Immunet anti-virus in the "cloud"

If you are like me, you'll find a pc is a good friend but a bad enemy. Why does it go crook when you need it most? Most likely you've picked up malware. This is the sort of thing your mother warned you about and I'm sure you remember her advice; protection!
This is now easy with Immunet, it's free upgrades automatically, always on and can help.
I've been an Immunet user for 4 months and highly recommend you try, see the link in the sidebar.
Sadly, this is no use for those Apple Mac geeks who now, I think, are the majority of our members.

NZ CONVENTION JUNE 2010

Dear Society Members.
As many clubs haven't met by 15th February, our Early Bird Registration date, we are putting back Registration to the 15th March.To re-cap the main highlights of the Convention.Pre Convention will begin with a two day tour of Auckland's own tropical-island paradise, Waiheke Island, including wine and olive tastings,fine dining and unsurpassed vistas. This will be followed on Friday by a trip to West Auckland wineries hosted by the Dalmation fathers of the NewZealand wine industry.
The cost of this will be $NZ775 or $NZ700 for "earlybird" bookings.
The Convention will start with a "meet & greet" at the Convention Hotel before heading to Clevedon for an Italian evening.On Saturday we will visit the wonderful food & wine area of Matakana and in the evening dine at a historic Devonport Hotel, with one of the best known NZ wine personalities as M.C.Following the AGM on Sunday there will be lunch at the yacht club on Takapuna beach, where we will sample some of the iconic wines of the region, along with promising new wines. The Convention and the Pre Convention Tour will each cost $NZ775 ,or $NZ700 for "early bird" bookings. For full details please visit our web sitehttp://www.nswfs.org.nz/Convention10.html We look forward to seeing you nextyear.
Kind regards,
Carolyn WorsleySecretary

Menu W&F February 2009

670th Dinner 18th February 2010

AGM

Gee Cee’s

President : Paul Hemming

CANAPES
Oysters with chardonnay dressing
Steak Tartare
Moet and Chandon NV

ENTRÉE
Chicken and Avocado Tian
Eileen Hardy Chardonnay 2004

FIRST COURSE
Seared Ocean Trout on citrus risotto with wild rocket and black truffle
Penfolds Eden Valley Riesling 2004
Domaine Christian Moreau Vaillon Premier Crue 2004

MAIN COURSE
Slow roasted Pork belly on a bed of black pudding mash with panfried asparagus semidried tomatoes with a roast garli jus
Hanging rock Shiraz 2002
Mornington Estate Pinot Noir 2000

DESSERT
Apple Charlotte with fruit compote with honey and cointreau yoghurt
Chateau Climens 1986

FOODMASTER : Dennis Chamberlain
WINEMASTER :Philip Dover

CHEF Mark Parsons

President’s Report to AGM, Wine and Food Society of Ballarat

Gentlemen,
It is my pleasure as President of the Society, to present the Annual Report at this year’s AGM.
Despite our Society’s relatively small number of members, we continue to enjoy the benefits of a Cellar, laid down over many years by current and past-Cellar Masters. This enables us to enjoy our monthly dinners at the various establishments in Ballarat, accompanied by wines that few of us would be able to otherwise enjoy on a regular basis.
Over the past 12 months we have visited 8 different restaurants, and included some new venues for the first time. I am sure many of you will recall our May dinner at Heritage on Lydiard and the subsequent decision to hold our mid-year Ladies function at the same venue, which was a tremendous success.
We also sampled Harry Lime’s for the first time and enjoyed a most enterprising and enjoyable evening at Tony Campana’s Stockade Cellars with Peter Ford as our chef for the evening. The decision to invite a local winemaker, Ian Watson, to our October dinner at Sovereign Hill also proved very successful. The final evening of the year was our Ladies function at an old favourite, Craig’s Hotel, and this again did not disappoint.
Whilst we have enjoyed reasonable attendance at most of our functions, your Committee has struggled to find ways of involving new and younger members, which remains a concern for the future of our Society. I am sure the incoming Committee will welcome any input from members on this issue. The outgoing Committee has also suggested that it is time for newer blood on the Committee itself. The fear of joining a very social Committee such as this is misplaced. We meet the week before most Society dinners, and generally have a relaxed, pleasant evening at a member’s home with a glass or two of wine and food which can vary from casual, buffet-style to a more formal dinner at the host’s pleasure and absolutely no pressure. This is your Society and you must take charge of the Committee and the functioning of your Society.
I have been pleased to enjoy the support of a great Cellar Master in John Nelson, exciting and innovative Wine and Food Masters in Phil Dover and Dennis Chamberlain, with the precise and exacting support of Rob Campbell as Secretary and Jim Patterson as Treasurer, ably supported by Ross Wilkie and Bob House.
I am hopeful therefore that the incoming President will also have a great Committee to manage the Society in 2010, particularly as we are soon to hold our 700th dinner!

Paul J H Hemming

Winemaster’s report


It is with great pleasure that I present my first winemasters report for the year 2009.
This year has been a rapid learning curve for someone who is a self confessed foodie, as opposed to an experience wine connoisseur.
I must congratulate our foodmaster; Dennis Chamberlain for organising some memorable meals and interesting wine /food matching exercises.
Some challenging matches at times worked, the Borsch beetroot soup with the Pascal Joylet Sancere Pouilly Fume comes to mind and other dishes were impossible to match, such as Peter Ford’s greek salad ‘cheese course’.
I have learnt that, you never serve a red and a white with the same dish and a good dry sherry will go with a broad range of food.
The approving nod from the cellarmaster has told me I have gone close to a good match.
I hope, in my second year, I will be able to continue this challenging but enjoyable duty.

Philip Dover

Invitation to the February 2009 Dinner and Annual General Meeting


Members are advised that the 698th meeting
will be on Thursday 18th February , 2009

At GEE CEES Ballarat

At 7.00pm

Food Master: Dennis Chamberlain
Wine Master: Phil Dover

Guests are most welcome.
Dress –Lounge Suit
Electronic banking via account:
ANZ BSB 013 520 ACCOUNT 008699266 is recommended.


Cost $120 per person

Reply to DENNIS CHAMBERLAIN. 7 St Glen’s Way. Lake Gardens.3350
Chamberlain.Dennis.DK@edumail.vic.gov.au
RSVP Monday 8th February

Cellarmaster’s report 10/2/2010

Mr President, gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to present the Cellar-master’s report for 2009.
I trust that you will all have had a chance to look at the cellar list and associated information that should have come to you by e-mail (see link below).
You may note that the two areas of interest probably relate to wines purchased for the year and wines that we have consumed during our various functions. The number of wines consumed is somewhat greater than the wines purchased, and I think this is a trend we will need to maintain.
I have made every attempt to use my funds to purchase a smaller number of quality wines, which has basically been my philosophy during my five years as cellar-master.
During this period I have managed to re-format the cellar into what I think is a user-friendly arrangement, both on paper and also in the cellar.
With the help of Karin, I think we now have an Excell spreadsheet which allows the balance of wines to be adjusted on a monthly basis, both in and out, and obviously at the end of the year we have done an audit to make sure that everything balances.
I have also added, over the years, the cost of wines coming in, and nearly all the wines which have a dollar value are those that have come in under my stewardship of the cellar.
This year I think has been very successful, and Phil Dover has done an excellent job in showing us a wide variety of wine as outlined. He has risen to the extremely difficult challenge often of a menu provided a couple of days before our functions, and then to select and prepare the wines appropriately is certainly a labour of love.
At this stage we have only a very few single bottles and I think the cellar meets the current members’ requirements very well.
The only exception has been (as discussed previously) a surplus of some Australian red wines which, although bought in good faith, have been overlooked, and perhaps by the time they are drunk, will be past their ideal use-by date. This has been discussed in committee, and I have made some effort to go through the list and suggest some wines that may be considered for an auction later on this year. This will be further discussed at the first committee meeting. If in due course this is accepted, there may be a similar auction to that conducted several years ago, which I think was very successful.
Financially the Society is in a good situation, and I think with extra funding made from the sale of what would be excellent wine for current consumption, this will put us in a much better position to buy perhaps some of the otherwise unattainable wines, such as Burgundy and Bordeaux.
With that possible prospect I feel somewhat reluctant to hand over the control of the cellar to Jim Patterson, who will have the enviable role of spending the Society’s money on exotic wines!
I think however this is the appropriate direction for the cellar.
I must say it has been an honour and a privilege to have been in the role of cellar-master in the last five years, and I hope the Society continues to enjoy a wide range of wine and food, presented at an extremely high level, into the future.

John Nelson