menu Dinner 817

Thursday 18th March 2021

Canapes

Beef & Capsicum Brochette Tuna Tartare / Confit Egg Yolk / Rye Parmesan Shortbread

NV André Clouet Champagne Rose No. 3 Entrée

Beetroot Marinated Ocean Trout / Labneh / Cucumber/ Caviar/

Parsley Oil

White 2016 Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis 1er Cru Butteaux 2017 Bodega Castro Martin Albariño Rias Baixas Family Selection

Mains

Fillet of Southern Ranges Beef Wellington
Onion Puree / Shallots / King Brown Mushrooms / Black Cat Truffle

Red 2009 Château Lafon-Rochet
2011 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon Moss Wood Vineyard Red 2006 Domaine Jean Grivot Clos Vougeot

Dessert

Delice de Bourgogne
Walnut Bread/ Fruit Paste
Pistachio Cake/ White Chocolate Sorbet/ Rhubarb

Sweet/Dessert 2013 Château Raymond-Lafon

Head Chef: Scott Alsop Food Master: Andrew Lewis Wine Master: Andrew Rowan

Wine Master's Report

 Wine Master Report 2020.

It came as a great pleasure to be the Wine Master for the society for 2020.

I must admit to accepting the position with a great deal of trepidation given the Oenophiles, Aficionados and Connoisseurs among our number.

Unfortunately, the year started with a whimper and not a bang with the club deciding to run a Zoom Meeting due to COVID. Having had zero experience in the job, my timing on the uncorking, decanting, washing and rebottling of the wine was, let’s say, a couple of hours out!! However thankfully help was soon at hand.

As I settled into the role, I found it to be a most enjoyable experience, and I am now starting to well appreciate the work of past Cellar Masters in preparing the wonderful selection of wines available to us.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank our Cellar Master, Shaun English for taking the time to input all our wines into the new Cellar Tracker program. It has certainly made the job of selecting wines much easier given the functionality of the application in sorting and searching on the wines that we hold.

I have particularly enjoyed researching and selecting wines from Europe, it has been a very rewarding experience learning about some of these famous wine regions, and the opportunity to serve some of these great wines to you.

I’m pleased that as a club that we were able to pull together a few dinners through the year, and would take the opportunity to thank our food Master Andrew Lewis in being able to organise them under such trying circumstances.

It has been very satisfying to research and decide upon the Wine and Cuisine pairings, and then to listen to the comments from around the table on how well (or not) those selections matched the great food that was prepared for us.

This role has greatly increased my knowledge of wine, and I am grateful for the support of past Wine Master, and current President Anthony Singleton, past Cellar Master John Coco and new member Glenn Sharp for their assistance through the year.

Finally, with thanks from our very able President Anthony Singleton, and the rest of the committee, I look forward to the coming year and enjoyable times ahead.

Kind Regards Andrew Rowan

“In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.” Benjamin Franklin

 

Treasurer's report 2020

 Annual Treasurer’s Report Financial Year Ending 30 June 2020

• The 2019/2020 financial year commenced with an opening balance of $2,803. The closing balance as 30 June 2020 was $11,868.

• The society Bank account remains with ANZ Bank the account keeping fees total $125 for the financial year.

• The financial accounts are being audited by Sharp Accounting (Glen Sharp) and will be loaded up online on the Society Website once completed.

  It is recommended that cellar fees remain at $500 p.a. Dinner Fees at $150 per dinner for Members and $120 for guest.

  A treasurer prepared income and expenses summary statement for the last two financial years below.

	YE 30/06/2019		YE 30/06/2020
Opening Balance Start Financial Year	$3,181		$2,802
Total Income	$40,084		$40,039
Expenses Percentage Percentage
Dinner Expenses	$22,815	57%	$20,592	51%
Wine Purchases	$15,887	40%	$7,048	18%
Bank Fees	$144		$125
Insurance & Memberships	$873		$920
Wine Boxes & Glasses	$477
Agricultural $ Pastoral Society			$330
The Courier (Ballarat)	$127
Printing	$129
Closing Balance End Financial Year	$2,803		$11,868

• The income collected for dinner and cellar fees total $40,039. The expenses can be split as follows:

  • ▪  Dinner Expenses represent 51% of total income $20,952 (YE19 $22,815)

  • ▪  Wine Purchases represent 18% of total Income $7,048 (YE19 $15,887.) ▪ Otherexpensesrepresent1%oftotalincome.

• The cash position was higher than previous year as a direct result of a reduction in wine purchases, this was a combination of a change in cellar master as there was a significant time and effort placed in a new database for the cellar and in addition a deliberate decision to maintain a strong cashflow position through COVID for good governance.

  Gabriel Yanes

  
  
  
  

President's Report 2020

 

Members of the Society,

What an honour it is to be the President of this wonderful Society, but one was not expecting that the first official duty I would carry out back in March 2020, would be to shut the show down indefinitely!

 

Fortunately however, we only missed three dinners in the last 12 months, April, August and the picnic in February. Admittedly we did have to diversify and in a first (some would say, hopefully the last) in the long history of the Society we held two “Virtual” dinners by ZOOM. My thanks to the Committee for their hard work and support in a time where nothing was certain and planning was extremely difficult.

 

Whilst the ZOOM dinners were a little clumsy, I believe those that participated enjoyed the opportunity to enjoy good food and good wine in an unprecedented time in global history.

 

Luckily, we were able to celebrate two momentous occasions, the opportunity to celebrate and honour Mr John Williams for his outstanding contribution during 50 years of membership, congratulations once again John. We also celebrated the 75 year anniversary of the Wine and Food Society of Ballarat.

 

One unfortunate casualty of the pandemic was our opportunity to host the FWFSA Victor Gibson weekend later this month. However, for now this has just been postponed to later in the year and we hope, that as the months pass, normality returns and we will get to showcase our town and Society to the national membership.

 

On the Membership front, we have welcomed new members and thank those current members who have done the introductions as this will ensure our Society continues strongly into the future.

 

I take this opportunity to especially thank our hard working Committee, none the least, Mr Andrew Lewis, who as Food Master, had a most challenging time finding suitable venues and caterers. Mr Andrew Rowan, who in his first year as Wine Master was tested with some untraditional moments to cater for. Office bearers Mr Dean Stevens, Secretary and Mr Gabriel Yanes, Treasurer. Mr Shaun English is making his mark as Cellar Master and to the rest of the Committee Mr John Coco, Mr Andrew Bradley and Mr Paul Martino. Thanks for your support and hard work.

 

Thank you also to Mr Bob House for his continued work and upkeep of our blog.

 

I sincerely hope that the last twelve months has just been a bump in the road, and I look forward to future gatherings in keeping with the tradition of the last 75 years.

 

 

Cheers.

 

12^th March 2021.

 

“The difference between a glass of wine and your opinion, is that I asked for a glass of wine.”

Dinner Menu Federal Parliament 1909

 This link comes courtesy of Shaun.

As he says,"Interesting to note they were drinking local wines then."

https://www.instagram.com/p/CMBKd2SrTqV/?igshid=j6z3nir9yk7l

Cellar List March 2020

 

Cellar List, click to download

Cellar Master’s Report 2020

  

  Before I begin my report, I would like to acknowledge my predecessors, who did so much to lay the foundations for a very enviable cellar.  I have inherited the role with much pleasure, due in no small part to their efforts

    One of the major achievements of the year was to move the cellar database form the old Excel format, to the new Cellartracker format.  This is better adapted to cellar management, and produces more user-friendly reports.  One of the, unfortunate, causalities of this was that the price information on the old cellar bottles was not transferred – it was too large a task.  However, if anyone feels strongly about this, I will be happy to facilitate them entering that data.

    The cellar has grown, since fewer dinners meant that less wine was consumed.  We now have 1322 bottles.  Total purchased for the year was 156 bottles, at an average bottle price of $46.92.

 

    I have aimed to achieve a “balanced” cellar, and continue to do so.  A balance is a mixture of heavier and lighter styles, and a mixture of Australian classics, and imports.  Of course, this is very subjective, and I may not be able to please all members.  Also, I believe that one of the benefits of W&FS dinners is that we get to drink wine that we wouldn’t normally drink, and I am trying to provide that opportunity in the cellar.

 

    It is apparent that we are somewhat heavy on pinot noir, so I imagine that not much of that will be purchased for some time (unless it’s an offer I can’t refuse!).  Cabernet sauvignon was becoming a bit light, which I have addressed by adding two quality Margaret River cabernets, and a classic Coonawarra cabernet.  Australian Riesling always is well received, and some very budget friendly, high quality examples were purchased. Some more textural whites (Chablis and Rhone) have been added.

 

    In the imported wines, I have tended to avoid red Burgundies and Bordeaux.  In general, they are either too expensive, or too mediocre. I have purchased some very good Italian and Spanish wines, and will remain on the lookout for quality wines from Portugal.

 

    Finally, I plan to follow in the footsteps of Jim Patterson, in offering the opportunity for members to buy some of the “orphans”.  These are wines that are in too short supply to allow all members to enjoy them, but are too good to simply put out for a first come, first served lucky dip.  By selling them, money will be returned to the society to allow the quality of the cellar to improve. 

 

Please find below the purchases for the year;

Andre Clouet Grande Reserve Brut 6 x 50 = $300

Champagne Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve 6 x 79 = $474

Champagne Philippe Fourrier Cart d’Or Blanc de Noirs 6 x 50 = $300

Peter Lehmann Black Queen sparkling shiraz 2014 3 x 40 = $120

 

Schloss Johannisberg Riesling ‘Grunlack’ Spatlese 2014 Rheingau 6 x 50 = $300   

Petaluma Hanlin Hill Riesling 2020 6 x 20 = $120 

Heggies Eden Valley Riesling 2018 6 x 13 = $78

 

E Guigal Saint-Joseph Blanc 2013 6 x 39 = $234

Louis Moreau Chablis 1er Crus ‘Vaillons’ 2016 6 x 40 = $240

Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis Premier Crus “Butteaux” 2016 6 x 40 = $240

 

Conde de los Andes Rioja Blanco 2015 6x 25 = $150

 

Rockburn Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017 6 x 37 = $222

Tertini Pinot Noir (Tasmania) 2018 6 x 40 = $240

Domaine Pierre Damoy Gevrey Chambertin “Clos Tamisot”  2013 6 x 80 = $480

 

Bleasdale “The Wild Fig” SGM  2018 6 x 35 = $210

 

Ringbolt Cabernet Sauvignon  2018 (Margaret River) 6 x 19.99 = $120

Haughton Gladstones Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 (Margaret River) 6 x 60 = $360

Wynns Coonawarra Cabernet 2018 6 x 30 = $180

 

Mauro “Cosecha” 2006 6 x 40 = $240

 

Hobbs ‘Gregor’ Shiraz 2017 6 x 60 = $360

 

Fratelli Revello Barbera d’Alba 2019 6 x 29 = $174

Vite Colte Barbaresco Riserva 2010 6 x 50 = $300

Ellena Giuseppe Barolo di La Morra 2016 6 x 49 = $294

Tenuta Montanello  Barolo di Castigione Falletto 2016  6 x 79 = $474 

Produttori del Barbaresco Montestefano 2000 6 x 96 = $576

Luciano Arduini Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2017 6 x 50 =$300

Domaine Gilles Robin Crozes Hermitage ‘Alberic Bouvet’ 2015 6 x 39 = $234

156 bottles

Total of $7320

Average $/bottle = $46.92