Sepia Sepia Sepia

I have been meaning to go to Sepia for a long time...with a great reputation for food and wine, I was really looking forward to it....I won't really review the food but I will mention what I had and the wine I tried and how it matched with the food

Water - You can have Sparkling, Still or Tap.  The sparkling and still are on the expensive side (9 dollars pp) but because they charge per person, this means you can keep drinking water and it really doesn't matter.  People can have what they want and you don't have to split up bottles.  Expensive but just one less thing you have to think about...

1st Course - Kingfish Bacon, Citrus Soy, Olive Oil, Smoked Trout Roe.  No matching wine with this.


2nd Course - Sashimi Tuna, Smoked seared Ocean Trout, Poached Banana Prawn.  These were a reverse nigiri...I'll let you imagine what that might be like.
Wine:  (or in this case sake).  Umenoyado "Gin" Junmai-Ginjo.  Having had quite a bit of sake lately, I wasn't too overly impressed with this.  Very nice solid, sake but I wouldn't say it was overly interesting.  Good match to the food in that the sake didn't take away from the fish, which I think is its intention.

3rd Course - Beetroot butter, Goat milk Chevre, Rhubabr, apple balsamic, rye, goat milk crisp.
Wine:  Felton Road "Bannockburn" Riesling 2011.
I've had a number of rieslings from New Zealand and when they have some residual sugar, they are definitely quite pleasing.  To me they are distinctly different from Australian Riesling as well as German Rieslings...In this style, I think it is actually quite easy to pick it is from NZ.  Nice Limes and Lemons on the nose with a whiff of sweetness.  Palate has very good acidity to balance out the sugar.  Almost very lime ade in nature.  It has very good focus but next to my wife's riesling it seemed a bit on the simple side.  Excellent match though to what was a very excellent dish.

Weiser-Kuenstler "Enkircher Ellergrub" Kabinett Riesling 2011.  I thought this was absolutely fantastic.  The nose on this was absolutely fantastic..Lemons, citrus, some leafy greens and nice minerality.  The palate had very good acidity which was a perfect balance to the residual sugar.  For whatever reason I think German rieslings seem to have a oneness when they have some RS and this is no exception.  What was amazing about this is the amount of depth, each swish showed a new side to it.  A little rock, a little fruit, a little sugar, which turned into a slightly different shade of fruit...I was shocked.   While not part of the pairing, this might be my WOTN.

4th Course  - Butter poached Port Lincol squid, Citrus scented ink, barley cured egg yolk, wild wood sorrel.
Wine - Txomin Etxaniz 2011.  A combination of Hondarrabi Zuri and Hondarrabi Beltza.  I've never tried this type of wine before.  Very tight acidity, combined with a very apple like flavor.  It was actually quite nice and definitely a food wine.  By itself it was fairly decent, but maybe a bit on the simpler side.  Nose was quite good...but what impressed me about this was how well  it went with the food.  A VERY good match because the acidity was a perfect pairing with the fattiness of the squid yolky ink.

At this point in the meal I'm already impressed by the food but really impressed with wine pairings..they're not only spot on but they all have a very nice nose....and looking into the next few wines I can see they'll be something different as well....

5th course - Roast Scampi tail, shellfish mousse, scampi shell crumb, sudachi Japanese land seaweed.
Wine - Pierre Luneau Papin "Clos des Noelles - Semper Excelsior" 2007.  A muscadet that has been on lees for an extended period of time which gave it a lot of added complexity.  On its own I thought this was a very  interesting Muscadet..it was definitely more interesting  than the ones I had in the past.  I wouldn't exactly say this was anything more than a well made wine but it went very well with the food.  It was a good contrast to the very rich shellfish mousse and really seemed to bring out the flavor of the scampi...At this point I'm laughing because the pairings have been really great with what are not very expensive wines..in fact, I don't think any of these go for more than 30 USD a bottle..and yet they are really singing with the food.

6th Course - South Australia Lamb, Goat Cheese and sake kuzu dumplings, black olive miso vinaigrette, fennel molasses
Wine - Gaia 14-18h Rose 2011.  Made from Agiorgitiko in Greece, I was looking forward to seeing what Gaia could do when making a Rose.  Overall - It was just a Rose.  Well made but not overly interesting.  As much as I'm trying to understand Rose, I still have a hard time understanding Rose.  That said, if you're going to drink Rose,  this is a fairly decent one.  This was also the only wine I didn't really felt was a good match for the food.  I can definitely see where this was heading though..the lamb was very delicate and lightly flavored..it did NOT come across as very lamb like and did not have overly strong flavors..but the rest of the food did have some stronger flavors.  I'd say the only disappointing match of the night and probably my least favorite wine.

7th course - Seared Rolled David Blackmore Waguy Beef, Chestnut Mushroom, roasted red onion juice wasabi fried potato and kombu crum, citrus soy.
Wine - Boscarelli Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2009.  Mostly Sangiovese in this.  Had a wonderful nose with a very expressive oak/vanilla coming off of it.  Nice red fruit and some herbs.  Palate had very very nice acidity...I love reds with good acid...medium bodied, good fruit, I guess American oak but it is French/Slovenian casks..either way, it has imparted an almost fruit bomb type of oak to it but not too much and at the same time, it has carried this very medium bodied acidity that is coming across very nicely.  I tried this before the food came out and I was expecting something really fatty (since we hadn't had a heavy red meat yet).  This was an excellent excellent match to the Wagyu...While I think a lot of people throw big big tannic reds at meat...it was really nice to see how the wine and its composition was selected to match how the food was, to match the fatiness or the strong flavors of the food...really nice.

8th course.  Lemon Verbena Curd, Alpine Strawberry caramel, crisp meringue.
No wine

9th course.  Poached paradise pear, salted goat milk ice cream, maple crepe, candied waluts.
Wine - Royal Tokaji "Late Harvest" 2009.  So rather than rely on botrytis this relied on a very late picking for its sweetness.  I was looking forward to trying this...Nice balanced sweetness but maybe a little on the simple side.  Matched very well with the 2nd pre-dessert.

10th course.  "Summer Chocolate Forest".  Soft Chocolate, hazelnut and almost, rose geranium cream, sour cherry sorbet, blueberry jellies, green tea  licorice, chocolate twigs.
Mas Amiel "Prestige - 15 Ans dAge".  Somewhere between a sherry and a port but without being too porty...this added a nice chocolate element to what was already a chocolate overload in the dessert.  It was quite an interesting wine but at this point I'm well sugared out...I wouldn't mind trying this when I'm not quite as stuffed and without the food.

Overall - Food - Excellent.  One of, if not the best dining experience I've had in Sydney...which includes, Quay, Tetsuyas, Marque, est. Aria, Momofuku and several others....Very "safe" food but at the same time very interesting...a nice twist on different dishes and my understanding is the degustation on Saturday is changed on a regular basis which I think is great.
Wine - I think every wine I had here was very well made and they all had one thing in common.  They all had VERY good noses...The matchings were easily the best I've had in Sydney.  They weren't the most expensive wines I've had in a pairing but they were paired the best, by far, than any place I've had in Sydney. The fact that they were able to do this with relatively low cost wine (again, I don't think any of these are over 30USD a bottle although they might be more expensive in Australia) and with wine that you might never have tried otherwise, speaks volumes about the quality of their sommelier.  The wine list is very well thought out, a very good mix of different things to try...and you can see a lot of effort and thought is put into what it is they're selling.

Chocolate shop?

So I had the opportunity to try this wine called Chocolate Shop.  It is actually a California wine..although I'm not sure it is really a wine since they artificially add chocolate to the wine..but either way, this is an even bigger step into the high residual sugar, "smooth" reds that have been gaining traction in the US and it looks like Australia as well..

Chocolate Red Wine by Chocolate Shop. 

Wine definitely smells of chocolate..there is definitely a red wine there as well but you get big whiffs of chocolate and sugar but not much else.  The wine is definitely "smooth" and made for non wine geeks...It lacks any tannins or any acid but it is definitely smooth.  One thing I thought was surprising is that it didn't have a fake candy taste to it at all...it has a slight dark fruit profile and then this dark syrupy chocolate flavor..  It is quite sweet but I wouldn't say overly sweet.  The wine itself is actually very simple  very easy to drink.  Again, I'm not sure I'd classify this as a wine but I'm sure this would be an enjoyable dessert drink and I has appeal to people looking for a very easy to drink sweet red.  It isn't my style of wine but I do think for what they are trying to achieve, they've done a good job.