A group of five ruffians and vagabonds from the Winestar Forum assembled at the Peasant’s Feast in Newtown to enjoy some food and wine.
The Restaurant: Peasant’s Feast is billed as Sydney’s only organic food dinner restaurant.
The food was down to earth, tasty and servings were generous. The staff were friendly, but a little bit slow at times.
Overall, very good value for money, the bill was under $40AU per head for corkage, entree, mains, cheese and coffee.
The Wines:
Most wines were tasted blind –
Mount Pleasant McWilliams Elizabeth Semillon 1996 (Hunter Valley, New South Wales): A very good start to the evening while we waited for the stragglers to arrive. Nice intensity to the nose. Lots of developed toast and honey characters but showed a bit watery/short on the finish. Ready to drink now. 91 Points
Te Kairanga Cabernet Sauvignon 1998 (Martinbourough, New Zealand): Initially I thought there was something weird going on with the nose and there was a decidedly green note to the finish, but it seemed to blow after 45-60 minutes. Quite enjoyable and would be better served after spending the next 5 years in a cellar. 89 Points
Noel Verset Cornas 1993 (Cornas, Northern Rhone, France): Brett-tastic! I wasn’t able to get into this, too much animal dominating the nose and palate. Very savoury. I believe this was a poor vintage in the Northern Rhone as well. 84 Points
Chateau Lascombes 1985 (Margaux, Bordeaux, France): I was told beforehand that I would hate this, but I much preferred it over the Rhone wine and would have rated this my second favourite wine of the night. Plenty of pencil shavings and cigar box characteristics. This wine is ready to drink now and is unlikely to get any better with additional age. 92 Points
Grosset Pinot Noir 1999 (Adelaide Hills, South Australia): Well made, with good fruit, but there was quite an obvious stalky character that put me off a bit. There are still only a few PN producers in Australia that compel me to purchase and Grosset isn’t among them yet. 87 Points
Smidge “The Tardy” Zinfandel 2002 (Langhorne Creek, South Australia): Tastes that were described were tomato chutney, green tomatoes, vegemite, ratatouille and more. I had a much better bottle of the 2003 version of this wine last year. This bottle was bordering on undrinkable. 79 Points
Wendouree Shiraz Malbec 2001 (Clare Valley, South Australia): Big, but not as tannic as I would have expected if I’d been told it was a Wendouree beforehand. Very good structure and I believe it’s going to be great if it’s given at least ten years rest before being opened. 91 Points
Rockford Cabernet Sauvignon 1990 (Barossa Valley, South Australia): A very classy wine, and my wine of the night. It was discussed that this was actually quite similar to the Chateau Lascombes tasted earlier in the night. Great structure and balance. 93 Points
All in all, a very enjoyable evening with some good wine, good food and great company.
Obviously a good night. Thanks for introducing the wine star forum. Looks interesting.
Hi Barbara,
The people over at Winestar forum are a good bunch.
The other big Australian wine forum is Auswine here. Auswine tends to be a bit more serious and tends to focus much more on reds, but it’s still a great source of information.