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

It was a pretty frosty when we headed out, and arrived in Rathdowne street to see our dinner guests standing out on the street…ah why?

Turned out that Black Ruby’s didn’t have our booking due to an answering machine malfunction. Darn it! No room at the inn but the obliging Kate sent us away with a bottle of red to keep us company. It was a nice touch, unnecessary as I realise these things just happen, not much you can do about it but accept it in good grace. So we walked the street for a bit looking for a cancellation – what GFC? Every restaurant except the Rathdown street food store and La Porchetta’s was packed.

We rang around a few places and ended up with a spot in 45mins time at Little Zephyr Kitchen 563 Nicholson Street.

We headed up the road for a drink and Gerald’s while we waited, and ran into some old friends. I like Geralds’s, I just wish it was walking distance from my house. (Or perhaps not!)

We’ve eaten at Little Zephyr Kitchen before, one night when we wanted to go to Bistro Flor, and found it an adequate substitute, some nice flavours, a bit clumsy with some offerings but definitely one with potential.

I think I’m striking a few stars off that potential after last night. It’s not that it was bad, it just didn’t feel very “right”.

We shared three entrees, some tasty borek cigars filled with feta and some nice warming spices, a small Aubergine, split in half and grilled, topped with spice lamb mince, and the standout dish of the night some pan seared calimari with house made chorizo. The chorizo really did stand out as delicious and moreish, crunchy and spicy and a good counterfoil to the calamari.

On to the mains then. We were told that the gnocchi was the ‘best in town” and that the chef had learnt it from Guy Grossi (Did we know who Guy is?), and then warned that it was soft and fluffy, “because we’ve had some comments from people who have been surprised that the gnocchi was soft and fluffy…” like … huh? Too much chatty waitstaff, too much useless information. The Gnocchi was OK.

The seafood hotpot looked better than it tasted …

the lamb pizza – salty and, well, meh, not very interesting fill-er-up stodge.

Atlantic Salmon on fat chips with Hollandaise .. meh.

We had dessert as well, but nothing really stood out there either.

Portions were large, service was OK, but $5 EACH corkage….that was a bit rich. You surely “don’t want to encourage it” as we were informed. I think they could have been a bit more generous about the corkage, I’d explained to them that our booking had been lost when I called, and we did turn over a table for them that wouldn’t have turned over otherwise, and once they offered us a discount to $4 each per person I was determined to drink the 2003 Lethbridge Pinot Noir we had brought with us (for our other planned meal, where BYO is welcome) and then they brought it back to the table on ice!!!!!

So I wasn’t all that impressed this time around, and was actually a bit annoyed about the wine – why don’t you just say no? And your website has annoying music on it that you can’t turn off…one of my pet peeves.

So we left fed, but underwhelmed, but not feeling like we’d paid too much. you know, a bit …meh.