The Roussillon wine region

The view across the bar at @pachinko_eats last week. Lots of our wines at the moment but even if there weren’t it’s the sort of collection that reminds us we are part of a community - wines and sake from importers who are friends, from vignerons we’ve hosted (imported by a friend not us) and of course we see the faces of the people we work with when we see the bottles that have come from us. We’re sure this is one of the reasons why so many people love these wines. Drinking a glass is a direct link to a person not a brand. We’ve missed direct contact with so many people in the last 2 years but the connections remain strong.

Notice the subtle change of name in @twometretall’s signature early-release beer. This is NOT a marketing decision. It is a very firm statement making a stake in the ground to mark the fact that this farmhouse beer (made on a farm so they can use that descriptor with some pride) is now made entirely without the need to add any yeast. All the yeasts that do the work, including finishing the fermentation in the bottle, are living on the farm. This is no mean feat for a young beer. All we can suggest you do is get to the Derwent Valley (their rustic farm bar is open regularly (currently Fridays and Saturdays) and ask Ashley to explain how it is made and why he feels this is such an important milestone. And taste it too - complex and refreshing at the same time. Here he is in full flight … while @jane_huntington keeps everything calm and flowing! At the moment you can only taste the new beer at the bar but it will be released to a wider audience later this year. Always such a pleasure to visit and enjoy their hospitality. Not your average brewery visit!

One of Hobart’s best kept secrets is @pigeonwholebakers Bake At Home boxes of frozen pain au chocolats or croissants. They are especially good if you’re about to travel into the country and stay off grid or in a region missing any patisseries. A tiny freezer in the corner of the shop is a last minute reminder to ask but it’s wiser to order online in advance and nominate a pickup day. This first photo is the pain au chocolat cooked at home, following all the instructions, which involve baking paper and a glaze of egg + milk or cream). The second photo is of the croissants, serendipitously purchased on the way to the country (never travel anywhere in Tasmania without a cooler box (aka an esky in Australia) loaded with ice bricks - you never know when you might need it) and prepared and cooked following only the most basic bits of the instructions (no baking paper, no glaze) but still delicious. We can’t emphasise too much the benefits of travelling with a small cooler box. If you’re a tourist planning to drive around the state it’s a worthwhile investment - and maybe you can make a local happy by donating it to them at the end of your trip. It’s something we do when we travel by car in France. They make serendipitous things like frozen @pigeonwholebakers pastries possible in the most unlikely of places!

Feeling the need to write about this dish. Blue-eye trevalla, rice, broth, silverbeet with some structure and plenty of flavour, and XO sauce. @thewaterloo_inn’s chef @oldmatebenji is happy to acknowledge he found some inspiration at @hamlet_hobart and we recognise an antecedent. At Hamlet the food is nourishing and so is this dish, so much so we ate it two nights in a row. It was surprisingly emotional to eat something so satisfying and nourishing well beyond our few few mainly city haunts. Since 1987 we have been documenting our eating around Tasmania and can count on one hand the restaurants beyond Hobart where we have eaten something as uplifting as this. The reality of eating in country Tasmania, with a few rare but notable exceptions, rarely reaches the same heights as the marketing of it does. It’s hard getting and keeping people who can cook well and care and who are willing to engage in the time-consuming and challenging battle to get the produce that allows what might have been ordinary to become extraordinary. It’s hard anywhere but even harder in a country town. We generally return from a few days of eating in the country, after having followed our own advice to stick with the often decent piece of steak and sometimes excellent fish and chips, craving for a dish as pure and deceptively simple as this to help our bodies recover. It was a very satisfying moment to find it here beside the water in a small coastal town. This is not fine dining. It’s much better than that because it is a dish we could happily eat every day and after each time, having enjoyed its deliciousness, feel better for it. This small team is working its collective butt off. Smother them with love Swansea - your town is lucky to have them.

Our regular ritual weekend visit to the @agrariankitcheneatery to buy bread and butter took an unexpected excellent turn today when Rodney Dunn appeared and offered us a tour of their new food garden. It’s a completely inspiring project in every way. Enclosed inside what was the high-walled prison section of the Willow Court Asylum, in less than a year they have already made so much progress. And it’s just the beginning. Later this year the Agrarian Kitchen Cooking School will reopen on this same site alongside the restaurant and kiosk. It is a nationally significant project and this glorious garden will be its beating heart. And we added a photo of the bread and butter that cause us to be here each week, something we do with a touch of self-doubt. Encouraging more people to buy it may not be in our best interests.😊

Maybe there is life after covid. It is still hard to imagine and any night that feels like life before covid is to be treasured. Not just bottles of delicious wine that a photo easily captures but conversations with new voices which, when you travel, is easy to take for granted and, when you stay still, you miss. Beautiful moon too which a proper photographer may have captured!