We have that last bottle of Ray Ward ready for his visit
today, plus three boxes of cheap stuff as reinforcement.

I guess that bottle is history now; I'd love to hear more about it.

So it was 2002, and I was visiting, and I asked
how Ray was doing, so we took a field trip there
to Lyndoch (just south of most of the Barossa
vineyards) and found the Gateway Cellar tin shed
pretty much the same and the vineyards pretty much
the same. Ray was looking pretty peaked, but the
saddest thing was his wife Joan, who was still
gorgeous, with the unlined face of someone who
had led a carefree life, which was odd given Ray's
condition. But she was totally demented and moved
robotically. I bought half a case, because I didn't
want to fuss with US Customs (which has a higher
threshold for looking the other way than people are
led to think, but not too much more tolerance), but
Joan kept mechanically mindlessly packing a case.
I stopped her after 8 or 9 and tried to give them
back, but Ray shook his head with this despairing
look that I'll never forget. I left the excess in
Adelaide, where the bottles were dealt with on
subsequent visits. Turns out 1999 was the last
vintage, and Ray died in 2003 ( thought earlier, but
he quit making wine in 1999) and poor Joan in an
asylum a year or two later. Gradually the bottles
brought back were dealt with - I put one up at a
wine dinner in New York, and two of them died
honorable deaths at Cooking Echo picnics, and there
were a couple family occasions. I'd thought they were
all gone, but taking down the house in Washington for
sale, I found this last bottle and decided to save it
for a special occasion. Early this year the word had
come out that Kevin had had some setbacks and had lost
his troublesome leg, and Glen suggested it might be a
good time to come for a visit, so I arranged with Lilli
to take one of our jaunts down there.

So I checked a bag (you used to put all the wine
you could heft in your carryon, but no more) on
account of the bottle, and next thing you know I
was in Melbourne, where forgetting I had to reclaim
my bag before my connection, I walked off without
it. I tried to check in for my onward to Adelaide,
but the machine wouldn't let me, and so I had to deal
with an agent, who discovered that the system had
flagged me. How to fix? I offered to go back and
deal with it, but despite a couple pleading phone
calls by the agent, I was forbidden to go back to
the customs area, and there was no personnel available
to fetch my stuff for me (were I emerald, as Lilli is,
rather than ruby, they probably would have found someone
albeit grudgingly). I had to abandon my bag to Customs
and travel on alone - the bag would be inspected and
then sent on to Adelaide three or four days later. I
had to go to baggage services in Adelaide and fill out
a report and designate a pickup agent (as I was going
to be in New Zealand when it would be delivered), who
was this Glen person. The agent at baggage services
thought it could be sprung that night or the next
morning, but when I went back for my flight to
Wellington (via Sydney), that wasn't the case.

A week later while in Christchurch I got an e-mail from
Glen announcing that the bag had arrived and was sitting
unopened on my bed at his place. I gave him permission
to open the bag and extract the precious cargo and, if
it was intact, turn it upright to settle for our
arrival. I half expected to hear that the bottle was
gone or perhaps that there purple stains on my clothes.
No, it was intact. In fact there was no evidence it had
been opened at all, except for a note of apology inside
that Qantas had mislaid it!

On return, I tried to arrange a time to get Kevin back
to the house, but he had social service and doctor
appointments and couldn't show up until after Lilli's
departure, so she missed out on that (Leonore ended
up taking her place).

So eventually the wine was sacrificed. The cork was
completely disintegrated, and I spent bunches of time
decanting the liquid into a glass and redecanting it
into an empty bottle. Probably 725 of the 750 was
salvageable. It was still a deep bricky red, going
to pale on the edges. That mature wine aroma, overripe
plums and dried apricots, a little tealike herbage -
clearly on its last legs but by no means dead. It had
thrown quite a bit of sediment that had miraculously
stuck to the side of the bottle (I'd had it on its
side all those years and had wrapped it in heavy socks
and packed it so that if the bag handlers had put the
bag rlat on its back the wine would be in the proper
orientation - somehow this seems to have happened).

The stuff still had good acid and glycerin, though the
tannins had mostly gone away. Off-dry, perhaps sweeter
than in its youth. Not a great bottle any more but
reminiscent of one - it had been at its prime at one of
the Burt Ford dinners some years ago.

Kevin was too overcome to say anything bad about it,
nor about me for a whole day afterward.

Oh, P.S. - in 2006 we went back to the winery and
found it almost completely intact but overrun with
earwigs. There was a sign on the fence enclosing
the vineyard that spoke of a new ownership, a company
I could not trace. I believe that Langmeil might have
bought the vines or at least the grapes.

I searched on Australia and red wine and this is the first thing
that popped up that I didn't find here in the first place.
Title: Braised Beef Cheeks

Something that has become justly popular over here too.

Soy braised beef cheek
categories: Asian, European, main
servings: 4

h - Braised cheek
4 (375 g ea) beef cheek, excess fat removed
- M's note - do not listen to these evil people
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 lg onion, peeled and sliced
4 celery sticks, washed and roughly chopped
1 leek, washed and roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 bay leaf
1 sprig of thyme
2 peppercorns
750 ml red wine
100 ml Madeira
1200 ml hot veal stock (use fresh)
50 ml Kikkoman soy sauce
1 Tb tomato puree
h - To serve
2 hd broccoli
8 heritage carrots of different colours
1 Tb sugar
vegetable oil
butter
salt
red cabbage shoots

Kikkoman soy braised beef cheek with grilled broccoli
and heritage carrots

Season the ox cheeks and preheat your oven to 140C.

In a large frying pan on a high heat, add vegetable
oil and seal the cheek well, getting a good colour
all over (don't scorch or burn them).

In a deep gastro pan, put all the meat in, making
sure that there is some room around them. Next colour
all the vegetables and add to the ox cheek.

Deglaze the frying pan with the red wine and Madeira
and add this with the herbs and peppercorns to the ox
cheek. Cover with the boiling veal stock and Kikkoman
Soy Sauce, cover with lid and place in the oven for up
to 6 hr. Check the liquid after the first 2 hr and
make sure the cheeks are still covered. If not, top
up with boiling water. Keep checking every hour
thereafter until very tender.

As soon as they are tender, remove from the liquid and
allow to cool for 15 min. In the meantime, pass the
stock through a fine sieve and reduce in a clean pan
on a medium heat, making sure you skim regularly and
take it down until a nice shiny sticky consistency.
You want it sticky on the lips and a rich meaty
flavour. Once at this stage pass through a fine
chinoise and check the seasoning.

Peel and clean the carrots, cook in enough water just
to cover with 1 Tb sugar and 1 Tb butter and 1 pn salt.
Cook until tender and glazed in the butter. Set aside.

Slice the broccoli from stem to floret about 5 mm thick,
place on a grill tray with a little oil and grill until
cooked, moving around to show the bar marks. Set aside.

To serve, reheat the cheek in the sauce and keep
spooning sauce over to give a deep shine, place onto
plate and present the carrots and broccoli around,
finish with a little of the sauce and some red cabbage shoots.

Source: Kikkoman
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