Wine writer RICHARD CALVER says the best way to celebrate the Lunar New Year is to eat the rabbit… with a nice pinot noir, of course. 

Tonight we’re having Himalayan rabbit stew for dinner. We found himalayan in the road. 

TWENTY twenty three is the lunar year of the rabbit. Apparently, the rabbit symbolises abundance, longevity, peace and prosperity. It’s supposed to be the luckiest of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. Cam Zang writing on the StyleCaster website says: “Don’t be fooled; these cute, fluffy creatures are more than just docile and adorable companions. 

“Rabbits are known to be incredibly witty, outgoing, well-spoken, creative, empathetic, thoughtful and meditative; the water element of 2023 means this year will bring even more introspection, peace and hope.”

Cute and fluffy? Chinese symbolism may attribute glorious characteristics that beckon peace and hope but in this neck of the woods, they are a curse. The myxoma virus killed them in vast numbers in the ’50s but they resurged. The Australian and NZ bush is still alight with their pestilence despite myxomatosis and calicivirus. 

In our lexicon, rabbits are not soft, warm, fluffy creatures but thin, brown, ugly devastators of pasture and native plants. They should be treated as such. My view is that the best way to celebrate the Lunar New Year is to eat the rabbit.

Farmed rabbits are good to eat but Richard Odell, of the Griffith Butchery, told me he has given up stocking rabbit, farmed or otherwise: “The prices of farmed rabbits are exorbitant and you can’t get local rabbit meat for love or money. Nobody can trap or shoot them, yet they are all around Canberra rooting themselves silly.”

On the off chance that the White Rabbit Cocktail room on Northbourne Avenue might offer its namesake on a plate, I called and spoke with Grace Cousins, a manager there: “Not that particular cuisine”, she said, “I don’t think our clientele would go for it. We’re an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ theme.”

So I couldn’t go any further down the rabbit hole of culinary inquiry. But I do remember eating farmed rabbit at the Green Door restaurant in Beechworth, Victoria. That place now seems to be closed. My then partner and I had an expensive pinot noir with the rabbit and whatever she ordered. The wine and her choice are both lost to memory. I know at the time I thought the match of pinot noir and rabbit excellent. But is that because I’m biased, especially towards good Otago Kiwi pinots? It seems not.

If you ask the internet: why pinot noir with rabbit, you get a couple of vindicating answers? The UK Wine Society says that pinot noir or a light gamay “marries beautifully” with rabbit, but gives no justification. The “Wine Spectator” question and answer web link says: “Since it’s a mild-tasting and lean meat, if it’s prepared simply, I’d recommend a light-bodied wine that wouldn’t overpower it, such as a delicate pinot noir or a white Rhône-style wine.

“If it’s prepared in a sauce, do your best to match the wine with the sauce.”

I believe that the Rhone-style whites referred to in this quotation would be wines based on viognier, Roussanne or Marsanne. I’d match the rabbit with a 2017 Burge Family Wines’ 2017 Roussanne Semillon, which has a great herbal, full-textured flavour. 

The point is that rabbits cause hundreds of millions of dollars a year in damage to the Australian economy. One researcher in 2009 estimated that this figure was about $206 million a year, a figure that has surely increased over time. 

Sure, give a respectful nod to the Chinese horoscope but don’t be fooled that these creatures are, in reality, beneficent. Eat them.