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Canberra Today 22°/24° | Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Dining: The Road to a new winter menu

EDEN Road never does things by half measure. Winemaker Nick Spencer is passionate about the winery’s success, starting with its win of the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy at the Melbourne Wine show for “The Long Road Shiraz”, created out of its very first vintage. This is the Melbourne Cup of trophies.

Wendy Johnson
Wendy Johnson
The winemaking team has picked up dozens of awards, including the prestigious James Halliday Chardonnay Challenge 2012.

This is serious business and its wines served at an exceptional dinner at The Artisan, a classy restaurant tucked away at Narrabundah shops and itself a multiple-award winning enterprise, ranged from a 2014 Riesling that hasn’t yet been bottled to an out-of-this-world 2009 Museum Release Riesling with wonderful depth.

The Artisan recently launched its winter menu and the Eden Road dinner was an occasion to celebrate new and exciting dishes.

The pan-fried octopus with tasty chorizo, roast peppers, chickpeas, preserved lemon and baby spinach was a fabulous start, with the octopus remarkably tender. It went down well with the 2012 Tumbarumba Pinot Noir and the more masculine and fascinating 2011 Gundagai Nebbiolo (only 200 dozen made that year).

Veal lovers will fall for the poached loin of veal with sake marinated mushroom, radish and snow pea tendrils, superb with a 2012 and 2011 Canberra Shiraz. The meat was also “tender as” and the marinated mushroom and radish added a touch of class to the relationship.

Duck and Shiraz. A marriage made in heaven. The buckwheat crépe with duck confit leg, sugar snaps, watercress and tangy pomegranate was a tad salty, but went well with the Gundagai Shiraz – the power of the wine cutting through the duck.

My favourite dish was the Riverina Black Angus (bavette cut). Artisan has mastered the art of making a soufflé and its smoked potato version was sensational. The dish was topped off with decadent Café de Paris butter and a port jus packed with flavour.

The wine dinner ended gracefully with cheeses from Essential Ingredient.

Nick is an entertaining winemaker who uses an instinctive approach to execute his craft. He says Eden Road aims to produce with “clarity and purity”; wines celebrating what the French call la terre noire – rich, black soils that support vines to flourish.

The Artisan has mastered the art of wine dinners, always providing an experience that showcases ingredients, technique and knowledge. If you haven’t attended one, put it on your bucket list. In the meantime, the new winter menu is up for the tasting.

The Artisan, 16 Iluka Street, Narrabundah, call 6232 6482.

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Wendy Johnson

Wendy Johnson

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