A sunny Gidday to all Diary Readers, we hope you all had a Merry Christmas and best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year.
The Daymond-King tribe took the Gap off between Christmas and New Year and journeyed South (a chilly journey in the Southern Hemisphere) to Colleen’s parents place for Christmas day dinner. Our trusty Toyota wagon loaded to the gunnels with presents and wine and my dismantled monster Weber BBQ on which I was charged with cooking the turkey on Christmas day. Bush wouldn’t fly over for it so I was stuck with a regular bird.
The day turned out to be a cracker, with all Colleen’s side of the family together for the first time in 20 odd years and so there was a fair number of mouths to feed. Much preparation went into the huge spread that Heather and Peter (Colleen’s Mum and Dad) put on for the family and I expect for many New Zealanders you will recognise some of the dishes I list below. You will find the recipes for some of them in the Cooking with Wine Section, or by following this link.
Christmas ham, BBQ Turkey, Asparagus, Pumpkin Salad, Bean Salad, Tabouli, Tomato and Basil Salad, Boiled New Potatoes, Roasted potatoes, Retro Lettuce Salad, Fresh peas, Te Mata Cheese Company Brie, Kapiti Cheddar, Chocolate Truffles, Fresh fruit salad, and two wonderful Pavlova!
We had a selection of wines from around the world and of course Hatton Estate, starting with sips of Turtle Bay Sauvignon Blanc, EC2 Chardonnay (05 and 06) and Miro Merlot 2005. When the turkey came out the Syrahs were opened, 04, The Doctor 05 and the fragrant new release 06 Turtle Bay Syrah. We also had a couple of Premier Cru Gevrey Chambertain from the Humbert Brothers about this time from the 1999 vintage, and then we switched to our most recent Champion, the Tahi-ONE 2004. When the Pavs and the cheese were served we moved into sweet wines from Alpha Domus, the 2005 Leonarda and the 2005 Noble Selection, I think the Leonarda was the more preferred sweet wine based on depletion rates!
Serious games of Boules and backyard cricket ensued with a number of youngsters showing up the creakier Uncles and Aunts.
Us oldies got our own back when the volleyball net was strung up with the over 35s (ok the over 40s) beating the under 20s despite some very inventive scoring and rule changing by the teenagers.
Boxing day saw us head over to Castlepoint for our kids initiation into camping. And what a start! Castlepoint can be a tranquil peaceful place with a long curving beach, steep sand dunes, a small lagoon, and a striking lighthouse atop a large rocky knoll. It can also receive a battering from howling gales. Often it can be all of these things in one day! And so it was with our first foray into camping, a luxurious version I must say though as we had my brother Dave and his wife Jane’s caravan available for retreat should the weather really bad.
Each day was a gourmet experience with various produce from farm or sea brought round to our site to be BBQ’ed with that lovely task falling to me! We had two Barbies on site and they both got a good thrashing each day. EC2 a great match with the groper steaks, and Tahi 04 doing well with the lovely beef from Andersons of Masterton.
Jane rummaged around the Caravan’s cellar (oh yes fine wining and dining outside) and produced some old kiwi wines to match with wine we bought along. These are some of the treasures rescued from the cellar: a 1996 Huthlee Estate Merlot from Hawkes Bay, from Marlborough a Nautilus Cabernet Blend vertical of 1992, 1994 and 1998, a 2000 Tahi, and of course we bought along the younger pups in the form of Tahi 2004 and the 04 and 05 Doctor Syrah. Lunchtimes tended to be very relaxed with Turtle Bay Savvy matching BBQ prawns in garlic, salt and pepper plus Miro Merlot with grilled Lamb chops served hot or cold.
All this goes to show that it doesn’t matter what or where you are eating you can find a fine wine to make the experience magical.
Cheers
Michael
Read my favourite summer recipe
here.