We Love to Travel for Events to Work with Fabulous People and Feed Amazing Customers. This is our second event working with Black and Ginger Wines. The first time I had their wine was at The Bunyip in Cavendish, and I loved it straight away.
I met Haydn and Lucy at a 150 km event in Horsham, introduced myself, and asked if they would be interested in doing an event at my place. We did one in December last year. After working together, we wanted to do another event over their way, and that's what happened this past weekend.
On Saturday, we were in Pomonal, catering for 50 guests. Haydn and Lucy sent me some information on their wines and what would suit. I worked with my producers to see what they had available and sent some draft menus to see what would pair well. Here's the menu we came up with:
Canapés
- Finger lime smoked trout on crusty sourdough
- Warrigal green tart
- Nettle soup taster with linseed cracker
- Saltbush arancini
- Country bread loaves from Blue Wren Bakery with lemon myrtle butter and bush dukkah
- Paired with: 2023 Rapunzel Riesling and 2023 Lucy’s Rosé
First Course
- Linguine with braised pork, tomato, and karkalla
- Paired with: 2022 Cinco Rojas
Second Course
- Mountain pepper and wattleseed brisket with beer-pickled onions, Geraldton wax pumpkin, polenta, and glazed bush thyme carrots and turnips
- Paired with: 2022 Lily’s Block Shiraz
Third Course
- Lemon myrtle burnt cream with honey and muntries
- Rhubarb, orange, and river mint cake
- Paired with: 2023 Miss Piggy, Orange Muscat & Riesling
I arrived in Pomonal after noon on Saturday, following a full day of prep on Friday. After unpacking and getting my head around the kitchen, I was thankful I packed kitchen equipment and didn't expect it to be there. You all know how I love a dishwasher, and the PH came out with the goods. I received some freshly baked bread from Blue Wren Bakery (around the corner) and started to prep that for the night's function.
Around 2 pm, I got a call from Seb and Kristy; they had headed in the wrong direction but eventually arrived and got stuck into setting up and fine-tuning the night's dishes. I loved the nettle soup and the linseed cracker. I managed to talk to customers a couple of times, but with the menu, I needed to be in the kitchen, working with the staff. My friend Luke helped out with dishes, and his daughter worked her first shift ever, running plates and seeing the kitchen in action.
By 10 pm, the last of the customers left, and we began the final pack down. I sent some staff home, and even though there was still some proper cleaning to do, I mopped the floor, and we made our way to Haydn and Lucy's place. The legends put us up in their Airbnb, which we eventually arrived back to aroud 11pm and it was so lovely to wake up to the tranquility at the base of the Grampians. After stretching our legs and backs out, we packed up and returned to the hall to do the proper pack down and clean up. We left Pomonal around 11 am and made our way home. After more unpacking, I was done around 4 pm. I organized this week's events and decided to spoil myself by heading to the local for a beverage and pizza.
A fantastic weekend with great food, wine, and meeting new people.
