Wine-maker Quintin Quider is rolling out the barrel. But it is not what you might expect, Charmian Smith reports.
A row of barrels outside the cafe at the Goldfields Mining Centre in the Kawarau Gorge is a sign of new things happening. Late last year Quintin Quider, of Wild Earth Wines, opened his tasting room, cafe and restaurant there. But the barrels are not for wine, they are cookers.
A keen hunter, gatherer and cook, Quider says he used to entertain his clients on the riverbank at the bottom of his Long Gully, Bannockburn, vineyard a few hundred metres downstream, cooking fish he'd caught in the river and rabbit he'd shot in the vineyard on an open fire. However, with fire bans, he decided to develop the barrel cooker so he didn't have to use an open fire.
The barrels have a gas burner controlled by a thermostat.
Water is put in the bottom, a tray of sawdust sits on a rack over the burner to provide the smoke, and the food goes on a rack above that. The lid is closed and 20 minutes or so later, it comes out, tender, slightly smoky, and succulent because it's slowly cooked in the steam.
The secret is where on the rack to put the food and at what temperature and for how long to cook it, he says.
Quider is now obsessed with barrel cooking and each new cooker he builds has some little improvements. There's a row of three prototypes outside the restaurant on which merino, chicken kebabs skewered on wild thyme, pinot-glazed salmon, eggplant with feta and sweet potato puree, mussels, venison patties and other items, ready marinated, seasoned, or glazed, are cooked. They are served as platters on barrel staves, along with an array of wines to match each course.
He developed the recipes himself and plans to offer rabbit paella, rabbit curry and other things as the seasons change and new inspiration or ingredients come to him.
A former Californian abalone diver, Quider first came to New Zealand in 1987 and worked on Stewart Island. Although a wine-lover, he didn't know they made wine here but soon learned and in 1999 he and his wife Avril started planting their vineyard. He "retired" at age 35, to work harder than before in wine.
To their delight, one of their first vintages, the 2006 vintage pinot noir won the Trophy for Best Red Wine and Champion Pinot Noir at the world's largest wine competition, the International Wine Challenge in London.
Among the current vintage wines, the Wild Earth 2011 Rose is fresh, crisp and off-dry, the '09 riesling racy and and limey, and the affordable Deep Cove 2009 pinot noir textural, savoury, well balanced and good with the merino and venison, while the 2009 Wild Earth pinot noir is rich and spicy with a firm finish.
For more, go to www.wildearthwines.co.nz.
