This article appeared in The Week That Was on March 26, 2010.

STOCKING THE PM’S CELLAR—UPDATE FROM NICK STOCK

Well over 100 wineries have pledged their top kit to the cause and the combined value is running at well over $30,000—quite a nice start, but we need to dig deeper, Australia. Henschke have tipped in six bottles of Hill of Grace and many wineries have offered museum stock and seriously precious bottles. Vanya Cullen has pledged half a dozen of her Kevin 07 Chardonnay, no more fitting wine for the current Prime Minister. Here’s some recent comments:

“As a fifth generation Eden Valley winemaker, celebrating over 140 years of family winemaking, it would give me the greatest Aussie pride to know that our Prime Minister highlights to the world leaders that our wine industry has the oldest Shiraz vines, oldest soils and some of the oldest wine families, with none better than Australia’s most famous single vineyard wine, the Henschke Hill of Grace.: 6 x 2005 Henschke Hill of Grace.” —Stephen Henschke.

“The beauty, individuality and quality of the best Australian wine needs to be appreciated and shared with world leaders at the PM’s table.” —Vanya Cullen.

“What a bloody good idea, what with all of us kicking into the wind both here and abroad, it would be great to see our highest office showcasing Australia’s finest!” —Julian Forwood, Wirra Wirra.

• To help ‘Restock the PM’s Cellar’ email nickstock@bigpond.com.

STOP PRESS FROM NICK STOCK—“We’ve nudged through $40,000 of great Australian wines pledged to the PM’s cellar. The Barossa is leading the charge and, with great Australians like Charlie Melton tipping in, it’s going to put some serious glow in some very important cheeks. Charlie says, ‘I indeed support your initiative for getting national leaders to represent their countries vinous offerings and we will offer up some fine red—6 bottles of 2006 Voice of Angels Shiraz. Since getting your email I have been pondering the contents of George W’s cellar. God forbid!’ Wonder what Obama found under the Whitehouse when he took office? Apple Jack? Matt Gant and John Retsas have pledged six bottles of their Minchia Montepulciano—‘in case Berlusconi heads Down Under!’ We need to balance it with more great Victorian and Western Australian wine!”

On March 30 I wrote to Queensland producers inviting pledges with assisted co-ordination. The aim is to reach an AUD 10,000 wine selection.

As of April 22 the pledges (AUD 5019) are:

Boireann Winery 6 x 2005 Shiraz Viognier @ AUD 330 “We are happy to add to Kevin’s cellar” – Peter Stark

Jimbour Wines 6 x 2003 Jimbour Shiraz @ AUD 360 “I wish to contribute” – David Russell QC

Settlers Rise 6 x 2005 Reserve Shiraz @ AUD 210 “OK Shiraz it is-I pledge six” – Simon Murray Manager

Ridgemill Vineyard 6 x 2008 Cabernet Malbec Merlot @ AUD 150

Heritage Estate 6 x 2007 Reserve Chardonnay @ AUD 330

Hidden Creek 6 x 2007 Tempranillo @ AUD 150 “the Granite Belt is making great strides with this Iberian variety” – Andrew Corrigan MW

Symphony Hill 6 x 2003 Reserve Shiraz @ AUD 600 “highest scoring shiraz at 2005 Sydney Royal Show” – Ewen McPherson

Clovely Estate 6 x 2006 Double Pruned Shiraz @ AUD 360 “I salute your request to fill the PM’s cellar” – Luke Firzpatrick, CEO

Sirromet Wines 6 x 2007 St Judes Cabernet sauvignon @ AUD 1800 “Sirromet will give their finest red since opening” – Adam Chapman, Chief Winemaker

Ballandean Estate 6 x 2009 Family Viognier @ AUD 150 “good things are happening with Granite Belt viognier” – Leeanne Puglisi-Gangemi, Client Relations

Warrego Wines 6 x 2006 Scarlet O’Bubbles Tempranillo @ AUD 153 “fabulous for celebrating any occasion” – Kevin Watson CEO

Preston Peak 6 x 2008 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Carmeniere @ AUD 198 “the first release with this intriguing old World variety”

Kominos Wines 6 x 2005 Reserve Merlot @ AUD 228 “my best trophy merlot” – owner Tony Comino

As the dust settles on the Wine Spectator Top 100 Wines of 2009 announced November 20 last year the Australian finalists need some recognition.

Ten brands made the cut (no Penfolds Grange) but four wines from the Barossa Valley. And you think that means the tasters are biased towards big, buxom wines.

That does not appear to be the case. Four wines are entry level shiraz and another two, viognier and viognier-pinot gris are entry level whites.

Nineteen Italian wines made the list; the greatest representation of any exporting country whilst Bordeaux managed four wines at Number 40, 64,84 and 96.

The top wine last year was a Washington State Cabernet from Colombia Crest, a 2005 (USD 27).

Number 14 and the first Australian is Two Hands Bella’s Garden Shiraz 2007 (94); USD 60 one of their many super-premium shiraz from the Barossa Valley.

Number 24 is Penfolds St Henri Shiraz 2005 995); USD 65, a South Australian blend.

Number 39 is Yalumba Eden Valley Viognier 2008 (92); USD 19, a lovely textured white made by the virtual inventors of this style in Australia.

Number 43 is Schild Shiraz 2007 (92); USD 20, an entry level wine from the Barossa Valley.

Number 51 is Shoofly Shiraz 2007 (91); USD 14, is primarily an export wine made by Ben Riggs using Barossa, Clare and McLaren Vale shiraz.

Number 54 is Peter Lehmann Shiraz 2006 (91); USD 16, the standard and very well made Barossa offering of this stalwart winery.

Number 59 is Thorne-Clark Shotfire Shiraz 2006 (92); USD 33, is the company’s standard Barossa shiraz named after descendent James Goddard.

Number 68 is Heartland Viognier Pinot Gris 2007 (91); USD 16, Ben Glaetzer-made, 68%/32%, Langhorne Creek (80%), Limestone Coast (20%).

Number 73 is Jacob’s Creek Reserve Riesling 2008 (90); USD 13, a terrific Eden/Clare Valley blend with great aromatic character.

Number 82 is d’Arenberg The Stump Jump Grenache, Shiraz Mourvedre 2008 (90); USD 11, from old oak, a wonderful mouthful of spice and supple tannins

More info: http://www.winespectator.com/contentimage/wso/pdf/Top100list2009.pdf

Much has been written about the Asian palate and its new-found love of embracing high value wine brands.

And often come reports of pairing such high brow drops with soft drinks.

So I was much relieved to recently read Asian Palate, Korean-born Hong Kong-based Jeannie Cho Lee MW’s scoop of the best wine pairings with Cantonese, Shanghainese, Northern Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean, Central Thai, Peranakan, Singaporean, West Indian, Punjabi and South Indian cuisines.

This style of book writing has been a glaring omission from any East Asian sommeliers’ bookshelf and has now systematically detailed how wine styles dovetail into the enjoyment of a wide range of cultural flavours.

Future food lecturing in Asian restaurants about how to select, pair and harmonise our table wines is going to be somewhat easier.

Jeannie unlocks the first aspect of gridlock that Caucasians encounter among the Chinese culture – that of a profound liking for red wine. In fact she underlines the translation of “wine” to mean “putaojiu” or grape alcohol which we would see as brandy or cognac etc, spirit at 40 percent alcohol. Funnily enough Chinese usage does not capture this as grape origin wine either!

A better translation is “honhjiu” or “red alcohol” which explains even more the preference to drink red wine even before the health experts proclaimed the cardiovascular protection from the red grape or its wine.

This author establishes the Asian food building blocks of taste as the five s’s: sweet, sour, salty (the basic tastes) plus spicy and smoky, also suggesting that these are the fundamental s’s challenging each Asian at meal time.

She then goes on to address the four fundamentals of everybody’s taste; sweet, sour, salty, bitter then added that elusive but texture-grabbing sensation of umami (in food technical terms an amino acid -glutamic acid, the ingredient in stocks.) This makes many of us salivate when very hungry as we commence to eat.

As Asian cultures are more likely grab some green tea or a beer as a more familiar digestive or palate soother, some easily recalled suggestions about wine groups to drink from is applaudable, and is provided very clearly in this book.

For each origin cuisine there is a detailed taste Checklist: zero to five in intensity for salt, sweet, bitter, sour, spice, umami and flavour intensity.

Next in the Checklist is the wine taste scale; zero to five in intensity for sweet (sugar), sour (acidity), tannin (drying sensation), body (texture), flavour intensity, and finish (impression).

Jeannie is inviting hosts, chefs, sommeliers or whoever to make two easy but fundamental decisions about how and what wine they serve.

First analyse your food tastes from Asian Palate table, page 26 for Cantonese flavours, all dishes you serve.

Second use some palate dissection of suitable wines, again using Asian Plate table page 26, and “voila” make some decisions about a pairing.

If unsure, I’d suggest choosing two wines, a little diverse from each other, say one red, one white to learn from the process.

For more information www.asianpalate.com ; Asian Palate USD 98 from Asset Publishing HK.

Yesterday Hilton Brisbane general manager Martin Kendall announced the programme for the 2010 Hilton Brisbane Masterclass weekend held July 24-25. www.qldmasterclass.com

This is one of Australia’s longest running chef and winemaker featured events (since 1995) centred in one hotel where participants eat and drink exactly what the presenters demonstrate.

The hands-on weekend has previously invited many stars – Gordon Ramsey, Charlie Trotter, Michel Roux, Michel Richard, Antonio Carluccio and at the last event, Newcastle-born Brett Graham who has added his third UK Michelin star since visiting Brisbane.

Stars for 2010 amongst 41 presenters are Californian baker Peter Reinhart, Swiss Lindt Master Chocolatier Thomas Schnetzler, Susur Lee from Toronto, and for the first time ever a sliver of Hilton greatness with chefs from Beijing Wangfujing (Yu Xiang Gu), Kuala Lumpur (Latchumanan Supramanian), Auckland (Cristiano de Martin), Cairns (Jimmy Shu) and Sydney (mixologist Grant Collins).

Despite many past Masterclasses the Hilton chefs have supported the back of house plating the thousands of recipe morsels concurrently demonstrated by the glamour chefs. This is the first time ever to see some Pacific Rim Hilton stars on parade at a weekend a little Asian focussed.

So come to Brisbane for this, but book early if you wish to climb the lift to stay in the hotel, rooms sell quickly. brisbane@hilton.com

The headline wine event will be Brokenwood’s vertical of Graveyard Shiraz (AUD 100) celebrating 40 years of production in the Hunter Valley.

I will focus on more chefs and winemakers in further blogs. meanwhile I must finish reading Jeannie Cho Lee MW’s definitive and award winning wine and Asian food matching tome Asian Palate to be prepared for the Weekend. www.asianpalate.com