More particularly, it seems, whenever he’s approached a restaurant in the Burdekin with an offer to deliver a number of paying diners if he can also provide the wine for the dinner the proposal has been unfavourably received.
Strange.
One would have thought that an opportunity to get a number of diners that wouldn’t have been there under normal circumstances through the door when you’re already paying kitchen and wait staff would have been greeted with open arms. A quick check with Steve, who was giving himself a holiday at Cape Upstart, revealed that I was supposed to organise a venue and rattle up some diners, two tasks I thought wouldn’t be too difficult.
The venue side of things was remarkably easy. A phone call to Browny at the QB had him go into immediate overdrive, and it wasn’t long before we were looking at a three course dinner matched to a couple of wines that Steve would provide at $55 per head, thank you very much.
That $55 had me scratching my head, figuring it might be seen as excessive to people who weren’t familiar with the winery, but second thoughts suggested that if you went out for a three course meal with several glasses of wine you’d probably be looking at a bit more than $55. Given the fact that you're unlikely to find a main course for under $20, and anything approaching a reasonable bottle's going to be at least that much, I think I can rest my case.
But if the venue was easy, recruiting the diners proved much trickier, since almost all of my wine drinking acquaintances seemed to have a scheduled medical appointment or health related matter in Townsville, Mackay or Brisbane. Browny, on the other hand, has a wider community of acquaintances to draw on, and we ended up with twenty-something diners arranged around three tables to sample a menu that lined up remarkably well with the wines Steve had delivered.
A reduction involving the best part of a bottle of Merlot Noir probably explained the match with the main course, Kimberley Red (Eye Fillet medallions rubbed in a Middle Eastern inspired spice, layered between a colourful melange of marinated vegetables and creamy mashed potato).
The Baked Brie entree, served warm on a sourdough bread with a Rocket and prosciutto salad and a sticky quince and fig jelly worked remarkably well with the Big Men in Tights, and samples of the 2009 Chardonnay, 2008 Merlot Noir and 2007 Shiraz seemed to go down very well with those present.
Close to a fortnight after the event I’m not sure whether the dinner has translated into increased sales of Bloodwood wines, but in any case there’ll be another couple of dozen headed towards the Little House of Concrete before summer hits us with the need for a few Big Men in Tights.