The best way to appreciate any wine is around a table with friends and food. At Jervois Supper Club last week chef Kane Wilson was fine-tuning his menu to align with the bottles that Jim Brown – the winemaker at Brood Fermentation – had brought along for the night. It’s not many places you’ll get not just a degustation menu… but one with ‘matching wines’ – we know that’s common enough – but… where the food is specifically fine-tuned to pair with those wines? And it is $99. In the city, that might get you the food alone – if you’re lucky.
I start on the Lemonade Cake Field Blend 2023 – a “fruit salad wine” where as each varietal was picked, it would be added to the blend. Led by skin-contact Gewurztraminer and whole bunch pressed Sauvignon Blanc but including every varietal they process during the vintage. So there’s also Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Riesling. A touch of funk to this harvest wine, but also a crunch of cranberry, orange peel and sarsparilla.
‘Nothing boring’ sums up what we get this evening. A farmhouse style cider (we would call it ‘rough cider’ back in Bristol) called ‘Many Hands’ and the Forager Chardonnay 2023 are on the table when platters of Grilled kahawai with yuzu dashi and spinach; Miso barley, koji cream and yukari seasoning; and pork croquette with fermented plum and pickled turnip also arrive.
Umami-rich flavours meet sharp and sour. The barley dish is homely, old-fashioned with a modern twist.
The cider kicks out of the glass – fresh and fizzy, alive and prickly, with lemon rind and honey notes. The Chardonnay quite clean, with an austerity and a spark of electric energy through the palate. Pithy citrus and peach also turn up at the generous, phenolic-laden finish.
More food. More happy faces around this long table. BBQ beetroot is slathered with black garlic and toasted hazelnuts; sitting next to beef tartare, dressed with a 1 year old tamari, to pile onto crisp black rice crackers. Miso soup with wakame completes the course. Rich, savoury, and with hint of sweetness – a maypole of intertwining flavours.
For me, the first of the reds – Sedure Pinot Noir 2023 works best on the night. The bright, perky reds of Northern Italy come to mind. Intensely aromatic, with whole-bunch fermentation adding floral and spice character. A redcurrant and cranberry jubeyness to the fruit, with a little root beer and tamarillo thing going on too.
A more familiar style to the NZ palate is Orchis Pinot Noir 2024. Darker, richer and with that black cherry meets savoury personality we often have in local Pinot. Plum, roasted carrot, sage and some toasted, peppery spice. Well-made, with supple tannin and great acidity, I just prefer the tone of the Sedure myself.
The end of the food arrives, and what looks like a fairly straightforward slice of vanilla parfait, is drizzled with a magical ponderosa lemon cheong – a traditional fermented fruit syrup – to give a sweet, concentrated lick that has spoons scraping across plates to corner the last drops.
