Night out
Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 4:44 pm
Spent the weekend in Melbourne, stayed at the Windsor hotel in Spring St. For the evening we brought along two bottles of red, a 1996 Orlando Jacobs creek limited blend and 1996 Rosemount Balmoral syrah. Decanted both of these wines in the room about 4:30.
Went down to the restaurant about 7ish ordered our meal and started on the Orlando first, what a great wine, not a real complex wine but a very very nicely balanced wine with loads of raspberry and a touch of white pepper, everything was integrated beautifully, a real gem of a wine.
Now for the food, I rang the restaurant about 3 weeks before the occasion to organise a seafood platter, but when we arrived on the night, apparently they had no recollection of this . So after the initial disappointment; I ordered pancetta wrapped scallops and my partner had a chai smoked lamb for entrée. When they arrived I was flabbergasted and we just looked at each other and laughed, honestly I have never seen such small portions my scallop entrée was tasty enough, but there was only 2!! Scallops on the plate, I nearly burst out laughing when the waiter put it down in front of me. My partners entrée was not much bigger having only 1 small lamb fillet cut into segments, as I said they were tasty enough but for 28 smackers each they really were a joke.
With the Orlando gone and very much enjoyed we turned our attention to the Balmoral, and next to the Orlando it got absolutely flogged, it was very concentrated and a little bit bitter not sure if this was because the oak hasn’t integrated fully, but we could not taste much because of this, so we had the waiter take it back up to our room to see if it would open up any.
Main course arrived shortly after this; I had an eye fillet with braised wagyu cheek and ox tongue confit the wagyu and confit were very nice but the eye fillet left a lot to be desired, I think a lot of places these days do not even bother to skin eye fillet which is a shame. My partner had a duck breast but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was.
After dinner we headed of to the supper club for a look, I think it was nearly 10 o’clock when we got there and I was worried it may be a bit packed and there would be no nice couches to kick back on, well, we were pleasantly surprised when we were ushered to a nice big couch directly in front of the massive window overlooking parliament sweeeeet. The girl who seated us gave us the wine list and left us to browse, wow what a big wine list!! 95 pages in all, including cigars, it was a little dark so reading the list was a bit difficult and to tell you the truth I got a bit bored looking through it. My partner ordered a glass of the 2004? Clonakilla hilltops shiraz voignier $11 which was nice and I had a couple Bookers bourbon and dry’s $12, I also ordered a cigar to go with the ambience of the place and the waitress was very helpful in selecting one for me, as I really had no idea. It went down ok but nothing spectacular but I had to have one before it is a no no after July 1.
After we finished our first drinks we ordered a half bottle the 04 Rockford Basket Press and it was very nice and that’s about all I can remember sorry. By this time the place was really starting to fill up, we really did arrive at the perfect time, as there was a waiting line all the way up the stairs from about 10 until we left about midnight.
All in all a very nice place with quiet jazz playing in the background and a good clientele, would love to have stayed for longer but the funds were running low
Headed back to the hotel about midnight to see if the Balmoral had opened up to reveal anything, but it had not, but we struggled through almost all of it anyway still bitter and not tasting of much which was a shame because I think it could have been really good at some stage and I really don’t have the knowledge to describe what this wine tasted like.
Also earlier in the day we went to a tasting at the wine house on Queensbridge St, they had on tasting the Grant Burge range and the pick of the bunch was the 04 Filsell at $24 was a bargain, pepper and salami on the nose and pallet, the 98 Meshach was also very good.
I would just like to thank the kind forum member who helped us out with our wine for the evening it is very much appreciated.
Went down to the restaurant about 7ish ordered our meal and started on the Orlando first, what a great wine, not a real complex wine but a very very nicely balanced wine with loads of raspberry and a touch of white pepper, everything was integrated beautifully, a real gem of a wine.
Now for the food, I rang the restaurant about 3 weeks before the occasion to organise a seafood platter, but when we arrived on the night, apparently they had no recollection of this . So after the initial disappointment; I ordered pancetta wrapped scallops and my partner had a chai smoked lamb for entrée. When they arrived I was flabbergasted and we just looked at each other and laughed, honestly I have never seen such small portions my scallop entrée was tasty enough, but there was only 2!! Scallops on the plate, I nearly burst out laughing when the waiter put it down in front of me. My partners entrée was not much bigger having only 1 small lamb fillet cut into segments, as I said they were tasty enough but for 28 smackers each they really were a joke.
With the Orlando gone and very much enjoyed we turned our attention to the Balmoral, and next to the Orlando it got absolutely flogged, it was very concentrated and a little bit bitter not sure if this was because the oak hasn’t integrated fully, but we could not taste much because of this, so we had the waiter take it back up to our room to see if it would open up any.
Main course arrived shortly after this; I had an eye fillet with braised wagyu cheek and ox tongue confit the wagyu and confit were very nice but the eye fillet left a lot to be desired, I think a lot of places these days do not even bother to skin eye fillet which is a shame. My partner had a duck breast but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was.
After dinner we headed of to the supper club for a look, I think it was nearly 10 o’clock when we got there and I was worried it may be a bit packed and there would be no nice couches to kick back on, well, we were pleasantly surprised when we were ushered to a nice big couch directly in front of the massive window overlooking parliament sweeeeet. The girl who seated us gave us the wine list and left us to browse, wow what a big wine list!! 95 pages in all, including cigars, it was a little dark so reading the list was a bit difficult and to tell you the truth I got a bit bored looking through it. My partner ordered a glass of the 2004? Clonakilla hilltops shiraz voignier $11 which was nice and I had a couple Bookers bourbon and dry’s $12, I also ordered a cigar to go with the ambience of the place and the waitress was very helpful in selecting one for me, as I really had no idea. It went down ok but nothing spectacular but I had to have one before it is a no no after July 1.
After we finished our first drinks we ordered a half bottle the 04 Rockford Basket Press and it was very nice and that’s about all I can remember sorry. By this time the place was really starting to fill up, we really did arrive at the perfect time, as there was a waiting line all the way up the stairs from about 10 until we left about midnight.
All in all a very nice place with quiet jazz playing in the background and a good clientele, would love to have stayed for longer but the funds were running low
Headed back to the hotel about midnight to see if the Balmoral had opened up to reveal anything, but it had not, but we struggled through almost all of it anyway still bitter and not tasting of much which was a shame because I think it could have been really good at some stage and I really don’t have the knowledge to describe what this wine tasted like.
Also earlier in the day we went to a tasting at the wine house on Queensbridge St, they had on tasting the Grant Burge range and the pick of the bunch was the 04 Filsell at $24 was a bargain, pepper and salami on the nose and pallet, the 98 Meshach was also very good.
I would just like to thank the kind forum member who helped us out with our wine for the evening it is very much appreciated.
and yes the blend was outstanding
)