Bookings are essential so please phone our cellar door on 63733504 to reserve your table.

Tony Bryant, Frank Newman, Kerry O'Keeffe & Richard Rains

Burnbrae’s September Wine and Food Festival Event, Kerry O’Keeffe bowls Burnbrae was a great success!

Thank you for all the local businesses that brought their teams out for a great lunch and all the people that travelled for the event. We had a great day and we hope you did too.

Also thank you to our fabulous speakers Richard Rains and Kerry O’Keeffe.

A Valentine’s Day dinner with a difference!  Restaurateur/chef Ajoy Joshi, who’s popular restaurant Nilgiri’s is considered one of the best Indian cuisine venues in Australia, is cooking a fabulous dinner @$50 per person at Burnbrae Winery on Thursday 14 February.

Romantics are welcome, but you don’t have to be lovers to travel on a superb taste journey as Ajoy cooks before you on the new verandah at Burnbrae’s Cellar Door at 548 Hill End Road (just 10 minutes out of town).

Ajoy has a well rehearsed line to describe his cuisine “This is no dammed curry in a bloody hurry – this is slow cooked regional food from the heart.”

A large portion of each ticket is being donated to Mudgee’s retirement village Pioneer House, and there will also be a silent auction for a wonderful prize!  The winner will receive tickets to Nilgiri’s Chef’s Tables at St Leonards in Sydney plus two cases of local wines! This money will be donated to the Coonabarabran Fire Appeal. To see how much fun his regular events please click here.

Ajoy was asked by the Mudgee Wine and Food Society to come and demonstrate his talents to the group at Burnbrae Wines on the Wednesday evening, again raising money to give to charity. He has such a large heart that he wants to open his cooking extravaganza to the town and is donating his cooking time at Burnbrae.

Ajoy will cook in front of you explaining each dish as he does at his regular chef’s table. His carefully selected menu includes canapés followed by an entrée of Semolina crusted prawns with Goan style chilli tamarind and coconut sauce accompanied by Roomali roti (flat bread) with date and tamarind chutney.

His main course is slow cooked chicken thigh with ground sesame, yoghurt, mace and Pulao rice.  To share – Chat potatoes tossed with cumin and coriander and pureed spinach and cauliflower with fenugreek.

The finale?  A dessert of Saffron Kulfi (handmade ice cream) with palm sugar and coconut caramel.

Burnbrae wines will of course be available. You can take your pick of any wine and purchase on the evening.   The dinner begins at 7.00pm

nilgiri’s

“Best Indian”

2003 SMH Good Food Guide, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 & 2010 RCA

81-83 Christie Street St Leonards NSW – 2065

Our luncheon with Kerry O’Keeffe was a great success. After a terrible cold snap, the wine gods must have been looking down on us and we were blessed with a fabulous sunny day. Our two guest speakers Kerry O’Keeffe and Richard Rains were not only hilarious, but also very insightful and entertaining.  Complemented by a delicious meal of local Beef and our award winning wines there was not a person in the house without a smile on their face.

Overall we would say it was a successful festival and we look forward to doing it all again next year!

Now is the time to think about the wines we will make next year and those we will not likely produce again. On the white wine side of the tasting bench we are concentrating mainly on Viognier; a wine I personally like for its structure and texture and Chardonnay. For a few years our Chardy has been made quite simply but I have decided we shall revert to the style of 2005, 2006. With new oak coming from one of my preferred cooperages – Saury – the style for our 2013 Chardy will be more classic, building upon the 2012 vintage, more malo character and natural and barrel fermentation notes will be introduced to the wine.

At the red end of the bench it is likely we will not bottle a straight Petit Verdot in the future since demand for our ‘Clive Gale’ continues to grow. This wine is a blend of equal proportions of Cabernet, Merlot & Petit Verdot. Since the supply of good quality Petit Verdot is not endless what we do crush will go into the blend so that we do not compromise the philosophy behind the ‘Clive’.

We have a couple of new faces at Burnbrae; Lisa Bray – a fine winemaker who knows the Mudgee area well and has some great experience behind her. Lisa is going to be the one to counterbalance my old school approach to winemaking. Drop in and meet her, she will have a story to tell you.Our other recruit is Victor Hugo Gironda. I have known Victor for many years and respect his cellar hand abilities, even though he is a narcoleptic Argentinean and he calls the Falklands the Malvinas. Come and meet him, but don’t believe anything he says about me

Welcome to ‘The Drop’ our newly rejuvenated wine club.’The Drop’ members alighn their attention to fine wine, great food and fun events. Over the years at Burnbrae we have gathered together a group of like-minded souls who enjoy what we do at Burnbrae. Members of ‘The Drop’will receive quarterly newsletters along with exclusive offers and benefits throughout the year. These include the following;

- 10% discount on all wine purchases not available outside the Cellar Door.

- Exclusive wine offers

- First chance to purchase tickets to our events

- Private tastings

- It’s FREE, so if it has dawned on you that you are not a member click here to JOIN NOW!