I finished the year with a wonderful lunch in my wine cellar with Paddy McGrath, Rupert McCall and Mark Braithwaite.

This was a Meat & Malbec lunch to celebrate Paddy, Rupert and Mark’s rugby premiership win.

In no order and minimalistic menu was as follows;

Wagyu rump slow baked with Tasmanian pepper

Lamb slow baked with Italian Tuscan herbs and fresh home grown New Farm Rosemary

Roast potatoes

Cherry tomato gravy jus with a splash of high altitude premium Malbec

No salad or vegetables!

Italian and French cheese with orange and whiskey paste

Baguette and French butter

I selected my 6 best wines for 2021 for this lunch.

We started with the very rare 1890 Pinneau D’Aunis from a few plots of dirt within the Loire Valley, Rupert, for the rugby World Cup, I’m going to this area of the Loire Valley and will watch the games on TV at the local bar!

Then we had the Italian equivalent, the very rare Freisa from Piedmont in Northen Italy.

Then the mighty Malbecs from its ancestral home, Cohors and to the heights of Mendoza in Argentina where Malbec rules like you blokes as the best coaches Brothers has had for a long time.

We then finished with Tenuta Delle Terre Nere from Mt Etna in Sicily. A combination of Nerello Mascalese with a little Nerello Cappuccio.

Oh we then had to go for a Sardinian Granache which is known as Cannonau!