If you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Marco Cirillo of Cirillo wines, Grenache impresario and the Barossa's only Italian Stallion, then you haven't met one of the best 'heart of gold' blokes who pepper our vinous landscape. Humble, fun loving, dedicated to his winemaking cause, focussed yet unswervingly generous with time and energy, Marco is the kind of man you wan't in your corner... especially when it comes to smallgoods.
Marco comes from over 600 years of smallgoods making. No mean feat considering that Australia was only over run by immigrants some 220 years or so ago. The secret of the Cirillo family meats was brought to our fair shores from Marco's forebears and it pays heed to note that what Marco doesn't know about smallgoods, isn't worth knowing.
Marco came in as a WISS interloper; haranguing the judges, eyeing off his competition, interrupting me speaking (the worst crime), but in the end was possibly the most important part of our WISS day aside the actual entries - the beefeater. Marco managed to eyeball, sniff, squeeze and dissect every piece of meat ensuring our health, well being and anal integrity was kept intact. He knew when meat was turning, he knew when it was underprepared, he even gave a diatribe on curing methods from the Roman era using a paper cup and a toothpick. Marco knew everything, was beyond helpful, stewarded all meat, ran beers and, invaluably, brought his 'cure-all' homemade limoncello to steady our guts.
Marco also brought with him two entries that fit no genre of our dinky competition - a 6-year-old ham and a Cirillo speck. Spectacular meats - the 6-year-old ham with the texture of soft yet pliantly chewy cheddar and aromas that ran from camembert to intense, gamey pork. Like nothing else and simply stunning; plus an insight into the Cirillo family's long history of smallgoods-ing. The speck was insanely concentrated pigginess, but, as meat chewing gum goes, superb. I wished we had some dough and a pizza oven.
Anyways, a humongous thanks to Marco... and by all means neck one of his range of craggy old-vine grenache wines when you next spy a bottle. A worthy drank for some meats. Or in general.
...what a bunch of legends. But more specifically, Mel, who runs the joint. A superb location on the escarpment above Tanunda, the Artisans of the Barossa houses a collective of 'like-minded' small batch producers who get off on sub-regional winemaking. Anyways, the cellar door is a stunner - floor to ballistically high ceilings with views cascading down over a vineyard or three, the bright, alfresco tasting room and private spaces aside, Mel let us run WISS all day Friday commandeering her staff, her kitchen, her private tasting room and a few buckets to slag unworthy meat in. Oh the humanity!
No way we could have pulled WISS off without the help of Mel and the Artisans of the Barossa cellar door team, thank you so much for hosting our event, thank you for putting up with us, thanks for going above and beyond. We salute you.
View from interior of cellar door. Winsor spitbucket doubles as pissoir
Ok. So this is the one you have all been waiting for. The best. The tastiest. The sexiest. The one you want to stash in your pants and show off to friends. The greatest flavour, the best excuse for killing an animal, the ultimate moment in death of small, kind, loveable farmyard friends...
RAVENSWORTH 'COUNTRY HAM' vs DEBORTOLI 'HARRY'S HOT STICK'
A very tough call here for the judges... The Country Ham was subtle, fine, filigreed and elegant to the Hot Stick's brashness, complexity, amazing flavour and seductive spice.
In the end. The best meat won... (3 judges to 1 judge)
THE BEST SMALLGOOD IN THE AUSTRALIAN WINE INDUSTRY FOR WISS 2011 IS...
DEBORTOLI HARRY'S HOT STICK!!!!!!!!!!!!
Winner of WISS 2011 - De Bortoli Harry's Hot Stick
THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED - WATCH OUT FOR WISS 2012 DETAILS, COMING SO SOON THAT IT WILL MAKE YOUR GUTS SPIN...
It's big. It's juicy. It's huge. It makes you swoon and gag and cower. Cross your legs and padlock the chastity belt. We have the winner of the biggest, the thickest, the meatiest. The girth will make you think twice about asking that random stranger home...
And here it is.
Adults only...
The winner of the Dirk Diggler/John Holmes Memorial Trophy for sausage with most girth and width (and length and weighing in at a whopping 1.25kg)...
Moondarra Bresaola!!
Congratulations to Neil Prentice!
It was actually one of the best Air Dried meats we tried. Superb. Made from Neil's own Wagyu cattle..
Sadly, there has to be one. Yes. The most rancid, vile, gut twisting, running for crapper, dry wretch moment of the WISS show. Sure, the producer put their heart, soul and feet into their smallgoods, but on the day... the gear looked, well, vomitous...
It's green, through and through. The colour of moss, verdant pastures and your Grandma's dunny...
Wow. Some great sausage happening here. Very, very good entries. A touch of gut throb and a little instantaneous gout, but a complex bracket to judge. We went through the lot in two brackets with the following results:
Class comments -
Again a very great level of respect for the traditional nature of smallgoods making. Few imposed their ego on the making process - many have made salami to match their wine. The caveat is These Smallgoods Scream Out For Wine. Fermenting smallgoods is a dark art that involves billions of microbes to creare rhe lactic ferment required to reduce the ph to make stable products. many entries didn't have their head around this entirely, the results, had we swallowed them could have killed us. However, the top smallgoods showed true artisan craftsmanship. RC
Overall a very good class though some skanky units that needed cleaning up. Again I think some stuff needed more hangtime and curing, but ones came to the top were complex and balanced with intensity of flavour and aroma, as you would expect from a good wine. DB
This class is my smallgoods sweet spot; some really lovely pig sweet, complex, deliciously long and rounded salami styles. I reiterate comments on hangtime, a couple of them would be more interesting in a month or two but not right now. As far as a sausage fest goes, that was a good one. NR
Firstly, pay heed - a meat spit bucket is fuckin' wrong. Luckily the stuff on the plates was so right. An amazing array of very finely made meat goods; incredible range of spice driven, pig driven, oinking good times. I appreciated the more intense styles of sausage; some extremists have left a heady imprint on some of their wares. Across the board great quality and an excitement in interpreting various 'terroirs'. MB
Bracket One Winners -
New Generation Wog Council 'Hot' Salami - Nicely textured, complete and composed. Bit of kick here, not blowing heads off but a mid palate burn nonetheless.
Casella Yellowtail Sausage - Sweet perfume, neat pepper, very intense flavour, enjoying the handcut shape here, soft texture, lovely spice throughout, finishes with great length and spice. Super stuff.
First Drop Salami - meaty, leathery, savoury spice and sweet animal meat, touch of capsicum or paprika, herbal notes, bergamot, pine needles, very fresh and peppery.
David Franz 'Fat Boy Sausage Calabrese' - very intense aromatics, minty almost, lifted fennel characters, peppery, menthol, lean and hot spice. Amazing intensity. Cornish says 'first sausage to make me really want to drink wine with it'. Hyper style.
Cirillo 'Calabrese Sausage' - Layers of intense aromatics and the same to taste, loads of flavour, rustic texture, sweet smoke, chilli, meaty, savoury. Superb.
Bracket Two Winners -
DeBortoli 'Harry's Hot Stick' - Great appearance, almost cheesy aromatics, awesome layers of flavour, richness, great spice intensity, slightly umami finish, amazing length, lingering spice, incredibly finish.
Syrahmi Salami - Very meaty with spice, winey characters and a lifted sweetness, great intensity of flavour, very long residual flavour, sweet flavour and well polished entry here.
Torzi Matthews Salami - Sweet peppers, chilli, capsicum and paprika in the bouquet. Palate has lots of layered flavour, sinewy texture, easy eating style that keeps you reaching back for the simple but attractive flavours.
and the winner came down to...
DeBortoli and Casella and Cirillo salamis...
But we only have one winner - the Salami Of The WISS goes to....
DeBortoli Harry's Hot Stick - a supreme entry that was eventually stolen by Judge Cornish to take back to his lair in Victoria.
DeBortoli sausage centre, empty Cirillo plate to left (eaten for posterity) and Casella sausage to right
Several ice blocks were administered to anus (or is that anii?) after the hottest salamis were mustered for the judging of the WISS Hottest Salami award. The final three were -
New Generation Wog Council 'Hot' Salami - Nicely textured, complete and composed. Bit of a kick here, not blowing heads off but a mid palate burn nonetheless.
Yarran Wines Leopard Wood Salami - Pepper over chilli spice. Intense, serious burn with front to back palate wall-to-wall fire. Still has great flavour, meatiness delivers good carriage for flames.
Tait Wines 'Filetto d'Prosciutto' - Judicious burn. Charry heat with low slow burn that grows, not shows. Uplifting and intense.
First up the meat has all been numbered for anonymity. Next up, the limoncello has been slugged down for protection. Then, spitoons/vomit buckets set aside for the tasting...
The first class to be judged is 'Air Dried'. Judge Cornish says 'so many pigs have died for this'.
Class comments:
For a spread of amateurs, there is a real dedication to tradition. Really respectful to the art itself. No one is taking the piss. - RC
Some could have done with more hang time. Overall very good - DB
Nothing I really recoiled from, some very impressive and interesting products there. Best of them had a supple meat sweetness, weren't over salty and singular. NR
Lots of variety of flavour, well made and well executed smallgoods. Some of the more subtly flavoured products were novel. No gut-churn. - MB
Results:
Third place - TAIT WINES 'FILETTO d'PROSCIUTTO' - A ring burner of the highest order, but takes length and sear to a new level. Great balance of spice in general.
Second place - FIRST DROP CAPOCOLLO - Great flavour here. The meat here never made the barf bucket. Long, umami twang in the finish. Complex flavours.
WINNER - RAVENSWORTH COUNTRY HAM - An extraordinary product that defied Maestro Cornish 'I've not seem similar' - a subtle, lightly coloured but definitively porky product with filigree of flavour. Remarkable for delicacy but complexity.
Things are really hotting up for the First Annual Premier Inaugural Number One Ever Wine Industry Smallgoods Smackdown... The final entries are trickling in to the Artisans of the Barossa cellar door in Tanunda, the Narcan shots have been packed, a course of antibiotics has been issued to all judges to fortify themselves against suspect meats. It's a cavalcade of excitement and intrigue culminating in a terrine of good times.
Meanwhile, the Sydney selection of meats has been carefully hidden in the false bottom of this cooler bag...
And for some of the more contraband salumi there is an additional concealment process.
Richard Cornish is taking no risks coming from Melbourne with his stash...
And of course Dave Brooke's has enlisted the Barossa militia to guard the Artisan's of the Barossa cellar door....
