Wine: ‘The event gave pointers to home entertaining’

Back in the summer, Spectrum ran a competition to provide two winners with the chance to take a party of four to celebrate the recently launched Jacob’s Creek Regional Reserve wines at a special dinner in Edinburgh’s prestigious Castle Terrace restaurant.

In conjunction with Adrian Atkinson from Jacob’s Creek, Dominic Jack and his Castle Terrace team honoured that pledge last month with an event moulding the dominant features of the six wines into a beautifully balanced epicurean event. It was intriguing to see northern hemisphere (and largely British) ingredients integrating well with exclusively southern hemisphere wines.

First came a halibut dish that united ceviche and sushi styles and was chosen to complement the crisp, lime-influenced and structured 2010 Jacob’s Creek Reserve, Barossa, Riesling. By common consent, the marriage neatly scaled down the acidity in both components yet accentuated their respective flavours.

The next wine was the 2010 Jacob’s Creek Reserve, Adelaide Hills, Sauvignon Blanc 2010 which, unlike Marlborough versions, veers towards mango rather than gooseberry. The resulting softness worked well with the Orkney scallops but the accompanying endive tarte tatin and grapefruit confit was a masterstroke as it mingled perfectly with the wine’s grapefruit-centred acidity.

A more conventional treatment awaited the seared hake fillets chosen to partner Jacob’s Creek Reserve, Adelaide Hills, Chardonnay 2009. This is cool climate wine with creamy, white peach flavours and a nutty, vanilla finish. The hake was accompanied by a salt cod brandade that not only enlivened the dish but also provided a neat contrast with the creamy and buttery elements of the wine.

Before the hake, however, we had encountered the first red wine, Jacob’s Creek Reserve, Adelaide Hills, Pinot Noir 2009 which had partnered a slightly unusual risotto using organic spelt and topped with crispy ox tongue. The pinot fans loved all aspects of this combination, especially the match between the meat and the wine’s cherry fruit and chocolate finish.

And so, to what one of the party called ‘oomphy boomphy reds’ with Jacob’s Creek Reserve, Coonawarra, Cabernet Sauvignon 2008. Here the food was hampe of Scottish beef and the slightly chewy nature of the wine neatly mirrored the texture of this very tasty cut while the cabernet’s leafy, cassis flavours reaffirmed Coonawarra’s credentials as the top area for the variety and provided the right degree of acidity to push back against the rich sauce.

Finally, came the Jacob’s Creek Reserve, Barossa, Shiraz 2007 which was given the tall order of matching an array of six different cheeses. The one it suited best was the handmade Dunsyre Blue from Lanarkshire with its rich and creamy yet slightly spicy flavours. In truth, it matched it rather better than port would have done. Some of the creamier cheeses, however, struck up a terrific alliance with the chardonnay we had sampled earlier.

With Castle Terrace’s slick service and imaginative food, the evening gave some useful pointers to entertaining at home. Red wine, for example, can successfully come before white, while white wine – especially chardonnay – works well with many cheeses. Be ready to cross international borders if you are satisfied the grape variety fits; consider not just New World, rather than German, riesling but also syrah from Chile or New Zealand instead of the Rhone. Even more importantly, the event showed how accompaniments should not just be garnish but used to pick up subordinate flavours – as the grapefruit did with the sauvignon.

The whole experience demonstrated brilliantly why ‘regionality’ is such a hot topic for Australia’s wine strategists. As for the individual components of this regional range, Coonawarra and Barossa reds are already class acts and the selected versions form a natural and successful part of the range. Of equal status – and this may raise eyebrows – is the impressive, carefully crafted Barossa riesling. Understandably, the Adelaide Hills wines still represent work in progress but it will be interesting to see how they develop – especially the chardonnay, given the revival of interest in cool climate versions.

The whole of this regional range retails at £9.99 a bottle, reflecting its position comfortably above the entry-point wines of Jacob’s Creek and other producers but Tesco does have both the shiraz and the sauvignon blanc on offer at £6.99 for the rest of October. n