Had an excellent dinner up at Shakey Tables in the Hunter Valley the other night. Ambience is good, service excellent and they have a very well priced and comprehensive wine list. On this night we were lucky enough to be allowed to drink our own selection (more on this later).

To start with I ordered the Foie gras & truffle filled brioche with a jellied pear & grape terrine. A very interesting dish that was well presented and offered a range of flavours and textures. To follow on for main I chose the Wagyu beef short rib, potato & pea puree, baby root veg & bone marrow dumplings . This dish was sensational. So juicy. So moist! The texture was similar to a duck confit so meltingly soft and tasty. Oh and we also had a big bowl of chips. I like chips and these were chip perfection.

We drank some interesting wines too. I am just going on memory here rather than notes.

Served blind there was a 2001 Albert Mann Schlossberg Grand Cru Riesling. No problem picking it as an Alsatian in options. A big wine full of flavour and power. Some botrytis and plenty of phenolic extract. Bit short on the finish though.

Next up we opened a 1999 Tardieu Laurent Cote Rotie. This wine is 100% shiraz. Quite stemmy on the nose (must be whole bunches?) with black fruit, smoky oak. Very clean. Just above medium bodied with those stemmy tannins intruding a lot. Over the night this wine opened up very well. Long term wine with a lot of potential.

Then (again blind) a 2000 Brunel Les Cailloux Chateauneuf du Pape. Picked this as a Rhone valley wine but not a CDP. A much cleaner smelling wine than the last one I had. Smells great - you know raspberry, herbs, bit of leather..all of that. Really smooth and refined palate. Drinking very well. Delicious.

A 2000 Meerea Park Terracotta Shiraz/Viognier looked super with a generous nose of stone fruit, spice and vanilla. Lovely ripe sweet fruit on the palate. Looking young but very drinkable.

The 1998 Meerea Park Alexander Munro Shirazhas a complex nose with berry, pepper, anise and leather. Good fruit. Still tannic. Opened up very well. This wine has years to go. Very impressive.

The 2003 Meerea Park Hell Hole Shiraz looked as good as ever. Classic stuff.

Simon, the owner of the restaurant, went off to open a 2000 Mount Pleasant O’Shea Shiraz for us because someone (was it me..hint hint) had not tasted it from a whole bottle. The oak jumped out a bit. Cheap looking resiny oak. Under that very dark, very ripe licorice fruit. Tannins fine and ripe. Quite warm with alcohol. Built up and improved in the glass and the oak settled in. This is monster Hunter Shiraz. Loved it but I wish they would use better oak.

We mopped up the rest of the wine over a plate of excellent Stilton and some Scottish oatmeal biscuits (I would rather water crackers). A top night of food and wine. Shame about the company