If you can't read this email please click here:  http://www.koonara.com/2010august.htm  .
To to be removed of the email, click the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the email

Yep. Tornado. In Penola. Bizarre, bordering on the ridiculous, but there you have it. It missed our house by 50m, and the cellar door by 10m. The front windows and back wall of Terry’s Antique shop across the road exploded everywhere, and building two down one way and three the other had part of their roofs ripped off.

The most unique was one house that had the curtains hanging on the outside; the tornado lifted the roof off, sucked out the curtains, then plonked the roof back down, leaving the curtains nicely draped on the exterior wall.
 

The tornado was so strong it even blew a police car through the wall of the Coonawarra Vignerons office.
Oh wait, that was a few weeks before...


Click above for more photos

Once again we rolled out the silent movies, this year armed with some rare Buster Keaton films. Divine Café once again outdid them selves, with flying in 20 dozen oysters freshly out of the water and shucked the day before.
 

Caitlan Lambert and Jodie Deland

Lisa Gulyas and Wayne Stebhens

French Farewell

With great sadness we farewell Laure Desfond, our Cellar Door manager. Laure is heading back to Paris, France to study for a year, and promises us she will be back!

Laure has been the backbone of the Koonara Cellar door for years now, so things won’t be the same without her. We will miss her dreadfully, and hopefully she finishes her studies soon…
 

 

Ambriel's Gift - 10 years showing our flagship

Me and Laure
 

We welcome into the fold Berenice Axisa, who we have as our Marketing manager for 6 months while she completes her Master of Wine Marketing.

Already she has us facebooking and tweeting, so keep an eye out for us on both of these, because we are launching our photo competition again, this time with a huge haul of $2,000 worth of wine, gifts & Jewellery.

Click here for details.

Join our Facebook and Twitter Pages!!

Like our email? Join our Facebook and Twitter pages to keep up to ate  with our new releases and special offers.

Wine Deal:
Buy 5 get 1 Free (in a mixed dozen)
Buy 10 get 2 Free

1 week only, so be quick...
 

Our brand-spankers-new Pinot Grigio has just scored a gold at the Cowra Wine show. Not much made, so grab it  in time for when the sun comes out…
 

ORDER HERE

Zesty lime and Pear nose, with pink lady apples and nectarine flavours. Great balance with a long finish. A refreshing wine perfect for seafood or chicken.

An Irish priest is driving up to Melbourne and gets stopped for speeding in Mt. Gambier. The policeman smells alcohol on the priest's breath and then sees an empty wine bottle on the floor of the car.
He says, "Sir, have you been drinking?"
"Just water," says the priest. The policeman says, "Then why do I smell wine?"
The priest looks at the bottle and says, "Good Lord! He's done it again!"
 

Cooking with MacGyver: Eating at the Beach
Fish and shellfish can be wrapped in seaweed and placed directly on hot coals. Or, you can wrap them in leaves, cover the leaves with mud, and then cook them until the mud dries.
Once the mud has hardened, remove your food from the fire, break the mud shell, and open the leaves. Fish can be placed on a spit and placed over a bed of hot coals. Remember, all shellfish should be cooked for at least 10 minutes to make it safe to eat.

Wines to Match:

Barwang Tumbarumba Pinot Gris 2008 - $14.99  www.mcwilliams.com.au

Wanted to compare our Pinot Gris with the best out there. This Barwang Pinot Gris was a stand out.

Nicely perfumed, light floral, prominent fruit. Off-dry on the tongue, flavours of peach, typically crisp French styling, with bright hints of rose petal, quinces and cinnamon around a solid core of cool climate fruit.

Pizzini King Valley Nebbiolo 2005 - $50
www.pizzini.com.au

I know – another Nebbiolo – but this one has some great aged qualities at the moment – all leather, tar, and sweet dried cherries.

Whip out a Roast Pork with cranberry glaze for this one.
 

Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 120 minutes

Ingredients
1 kg chuck or boneless shin/gravy beef 2 cloves garlic, crushed 4 cm piece ginger, grated ⅓ cup rogan josh paste 2½ cups beef stock 400 g can diced tomatoes 1/2 cup plain yoghurt (blended with 1 tsp cornflour) mint leaves to serve

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Slice beef into 2.5-3cm cubes. Season with salt and pepper, add about 2 tablespoons of oil and mix well. Heat a large frypan over a medium-high heat. Brown the beef in 2 or 3 batches. Remove each batch and place in a casserole dish.

2. Reduce heat in pan to medium and add a little extra oil. Add the garlic, ginger and curry paste, cook for 1-2 minutes, stir often. Pour in the stock, stirring well. Pour the mixture over the beef in the casserole dish and stir to combine. Cover the casserole dish and place in the oven. Stir every 40 minutes or so, adding a little water if needed to keep the ingredients just covered. Cook until the beef is almost tender (about 90 minutes).

3. Add the diced tomatoes and yoghurt, mix well. Cook for a further 30 minutes, or until the beef is very tender. Serve sprinkled with a handful of mint leaves.

Tips
Cooktop method: Place the browned beef, garlic, ginger and curry paste in a heavy-based pot. Cook over a low heat until the curry paste is fragrant. Add the stock. Partially cover, keep the heat low. Stir occasionally, adding water if needed during the cooking time to keep the ingredients just covered. Simmer until the beef is almost tender. Add the diced tomatoes and yoghurt, mix well. Cook for a further 30 minutes, or until the beef is very tender.

http://www.myspace.com/ginwigmore

Hard to pigeonhole this sultry New Zealand Songstress (think more rockier, guitar-driven Duffy), but who would want to – sexy gravelly voice, perfect to put your feet up on a Friday afternoon after a hard week.