Pinelli Estate, is well known for their premium wines in the Swan Valley, whether they are white, red, bubbly, sweet or pink. You might also know the estate for their beautiful and friendly cellar door and the pristine events they organize now and then, from concerts to markets; from festivals to well-orchestrated dinners and feasts. I had the chance to enjoy an intimate dinner on their premises last Friday, a three-course menu paired with the best in their wine portfolio.
The setting was the newly created Pinelli Estate Winery Restaurant, home of a modern Italian cuisine that opens for lunch and dinner.
Condividere means to share, and that’s how or special dinner started. With a Chef’s Tasting Platter spread of pure tasty deliciousness. To pair the chef’s introduction, we enjoyed a flight of some of the best wines Pinelli has to offer. A fresh, well-made Vermentino, filled with herbs and flowers over a mineral bed; a lovely Breana rosé, discrete but with a mouth-watering acidity (pre-release); an attractive, inky and palate-coating Durif (known elsewhere as Petit Sirah); and the estate’s gold medal winner Syrah Reserve 2014, a Museum Release.
After the harmonious starting symphony and a palate-cleansing sorbet, made with the winery’s own Chenin Blanc, we were ready for our “secondo” main course.
You could choose between a Filo parcel of marinated chicken, Camembert, caramelized onion, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes with a garlic, creamy sauce. Pork belly with winter root vegetables and mulled red wine jus or lamb shank served with parmesan risotto, topped with a tawny port jus.
The chicken paired amazingly well with a contrasting 2015 Verdelho Reserve that cleaned the palate after each coating, creamy bite. The lamb merged witch a firm and heartier 2018 Shiraz Reserve, with black fruit aromas, oaky spices and charred notes.
The evening wasn’t over, it was time for dessert.
A limoncello tiramisu with seasonal fruit and toffee chards matched nicely with one of the winery’s most celebrated fortified wines, their Grand Tawny, of around 20 years of age. The wine has dried fruit aromas, honey, and an easily identifiable toffee note that made the pairing an instant classic.
Where there are good wines and food, surrounded by friends and cared for by attentive staff, that’s where you want to be. That’s where the magic happens.
