Recipe Archives - Subrosa Wine

Father’s Day cook-up in the Grampians

August 11, 2023August 11, 2023 Nancy

Adam and boys in the bush Do you eat out or eat in on Father’s Day? We love to eat in, so it’s a Father’s Day cook-up in the Grampians for us!

Living in the country we’re often in the car, so we relish a day spent on our property exploring the bush, having a bonfire or finding something to make or fix.

This Father’s day we plan to start the day with local bacon and eggs before we head outside. Lunch is likely to be pretty low-key as we don’t want to spend too much time inside!

Chatting to our local butcher, I’m inspired to make slow-cooked beef brisket with BBQ sauce served with coleslaw this Father’s Day.

Recipetineats Slow-Cooker-BBQ-Beef-Brisket

I’ve found this great recipe on Recipe Tin Eats…we might need to invest in a slow cooker to pull it off!

Cooking on Father’s Day needs to require minimal effort with maximum taste. Our 2019 Grampians Pyrenees Shiraz will pair well with these beef sliders.

Looking for a gift for your dad or that special male in your life? Check out our gift packs available for Father’s Day delivery.

Chocolate and wine pairing

March 24, 2023April 2, 2023 Nancy

Red wine and dark chocolate make a wonderful pairing

When you love chocolate AND wine, you naturally find a way to make them work together!

Adam is a chocoholic. There is barely a day that goes by that doesn’t include chocolate! Mostly cadbury dairy milk.

As Easter is just around the corner, we thought we’d share with you why chocolate and wine pair beautifully and which wines we would enjoy with chocolate.

Characters of chocolate

Dark chocolate

Dark Chocolate is intense thanks to 70 – 100% cacao (Nancy loves 70% but is not a fan of 100% cacao chocolate!). You will find a combination of fruit, earth, wood, ash and nut notes. The intense flavours of dark, rich chocolate call for bolder, denser wines. Big and big work.

Varietal matches: We enjoy rich dark chocolate with our newly released 2019 Malakoff Estate Shiraz. This bold Shiraz from the warmer climate of the Pyrenees has bright yet rich fruit flavours. Our 2017 Grampians Cabernet would also pair beautifully.

Milk chocolate

Milk chocolate (Adam’s favourite) is higher in milk and sugar and has a smaller percentage of cacao than dark chocolate. This makes it sweeter and milder with flavours including cocoa, cream, nuts, malt, vanilla and honey.

Varietal matches: Milk chocolate characteristics pair well with wines that are lighter, savoury and/or fruity. We enjoy our 2019 Pyrenees Nebbiolo or 2019 Grampians Pyrenees Shiraz as the complex savoury characteristics of our SubRosa wines complement milk chocolate.

White chocolate

White chocolate isn’t a true chocolate as it doesn’t include cocoa, but its rich sweet flavours of cream, honey and vanilla make it a great pairing with bright aromatic and fruity wines.

Varietal matches: Our 2021 Grampians Viognier would be our go to as the apricot, stonefruit and ginger notes enhance the flavours of white chocolate (or chocolate mousse). Crisp sparkling is also another favourite pairing in our house.

What’s your favourite chocolate and wine pairing?

We all have a unique palate, likes and dislikes. So give it a go. Experiment with chocolate and wine and discover what works best for you. Have fun!

Wine offer, with free shipping, for your Easter Feast

Like to conduct your own wine and chocolate pairings this Easter? We’ve put together an Easter Feast 6-pack. It includes wines in this article, as well as our new release 2019 Grampians Shiraz.

Order by April 5 to receive free shipping. (Enter code: SREaster6)

Toast to the Host: simple dukkah recipe

November 22, 2022February 14, 2023 Nancy

It’s holiday season. Time to visit friends, relax and celebrate.

I’m a big fan of dukkah. I always have it in the pantry. It’s a great for a grazing platter, with eggs on toast, salads or even a stir fry (I picked up that idea from my sister-in-law Brittny). It’s also very easy to make, and is a simple, but great gift.

Here’s a recipe I recently discovered.

Simple Dukkah Recipe
Prep: 5 minutes, Cook: 10 minutes

½ cup (75 g) Hazelnuts, toasted
½ cup (80 g) almonds toasted
1 tsp sea salt
⅓ cup (50 g) sesame seeds
1 Tbsp coriander seeds
2 Tbsp cumin seeds

Place the hazelnuts in a food processor or mortar and pestle with the salt.

Combine the sesame, coriander and cumin seeds in a frying pan and toast until fragrant and the sesame seeds are golden. Add to the nut mix and blitz or bash to combine into roughish crumbs. Once cool, store in a clean jar for up to a month. In Good Company by Sophie Hansen (p99)

Make sure to try it once you are done. Grab some fresh bread and olive oil, pour a glass of SubRosa wine and relax and enjoy! A simple dukkah recipe for you and those you love!

Have fun,

Nancy

ps. There are plenty of other spices or nuts you can use – so have fun with it.

pps. I always love to make my dukkah a little spicy with some white pepper or hot paprika.

2018 SubRosa Grampians Viognier rated #1 Viognier in Australia*

April 29, 2020August 13, 2020 Nancy

Leading independent wine writer Huon Hooke has rated the 2018 SubRosa Grampians Viognier #1 in Australia. He awarded the wine 94 points along with Top Value and Top Rank for The Real Review in April 2020.

SubRosa winemaker Adam Louder appreciates the accolade for the little known variety in Australia.

“Viognier is a great white variety for red wine wine drinkers. It’s more full-bodied and has complexity that evolves over time,” said Adam.

SubRosa prides itself on making delicious wines that are value for money, and it’s wonderful to see reviewers like James Halliday, Huon Hooke and Mike Bennie recognise this.

Viognier is a very versatile wine, it can be paired with white meat, seafood and with even lamb.

Huon Hooke, The Real Review, April 2020:

Medium yellow, bright colour, with a complex and expressive aroma of spiced honey and poached stone-fruits, the oak component evident in the spiciness of the palate as well. There is richness and body, texture and fruit, but also delicacy and refinement. The varietal character is well in evidence but not overpowering. A superb viognier, the finish long and elegant.

In 2019, SubRosa was awarded a Real Review Certificate of Excellence and named in the Top Wineries for Australia.

A complete list of the top 20 Australian Viognier’s (2018 vintage) is available at The Real Review.

Buy SubRosa 2018 Grampians Viognier here.

Find Nancy’s recipe for Chicken Pesto Pasta paired with SubRosa Grampians Viognier here.

Want to know what temperature to serve your Viognier? Find out here.

*On 29 April 2020.

Chicken pesto pasta paired with SubRosa Viognier

February 29, 2020August 17, 2020 Nancy

Chicken Pest Pasta's core ingredient - Basil Basil. It’s all about the basil.

I fondly remember visiting a dear friend of Adam’s in Switzerland in 2018 and every night we harvested basil from his window sill as he prepared dinner for us. It inspired me.

After a struggle (too much water, not enough water, too much sun etc.), I got my own basil crop this summer. And it was a bumper!

Now I’m not normally a pesto fan, but with an abundance of basil I thought why not make Chicken Pesto Pasta for our family.

Alice Waters The Art of Simple Food I searched our plethora of recipe books for a pesto recipe and settled on Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food. A gem I picked up while living in San Francisco after dining at her Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California. Alice Waters is a champion of local sustainable agriculture and is known for pioneering California cuisine using locally grown organic ingredients.

Here’s my variation of Alice Waters’ Pesto.

Pesto ingredients:
2 bunches of basil to yield 2 lightly packed cups
2 garlic cloves, salt
1/2 cup pine nuts lightly toasted
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 a cup good quality olive oil (I use Red Rock olives‘ extra virgin olive oil from the Grampians)
4 x chicken thighs
500gms fusilli pasta (I like the spirals as the pesto sticks to them nicely)

Method:
Using a food processor, blitz basil, garlic and toasted pine nuts before adding Parmesan. Pour in the olive oil as you blitz and season to taste.

Now you have the pesto, it’s easy.

Cook the pasta.

Dice the chicken in bite-size pieces and pan fry in oil. Add the pesto and stir through. Add the cooked pasta a spoon at a time until you have the desired pasta/sauce consistency!

Extra Parmesan to serve. We also like to serve garlic bread!

We enjoy our SubRosa Viognier with our chicken pesto pasta. Adam says that the weight of our Viognier works well with the chicken and the Parmesan and pine nuts in the pesto.

Taste-tested on a winemaker, grandfather and two growing boys.

Enjoy!

Nancy

Winemaker tip: don’t burn the pine nuts!

Category: Recipe

Father’s Day cook-up in the Grampians

Chocolate and wine pairing