National Wine Centre & Penfolds Magill Estate

I forced Spuey to visit me in Rad-City and this meant that I didn't to do things alone this weekend.  Yay!  Today we checked out the exhibition at the National Wine Centre.

I did actually walk to the National Wine Centre a few weeks ago with the intention of seeing the exhibit alone, but it was really hot that day and when I nearly got there my feet were too blistered to continue.  

Spu admiring the architecture. 

The exhibition was a lot smaller than I expected and for some reason the main room was very dimly lit.  It was like walking into a cave.  Not sure if that was the intention or if they just forgot to turn the lights on.  I suspect the latter.

Spuey didn't like his rosella.  Me and my giant phylloxera bug.

We learned a bit about the history of wine making and the challenges winemakers face when growing grapes.   The phylloxera bug decimated the vineyards in Europe but Australia remained largely unaffected.  This is why Australia can lay claim to having possibly the oldest wine producing grapevines in the world despite (only!) being 160 or so years old.  :D

Dinner was at the Penfolds Magill Estate which is situated about 15 drive from Rad City CBD.  (If you don't want to take a cab, the public bus takes 30 minutes and drops you right at the entrance.)  It's pretty cool.  A proper vineyard within the city limits!  It's not the biggest Penfolds vineyard (that's out in the Barossa) but it is where Dr. Penfolds himself first set up shop.

I've been wanting to eat here for aaaaaaggggeees.  Partly because none of my previous wine tours included their Barossa outpost and partly because I wanted to eat the degustation menu.  Nothing could be more depressing than me having degustation alone :(  Hence, Spuey's here to help me out!

Our work on the 'The Price is Right' paid off. 

Spuey and his vineyard.  

We arrived a bit too early for our dinner reservation and so explored the grounds.  It was pretty empty.  I was surprised.  The cellar door being closed at 5pm was a reasonable explanation.  

Spu and I were the first people in the restaurant.  I've gotten used to walking into bustling eateries and fighting for reservations so this was quite a change.  It was a little awkward to consider the possibility that Spu and I might be on the ONLY people to dine tonight... errrrrr.  Luckily, a few more people started dripping in.

The welcoming plate. 

Spuey and the empty restaurant.  Me and the empty restaurant.

I told Spu that it was ok to wear shorts and when we got there, he said 'This is a pants restaurant.'  I told him, 'It's ok, I'm not wearing pants either' and to that he retorted 'That's cos you are wearing a dress.'  I still stand by my shorts-are-ok stance.  It wasn't anywhere near as formal as other restaurants and it was quite a balmy evening.  

Ok, now for the food.  The degustation menu on the website wasn't what we had tonight because it presumably varies according to the season.  We were told to allow three hours for the degustation.  *shocked face*  Wtf?  Is that normal?  The Matteo's degustation didn't take that long!  Oh well, when in Rome.

Spu opted to only have one glass of wine but I decided to enjoy myself tonight and ordered the 'premium' matching wines.  My only other choice was the 'super premium' wines and they didn't give the option of 'average' matching wines.  This would be my first opportunity of tasting a good range of the Penfolds wines.  Yay!

The amuse bouche resembled a fluffy white marshmallow with a sprinkling of rusty flakes.  Did they really serve us a marshmallow as a palate cleanser?  No, it was a white tomato foam.  Such light foam, yet so concentrated in flavour.  It tasted just like tomato paste or in my case, it also reminded me of a mouthful of the salad sandwiches I used to eat from the primary school canteen.  Not sure how they managed to create the flavours of white bread, butter, lettuce tomato, beetroot and carrot in my mouth but it was pretty impressive!  I had mini tomato loaf and Spu had the chive and parmesan bread.  Yes, packed full of flavour.

(L-R) Yellowtail kingfish, truffle, baby herbs - matched with a pinot noir chardonnay.  Scallops, iberico jamon, tomato olive oil mousse, basil and lemon crunch - matched with a riesling.  Kangaroo, pumpkin, wattle seed, barbecue essence - matched with an ale.  That surprised me.  A beer!

I could now understand why we had to allow three hours for the degustation.  I was definitely getting a bit woo-whee.  The food portions weren't large enough to offset my alcohol consumption!

(L-R) Marron, samphire, young shoots, peas, organic honey - matched with a chardonnay.  Wagyu, sweet corn, legumes, sprout leaves - matched with a cabernet shiraz.  The first of two desserts; an apricot souffle - matched with a tawny.  Very light but full of apricot-y goodness.

The second dessert, bread and butter pudding.  When I saw a $20 bread and butter pudding on the a la carte menu, I wondered how would they fancy up such a humble dessert.  But, as you can see from the above picture, it looked nothing like a typical B'n'B pudding.  I was quite drunk by this time of night but I do recall that the cylindrical piece consisted of light custard-y mousse encased in a thin, crispy, bread shell.  On the left was some ice cream.  I'm sure it was more than just plain old 'ice cream' but I just can't remember the gastronomic details.

Overall a very nice meal and appropriately paced for the alcohol consumption.  However, I was still hungry by the end of the night.  Spuey and I discussed getting a cheese bao but it didn't happen - I was too tipsy to be bothered. I admit I can be quite the pig (I didn't earn the moniker 'Supergut' for nothing) but I really do think that an extra one or two mains would have rounded out the meal more nicely.  My stomach would have been more satisfied and my brain less intoxicated.

Excluding the amuse bouche, there were five main dishes and two desserts.  Compare that to the seven mains and two desserts at Matteo's.  I was definitely full after Matteo's, whose richer dishes help pad out the stomach.  Anyway, it may sound like that I'm nit-picking but I'm more or less warning those with large appetites to just be prepared for a post-dinner Macca's run.  I did enjoy my dinner and I did enjoy my booze and I would happily accompany anyone else who needed a eating-buddy.