32 BLUMENTHAL HESTON

My cellar... Best known for his boundary-pushing, multi-sensory cuisine, The Fat Duck’s reveals a long-standing love affair with wine.

INTERVIEW // SARAH LEWIS winecompanion.com.au

PHOTOGRAPHY // KARON PHOTOGRAPHY APR / 2015 MAY my cellar 33

WHAT SPARKED YOUR INTEREST IN WINE? FLAVOUR PERCEPTION IS THE My dad had a vineyard – about half a hectare of late-ripening grapes. I spent a MOST COMPLEX THING THE year working there and did a viticultural course in Plumpton, near Brighton. In HUMAN BODY DOES – THERE my early 20s I had a wine cellar with around 600 bottles, but when I opened ARE MORE CHROMOSOMES The Fat Duck in 1995 I had to sell it all. INVOLVED IN THAT PROCESS I actually sold most of it to the Duck, apart from my 1989 Chateau Le Pin, THAN ANYTHING ELSE. which I’d bought for around £30 a bottle. I ended up selling them for £2000 each and used that money to fund a trip to France. I guess you could say I enjoyed those wines in a different way. HAS YOUR TASTE IN WINE CHANGED SINCE THEN? I’ve gone through phases of liking ARE THERE ANY HARD AND WHICH AUSTRALIAN WINE HAS certain wines. I had a Condrieu phase FAST RULES WHEN IT COMES LEFT THE BIGGEST IMPRESSION and I played around with Georges TO PAIRING? ON YOU? Vernay aged viognier. The only wine Ultimately, it comes down to personal A Greenock Creek Roennfeldt Road I won’t drink is really grassy sauvignon taste, so if you fancy a steak and you Shiraz that I tried 10 years ago. It was blanc. I just can’t do it. want to drink Sauternes with it, then one of the most concentrated wines go for it. I’ve ever had. The vines were very HOW DID YOU CRAFT THE WINE old and they only made one barrel. LIST FOR THE FAT DUCK IN WE HEAR JAMES HALLIDAY HAD ? A LOOK AT THE MELBOURNE At 16–17%, it was absolutely huge, When I first opened the Duck, I did WINE LIST BEFORE OPENING… and it was memorable because of the wine list myself. We had 50 whites I spoke to James at the its strength. and 50 reds from around 20 different event in Hobart last year and WHAT’S YOUR TYPICAL suppliers – if I can do something the said, ‘Do you know what I’d love to do, GO-TO WINE? easy way or the hard way, I’ll do it the what’d be really left-field, would be if I I like to start the meal with a glass really hard way. These days, I’m very opened with an Australian-only wine of white, then move on to red. lucky to have a brilliant team, lead by list’. The here have some Red signals the end of the night for me. head sommelier Isa Bal. Isa was voted really great French and Italian wines best sommelier in Europe and he is like on their lists, but, coming from the UK COCKTAIL OF CHOICE? an encyclopaedia. Isa and the chefs, where you can fly to Barolo in a couple A negroni. If you’re a bit tired, the Jonny and Ashley, now do all food and of hours, it seems weird to me to come bitterness wakes up your mouth. wine matches. to the other side of the world and order I created a mandarin and thyme an Italian wine. But then Isa talked me negroni recently and it was a cracker. HOW IMPORTANT IS THE ROLE out of it. He said we can have a really Thymol, the molecule in thyme that OF WINE IN THE FAT DUCK gives it its fragrance, is also found EXPERIENCE? prominent, fantastic Australian wine Flavour perception is the most complex list, however, with the wine and food in mandarins and certain oranges, thing the human body does – there pairing there are certain styles that you so it was a fabulous combination. are more chromosomes involved don’t get in Australia, so that would WHAT’S YOUR NEVER-FAIL in that process than anything else. cut their range down. Before opening, FOOD AND WINE MATCH? There was a period of time when some Isa showed James the wine list and his Roast chicken with a velvety people thought we should just serve input was fantastic. Burgundy, something like a Rousseau, Champagne with the tasting menu, or or a burger and a glass of oak-ish IS THERE AN AUSTRALIAN no wine at all. But wine and food are INFLUENCE ON THE red that’s not too inky. from the same pool of molecules and MELBOURNE MENU? when you get a great wine pairing, the Almost all of the fresh ingredients are dish then becomes something else. I Australian. We’ve also changed one of *Heston Blumenthal is heading up The Fat love that interaction where you think, the lollies [ice-creams] to a Gaytime, Duck at Crown in Melbourne until August. Once the Fat Duck team returns home to Bray, the ‘do I eat and then drink, or do I drink and we’re using Lark Whisky from restaurant will transform into Dinner by Heston first and then eat?’. Tasmania for the whisky gums. Blumenthal. Visit: thefatduckmelbourne.com