AUSTRALIANS are dining out like never before, with statistics showing that our food budget spending in cafes, restaurants and fast food takeaways has risen from 25 per cent in 1988 to a present-day 34 per cent.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
For all that, eating at home has lots of appeal and solving the "what's for dinner" dilemma has been made easy by restaurant food delivery apps and supermarket giants' growing range of ready-made meals.
A further enticement to eat-in is being able to enjoy a nice quiet glass or three of wine, free of restaurant mark ups and BYOG corkage charges. And the at-home wine can be made perfectly in tune with the meal.
To that end, here are some complementary wine and home-cooked food suggestions:
SMOKED RAINBOW TROUT RISOTTO Sevenhill Estate 2019 Inigo Rosé, $24 at sevenhill.com.au. Made from Clare Valley grenache grapes, this rosé is pale salmon pink, has rose petal aromas and zingy strawberry, flint and pomegranate flavours. It comes from the first Sevenhill vintage overseen by new winemaker Will Shields, the son of Sydney lawyer-turned-vigneron Barry Shields and his wife Jan, who owned the Hunter's Oakvale vineyard and winery from 1985 to 1999. Will, the veteran of a 25-year wine career, took over at Sevenhill in January from Liz Heidenreich. For 14 years from 2005, Liz was the 168-year-old winery's first female and non-Jesuit winemaker
SEAFOOD CHOWDER Two Rivers Non-Vintage Semillon-Chardonnay Cuvée, $20 at tworivers.com.au. This refreshing Upper Hunter sparkler has green-tinted pale straw hues and nashi pear scents and brings crisp lemon, green apple and gunmetal elements to the palate
SALMON AND DILL FRITTATA Angullong 2019 Pinot Grigio, $22 at angullong.com.au. and the Millthorpe village cellar door, on the outskirts of Orange. Judged the best pinot gris at the recent Australian Highland Wine Show, the 2019 Angullong is light gold and has tropical fruit salad scents. The palate brings forth juicy gooseberry passionfruit, pear and mineral characters
GRILLED SNAPPER WITH PRESERVED LEMON DRESSING Tyrrell's 2018 Semillon, $25 at tyrrells.com.au and the Broke Road, Pokolbin, cellar door. It's pale straw, honeysuckle-scented and with fresh ruby grapefruit, lemon curd, sherbet and mineral characters
CHICKEN SCHNITZEL WITH TABOULI SALAD Usher Tinkler 2019 9th Fable Chardonnay, $17 at cellarmasters.com.au and at ushertinklerwines.com and the 95 McDonalds Road cellar door and salumi and cheese bar. A multi-faceted drop this, shining brassy-tinted lemon in the glass and bringing almond and melon scents to the nose. The palate brings forth lifted nectarine, pear, brioch and cashew oak. The 9th Fable tag comes from the Tinkler family tradition of giving the name Usher to the first-born male of each generation and our 39-year-old Usher John is the ninth in the Australian branch
BEEF BURGUNDY Andrew Thomas 2017 Sweetwater Shiraz, $35 at thomaswines.com.au and the Mistletoe Lane cellar door in the Hunter Valley. It's a top-rank Hunter shiraz from a master winemaker, featuring 14.3% alcohol, deep garnet hues, potpourri aromas and vibrant plum, blackcurrant, spice, spearmint and mocha oak palate characters.
ROAST RACK OF LAMB Meerea Park 2018 Indie Cabernet Sauvignon, $27 at the Broke Road, Pokolbin, cellar door and meereapark.com.au. Hunter cabernet sauvignon doesn't get much praise, but this one from grapes grown on the Kindred family's Lochleven Estate, on the corner of Deaseys and McDonalds roads, Pokolbin, is good drinking with 13.5%-alcohol. It is ruby red, cassis-scented and pleases the taste buds with spicy blackberry flavour, underpinned by blueberry, mint and savoury oak. The Indie label tag stands for independent and is part of brothers Rhys and Garth Eather's range of innovative, non-mainstream wines launched in 2010.
APPLE AND RHUBARB CRUMBLE AND CREAM Scarborough 2019 Late Harvest Semillon, $20 (375ml bottle) at the Gillards Rd, Pokolbin, cellar door and scarboroughwine.com.au. As with cabernet sauvignon, sweet white dessert wine isn't a style the Hunter gets a lot of gongs for. But, with its lime green-straw hues, quince jelly scents and lush flavours of lychees, cumquat and pecan pie, this one would ideal with the home pudding course.
