Christmas Gift Guide 2023

Inspired by the Australian summer, this year's gift guide is comprised of items to see you through long days by the ocean and relaxed entertaining. 

One lucky person has the chance to WIN everything listed in the Shaw + Smith gift guide, valued at over $1,000. Simply purchase online or in Tasting Room before Dec 10 to be in the draw. Good luck!

 

P. Johnson Cap| $69 | Shop here

The elusive P. Johnson cap is set to drop before Christmas, but make haste, this classic style is known for selling out within minutes of release!

Shaw + Smith Lenswood Vineyard Chardonnay in a festive box | $95 | Shop here

Our single vineyard Chardonnay will be a welcome addition to the festive table. It comes with a complimentary gift box, available with all wines if something else better suits

Up the Hill Christmas Ham Glaze | $18 | Shop here

Made from a special recipe of seasonal produce, herbs and spices grown on the Ursini family's property in Mylor.

How to Drink Australian | $79.99 | Shop here

How to Drink Australian brings together global experts to answer its namesake question, offering sweeping, practical, and compelling insight to all aspects of Australian wine.

Città Pinto Placemats | From $29.90 | Shop here

The Pinto Placemat explores the interaction of colour and texture, making a bold statement in your dining setting.

Jam Factory Kink Oil Bottle | $175 | Shop here

Designed by Deb Jones, the iconic Kink Oil Bottle is made from glass with a rubber stopper and metal pourer.

Hommey Towel | $99 | Shop here

Perfecting the balance of practicality with ultimate Summer style, this oversized beach towel is perfect for drying off or dozing.

Classic Games Backgammon | $99.95 | Shop Here

Classic Backgammon board game in a stylish grey box.

Alex and Trahanas Plate | $280 | Shop here

Balmy evenings, enjoying wine and delicious food surrounded by friends and family, the ALEX AND TRAHANAS Forever Marella serving plate will complete your festive table.

 

Competition terms and conditions here.

 

 

Join the Wine Club and WIN a luxury escape for two!

Join the wine club to WIN a luxury South Australian escape for two!

Shaw + Smith wine club members are eligible to win a luxury South Australian escape for two at EOS, SkyCity. The prize includes return airfares from your nearest capital city, two night mid-week stay at EOS, and dinner at the award winning Restaurant Botanic, as well as a Shaw + Smith cellar worth $1,000, AND a private VIP tour and tasting at Shaw + Smith winery. Total prize is valued at over $7,000!

Active wine club members receive one automatic entry into the competition. To increase chances, members will receive one bonus entry for every order placed before 31 October 2023.

If you are not a wine club member and would like to be, or would like more information about membership, find out more here, or call 08 8398 0500.

Competition ends 31 October 2023, read the Terms and Conditions here.

Winner will be drawn on 14 November 2023. Good luck!

Shaw + Smith Yum Cha 2023

Every year we gather our friends in trade and celebrate our new release wines over Yum Cha. The tradition began over 30 years ago and now takes place in every state.

In 2023, the incredible team at Mr. Wong in Sydney hosted us for the tenth year. NSW Market Manager, Kavita Faiella reflects on 10 years at the venue: "Colloquially known by the Sydney trade as Shaw + Smith Christmas, Yum Cha is definitely a festive occassion, where we squeeze as many people into Mr. Wong as possible to celebrate the year that has been and the new vintage releases with delicious dumplings and excellent company. It really is one of the best days of the year."

These events have become integral to building relationships with sommelierrs, retailers and restaurants around the country. They're also a lot of fun!

A big thank you to all of the venues who helped make the 2023 Shaw + Smith Yum Cha events such a success:

Star House, Adelaide

Donna Chang, Brisbane

Me Wah, Hobart

Supernormal, Melbourne

Light Years, Newcastle

Miss Chow's, Perth

Mr. Wong, Sydney

Practicing patience in Piccadilly

You probably know that we love working with great vintage sites. At Lenswood we were lucky enough to find a terrific vineyard with established vines, planted in 1999, and we’ve been making single vineyard wines from Lenswood since 2014.  More recently, we bought 5.5 hectares of land in the Piccadilly sub-region of the Adelaide Hills, where we’ve planted Chardonnay and Pinot Noir at very high vine densities (over 10,000 vines per ha, about 4 times the normal Australian vine density). This season we got our first small crop, and the fruit looks seriously good. We’ll need to be patient, but the signs are there that our Piccadilly Vineyard will give us some really special wines over the next few years.

 

False Alibi Cocktail Recipe

Whilst not its intended purpose, we are flattered nonetheless that the cocktail’s creator insists that only the  very best ingredients be used hence the selection of Shaw + Smith Sauvignon Blanc.  

Either way it is delicious, perfect for Easter!

False Alibi Recipe

1. Separate the white from an egg 

2. Combine the below ingredients in a large cocktail shaker:
     20ml Passionfruit syrup
     15ml Lemon juice
     10ml Gum Arabic syrup
     1.25ml White balsamic
     35ml Shaw + Smith Sauvignon Blanc
     20ml Vodka 

3. Add egg white to the rest of the ingredients and shake with a small handful of crushed ice until ingredients are dissolved and very cold. 

 4. Pour 20ml Perrier into a chilled narrow highball glass. 

5. Rinse the cocktail shaker with 20ml Perrier and top up glass. 

6. Garnish with hibiscus tincture. 

If you need Sauvignon Blanc to make this recipe, order here

Enjoy! 

Meatsmith's Roast Porchetta

Ahead of the festive season, our friends at Melbourne's speciality butcher and wine merchant, Meatsmith, have shared their delicious porchetta recipe - the hero of the dining table.

Porchetta works best with medium-bodied, fruit-driven wines, making our 2021 Shaw + Smith Pinot Noir the perfect choice. The cool ripening conditions produced Pinot Noir with intense red and blue fruit flavours, and excellent balance. Complex, aromatic, medium-bodied with deceptive power, silky tannins and long-term ageing potential. The 2021 shows black cherry, darker fruits, and underlying gamey aromas with great flavour and length.

HOW TO ROAST A PORCHETTA

A rare breed belly porchetta is one of the heroes of the sharing table. Slow-cooked over a couple of hours and only needing a bright salad and crusty bread rolls to serve, it's the ultimate in laidback catering. Beachport Berkshires and Glen Eyrie Farm supply Meatsmith with exceptional pork, and the belly is generously seasoned with fennel seed, garlic, chilli, parsley and lemon, before being rolled and trussed, ready to slow roast. The key is to make sure the skin is completely dry, it's massaged with plenty of sea salt and loads of quality olive oil. You can find their fail-safe method below.

Please note, Meatsmith recommends the same amount of cooking time for all weights of porchetta.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 x Rare Breed Porchetta
• Quartz Hill Olive Oil
• Murray River Sea Salt
• Meatsmith mustard

PREPARING THE ROAST

Preheat the oven to 170C.

Make sure the porchetta is completely dry. Meatsmith reccomends leaving the porchettas uncovered in the fridge overnight.Score the porchetta into the skin and fat, 1cm apart.

Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil over the scored porchetta.

Massage the oil into the skin.Season the porchetta generously with Murray River sea salt, rubbing the salt evenly into the incisions.

ROASTING THE PORCHETTA

Place the porchetta onto a wire rack that nestles into the baking tray and then into the preheated oven. It's ideal to have as much space as possible around the porchetta for the air to evenly circulate, creating crisp crackling.

Add a splash of water to the base of the roasting dish and oast the porchetta for two hours.

Increase the temperature of the oven to 220C, then roast the porchetta for a further 30 minutes so that the crackling forms.

 

RESTING AND CARVING THE PORCHETTA

Once you have achieved the crunchiest of crackling, remove the porchetta from the oven.

Place it on a board and allow the porchetta to rest uncovered for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes of resting, remove the trussing string from the porchetta.

Using a sharp carving knife, slice the porchetta into 2cm rounds.

Serve one slice of porchetta per person with dressed leaves and Meatsmith mustard.

WHAT TO SERVE WITH PORCHETTA

Porchetta is delicious and served as part of a Sunday roast spread with gravy, potato gratin and a shaved fennel salad - we also love the leftovers stuffed into bread rolls dressed with a vibrant herb sauce.

See the original recipie and other pork recipes from Meatsmith here. If you're located in Melbourne, purchase your Porchetta from the experts at Meatsmith here.

WHAT TO SERVE WITH PORCHETTA

Porchetta is delicious and served as part of a Sunday roast spread with gravy, potato gratin and a shaved fennel salad - we also love the leftovers stuffed into bread rolls dressed with a vibrant herb sauce.

See the original recipie and other pork recipes from Meatsmith here. If you're located in Melbourne, purchase your Porchetta from the experts at Meatsmith here.

Image & Recipe Credit: Meatsmith

Christmas Gift Guide 2022

This year's Christmas Gift Guide provides gift inspiration for even the most difficult wine and food connoisseur.

One lucky person has the chance to WIN everything listed in the Shaw + Smith gift guide, pictured above, valued at over $1,000. For your chance to win, place an order online or in the Tasting Room before 15 December 2022.* You will automatically go in the draw to win.

CUBE™ Portable BBQ - Everdure by Heston Blumenthal | $299 | Shop here

Grill on the go. The Everdure CUBE has been designed in collaboration with world-renowned chef Heston Blumenthal and made in Australia.

Shaw + Smith 3 x 375ml Gift Box | $85 ($76.50 for Wine Club members) | Shop here

Our half bottle gift box. Included in the box is 1 x 2022 Sauvignon Blanc, 1 x 2021 M3 Chardonnay, and 1 x 2019 Shiraz (all 375ml bottles). 

eto Stainless Steel Finish Wine Decanter | $314 | Shop here

Not only does the eto decanter decant your wine, it also preserves it. eto's unique preservation system creates a seal between the wine and the air, reducing your wine’s exposure to oxygen.

TASTE by Stanley Tucci | $34.35 | Shop here

From award-winning actor and food-obsessed Stanley Tucci comes a heartwarming memoir of life in and out of the kitchen.

Mud Australia Cheese Platter | $325 | Shop here

Since 1994, Mud Australia has created elegant and timeless handmade porcelain homewares, and their cheese platter is no exception. 

Maison Balzac Lemonade Glass Summer Set | $99 | Shop here

These four drinking glasses are each hand crafted from coloured borosilicate glass. The perfect vessel for your favourite summer drink.

The Fish Weight by Josh Niland | $150 | Shop here

Josh Niland is the chef and owner of seafood mecca Saint Peter. Their fish weights are the essential tool for achieving crisp skin fish.

Little Greeves Chilli Oil 250ml | $15.95 | Shop here

Handmade in Melbourne, Little Greeves Chilli Oil is the aromatic, spicy pantry essential that makes bad things taste good and good things taste better. 

Playing Cards x David Shrigley | $19.00 | Shop here

A pack of 57 playing cards that have been individually hand-illustrated by visual artist David Shrigley. In keeping with his style of humour, all suits are drawn black

Competition terms and conditions here.

Recipe: Tandoori Trout with Wombok Salad by Tonka, Melbourne

The sweetness and earthiness of the trout paired with tandoori spice, in this recipe from Melbourne favourite, Tonka, plays right into the fragrance of our 2021 Pinot Noir. 

TANDOORI TROUT

Ingredients:

Ocean Trout - 4 pieces
Fennel seeds 3g
Mustard seeds 7g
Red onion 700g
Ginger garlic paste 40g
Green chilli 15g
Turmeric powder 5g

Method:

Slice onions. Heat a little vegetable oil and cook on low heat until brown.
Toast fennel seeds and mustard seeds until fragrant.
Roughly chop green chilli.
Once onions are cooked, add in toasted spices and turmeric powder and chilli. Mix well.
Leave to cool slightly then blend until smooth and season with salt.
Use when cold to marinade trout.

Cook the trout on a hot barbecue or grill until pink.

WOMBOK SALAD

Ingredients:

1/4 wombok cabbage, sliced finely
1/4 bunch coriander leaves
1/4 bunch Vietnamese mint
1 lebanese cucumber, cut on an angle, deseeded
1 long red chilli, sliced
1 green chilli, sliced
100ml lemon juice
25g castor sugar
Fish sauce to taste

Method:

Combine salad ingredients in a large bowl. Combine lemon juice, fish sauce and sugar into a dressing and toss the salad. Add sliced chilli for garnish. 

Recipe: Chiswick's Ocean Trout

Chef Taylor Cullen from Chiswick restaurant, in Sydney's picturesque Woollahra, shares his passion for flavour and texture with this delicious ocean trout recipe. The delicacy of the trout, combined with the subtle flavours of the anchovy butter, make this dish a beautiful match for our latest release 2021 M3 Chardonnay. 

ANCHOVY BUTTER

200g butter unsalted
50g ologasti anchovy- pick the small ones
30g lemon zest
Pepper
Salt
8x nasturtium flowers

Fine chop anchovy and shred the flower petals, mix all together, store.

WOOD ROASTED CABBAGE

1x cabbage

Roast cabbage on wood in the oven until black completely black and almost cooked through. 

Peel off outer black layers and clean the cabbage with a chux or paper towel.

Alternatively, put it on the BBQ until black or under the grill.

Break down into 120g portions with no core.

Steam for 4 minutes and toss through Anchovy butter.

DASHI

4cm kombu
20g bonito flakes
2x dried shiitake
200ml water
½ Lemon juice
20ml Soy sauce
Xanthan gum

Take water to 80 degrees celsius, add kombu, shiitake and bonito.

Let cool to room temperature, strain, place on heat and put in a little xantan until liquid slightly thickens  - the consistency will be in between olive oil and water.

Season with remaining ingredients and chill.

OCEAN TROUT

Cut trout and leave skin side up in the fridge for 2 hours to dry the skin, place skin side down in a smoking hot skillet and press until completely flat and you stop feeling the skin bubble.

Cook for 3 minutes until black - it can be super dark- flip and cook for 10 seconds on underside then remove from pan.

Place trout on plate with cabbage tossed butter - pour a little dashi on top of trout, then add more salt and olive oil, serve.

The Interview Series #10

Georgia, you started with Shaw + Smith in 2021. Can you tell us  a little about how you ended up in the wine industry?

I’ve been in hospitality for years, and I really enjoy food and wine. I also really love cooking and growing things so I decided one day to try studying and thought winemaking would be a sort of marriage of making things and being in the world of food and wine without having to do the hospo life! 

I’m hoping to further explore the viticulture side of the industry as well, as I love seeing the cycles of the seasons and how vines develop and produce the grapes we love so much.

What does a typical day in the lab look like during vintage?

Busy! Each day can be slightly different but overall we need to keep on top of what’s going on in the winery, in terms of fruit processing (press loads), barreling down of white juices or red wines, transfers and ferments so that we can do analysis where required. We also help culture yeast and malo bugs (to conduct malolactic fermentation) which is pretty cool to see. 

At the start of vintage we analyse maturity samples from growers and our own vineyards, this information is passed onto the winemakers and viticulturalists to help make picking decisions.

The lab is a really great place to get an overview of what is going on across the entire winery from crushing through to bottling. We communicate with the winemakers throughout the day which is helpful to understand the decisions they make on a daily basis and then see the results in the wine.

You work incredibly long days, do you think your hospitality experience prepared you for this? What gets you through a shift?

Yes, for sure. Being able to work on your feet for 12 hours during vintage is certainly a fitness I developed working doubles in restaurants! It’s nice to sit down sometimes to do some computer work but generally I like to be up and about. But the adrenaline you get from a busy day in the winery, similar to a busy service in hospo, gives you so much energy which makes the work easier. 

Also coffee is the MVP.

Lastly, is there a wine from the 2022 vintage that you’re particularly excited to try?

I do love the Tolpuddle wines, it’s very exciting to see the fruit arrive knowing how far it’s come. We haven’t seen all of it yet but it’s looking awesome so far.

And also the Riesling, I love our Riesling. It's only just starting ferment, but it's such a delicious wine, I’m always excited to see it every year.