Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Flavours of Tuscany
It could have been a recipe for disaster. You know how it is- you have something really special you want to share with a group of people you think will enjoy it, you try to bring it all together :and anything can happen.
In this case the something special was our enthusiasm for the grape variety of sangiovese . We have laid down six good vintages now and haven't ever tasted them all together. We have the space, the equipment, the chefs, the kitchen, the mailing lists, the wine, the food from our gardens and the time seemed right - the Matakana in May Celebrations of the 2007
wine harvest - to create an event to see how our sangiovese wines are aging.
We decided to organise a vertical tasting and a dinner, hosted by us and Raffaela Delmonte to share this experience with those who might be interested We also wanted to acknowlege the inspiration of the winemakers of Tuscany. Who better to create the menu and help compose the food than Raffaela, native of Tuscany, founder of the Auckland Slow Food Convivium, developer of www.aldente.co.nz and author of 'The Fragrance of Basil.' And who better to invite than the people on her aldente mailing list, David's interested buyers of Sangiovese and my ragged mailing list of ages past which consists mainly of people who have sent emails to me for one reason or another. We also wanted to celebrate the opening of our new building- which has created the opportunity to do it; and the 20 years since we purcahsed this land.
Raffaela and I started to talk about the menu. I wanted to find out what foods go well with Sangiovese so that we could put them on our menu and use them as signature dishes. Rafaella wanted to show that Italian cucina is more than pizza. I hoped that our chefs would enjoy the opportunity of sharing food experiences from a different culture. Rafaella hoped people would understand that the Slow Food culture is based on learning about your own food traditions. I hoped that we could all gain insights into our own food traditions here in Matakana New Zealand.
We both hoped that it would enhance our appreciation of food and the effort that goes into the growing and preparation of it.
All of this was done rather quickly against a backdrop of busy lives and commitments elsewhere. It involved a lot of teamwork by people unused to working together and communicating with each other. However, emails and phone calls paved the way, and Raffaela visited with some ingredients and recipes and began to cook with our kitchen team, taste the wine and look at some wine and food matches. Our kitchen team is made up of people with different temperaments and experiences. We have a laid back Kiwi chef de cuisine, and a highly organised German kitchen manager. Raffaela is very exacting. It was tense. More emails and phone calls. Do you have enough pecorino? What is braesaola? Do you have black nero cabbage and radiccio in the garden ? The grape ratafia is too sweet with the pear- you must find some grappa.
Then what should we charge for this experience? It's impossible to put a value on the wine. We don't have very much of it and bringing it all together was the occasion of a lifetime. The food was time consuming to source and in some cases very expensive. Raffaela's time- also hard to value. The chef's time- quantifiable by the hour, but you couldn't really charge that. In the end we decided on $200 a person, knowing that it was going to be interactive and entertaining besides the cost of food and wine.
Some people objected to this price, some of the people who wanted to come just couldn't afford it, so we decided the week before the event that we would cut the price to $100 a person. The process of setting the cost and price and ascertaining the value of food is an interesting one, and I'm sure that this is the start of a useful discussion. We decided not to put a price on the tasting, but the food, experience and the wine consumed over the evening would have cost us almost what people paid for it.
On Saturday night we hosted 50 people for the event. Our gardeners now know what the radiccio tastes like served with egg and onion. We know the best source of goat ricotta is from the Oteha Valley. We know that Paolo Delmonte makes his air dried beef best when it is hung in a boat and bathed with salt winds. We know that fennel doesn't go with wine. We know that we have made six very different sangiovese wines from six summers in Matakana. We also know that an event such as this can work, people can have fun together and form new friendships over wine and food, and I know that I might consider doing it again- if I can price it right and have a good holiday beforehand!
I know the foods I enjoyed best with the sangiovese were the ribbolitto soup, the braesaola stuffed with goats cheese, the pecorino with Cara's grandfather's honey and the pork in the dolceforte sauce. Annie's pear tart was delicious and the stuffed mini vegetables were a symphony with the Il Rosso.
The pictures of the chefs tell the story- at the beginning suspicion and disharmony, quickly moving to delight in the achievements of the kitchen.
In this case the something special was our enthusiasm for the grape variety of sangiovese . We have laid down six good vintages now and haven't ever tasted them all together. We have the space, the equipment, the chefs, the kitchen, the mailing lists, the wine, the food from our gardens and the time seemed right - the Matakana in May Celebrations of the 2007
wine harvest - to create an event to see how our sangiovese wines are aging.
We decided to organise a vertical tasting and a dinner, hosted by us and Raffaela Delmonte to share this experience with those who might be interested We also wanted to acknowlege the inspiration of the winemakers of Tuscany. Who better to create the menu and help compose the food than Raffaela, native of Tuscany, founder of the Auckland Slow Food Convivium, developer of www.aldente.co.nz and author of 'The Fragrance of Basil.' And who better to invite than the people on her aldente mailing list, David's interested buyers of Sangiovese and my ragged mailing list of ages past which consists mainly of people who have sent emails to me for one reason or another. We also wanted to celebrate the opening of our new building- which has created the opportunity to do it; and the 20 years since we purcahsed this land.
Raffaela and I started to talk about the menu. I wanted to find out what foods go well with Sangiovese so that we could put them on our menu and use them as signature dishes. Rafaella wanted to show that Italian cucina is more than pizza. I hoped that our chefs would enjoy the opportunity of sharing food experiences from a different culture. Rafaella hoped people would understand that the Slow Food culture is based on learning about your own food traditions. I hoped that we could all gain insights into our own food traditions here in Matakana New Zealand.
We both hoped that it would enhance our appreciation of food and the effort that goes into the growing and preparation of it.
All of this was done rather quickly against a backdrop of busy lives and commitments elsewhere. It involved a lot of teamwork by people unused to working together and communicating with each other. However, emails and phone calls paved the way, and Raffaela visited with some ingredients and recipes and began to cook with our kitchen team, taste the wine and look at some wine and food matches. Our kitchen team is made up of people with different temperaments and experiences. We have a laid back Kiwi chef de cuisine, and a highly organised German kitchen manager. Raffaela is very exacting. It was tense. More emails and phone calls. Do you have enough pecorino? What is braesaola? Do you have black nero cabbage and radiccio in the garden ? The grape ratafia is too sweet with the pear- you must find some grappa.
Then what should we charge for this experience? It's impossible to put a value on the wine. We don't have very much of it and bringing it all together was the occasion of a lifetime. The food was time consuming to source and in some cases very expensive. Raffaela's time- also hard to value. The chef's time- quantifiable by the hour, but you couldn't really charge that. In the end we decided on $200 a person, knowing that it was going to be interactive and entertaining besides the cost of food and wine.
Some people objected to this price, some of the people who wanted to come just couldn't afford it, so we decided the week before the event that we would cut the price to $100 a person. The process of setting the cost and price and ascertaining the value of food is an interesting one, and I'm sure that this is the start of a useful discussion. We decided not to put a price on the tasting, but the food, experience and the wine consumed over the evening would have cost us almost what people paid for it.
On Saturday night we hosted 50 people for the event. Our gardeners now know what the radiccio tastes like served with egg and onion. We know the best source of goat ricotta is from the Oteha Valley. We know that Paolo Delmonte makes his air dried beef best when it is hung in a boat and bathed with salt winds. We know that fennel doesn't go with wine. We know that we have made six very different sangiovese wines from six summers in Matakana. We also know that an event such as this can work, people can have fun together and form new friendships over wine and food, and I know that I might consider doing it again- if I can price it right and have a good holiday beforehand!
I know the foods I enjoyed best with the sangiovese were the ribbolitto soup, the braesaola stuffed with goats cheese, the pecorino with Cara's grandfather's honey and the pork in the dolceforte sauce. Annie's pear tart was delicious and the stuffed mini vegetables were a symphony with the Il Rosso.
The pictures of the chefs tell the story- at the beginning suspicion and disharmony, quickly moving to delight in the achievements of the kitchen.
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