Casella Family Brands snaps up another Australian wine icon

Casella Family Brands, built on the success of the Yellow Tail label, has acquired another top-notch small Australian winery with the signing of a deal to purchase Baileys of Glenrowan from Treasury Wine Estates. 

Casella Family Brands adds Baileys to list of recent buys that include Peter Lehmann in the Barossa, Brands Laira in Coonawarra and Morris of Rutherglen.

The acquisition of Baileys of Glenrowan provides CFB with premium vineyard holdings in the Warby Ranges in Glenrowan, Victoria and an integration process will be established to make sure the transition to CFB ownership is smooth for all stakeholders. 

Completion of the transaction will follow a period of confirmatory due diligence.

The transaction includes the purchase of Baileys of Glenrowan brand/trademark, vineyard, winery, cellar door and café along with 144 hectares of vineyards. 

TWE will continue to sell existing bottled wine inventory for Baileys of Glenrowan within the next two years.

"We are very excited to welcome Baileys of Glenrowan to the CFB family," said John Casella, managing director of Casella Family Brands (above). 

"Baileys of Glenrowan is rich in history and heritage, and home to century-old, first-class vineyards. The Glenrowan region in Victoria is also renowned for producing luscious fortified wines and rich red wines which complements our existing portfolio of premium wines.” 

Casella Family Brands will continue operating the Baileys of Glenrowan site and retain all employees presently employed in casual, part-time and full-time roles within the cellar door, winery and vineyards.

Brisbane gears up for a new gourmet precinct in 2018

Leading restaurateurs are lining up to be involved in the new Howard Smith Wharves precinct in Brisbane. 

HSW will be a lifestyle, dining and tourism destination reactivating 3.4 hectares of Brisbane’s riverside encompassing a craft brewery and eateries piloted by some of Australia’s most respected chefs and restaurateurs. 

Open to the public in late 2018, the redeveloped wharf precinct is already forging its reputation as a culinary hub to be reckoned with.



On the menu are a new concept Greek restaurant and bar by Jonathan Barthelmess, the brains behind The Apollo, The Apollo Ginza and Cho Cho San, Toko Brisbane by Matt Yazbek, a combined restaurant/bar and event space serving izakaya-style Japanese cuisine, along with Stanley, a 180-seat Asian eatery by restaurateurs Andrew and Jaimee Baturo. 

“We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with some of the best restaurateurs in Australia.,” says Adam Flaskas, director of HSW. “Alongside the very thoughtful and respectful architectural conversion of this area—which will re-energise our former maritime port, adding another chapter to its history—we’re building our future community through something that’s sensory and special and really rather simple: food. 

"The fact that so many nuanced cuisines and unexpected cross-cultural blends are represented in these restaurants is a testament to the diverse character of Brisbane. We’re a city of curious palates. We like to be surprised.”

The complex will also include the Overwater Bar, a 200 metre-squared venue beneath the historic Story Bridge. 

Originally constructed in the 1930s, the Howard Smith Wharves were a project initiated by the Queensland Government to provide locals with relief work during the depression. 

Largely abandoned since the 1960s, these spaces are now heritage listed—a rare surviving example of early infrastructure building in the city, with their offices and sheds and wharfage still intact. They lie along the river’s edge, below the cantilever Story Bridge, and are backed by soaring cliffs and 2.7 hectares of natural parkland.

The project will include a 164 room, 5-star Art Series hotel, and function spaces able to accommodate up to 1,000 guests. 

Michelin Guide launches in Bangkok

Michelin has unveiled the first Michelin Guide Bangkok, which features a total of 98 restaurants in the Thai capital.

Regardless of whether you think a French company should be lecturing the Thais on their own food, the guide will be extremely useful for visitors.



Michael Ellis, international director in charge of the Michelin Guides said: “Our inspectors were thrilled to find a local culinary scene with an amazing vibrancy, myriad new restaurants, an astonishing variety of wonderful street food, but also Thai cuisine served in different forms.”

Three restaurants obtained two stars in the Michelin Guide Bangkok 2018: chef-owner Gaggan Anand's eponymous Gaggan; Le Normandie in The Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Mezzaluna on the 65th floor of the Lebua Hotel.

It's amazing to me that none of the three restaurants to gain stars offers Thai cuisine. Gaggan is Indian influenced, Le Normandie is French and Mezzaluna European with a Japanese accent.

There are 14 restaurants awarded one star with seven offering Thai cuisine prepared by local Thai chefs like Chim by Siam Wisdom, Bo.lan (often named as the city's finest Thai eatery) and Saneh Jaan.

One street-food vendor also obtains one star: Jay Fai, where the owner-chef insists on staying at the tiny open kitchen with her homemade charcoal stoves, continuing what her father started 70 years ago, making crab omelettes, crab curries and dry congee.

International cuisine is also recognized including Ginza Sushi ichi, a sushi restaurant where ingredients are delivered straight from markets in Tokyo every 24 hours, and Sühring, where brothers Mathias and Thomas Sühring deliver their very own style of modern German cooking.

Three French establishments – L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, J’Aime by Jean-Michel Lorain and Savelberg each earned a star, as did Australian David Thompson's legendary Nahm.

This year’s selection also features a total of 35 restaurants awarded a Bib Gourmand, a distinction as popular with chefs as it is with gourmets, which recognise establishments selected by the inspectors for their good value for money.
View the full selection of the Michelin Guide Bangkok 2018 on the website
www.guide.michelin.com in both English and Thai.

Coonawarra wine producer opens a cellar door - in McLaren Vale

The wine industry is constantly being lectured about authenticity, so why would a Coonawarra winery open a cellar door three hours' drive away in McLaren Vale? 

Sisters Ang and Bec Tolley, who share one the most famous names in the Australian wine industry, have just opened the new Penley Estate tasting facility.

“What’s been really interesting in some of the feedback on social media, is (comments) like: 'We love going to Penley Estate’s Coonawarra facility, but it’s awesome that it’s now so close to Adelaide so we can go and visit more'. 

"It’s very heartening to hear,” Ang Tolley told The Source. 

“We’re a Coonawarra-based wine company but most of us who work for Penley live in McLaren Vale,” she says.

“I’ve been involved in McLaren Vale for the past 20 years. For probably 30 years our company has been in Adelaide while our facility has been down in Coonawarra.

“So we figured that for the sake of sanity we’d move our offices to McLaren Vale and we thought: ‘Why don’t we have a cellar door ... as well?’ 

“We’d like people to come in and taste wine. If someone wants to buy a pie from the bakery next door and come and have a glass of wine that’s fine, too.” 

The cellar door has outdoor seating and bifold doors that connect indoors and out. A lucky few will get the ultimate Tour Down Under view with a glass of Penley Estate in hand.

Still sounds illogical to me. A bit like a Champagne House opening a tasting facility in Beaujolais.  

Penley Estate is open daily at 194 Main Rd, McLaren Vale. 

www.penley.com.au

Brewing something different. A Christmas tree crafted from a beer barrel?

Looking for a unique Christmas present? 

How about a Christmas tree made from oak casks at one of Britain's best-known craft breweries? 

Coopers at T&R Theakston, in Masham, gateway to the Yorkshire Dales, have branched out to craft Christmas trees from discarded oak casks for the festive season. 

The brewery has its own cooperage and the trees are now on sale for £60 - and look great.

The North Yorkshire brewer recently announced that it is to install a multi-role fermenting, conditioning and storage vessel which will allow it to increase its brewing capacity and to extend its range of cask ales, seasonal beers and craft keg range.

T&R Theakston executive director Simon Theakston told Drinks Business:“Thanks to growing demand for our products, both at home and abroad, we are brewing more beer in our brewery in Masham than ever in our 190-year history.

“The renaissance of cask-conditioned and modern craft ales has given our brewing team a golden opportunity to experiment with different hops and malts from the UK and, indeed, from throughout the world.

“In turn, this has allowed us to significantly expand our range of beers, and introduce new lines which have quickly established themselves as firm favourites with cask and craft ale aficionados.”

Earlier this month, it was announced that Rioja wine estate Ramon Bilbao had partnered with Spanish classical musician Ara Malikian and third-generation violin maker Fernando Solar to craft a violin out of a wine barrel. 

I can sense a trend. 

Naughty but nice - a familiar taste sensation is back in vogue

Remember when you used to beg your mother to let you lick the spoon, or the whisk, after she had made cookies or a sponge cake? 

It was the sweet treat to end all sweet treats. It wasn't healthy but it tasted great. 

What if someone decided to recreate cookie dough, or cake baking mix, in a tub? No need to bake, just dip in a spoon whenever you feel like a gourmet step back in time. 

That was the idea behind Melbourne-based siblings turned entrepreneurs, Chris, Alex and Jessica Reece from Cookie Doh Co., who kindly sent me an email asking if I would like to try some of their potential heart attack in a tub. 

Of course, I said "yes" and was the lucky recipient of a tub of chocolate chip cookie dough and, even more dangerous, triple chocolate.

I decided to follow one of the recipes attached to the tubs and made a choc chip slice - dough flattened and allowed to chill and then cut into bite-sized pieces.

It tasted just like home-made fudge - without any effort on my part at all. Deliciously decadent.

Please eat in moderation (yeah, right!)
       
Each flavour in the range retails for $8.99 RRP (250g). For details see www.cookiedoh.co.