yumm!

Why does the sticky Chardonnay have such a high sugar content? Apparently its grapes are affected by a fungus that sucks the moisture out and leaves behind a concentration of all the sugar, nutrients and minerals in the shriveled up fruit... Kind of like why raisins are saccharine.

I'm definitely looking forward to the d'Arenberg Garden Party next week featuring more food and more of these wines.

The Wine for People Who Don't Take Wine Too Seriously

What if we took off wine from its pedestal and just took it for what it really is? Because underneath all the stuffy names for grapes and the snobbish reputation, wine was meant for drinking, not overthinking.

And if there is one person who enjoys his wine, has a passion for making it and has the most fun naming it, it must be Aussie winemaker Francis "d'Arry" d'Arenberg Osborn. 

Taking it easy here with son Chester, a fourth generation chief winemaker

D'Arry, who led d'Arenberg to being Winery of the Year by Wine & Spirits Magazine, is quite notorious for giving his bottled creations weird and decidedly quirky labels. He's named his wines Hermit Crab, Stump Jump and even "Cenosilicaphobic Cat" (after finding his son's less-than-sober cat named "booze" drinking spilled red wine. Cenosilicaphobic means fear of empty glasses.)

But for all his humor, he has some serious accolades under his belt and has earned the respect of those in the industry... all while he's dressed down to his most comfortable Hawaiian shirt.  Because, as Anthony Madigan of Australia’s Wine Business Magazine says “When your wines are as good as d’Arenberg’s and you’ve won just about every prize worth winning including over a thousand medals, the chief winemaker can wear whatever he likes.”

One of his world-renowned wines, which was awarded 96 points and won over the Penfolds Grange in the Penguin Good Wine Guide 2010, is the Dead Arm Shiraz. Like all his good wines, this bottle's name has a good story behind it. It is joked that it's called dead arm because the bottle is so heavy that your arm hardly worked after drinking it. But more interestingly, Dead Arm is actually a vine disease which causes half of a vine or its "arm" to die, while the other half, probably because it gets double the nutrients, produces the most amazing grapes.  

Another award winning bottle (which won gold medals in the Royal Adelaide Show '06 and the Sydney International Wine Challenge in '08) is the Laughing Magpie.  The vineyards in which they harvest its grapes are home to the unique native Australian bird, the Kookaburra that makes a laughing call. The Osborn family then named their two wild pet Kookaburras the “Laughing Magpies,” which is another type of bird that looks nothing like the Kookaburra save for its black and white color. But since the name has stuck, and the Magpie is black with a stripe of white feathers, they thought why not name McLaren Vale's first ever Shiraz Viognier blend combining the (black) Shiraz and (white) Viognier after it?

On to another bottle, the Feral Fox, which tells of the animal found roaming in Adelaide Hills. Though normally carnivorous, they seemed to have developed an appetite for the grapes in these parts. Although they are often found munching on the fruits hanging on the lower parts of the vines, the winemakers don’t mind as they make good crop thinners, enhancing the quality of grapes left above. After feeding on the grapes, they also fertilize the soil because the grapes have a laxative effect on these foxes.

"Up until bottling, our winemaking is deadly serious. From then on, it's all about having fun," says d'Arry.  Understanding the characteristics of each individual vineyard, and each parcel of fruit, are all part of their intimate knowledge of their wine and their home.  The philosophy behind the famous red stripe found on every bottle - to be different -  does not only apply to their distinct choices for catchy names, but to their approach in winemaking. "You've got to have a feel for your raw materials before you're able to express your artistic vision," says Chester. 

D'Arenberg's wine names are somehow a testament to the winemaker's personal relationship with his vines and his vineyard. From the role of surrounding wildlife in each harvest season, to the many tools used in the trade, to age-old family traditions - all these short stories or "vignettes"  are captured in the wonderful names that go into every bottle. That's what goes into each critically acclaimed bottle of d'Arenberg's wine collection.

If you want more fun facts (with humorous illustrations) behind the names of d'Arenberg's wines, I highly recommend that you go to http://www.darenberg.com.au/ and look up Money Spider, Broken Fishplate and The Galvo Garage!

For those who want a taste of this legendary Australian brand, join Wine Depot's upcoming dinner event, "A Date with d'Arendberg," where a four course dinner will be paired with selected wines, happening March 26, 2010. Visit http://www.winedepot.com.ph/.