The Rockford Stonewall Table
Krondorf Road
Tanunda South Australia 5352 wwww.rockfordwines.com.au e info@rockfordwines.com.au t +61 8 85632720 f +61 8 8563 3787 open Thursday and Fridays for Stone Wall Society members and their lucky friends
New review 4 September, 2011 the Rockford Stonewall Table has been included in Galaxy Guides since our inaugural issue in 2006
The Rockford Stonewall Table is like no other review on Galaxy Guides and needs to be put into context because the table is the sum of many things. The table is situated at Rockford Wines cellar door in the South Australian Barossa Valley wine region and has just 16 seats. A reward for loyal Rockford clientele and their invited guests, this exceptional dining experience is not open to the general public. However, in saying that, if you love food and wine it is very unlikely that you do not know a “Stonewaller” who as part of their reward is allowed to invite guests to attend the table. The lunches are a combination of fantastic cooking, amazing wines often from the Rockford museum stock and of course all underpinned with amazing produce from the Krondorf Garden which is just 500 metres down the road.
GARDEN
The Rockford Stonewall Table embodies everything I believe in when it comes to food and cooking. The chef that doesn’t know where their produce comes from, how it is killed,if is harvested sustainably and most importantly what is REALLY in season is missing the most important part of their job. Too many of Australia’s chefs have become what I call “telephone chefs” basically they pick up the phone and order anything that slides into their empty heads. They have no idea what is really in season, are never seen with producers, at farmers’ markets and their menus are testament to their lack of knowledge and commitment to the craft of cooking. If you ask a lot of chefs what their dream restaurant would be many would first talk about the glassware, the stoves, the equipment, the plates, the room, the view, but very few would start with a garden. There might be constant chatter about food miles and buying local, but in fact their menus and their cooking frequently show no such commitment. Even more irritating has become “from our garden!!” Well I’d like to tell you most of them don’t have gardens large enough to feed a small family let alone a busy restaurant and I am considering writing an exposé of this lying tosh. This cannot be said about the Rockford Stonewall Table which has just 32 guests a week and several acres of garden.
The Krondorf Garden is a restored Hüffendörf farm with some quite eccentric embellishments that equates as magic on the dining table. Most of these self–sufficient small farms have vanished, but funded by Rockford Wines CEO Robert O’Callaghan and driven initially by chef and gardener Michael Voumard the Krondorf Garden has been passed to the safe hands of new gardeners Joe, Isaac and Marie with a troupe of young locals who seem to start helping for pocket money in their early teens and end up with an enduring passion for growing things. The garden against all the odds when the new team took over in November 2010 continues to deliver magnificent produce. The odds were nature herself who threw down massive storms that washed away newly planted rows and hurled rocks and debris across parts of the garden. That cleaned up, gale force winds wrought another minor disaster and then the wettest January and February on record for years proved a test for the new team. Despite all this in the bloom of spring the Krondorf Garden is looking magnificent and continues to provide the Stonewall Table the most amazing bounty. The garden is biodynamic and many of the almost dead (and extinct) fruit trees have been saved. What this magic garden grows is well beyond what an original Hüffendörf farm might have grown and much of what is grown is the sum of former chefs Michael Voumard and Ali Cribb who travelled widely and being avid gardeners brought to the garden all manner of exotic plants. Blue corn, other types of maize, fenugreek, coriander, dozens of different types of chillies, white and green asparagus, cardoons, artichokes and so much more. It is a garden of endless bounty. During daylight hours the garden is busy with dozens of chickens and ducks whose job it is to eat the garden pests and at night they go into their little houses to stay safe from nasty Mr Fox. No surprise to find out that many of the species are all but extinct and being carefully bred into flocks that can be divided out into the community.
and…now the food…there is such a great anticipation when going to lunch at the Stonewall Table and lunch traditionally starts with a glass of Rockford Black Shiraz in the Stonewall tasting room. Served in beautiful handmade glasses blown by South Australian glass artist Nick Mount. A winding white stripe embedded in clear glass on a slender stem accentuates the deep burgundy colour of the Black Shiraz. Canapés are always something simple a tease, a flirt, a promise of things to come and are usually a morsel or two designed not to override everyone’s favourite sparkling red. 1998 Black Shiraz, or for that matter any Black Shiraz always makes me think of that old black velvet rose like Mr. Lincoln; it’s musky, fragrant with lazy bead that breaks gently in one’s mouth. Get the picture, it’s stunning! Even my posh friend from London always wants some to take home. Black Shiraz is the Dom or Krug of the sparkling Shiraz world.
The tasting room and front of house guest contact is managed by Sarah Chipman and Christian Watkins and with recently appointed chefs Lauren Remkes and Sandor Palmai there is a strong team, a sense of restaurant family with a common goal. Once agreed upon and a final menu draft written Sarah Chipman or Christian Watkins offer wine suggestions and then the discussion starts with the chefs and wine selections are made. Having current and museum stock to draw from means that there is wonderful complexity (and diversity) in the choices. It is especially good for diners with extensive Rockford cellars of their own, a chance to try a wine they might also have to see how it is currently drinking. But, foremost in the writing of the menu is what is available from the garden. Chef Sandor Palmai also spends time working in the garden and influences what will be planted for he and Lauren to cook. Both Lauren and Sandor are keen gardeners and apart from spending time in the Krondorf Garden and they also have their own ever expanding home garden.
Aperitif and canapés over it is into the dining room which is just a short walk through the marvelous rusted wrought iron gazebo commissioned by Robert O’Callaghan from a local iron smith; it is truly exquisite. The stone walled courtyard is covered with espaliered apples and always an indication of season, bare and stark in the middle of winter, covered with fragrant blossom in spring and laden with red apples in the harvest season. The guests are always an eclectic group that can come from almost anywhere; local, interstate and overseas this table is widely known and celebrated by discerning diners. One of the diners frequently makes a polite attempt to disperse groups and keep the conversation at the table vibrant and interesting as diners make new acquaintances and discover common interests. The conversation often starts tenuously but can end up being very animated when like minded people find common ground.
At each lunch the mantel is decorated with a still life that always indicates the season and the current garden bounty. It might be blossoms stark and Japanese, tumbling bowls of fragrant sweet peas, or decorated with fruits and vegetables so uncommon that guests need to ask what they are, or a still life waiting to be painted of artichokes and pumpkins. That the entire team loves doing the “arrangements” and has their own special style always make me wonder why South Australian florists don’t have a little more imagination. The room is elegant and the table simply set with pale avocado raw linen serviettes, quality glassware and just 16 guests.
I have been to the Rockford Stonewall Table many many times because I so loved the cooking of Ali Cribb and Michael Voumard. The diversity of their repertoire was the sum of the countries they had travelled to and lived in. It was quite unique and one of the few dining experiences that went well beyond anything I know as a professional cook of many years. Their sudden resignation left Rockford management with the enormous dilemma of finding replacement chefs and gardeners, because Michael Voumard also managed the garden. To some people a twice a week service with 16 seats at each sitting might seem like a walk in the park, but the principle of the garden dictates everything is made fresh, embellished in lean seasons with preserves that might have been put down in glut seasons. It is a huge amount of work to do it well and requires three long intense days each week that amount to a normal kitchen working week and then there’s the garden hours as well. Chef Sandor Palmer has a history of working in the Barossa Valley having started many years ago at 1918 in the Tanunda main street. From there, Palmai moved to the edge of the valley and his own tiny restaurant and B&B Landhaus which in its day was highly regarded. From there to Bar-Vinum in Angaston and then on to many city chef position including Georges on Waymouth Street. The path back to the Barossa has been long and sometimes difficult for Palmai but his taking on the Rockford Stonewall Table with his new partner (also a chef) Lauren Remkes has been something of a home coming as they have slipped back into the rural wine community that the South Australian Barossa Valley is.
The amuse–bouche was the most delicious tiny salad, its tumbling contents contained in in a soft lime yellow/green endive leaf flecked with the rosy radicchio maroon colour. It is a variety we have found seeds for at Rio Coffee and whilst difficult to grow it rewards with soft very mildly bitter leaves. The salad itself was complex with slithers of rare duck, herbs, finely shaved red cabbage, crispy shallots and glacé orange rind. Perfectly seasoned (as was all the food) it was gorgeous and in fact one of the best dishes served at this particular lunch. A wonderful mix of textures and tastes that worked perfectly matched with
Rockford 2006 Local Growers Semillon. There is never anything wrong with a young Rockford Semillon, but those with some age develop different characteristics that seem to delight in more complex and challenging food flavours. The wine and food pairing is one of the many pleasures of the Stonewall Table and the fact that both Sarah Chipman and Christian Watkins have a relationship with cellar and kitchen equates in the matching.
The second course Cardoon and watercress soup with oyster beignet was paired with Rockford 2001 Vine Vale Riesling that was drinking magnificently. One could expect more developed nose and palate, it was showing no sign of blousy old age and presented as if it could be cellared for very much longer. The cardoon and watercress soup was subtle and tasty and the two oyster beignets sat in just the right amount of velvety lemon sauce; not a Hollandaise and not a sabayon or beurre blanc it was silken velvety and restrained in harmony with the subtle soup. The first two courses have charmed the table and conversation is already lively. Until the end of 2010 the table was always hosted by a Rockford employee and the decision was taken that key staff would continue to meet guests in the Stonewall tasting room before and after the meal, but that there work commitments did not allow for someone to attend the lunch at every sitting. Telling the Rockford story (when required) is now managed by either Sarah or Christian from the floor. On our visit Christian, always attentive to the needs and conversation dealt with questions without one ever feeling it was a hard company sell or an intrusion into the conversation of the table. This lack of company sell (subliminal thought it might be) has always been one of the charms of the table.
Next magnificent sour sough bread reinstituted the Barossan tradition of being fine bread makers and was our first insight into Remkes’s cooking skills.The bread was very, very good fragrant, crusty with a soft but firm centre and in some ways was so good it outshone the Goose terrine, celeriac and horseradish that it came with. This dish was followed rapidly with Butternut and Ballycroft Fust tart, fresh ricotta and winter salad. The orange colour of the tart was highlighted in the salad with scattered nasturtium petals and radicchio, but the technical perfection in this course came from the fresh house–made ricotta. It had been years since I’d tasted such honesty as most commercial ricotta are so loaded with preservative and stabilisers that they lose all of the sweet milkiness they should have. Having tried to make ricotta myself with varying degrees of success this was masterful. The wine match a brilliant 1998 Rockford Cabernet Sauvignon and of course we were being spoiled all over again.
Local pork is a Barossan tradition and the next course Cambrai pork belly, kipfllers and house chorizo was further embellished with quince and red cabbage. Straight from the oven and accompanied by the 2000 Rockford basket Press Shiraz we were all in pig heaven! It was astonishing that people could still take huge platefuls of food when we were bursting at the seams, but when something tastes that good is it hard to let it pass. We like the fact that Palmai and Remkes remain committed to the principles instituted by Cribb and Voumard using local producers, making their own sausages and soft fresh cheeses and preserves. Having worked during the artichoke season to see crates and crates of artichokes arrive on a daily basis. Thorny prickly devils they leave you with cut hands and black skin worse than any winemaker could ever boast. Palmai has rightly renamed the artichoke season “the swearing season!”
When it came to dessert I was very glad I had not succumbed to the temptation of another slice of the roasted pork because the dessert was sublime. A small warm bitter almond cake with the flavour of marzipan; that traditional bitter almond flavour. The little cake had a crunchy crust with an inner heart that was soft and deliciously chewy, but the real perfection was the apple blossom ice cream which was masterful. The ice cream was more milky than creamy a perfect consistency and a beautiful delicate blossom flavour that tasted like apple blossom smells.
The only complaint we have heard about the table since Remkes and Palmai took over is “too much food” and we would be inclined to agree, however, if that is all anyone can find to complain about it is of course trivial.
Wisely Remkes and Palmai are making no attempt to imitate Voumard and Crib. Their menus are more traditional, but still rigidly adhere to the what the garden has to offer. Having cooked the Stonewall Table lunches a few times whilst chefs had holidays it must be said that some times of the year can be challenging with very few ingredients to choose from for a week or two, but the proximity of the garden, the quality of the produce and the ability of chefs to celebrate their luck to cook such wonderful produce always equates on the plate. This seasonality is one of the reasons we like to go to the table two or three times a year because on every visit the offering is so very, very different.
And…don’t send me emails telling me the table is elitist they will go straight into my trash because I know for absolutely certain that anyone obsessed with food and wine is bound to know a Stonewaller somewhere in Australia and enjoy the reward of being their guest at a Rockford Stonewall Table. And…if you’re from overseas visiting Australia we suggest you try charming
SARAH CHIPMAN who also handles the reservations. Ann Oliver September 3, 2011
The Krondorf Garden
Many people have expressed their disappointment at not being able to visit the garden however the garden also happens to surround the home of the owner of Rockford Wines Robert O’Callaghan and there are understandable security issues involved. The movie below gives you the picture!
obsessed The Krondorf Garden and Stonewall table is a huge financial commitment that achieves many things for CEO Robert O’Callaghan personally and Rockford Wines. Thankfully O’Callaghan, and several other historic Barossa wine companies, are obsessive about preserving the Barossa Valley and defending it from developer. If you want to see the worth of this obsession visit the Margaret River where developers are being allowed to destroy the very reason that people originally went there and continue to go their as tourists. We need wise custodians of the future of our regions. O’Callaghan and his business partner have often dug deep to buy the land and the heritage on it, rather than let it fall into the hands of developers who will destroy the very reason that most people go to the Barossa Valley; it’s wine and history.
There are of course some excellent side benefits for O’Callaghan for his philanthropic enterprises. O’Callaghan can choose to be the host the table at any time and enjoy the end result of his massive financial support. Add to that he can pick from the Krondorf Garden for his personal use any time he likes. He doesn’t own a Porsche but he does hold in his hand something far more precious and satisfying the cultural heritage of that strip of land.
the PS Marion is another initiative of Rockford wines and ably organised by O’Callaghan’s partner Pam O’Donnell. Between them they have restored the last remaining ship of its kind, won multitudinous awards for the Steam Powered Cruises included a coveted Australian Gourmet Traveller Jaguar award CLICK HERE to read more.
Hüffendörf farms
Germans intent on escaping religious persecution settled the Barossa Valley. Frugal and mainly Lutheran they brought to the region much more than wine, the bought a self–sufficiency and a culinary heritage that was quite unique. They sought land that back onto creeks where they hoped they would have water. They planted gardens that included fruit trees and vegetable gardens and vineyards. The build small houses that they added to as their wealth grew and most of those houses had massive wood ovens where most of the cooking was done. The culinary traditions of the Barossa Valley remain strong in the domestic sector but sadly there are no restaurants in the region that cook the traditional German food of their settlement. A fabulous way of seeing the best of Barossa heritage it to attend their Annual Tanunda show CLICK HERE and scroll to the bottom for a sneak preview and watch out for our news for 2011 because it is just fabulous!
…much more than a simple dining table the people behind the restaurant and garden. …from the top chefs Lauren and Sandor, gardener Joe, front of house and reservations manager Sarah, her assistant Christian, gardeners Isaac and Marie.
