“The venue had decided to pour all the wines on a buffet and then hand them out by the glass with the waiters clutching the glasses and placing them in front of the patrons in an increasingly awkward procession.,” writes wine columnist RICHARD CALVER.

ONE of my mate Tom’s favourite wineries is Warrabilla Wines, based in Rutherglen. 

Big, bold reds are its mainstay and principal winemaker Andrew Sutherland Smith is proud to make “steak and eggs” wines that have a high alcohol content and are flavour bombs. 

This winery has a large following in Canberra and has a function here at least once a year, normally held at The Boat House. 

Tom organised for me and another friend to go to the Warrabilla dinner that was held at the Parlour Room in New Acton, with the Boat House function to be held later in the year. It was $155 a head and had the promise of good food, great wine and friendly company. The cost reminded me of a retirement motto: all I ask is a chance to prove that money can’t make me happy.

We started with the 2022 Riesling; the only white produced by Warrabilla. It was a pleasant aperitif, dry with a clean finish, and went well with the salmon tartare that was handed out as a canape before we sat down and properly got into the serious business of complementary eating and drinking. 

We waited some time for the mushroom pasta to be served, a dish that had been matched with the 2021 reserve grenache. This course saw the start of a trend that was annoying to say the least. The venue had decided to pour all the wines on a buffet and then hand them out by the glass with the waiters clutching the glasses and placing them in front of the patrons in an increasingly awkward procession. 

This disappointed because we couldn’t see the label of the wine poured and when the 2017 shiraz was later served, I had a large dollop of sediment in the bottom of the glass, which was unpleasant because I detected its presence too late to avoid a swirl of it in my mouth hence being delivered a finish like coal dust. All the wines should have been poured at the table, and preferably decanted to avoid that effect. This is also the use of a crazy amount of glassware when patrons wouldn’t usually mind swirling some water in their used glass for the next offering and placing the water/wine in a spitoon. 

The star of the show for me was the Parola’s Durif comparison, a 2015 with the 2021. These wines were served with wagyu striploin but outshone the food by a magnitude. 

The 2015 spoke to the characteristics of Durif which thrives in hot climates like that of Rutherglen. The grape is full bodied and has firm tannins. It produces a high alcohol, belting wine that warms the cockles as the temperature drops. It’s the stuff of open fires, cosy blankets and an excellent glass of red with a loved one, or at least a good friend, possibly without the blanket.

The 2015 was inky in colour with a lovely cigar-box nose and the tannins had softened with age to give a dark-plum velvet sensation on taste. 

The 2021 has the potential to keep for a considerable period, stored well I’d say six to eight years, but it is drinking well now without the concentration of flavours we enjoyed from the 2015. The Durif sang to us of warmth and comfort. It was moreish. 

Rutherglen is also renowned for its fortified wines. Dessert of Eton Mess was accompanied by a Classic Rutherglen muscat that had depth and complexity with raisin and toffee flavours predominating. It punched away with the sweet dessert like a couple of heavy hitting street fighters and made the palate wake up with a bang in time for us to Uber home.