On Saturday 8th November 2008 FirstPress attended the first of the 2008 series of Spring Lunches hosted by the Lake’s Folly winemaker, Rodney Kempe. The lunch was held at the recently acclaimed Rock Restaurant (Chef’s Hats in the 2008 Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide), situated in the Poole’s Rock vineyard at Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley. For more information on Rock visit http://www.rockrestaurant.com.au
As we assembled on the terrace overlooking the Poole’s Rock vines, proceedings began with salted blue eye cod in choux pastry and Sydney rock oysters from Merimbula washed down with the very fine aperitif Pol Roger champagne.
While FirstPress guests would have been happy continuing with the aperitifs all afternoon, the serious business of fine dining and tasting aged wines was about to begin. Rodney Kemp had arranged with chef Andrew Clarke for a six course degustation menu of his dishes that would accompany both aged and more recent examples of Lake’s Folly’s signature Chardonnay and Cabernets wines.
First Course: Seared scallops with apple, hazelnut, curly endive, cider and grapeseed dressing. Accompanying this was a 1989 Chardonnay, deep yellow in colour with a light honeycomb bouquet. The wine showed a lovely complex chardonnay fruit mid-palate, finishing full flavoured, and long. The nuttiness of the wine perfectly complimented the apple and hazelnut dressing on the scallops.
Second Course: Crab and zucchini flower fritters with light bisque, baby globe artichoke stuffed with prawn. To contrast the first course matching, Rod Kemp chose the 2007 Chardonnay, a lemon yellow wine with jasmine and lemon bouquet, that while younger than its predecessor, showed apple and light buttery tones mid-palate. The long dry finish held lots of residual fruit, ideal accompaniment for the fritters.
Third Course: Duck breast with braised lentils, squab rillette and liquorice sauce. Initially I was a little apprehensive that the liquorice sauce might overwhelm the 1988 Cabernets. The brown brick red colour and dusty cedar aroma gave way to an ultra-smooth, medium-bodied, lightly fruited cabernet that coped well with the juicy duck and the earthy sauce. The wine was well balanced, and proved that Lake’s Folly Cabernets have the structure to age well.
Fourth Course: Grilled Wagyu rump, bone marrow dumpling, zucchini, oyster mushroom and horseradish cream. As the waiters delivered this dish to the table, my fellow diners were in awe of the aroma. This was a course made for the 2007 Cabernets. The wine was purple red in colour with aromatic plum and cherry bouquet. These flavours dominated the mid-palate, and lingered through to the end, reminiscent of pickled dark cherries.
Fifth Course: Wood roasted lamb rack, carrot linguini, pea puree, spiced bread and light caraway jus. I am a devotee of the combination of lamb and cabernet, and I was not disappointed. The 1998 Cabernets is a fine wine, medium red in colour with notes of cassis on the nose, continuing through the mid-palate where a hint of saddle leather blends with the soft fruit. This is a well balanced and integrated wine of real elegance.
Sixth Course: Hazelnut stuffed prunes with hazelnut brioche and Bailey’s ice cream. Now Lake’s Folly don’t make a desert wine, and that’s something perhaps Rod Kemp could explore with a small planting of Semillon. Nevertheless we were treated to a 2002 Le Tertre dy Lys D’or. The delicious golden yellow dessert wine, had apricot and honey aromas, a luscious mid-palate where melons emerged over the apricots. The wine had great mouthfeel, and a long honeyed finish.
In between Master of Ceremonies, Steve Abbott (aka The Sandman), assisted with tales of an interesting life, interspersed with two wine options flights.
Option 1: A venous blood red wine, with violets and blackberry aroma and a hint of alcoholic hotness, delivered sweet black cherry and blood plum mid-palate, and a dry, vanilla finish. What could it have been? Perplexed, FirstPress suspected a merlot based wine, but was unaware that Lake’s Folly had ever released such a wine. Indeed it was a 2003 Merlot, made in a special (i.e. very small) batch.
Option 2: A dark purple / red wine, with lifted blackberry bouquet. The mid-palate was full of blackberry and other dark berry flavours, and the finish was big. FirstPress’ assessment of the wine as a Cabernet Merlot Shiraz blend was off the mark. The wine was a Millbrook Estate 2005 Shiraz / Viognier from Western Australia. Today’s owners of Lake’s Folly, Peter Fogarty and family, also own Millbrook Estate.
This was a very enjoyable lunch, with tastings of fine examples of varieties for which Lake’s Folly is renowned, but the Hunter Valley less so. As one of the guests of FirstPress remarked, the lunch re-awakened his palate for well-made Chardonnay, and reinforced the quality in the Cabernets.
FirstPress paid for their tickets to this event.
To learn more about the history of Lake’s Folly, and the efforts of current winemaker Rod Kempe, please visit http://www.lakesfolly.com.au