(L to R) Ross Edward Marks (vice president of
Central Food Retail Co., Ltd.), Howard Ducan (export manager Canada, Asia, &
Middle East for Peter Lehmann Wines Limited), Michael Delargy (general
manager of Sheraton Pattaya Resort) and Caryn Delargy.
It has been a wonderful month of wines for the Dining Out
team with wine dinners at the Dusit Thani, the Dicey Reilly’s Pub at the
Marriott and the Sheraton Pattaya plus another at Don Joe’s in Walking
Street. I have reported on the Dusit Thani and Dicey Reilly’s so this is the
Sheraton’s report card and Don Joe in a week or two!
Main course: Australian short
ribs ‘Bourguinon’.
The Peter Lehmann/Sheraton evening began in the Latitude
room, which is on beach level, with the reception wine being a Peter Lehmann
Weighbridge Unoaked Chardonnay 2009. A pleasant and refreshing wine which
loosened the tongues, sharpened the palates and allowed the diners to meet
the Peter Lehmann Export Manager Howard Duncan.
It offered a chance to speak with Chef Spencer Kells
before he popped back to the kitchens to oversee the six course dinner he
had planned.
Also on hand was Michael Delargy, the Sheraton GM, and
his charming wife Caryn, ensuring that everyone was made welcome.
The reception was held in the Latitude room and a great
place to watch the sun go down. The reception wine was the Peter Lehmann
Weighbridge label un-oaked Chardonnay 2009 to go with chef’s canap้s. With
around 60 diners it was hard for Howard Duncan to get round everyone who had
come to experience the Peter Lehmann wines, which by the way included the
ex-president of the Royal Cliff Wine Club Ranjith Chandrasiri, now headed
back to Sri Lanka, his birthplace and also that of his vivacious wife
Chitra.
The third course is a foie
gras stuffed quail.
The dinner itself was held in the Papaya room and the
reception wine continued for the first course of a scallop tartare, white
chocolate foam and crustacean oil. A very different m้lange of flavors for
the first course. Howard also addressed the diners and he is a typical laid
back Aussie, gregarious and good natured but the affable exterior hides the
encyclopedic experience of 25 years in the wine business, with his home
being in the village of Tanunda in the famous Barossa region of South
Australia and two minutes from his office at the Peter Lehmann winery.
Howard spoke on the depth of winemaking in the Barossa Valley, established
since 1840, and Peter Lehmann Wines have twice been voted International
Winemaker of the Year and three times Australian Winemaker of the year.
Peter Lehmann has a good CV.
The second course was a Tasmanian salmon confit with a
fresh orange, fennel and coriander salad, accompanied by a Peter Lehmann
Clancy’s Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2009. The salmon some diners did not like,
done as a confit, but I did, and the Semillon Sauvignon Blanc was most
enjoyable too.
(L to R) Ranjith Chandrasiri,
Pim Smeaton, Suphaporn, Pui Phillps, and Som Corness; (back row) Jim
Smeaton, and Jim Phillps.
Third course was a foie gras stuffed quail, taken with
the Weighbridge Cabernet Merlot. I found the wine was very heavy on the
tannins and the quail got rather lost somehow, but hats off to chef Spencer
for experimenting with this.
The main course was Australian short ribs ‘Bourguinon’
about which Howard Duncan said he could have cut it with a butter knife, and
he was quite correct. Superb! The red wine with this was a Clancy’s Cabernet
Shiraz Merlot 2008. A good drop and went well with the Australian beef.
Spencer Kells, director of
Kitchen & F&B Sheraton Pattaya Resort.
Chef Spencer then treated us to a cheese platter with
Gorgonzola, Parmigiano-Reggiano and Camembert taken with the Peter Lehmann
Stonewall Shiraz 2006. The Shiraz tried hard, but how do you beat a
Gorgonzola? You don’t, and revert to enjoying the cheeses on their own, and
drink the wine afterwards, and there’s nothing in the rule book to say you
can’t do that!
Chef Spencer’s ‘Grand Finale’ was a lemon and basil
parfait with strawberry sorbet, strawberry jelly and meringue tears. Several
thousand calories and taken with Peter Lehmann’s Botrytis Semillon 2009. A
‘jolly’ finale indeed.
It was interesting looking back on the previous wine
dinners this month. The Dusit Thani was a wine dinner in the ‘grand manner’,
Dicey Reilly’s was a very laid back event, complete with a wine quiz in the
middle, and the Sheraton was somewhere in between. Not too formal, but very
varied in the dishes and so enjoyable that it ran overtime and none of the
diners was complaining about the time.
Well done Chef Spencer, GM Michael and hello and goodbye
Howard Duncan and Peter Lehmann wines.
