Monty - top dog at Dog Point

Last weekend I attended a relaxed lunch at Dog Point, Marlborough’s hottest new (well, new-ish) winery partnership between ex Cloudy Bay winemaker James Healy and ex Cloudy Bay viticulturist Ivan Sutherland. The al fresco lunch was prepared by the dynamic duo Al Logan and Steve Brown from Wellington’s Logan Brown restaurant.

We kicked off with a glass of Roederer Cristal before moving on to Dog Point 09 Sauvignon Blanc, 08 Section 94, 08 Chardonnay and 08 Pinot Noir (that’s their complete range – why don’t more wine producers “stick to the knitting” rather than try to boost sales by adding more wines to their list).

Every wine impressed. Section 94 is appealingly funky without going over the top, the 09 Sauvignon is certainly one of the best I’ve tasted from the vintage, similarly the 08 Chardonnay - just tasted in my current review of NZ Chardonnay where the second bottle (the first was corked) scored 93 points and the 2008 Pinot Noir is an absolute knockout – clearly the best so far from Dog Point. I plan to formally review the Pinot Noir at some stage (I don’t make notes at lunch)  and also to buy a case.

The food was equally impressive. We started with salmon and cucumber sandwhiches, fantastic Bluff-type oysters (from the Marlborough Sounds) freshly shucked by Logan Brown head chef Shaun Clouston who told the Marlborough Express: ”he had been trialling oysters farmed by Marlborough’s Bruce Hearn on and off since about September last year and his customers “loved them”. “They are a beautiful oyster. They look like a little shell, but when you open them up they are a big oyster. “I could sell them all (10 dozen) on the same day.” He said some diners even preferred them instead of Bluff oysters. Mr Hearn has been experimenting with commercial oyster farming in the Sounds for some years. The same species is harvested under quota from Furneaux Strait and near Nelson. He has successfully trialled harvesting with a mussel harvester to get round the problem of build up on the farmed oysters.

Mr Clouston said fresh oysters from Bluff and the Sounds were like comparing “apples with apples”, but he reckoned the Marlborough ones were superior to Bluff pottled oysters. “If I have a choice between a (pottled) Bluff oyster and a Marlborough oyster I would take Bruce’s 10 times over.”

As a fully paid-up card-carrying member of the oyster lovers club I totally agree with Shaun’s comments. If you’re serious about oysters – try them!

We then had the Logan Brown signature dish, Paua fritters. I’ve eaten a lot of Paua but have never had it this good before. It’s worth buying Al Brown’s book “Go Fish” just to get the recipe (I did).

Entree was half a crayfish with a knockout sauce. Main was perfectly cooked venison with various salads. Dessert was passion fruit ice cream between two wafers (we called it an icey slicey when I was a kid).

Altogether a fantastic day which will be repeated next year and should not be missed!!

Dog Point winemaker, james Healy with (unusually) an empty glass

Marlborough sunset from Ivan Sutherland's house

Enjoying lunch

This entry was posted on Friday, March 19th, 2010 at 8:58 am and is filed under Marlborough. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.