The Home of Renowned Tasting

Monday is always an alcohol free day (or AFD if you need another TLA) and it always feels such a shame to waste my prostigious talents by having a day off. What to do? The wine is piling up and the cotton is high. The inaugural Winorama Oil Off is my solution - at least for today. Today’s round is the Barossa v Spain. The tasting is done in three stages. Smell, a teaspoon of oil, and dipping with (organic pharaoh) bread. I don’t know if that is the proper way of doing things but it seems good enough to me. Tasting stuff other than wine is like being a beginner all over again and appropriately humbling. I can just feel all the renowned olive oil tasters chortling at me…
Introducing our three oils from L to R

Torzi Matthews Vat 1 - Harvest May 2006 - $18 - 500ml
Unfiltered and made from new season fruit grown on the Barossa Valley floor from the Frantoio, Verdale and Barossa Wild varieties.
Aromas of green fruit, pepper and green tomato. On the palate a lighter peppery style with grassy green banana flavours. Not heavy or overly rich. Slight metallic taste. Pepper and a slight bitterness to close. Tails off on the finish. A lovely fresh style - perhaps like a riesling? Rated 3rd.

Aubocassa - Harvest November 2005 - $27 - 500ml
DO Mallorca and made from 100% Arquebina olives. Produced by Bodegas Roda of Rioja.
Intense tomato, vegetable, banana and grain aromas. On the palate an unctuous thick texture bursting with grassy tropical fruit and spice. Distinguished by it’s balance and great length of flavour. A full bodied mouthfilling oil - perhaps like a white Burgundy. Rated 1st.

Torzi Matthews Una - Harvest June 2006 -$18 - 500ml
Barossa Ranges and Valley Floor made from 100% Barossa Wild olives.
Aromas of banana, flowers and ripe fruit. Distinctly fruity and rich with a touch of spice. The palate is slightly greasy but has plenty of fruit flavour and a good bitey peppery finish. Lots of character. A medium to full bodied oil. Hmmm perhaps a (really good) gewurtztraminer? Rated 2nd.

I’ll come back and update the notes over the next few weeks as the oil gets tasted in various ways. I already know that the Aubocassa is a salad transformer second to none. A revelation.

Many thanks to Domenic Torzi and Bodegas Roda for supplying the oils used in this tasting. I am a much happier and slightly tubbier man for the experience.

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I am a bugger for pasta and also for self praise. This is one of the best things I have eaten this year. I purchased some outstanding smokehouse bacon today from Schulz butchers in Angaston - Barossa Valley (sourced locally in Sydney I might add). Naturally I felt compelled to cook up an Amatriciana. Here is my improvised recipe. Serves two.

Ingredients
125g top quality smokehouse bacon
1 clove of garlic (organic Italian is 100 times better than old Chinese muck..)
150ml dry white wine (d’Arenberg Broken Fishplate today)
Herbs de Provence
Teaspoon of Chilli Flakes
1 tin of quality diced Italian tomatoes
250g of Italian Rigatoni No 31 (La Molisana for me)
Grated Reggiano

Technique (such as it is)
Dice bacon
Smash garlic with chefs knife
Fry in saucepan.
Add white wine.
Throw in tomatoes and chilli flakes.
Reduce a bit.
Throw in herbs.

Cook pasta (lots of water)

Serve and top with Reggiano.

Outstanding.

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