Alternative no more
So many established varieties and wine styles are thriving across McLaren Vale.
2018 Bell & Gong Riesling, $30
This riesling is full-flavoured, luscious and exceptionally food-friendly. Its crisp, dry acidity is a perfect counterpart to the creamy tonnato, cutting through its richness, while notes of citrus and passionfruit are in balance with the savoury flavours of the dish.
To make the tonnato, add your tuna, anchovies, capers and egg yolk to a food processor.
Put the lid on and process. Once it looks like everything is broken up a little, begin to stream in the olive oil. When it starts to thicken, add the soy sauce, lemon juice and Worcestershire, then the remaining olive oil. Finish with the cream and a bit of water to loosen it to a thick but drizzly consistency. Add a few cracks of fresh black pepper and check and adjust the seasoning. Refrigerate until ready to use.
For the salad, heat the olive oil in a small saute pan over a high heat and add the dry capers. Ensure they are as dry as you can make them to avoid too much splatter. Allow the capers to sizzle a little and, when they have almost finished sizzling (meaning most of the water has evaporated), scoop them out and dry them on a piece of paper towel. Reserve the oil.
Tear your bread into rough pieces and add it to the pan. Use the caper oil and some more olive oil, if needed, to shallow-fry the croutons over a medium heat. You want to fry the bread on a couple of sides, but you don’t want it to be completely crispy. You want a bit of soft chew with a crusty exterior. Try to do this in one layer so that you don’t overcrowd the pan. This might mean you need to do it in a couple of batches. Season the croutons with salt and pepper when they come out of the pan.
Spread the tonnato on the plate first, then cut up the tomatoes into thick slices and arrange them on top. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Scatter the croutons over the top. Finish with the fried capers and some fresh picked basil leaves. Serve immediately.
Grease and line a 22–25 cm round cake tin with baking paper. Start by making the topping. Melt the butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan until the sugar crystals have melted and the mix is bubbling. Simmer for 1 minute, then pour this molten mix into the prepared tin. Arrange the pineapple pieces on top of this caramel in any pattern you like. Try to cover as much surface area as possible so you can have a lot of fruit in each slice.
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Cream together the butter and sugar in a freestanding electric mixer until light and fluffy, then add the egg yolks, ginger and vanilla and mix until well incorporated. Separately, whip the egg whites in a clean bowl, either by hand or with an electric whisk, until soft peaks form. Set aside. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together. Add half the dry ingredients to the butter and gently mix, then, with the machine still running, add all the milk and mix. Carefully add the remaining dry ingredients and finish mixing with a spatula. Fold in the whipped egg whites. Pour this on top of the pineapple in the tin and spread it out evenly.
Gently tap the tin on your work surface to ensure the cake batter has dropped into place.
Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly before flipping the cake out. To flip it over, place a flat plate or cake tray on top of the tin, then, holding the plate in place with your hand, flip the cake over quickly and carefully. Once flipped, simply pull the tin off and peel back the baking paper.
Serve warm or when completely cooled.
NERO D’AVOLA could be the modern signature grape of McLaren Vale. This is the view of viticulturist Richard Leask from Hither & Yon, which won the best wine trophy with its nero d’Avola at the 2017 Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show. For five consecutive years, nero from McLaren Vale has won best red wine at this show, underlining its suitability to the region.
“It’s the new grenache – a shining example of what McLaren Vale can do really, really well,” Richard says. “This is a modern identity statement for the region. We need to embrace our differences here, not just follow in the shadows as another region that makes great shiraz.”
Nero d’Avola formed part of expansive new plantings during the mid-2000s on the Leask family’s Sand Road vineyard in McLaren Vale, a mixed block that had produced serviceable but unspectacular chardonnay, pinot noir and cabernet franc. Richard was on the hunt for something better and used a wine atlas to make comparisons with similar climates in other wine regions. “I didn’t make grape vine selections based on a wine-tasting perspective, but with vineyard sustainability at the front of my thinking,” he says. “Efficient water use definitely informed my choices.” He planted petit blanc, aglianico, carnigan, tannet, touriga nacional, tempranillo and nero d’Avola in a bid to define which grapes best suited the region. “We’re 15 years in and we haven’t seen any dud performers from that bunch,” Richard says. Winning commercial favour for these varieties involved the
Leask family moving beyond growing and selling grapes. They created their own wine label with Hither & Yon, and now promote these wines through their lively cellar door in Willunga. It’s been a timely success.
“We tapped into something. A new generation of drinkers was looking for lively, medium-bodied red wines, and these alternative varieties became a symbol of what’s new and exciting about wine in McLaren Vale,” Richard says. “In this region, we are mostly small producers, so we can be nimble, flexible and innovative – and we can create a significant culture of change because of that.”
An aerial view of Oliver’s Taranga Vineyards.
Below: Richard Leask (left) with brother Mal at their Hither & Yon cellar door.