Zema Estate Wine Dinner

Welcome to the Zema Estate Wine Dinner, held at The Angel Cafe on Thursday night.  I hope you enjoy the amazing food prepared especially to accompany the beautiful red wines made by the Zema family in the Coonawarra region of South Australia.

Now I should have started with a picture of the Duck Parfait with Cumberland jelly and thyme croute, served with the 2005 Zema Estate Merlot, BUT oops I had eaten it before I remembered to photograph it, ha ha.  Take my word for it, it was a delightful, tasty morsel washed down with a lovely subtle merlot, yum!!!

The first course served with a 2008 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon was Venison Carpaccio with cauliflower sorbet, spinach spheres and garlic crisps.  Now this was a Heston Blumenthal experience totally.  The little shiny green spheres of spinach were as smooth as glass and wobbled when poked with my fork.  Like tiny green jellies, but when the skin was broken inside the spinach was as smooth as paint.  The cauliflower sorbet was mind blowing, putting this icy cold ice cream textured morsel in my mouth and experiencing the taste of cauliflower was totally weird.  The paper thin slices of venison paired beautifully with the spinach and cauliflower and the crispy garlic strips added the crunchiness and bite that was needed.  The wine once again went beautifully with this dish.

Course two my favourite meat dish, was Crackled Belly Pork, pommery mustard chou croute, apple gel and glace de viande.  The 2006 'Cluny' Cabernet Merlot that washed this down was my favourite for the night also.

This pork was devine, the crackle perfectly crisp and not too crunchy, the apple gel like tiny dew drops on the plate to add that touch of sweetness to the pork.  The chou croute, crunchy and delicious, really this was just delicious.

But wait there's more, Course three.  Brined aromatic Duck breast with confit leg terrine, truffled white polenta and macerated cherries.  Add 2005 Family Selection Cabernet Sauvignon and this is complete.  The terrine is probably the best I have ever had, I'm not a lover of jelly terrines and this was perfect for me.  The confit of duck leg was slightly crunchy in texture and full of beautiful rich duck flavours.  The truffled polenta, the first time I have had white polenta by the way, was delicious and the duck breast sweet accompanied with the beet.  The wine a little rich for me but wonderful just the same.

Next we have a refresher of Spring fruits.

Each of these beautiful sorbets is accompanied by fresh fruit and a wafer thin slice of orange dried and crispy, yum.  The stick was like hardened fairy floss nice to have something crispy to go with the softness of the sorbets and fruits.

With our palettes cleansed we were ready to indulge in the fourth course,  Whipped Brie, aged cheddar, port glaze and buttered brioche.  The 2005 Family Selection Shiraz served alongside.

Honestly another wonderfully decadent night of wine and food and I am so glad that we are able to indulge ourselves this way.  How the scales will read on Tuesday is another story, oh well I wouldn't change a thing.

Have a nice weekend all.