We were a small group, 11 of us, including Chris from Cloudwine, and Norm and Owen Latta from Eastern Peake.  The group size meant that we all had a chance to talk with Norm and Owen about the wine and the history of the vineyard.

Eastern Peake was established 27 years ago between Clunes and Ballarat, about an hour and a half west of Melbourne. They are on the very edges of the last vestiges of the Great Dividing Range at an elevations of about 400 metres.  They havs some of the latest ripening Pinot in Australia.  (I reckon it would also be bloody cold out there).

Trevor Mast (formerly from Mt Langi Ghiran) was looking for contract wine growers in the area in in 1983 and chose the site for Norm to grow some Pinot. Eventually Trevor told them to bottle the pinot themselves. So they did. The winemaking has been mostly handed over to son Owen these days, but the traditional practices and fittings remain, including concrete open fermenters and copper fittings.

They don’t irrigate, and they have just started mulching the vines, and produce just 5-600 cases a year from 12 acres.  This is artisanal, hand made wine.

We started the evening with a glass of Pinot Taché (very Rosé like),  which was a nice crisp, dry wine – perfect on this warm and sticky evening, a bit of chat in the back room of Geralds.  We sat around one table and were served some of Gerald’s excellent cold cuts , and we started drinking our way through a few more bottles.  I think we tried 10 wines? My notes get a bit hazy later on.

The oldest wine we drank was a 1997 Pinot Noir, which was still fruity and had mellowed beautifully.  The wines have a good firm acid to them, which probably is what allows them to age so beautifully (i’m no wine writer .. sorry, but I did take lots of notes and ask lots of questions). The winery keeps back vintages, and even now you can buy vintages back to 2000 on their website.  We’re pretty lucky they do so, as I wouldn’t have trusted a 13 yo Pinot Noir under cork otherwise.  They did move their entire Pinto Noir production under screw cap in 2001 – which is pretty early from what I know of the history of the screw cap, I think Norm is a bit of a rebel really!

Foodwise, we moved on to some glorious picked anchovies and then main was an entire chinook salmon cooked in a salt crust.  The fish was a beautiful texture, almost like it had been cooked sous vide.  There was some lamb too (umm.. 8 bottles or so by now…). Dessert was a great hulking slab of Queso de Valdeon, served with a honey icecream.

The Wines: (click through for tasing notes from the winemakers and ordering info)

 2009 – Eastern Peake Pinot Taché                 (Retail cost per bottle: $25)

1996 – Eastern Peake Pinot Noir                    (Approx retail cost per bottle: $147)

2008 – Eastern Peake Pinot Noir Intrinsic        (Retail cost per bottle: $49)

1997 – Eastern Peake Pinot Noir                    (Approx Retail cost of bottle: $177)

2000 – Eastern Peake Pinot Noir                    (Retail cost of bottle: $80)

2001 – Eastern Peake Pinot Noir                    (Retail cost of bottle: $90)

2007  - Eastern Peake Pinot Noir OB Terroir    (Retail cost of bottle: $60)

2005 – Eastern Peake Pinot Noir Intrinsic         (Retail cost of bottle: $40)

2006 – Eastern Peake Pinot Noir Intrinsic         (Retail cost per bottle: $45)

2006  - Eastern Peake Pinto Noir OB Terroir     (Retail cost of bottle: $60)

We finished with some Walsh Block Syrah Owen brought in from the car.

For me the pick was the 2007 OB terroir, though the 1997 was drinking very, very well.  Perhaps that preference just shows my lack of access to aged Pinot Noir in the past.  I’d sure like to get used to drinking old Pinot Noir of this longevity and quality.  I’d sure like to taste the 2001 Reserve Pinot Noir, a museum release available from the vineyard (just to check how those screw cap closures have held up of course).

It was such a lovely, relaxed evening.  I got to know a lot about Eastern Peake wines, and what makes them special, and it was easily one of the best wine nights I’ve been to. Norm and Owen spoke candidly about their wines and I’m fairly sure, won a bunch of new fans.

Lachie from the Gourmet Husbands went along to last year’s dinner.

Eastern Peake Vineyard Clunes Rd,
Coghills Creek, Victoria 3364.
Telephone: (03) 5343 4245
Fax: (03) 5343 4365

I’ll even admit that over the past week, as we have welcomed Spring (goddammit!) with 6 or so days at or over 30 degrees C, I have been craving an Espresso Frappacino from Starbucks. But not enough to walk to one of the two surviving stores on Swanston Street to indulge. Moccona have released a new range of little or no milk cold coffees in a bottle, but I haven’t seen them close to work as yet. What do you do for a caffeine hit in the hot weather? I can’t deal with the usual iced coffee we Aussies get – too milky, not enough caffeine. I’ll have a lovely Liaison coffee in the morning, but what to do for my mid-morning hit? at 30+ degrees?

So … that’s the long story, I was looking for a decent coffee this morning to make up for it. I detoured to Seven Seeds to buy one, and thought I would have some breakfast as well.

I grab a spot on the communal table and check out the menu:-

• Bircher Muesli? nope. C’mon it’s Sunday!
• French Toast with banana, butterscotch sauce and peanut brittle? Sounds lovely but .. it’s breakfast! Even I can’t stomach anything that sweet for breakfast
• Pastries? ho hum
• Fruit Toast (ho-er hum .. ho-ho hum? Greater Hum)
• Sour Dough bread served with bits…salmon? don’t eat it; hummous tomato, olive oil and dukkah? sounds like lunch; African nutella and molasses, sounds like a diabetic coma
• Toasties – already written about them; not my idea of nice, way too much bread

No-one has come to take my order yet – I’m still not even sure after 5 or 6 visits if they do – no one has ever approached me before I’ve walked up to the counter to order. Can someone tell me if they do table service?

I approach the counter and order two lattes to take away – both for me as they only have a regular size.

*sigh*

The coffee is really lovely, deep and rich and satisfying, but the food? I just don’t get it. What am i missing out on? Dench bread is OK – but it is my local so it’s not “exotic” for me. But the slices are way too thick in my opinion and I just don’t want anything that carbo loaded ever really.

So tell me what I’m missing….

I found the space a bit difficult I guess, the large communal table was pushed up against the stools along the window, and the least messy unoccupied table (where we sat), making me feel quite claustrophobic. Quite a feat in what is a large room, with massive, industrial height, ceilings that was quite cold. Too cold. It was like the tables were chosen for their look, not for how they would work in the space. It felt quite awkward for the humans, but grand for showing off some intriguing craft/art.

We cleared our own tiny table, searched about for some kind of menu, and I set about to find some coffee and sustenance.

I found the layout quite strange, it didn’t really provide a focal point, or any clues on where to go or what to do to get served, there was a throng of people hanging around the coffee machine, but I think they were waiting for takeaways. I meandered over in that direction anyway and eventually caught the eye of a waitress (waitperson? waitron? server?). She took our order efficiently.

JB ordered a danish, which was quite delish actually, and made by “some guy in Prahran”.

The sandwich was ridiculously huge and thick, and just not what I wanted at all really. The bread was sliced so thickly that the cheese couldn’t melt without the bread burning. I had to insist that JB eat half. What was going to be a bit of brunch turned into something much more substantial. Half of that sandwich did me for breakfast and lunch.

It came with some shredded cabbage, sprinkled with a few sesame seeds. We had no cutlery. Cabbage stayed on the plate. I went back over to the coffee machine to order another coffee…it really was a bit strange, where another waiter pretty much ignored me for 3-4 mins, then barked at me to move while he took a single coffee out to someone. I eventually got him to organise another coffee for me.

The coffee was a bit weird. My first seemed quite tasty if a bit bland, but my second was bitter. I thought this was quite strange as the same person made them, only about 10 minutes apart. These were made with the house blend, which they say they are always tweaking. Perhaps they “twoke” it.

The crowd was a strange mix of mature age students, mums & bubs, construction workers and economics professors (just a guess there! the others were easier to classify). They were fairly busy when we first arrived, but most moved on within 10 mins of us arriving there. Our plates were never cleared so I didn’t feel much like hanging around and finishing the paper.

I like the idea of the tasting, roasting, growing process being highlighted, but I have to admit that I’m not convinced that the taste of single origin coffee is the best. The idea is nice, but like a single vineyard wine, unless it’s absolutely top notch, it’s probably better off with some other beans mixed in. I think they lack complexity and are nice for a change, but not for my daily grind thanks.

I just wanted to be warm, temperature-wise and hospitality-wise. I guess, you’d be happy enough it if was your local, but I’m not sure I would regularly go out of my way to visit, unless I was mad keen about single-origin beans. If so, go, try coffee, roast…enjoy!

I will go again though, to be fair, maybe it was just a “cold grumpy day” for me. Maybe their heaters were broken. Maybe the staff were new. *shrug*

Seven Seeds
114 Berkeley St, Carlton 3053
9347 8664