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.
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
If only someone could bottle Marco Cirillo's enthusiasm for stuff... You could call it Cirillo Cetchup, or Excitement Sauce, or Marco's Ballistic Hullabaloo Exhilaration Passion Fervour Condiment. Or something like that. Bring it on Marco, bring it on!
He's run me through a couple of details about the smallgoods process, but a picture tells a thousand lies, can be used as a marital aid or assist with making ugly people look prettier. Here are a couple of flicks from Marco's butchering day anyway.
Witness the cutting up of pigs. The Cirillo's take to the beast en masse.
An unlikely looking goat. Why is it naked? Haw haw.
Meanwhile, witness the miracle of the Cirillo's making one goat... become two...
