I must admit I was quite taken back when I received a phone call requesting a set of Queensland wine styles to fit a far Outback lunch at Quilpie, fly-over of Lake Eyre (bubbles darling) followed by dinner at the Birdsville bakery.

This was the Hunter Gatherer Dinner Club (HGDC) having its convivial meeting in Queensland’s far-flung southwest. At the time eastern Australia was experiencing dual weather events which filled the Lake Eyre basin with its greatest volume of water since the 1991 floods.

So this amount of water swamps the parched centre about four times each century.

This group barely tolerates grains in anyone’s diet, and on a lunch/dinner meeting there is a blend of both feral (wild caught) and farmed protein in animal form. This is backed up by crustaceans (yabbies) and fish (yellowbelly); and the salads are wild harvest spinach and other varieties that foraging chefs know.

Founding HGDC chair Debra Newell had recruited star chefs Peter McMillin (Harveys – Brisbane), David Pugh (Restaurant Two – Brisbane and the Queensland food ambassador) and ACT-based James Kidman (of cattle baron fame) to cook the menus in temporary kitchen surroundings.

Last July 34 eager palates took off in a Skytrans jet out of Brisbane bound for Quilpie and a sunny winter’s lunch overlooking Lake Bulloo. On the menu was yellowbelly ceviche washed down with Robert Channon Pinot Gris 2009 (Granite Belt), goat kofta and Channel country beef paired with Barambah First Grid Shiraz 2008 (South Burnett).

The dessert was enriched with steamed local Eulo date and Stahmann pecan pie, and tarte au citron for freshness, washed down with a Granite Belt sticky, Witches Falls Botrytis Semillon 2008.

After lunch guests belted up for a three hour trip over Innamincka, a trip down a very wide Cooper Creek, and then runs over the northern reaches of Lake Eyre as the sun started setting.

To celebrate this spectacle from the air, the regeneration of this arid tract of land and another Club event, flutes of Jimbour Ludwig Leichhardt Reserve Pinot Noir Chardonnay NV were passed around. Leichhardt would have been on the ground below, 150 years ago.

Dinner at the Birdsville bakery continued the cause: tagine camel, curried head-shot rabbit, korma camel and quondong sponge.

During the past 30 years the movement of the human diet since cave occupation times has come under intense scrutiny. The major illnesses such diabetes, gluten intolerance and juvenile obesity point squarely at the influence of the grain-inputs that we eat.

Debra Newell defines it pointedly “most of us are omnivores; the shape of our teeth, our hand-eye co-ordination, our digestive juices and the dependence on animal-derived amino acids are symptoms of a human animal protein based diet. Grains and soy bean contain phytic acid which binds the minerals needed in our diet, and probably start the chain of symptoms attributed to irritable bowel syndrome”.

So the debate will continue: grain versus animal and where the balance lies.

www.thehuntergatherdinnerclub.com.au

There is always a lot of fun associated with a Boireann tasting: you know there is a gem of a wine to be discovered every year, and maybe not the same lineage as the previous year.

To new readers Boireann is the meticulous handicraft of Peter and Therese Stark who make their wine totally on their special site, a vineyard 5km off the main highway Brisbane-Wallangarra at the Summit if travelling south to NSW. Their vineyard is almost four times the elevation of the Lower Hunter Valley.

That means rows of grapes each side of the small road into the property, a small tasting area to visit and buy and adjoining is controlled storage where all the bottles are hand laid out in bays before packing up for visiting buyers.

Behind the cellars is Peter’s vintage area and a temperature-controlled barrel shed. It’s all very simple because what you see is what you get: all grown under your eyes, spending time in barrel from April until February, then bottled under screw cap before the next vintage and rested until sale in the third quarter of the year. That means 2009 reds are now on offer.

Each side of the road way are multiple varieties: cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, shiraz, barbera, nebbiolo, tannat, pinot noir, mourvedre, petit verdot, there was grenache but Peter chopped it off to replace with a brunello clone of sangiovese. And two rows of viognier to co-ferment with shiraz.

There is a first impression which will stay with you forever after tasting a Boireann. The wines are muscular, so Peter has that knack of extracting the last vestige of flavour and varietal intensity in each wine. The wines will be deeper flavoured and fruit concentrated, and therefore with greater backbone than their equivalents elsewhere around the area.

That really means you buy wine in its infancy, and really need to age some to watch the flowering process. Restaurant Two in Brisbane lists the 2002 Boireann Cabernet Sauvignon – that’s from a marvellous and unforgettable Granite Belt vintage, still fresh and vibrant without any sign of softening tannins – it’s still tense.

So Boireann has its own sense of place – The Summit, and a special vineyard which gives it the terroir that many in the know now respect. Wines simply sell out by late in the year, then no more for another year.

Pinot Noir 2009; 90, USD 26,14%, this has amazing colour, obviously the vineyard site is conducive to vine balance so that grape ripeness is rewarding; intensly pinot in the spice direction, palate is muscular, crunchy yet fruit flavourful, power in the mouth and needing some time to settle, when it does, what a reward, will never be a simply cherry juice style like the Yarra; made to stay, stern on alcohol.

Cabernet Sauvignon 2009; 94, USD 22.75, 14.5%, has good not exceptional colour, the impressive aspect is the ripeness, it is all there in the spice/cherry spectrum, and without leafiness in a testing growing year. Well done. The palate is a trifle herbal, not green with great tannin firmness that I expect of Boireann; without it there is little structure and less ageworthiness.

The Lurnea 2009; 95; USD 25.50, 13.5%, 30% cabernet, 30% merlot, 20% franc, 20% petit verdot; good/great colour, such an exciting nose from the franc perfume and verdot aromatics, this must taste good, mocha oak sweetness, medium bodied, nicely textured and rounded together as a flavour experience. Similar tannin weight to the cabernet but more complex and structured, backbone and a trifle more acid to settle in.

Merlot Petit Verdot 2009; 90, USD 20 , 13.2%, 70% merlot, 30% petit verdot; when merlot does not wish to stand alone, why do so, and in a testy ripening year like 2009 when grapes can stay leafy-flavoured, this wine leaps out from the verdot portion which is not insignificant.

Estate Shiraz 2009; 94, USD 41, 13.2%, what magnificent colour, deep wine, serious, nose of spice and cedar which is hard to lose, entry is sweet and soft, spice city, rich soft, and elegant as silk. The resounding acidity points to long aging. No viognier this year as the frost go it.

Mourvedre Shiraz 2009; 92, USD 27,13.5%, 50% mourvedre, 40% shiraz, 10% tannat; great colour, stains my glass, emphatic nose of black fruits, mourvedre on the prowl and consuming the flavours of the other two varieties; monster and so is the tannin from both the mourvedre and tannat; length and crunch, keep 10-20 years.

Therese Stark has cleverly corralled the Italian varietals into the La Cima (chima phonetically), meaning “pinnacle”.

La Cima Barbera 2009; 90, USD 25.50, 14%; has great colour, liberal oak and more cedary than the Piedmontese, blackberry pip fruit flavours, nice violets and typical acid cut to soften the final flavours.

La Cima Nebbiolo 2008; 92, USD 27, 13.5%; in true nebbiolo style the colour is washed, some orange with the pinks, nose still rosey and fragrant, shows some sweet complexity, this wine aged an extra year over the other releases to gain nose power and tame the tannins more, it still has plenty but a very fine example of this variety meant to tease the palate of all comers.

This year for the first time, all wines were sealed under screw cap for better buyer guarantees. Of course the down side of a screw cap focussed country is that glass bottles that hold a cork finish become rare (imported) and therefore expensive. In today’s carbon credit environment locally-made glass is a good result and less miles.

Peter Stark expresses his thoughts on the 2009 season: “2009 season started with spring frosts which took most of the viognier, tannat, barbera and nebbiolo. The growing season was cool, but pretty good weather. Vintage was cool, cloudy and a few showers. Bird damage was pretty extensive. Wines are medium-bodied with a good intensity. 7/10″

Long-time deli owners Narelle and Mark (Marko) have recently revamped their Spring Hill (Brisbane) bistrocafedeli to seven-day trading, catering for all-day breakfast and long lunching.

This week’s event was a Tuscan-influenced dinner seeking to draw on the special skills in Tognini’s kitchen combined with Mark’s obvious passion for his sourcing and ingredients use.

Starters were influenced with gorgonzola (as a tart), very minerally, and slow roast cherry tomato, which emphasised the texture of Vietti’s Roero Arneis 2009, 88 (USD 49), unwooded, a trifle funky yet amically dry and cleansed with a nice nectarine bitterness balancing these food flavours.

The twist with the next plate was a baking of semolina-formed gnocci , cutely shaped with pinched ends and topped with buffalo parmesan, a Mark special. Plozner Pinot Grigio 2008 under screwcap, 86 (USD 27) kept it’s pear flavour profile of the north eastern grigios of taut acidity.

No Tuscan fare comes without a ragu, this one local wild boar over pappadelle; and a supple but simple unwooded sangiovese from Fattoria Zerbina nearby in Romagna, Ceregio 2008, 87 (USD 23.50) pairing.

The Togninis have been chasing good flavoured free range pork with renewed veuve so a late-arriving large loin, bone-in was startingly good. It had fat, that’s the flavour bit, but also moist, juicy/succulent and hard to not stop eating more.

A pair of Chiantis teased out the pork flavours; Poliziano 2008, unwooded, 88 (USD 24.75), an area Chianti owned by a Montepulciano-based maker, and Fonterutoli Classico 2007 from near Castellina, deeply rich in colour, probably from a touch of cabernet, oaked, rich in sour cherry to tease out the pork jus.

Mark added a Sicilian touch with a side of baked sardines over currants. 

Togninis have run a cheese room for years, and become masters at “fromaggio” from Mark’s home province of Lombardia and artisan makers close by.

What came as a surprise was the service detail; cheese by wine pairings, three Italian cheeses from Sicily and Piemonte; wines from Sicily, Piemonte and Romagna-where else!

Testun al Barolo, a semi-firm mix of sheep and goat milk, is aged four months in barrel over nebbiolo grape skins, which stain the surface, giving a fermented grape surface nuance over a crunchy, creamy palate. Paired was Zisola 2007, the Mazzei family’s Sicily property making nero d’avola, this bottle very rural smelling and sun-ripe from its jamminess, 88 (USD 39.75).

Cevrin is a small round goat cheese, 100 g with mountain herbs pressed in (smelt of thyme and oregano to me, but also containing purple flowers). It teamed up with a ripper wine, Vietti Nebbiolo Langhe, a regional bottling from 2006, 90 (USD 52), floral, almondy, gentle but persisting tannins over barley-sugar ripeness, it’s acidity brings out the goatiness.

Life is too short to miss a blue mould cheese. Piemonte’s Toma blu, a semi-hard cows cheese, 8 kg round aged in barrels with herbs and spices giving this a piccante flavour with mild blue mould threads.

As it demanded a sweet or fortified wine to match the mould, Romagna-bound Fattoria Zerbina’s passito style, rack dried table white albana wine, Arrocco was superb. The 1997, 94, (USD 65 fro 500 ml) has kept a lemon green-gold lustre, ethereal apricot nose and delish sweetness which garners enjoyment for blue cheese eaters.

It’s a matter of oak-aged sweet wine with a dry finish sweeping up the cheese fat, finishing in a piccante manner with savoury mould bitterness. www.togninis.com including recipes.