McHenry Hohnen

'It helps having a father-in-law who is a pig farmer...'

So says Ryan Walsh of McHenry Hohnen. So true though, it's much better than a father-in-law who is into home nudism and squat thrusts. Meanwhile, what does Ryan say?

'I think smallgoods are great. Basically before vintage, I get the guys in, we kill a pig and break it down. This year we made two hams, 20 kilograms of sausages, pancetta, dried chorizo and with the ugly bits we made rillettes. We platter up through vintage and have food throughout the harvest period. It's rich wholesome food and we grab a glass of wine and talk about them both. We learn a bit more about how food and wine integrate this way. We're into the whole nose to tail philosophy, which translates to the vineyard - we work our soil, then our vines and we get the best out of our grapes in the winery, but we consider it a total process'.

Wise words from the young man, no doubt.

Here piggy piggy piggy... pic from thewinedetective.co.uk

Tiger Country? More like pig country...

Syrahmi Salami Part 2 - Revenge of Zoro the Croatian smallgoods maker

These are the only know photographs of Zoro the Croatian smallgoods maker. And while appearing calm... 

Watch as he becomes... 

...UNHINGED! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! 

Syrahmi Salami

Hey look it's Adam Foster from Syrahmi and Foster e Rocco wines. He loves handling meat. You can tell by the glint in his eye. Interesting story though, before taking on the winemaking and sommelier lifestyle, Adam was once a chef, so he kind of knows his way around foodstuffs. His Syrahmi salami brings together his chef nous, a slightly off-kilter Croatian smallgoods maker named Zoro and about 16 bottles of Syrahmi Shiraz. The wine goes in the meat mix, Zoro oversees with draconian force and a sprinkle of secret spice and Adam works the meat the way he likes it. Adam reckons the wine brings a little touch of Heathcote (bayleaf, thyme, paprika in the spice mix, in the wine, in Heathcote's 'terroir') too.  

 

Be terrified as Adam minces meat. 

Spy cam at the D'Anna meat works

WISS has managed to slip another spy camera into the D'Anna/Mondo Imports sausage making facility and can reveal these exclusive photos of the production process. 

Note the incline of the meat, essential in quality production. 

Here, a strange pouring of liquids onto the meat. The substance was unidentifiable at the time of photography. 

WISS assumes this is some kind of addictive powder, perhaps of narcotic origin, which may be scrutinised at  time of judging. At no point are illegal drugs to be included in the meat making process, unless kept separately and sent discreetly to the judges... 

A strange ritual involving the fisting of the meat. Compelling and unusual activity; let's hope it improves the flavours of the final products. 

Zema Estate steps up to the plate

Great to see our Coonawarran brethren getting involved in WISS. Karen Ronning has been issuing some serious challenges in the past week or so, and has provided the WISS scrutineers with photo evidence of last year's Zema Estate 'meat harvest'. Very well hung indeed. 

Piggery

Nice work Krystina Menegazzo. Krystina worked in the winery and vineyard at Shadowfax, and has done vintages with Hoddles Creek Estate, La Spinetta (Piemonte), Henschke, Giorgio Meletti-Cavallari in Bolgheri, Domaine Chandon and Winemaking Tasmania. As she says 'I got around'. 

Here she has supplied us with some pre-cured imagery of her pork products. ... oink oink... 

A picture says a thousand words...

Think deeply on this...