A night of cheese, more cheese and wine at The Trustee, Perth

When it comes to the good things in life, I doubt that I'm alone in saying cheese is definitely up there amongst the best. So naturally when I was kindly invited to attend The Trustee Bar and Bistro's Vineyard to Farmyard degustation with a plus one, I was thrilled to take them up on the offer. Six courses with six cheese and six wines? Sounds good to me!

Hosted at The Trustee with Tony Kalleske from Kalleske Wines and Nick from Blue Cow, it was a night that promised some beautiful produce and flavours. I'm already a big fan of The Trustee, but my boy was yet to visit them, so I brought him along as my date for the evening. It's always nice to get some special time out together outside of the house, and we were happy to treat it as an impromptu date. 

Arriving for dinner at 6.30pm we made our way upstairs to the curtained off dining room, taking a seat along one of the long tables set up. The lighting was dark and interspersed with candlelight - so bear with my somewhat grainy photos as I definitely had my work cut out for me! But that's all part of the experience, and it was lovely and intimate, working well with the theme of the evening.

After some formalities and learning more about both Blue Cow and Kalleske, our first wine and plate hit the table. The wine was a 2014 Kalleske 'Plenarius' Viognier which is described as 'alive and uplifting, erupting from the glass with aromatics of apricot syrup, candied oranges, jasmine tea, musk and honey'. 

It was almost orange in colour, and you could definitely taste the apricot flavour. A nice light beginning that was well matched to the first course - a tomato waffle cone filled with Woodside goats curd. Talk about kicking things off with a bang! 

The goats curd hails from Adelaide Hills in South Australia and is 'made from fresh local goat milk sourced from Towerview and Oskjberg goat dairies. Pasteurisation is achieved using batch pasteurisation which is very gentle to the milk'. It was delicious - creamy and delicate, with a citrusy aftertaste playing on my tongue. I wish so badly we could have more and more of these because it was outstanding. 

The second course was a prawn ravioli with queso manchego D.O. and beurre noisette - matched with a 2014 Kalleske 'Zeitgeist' unoaked shiraz. This was my favourite wine for the evening, with it's dark berry flavours. I really liked that the flavour wasn't impacted by being in a barrel, so it had a distinct taste I haven't encountered before. 

The ravioli was perfectly al dente, though for me a touch too thick than I usually like it - though Jeremy thought it was spot on. The filling was bursting with prawn goodness and the use of that manchego from Mancha in Spain was a great choice. 'Made to strict controls to hold the 'Denomination de Origen' D.O. title. Thick aromatic milk from sheep that graze on shrubs and grasses produce a cheese that is firm and dry, yet rich and creamy'. 

You could tell this was the peak of manchego, and the inner beast in me that craves all things cheese devoured every last bite. I really enjoyed the smooth pea puree that accompanies which was sweet and velvety, and brought the dish to life. 

The third course served as our mains and included fillet mignon, asparagus, mushrooms and shaved Ubriaco al Vino Rosso, with a glass of the 2013 Kalleske 'Moppa' single region shiraz. 

I love the idea of this type of cheese - it's one of the first to use the musts (grape skins) to age and wet the rind which gives the cheese a purplish outside with a faint wine taste and smell. It went well with the shiraz, which was a 'genuine handmade wine, fruitcake, chocolate and flowers on the nose with juicy red and black fruits on the palate.'

A nice main course, though perhaps not as inventive in it's use of the cheese as the previous courses. For me, I prefer my meat on the rarer side of life though so although it was medium, it wasn't to my personal cooking preference. The mash on the side however was an absolute dream - buttery and creamy and perfectly satisfying. 

Moving into the second half of the dinner the courses lightened, with more focus on the cheeses than ever. Next up was the Fine Cheese Co Cave aged cheddar from Dorset in England, accompanied by a rhubarb compote with a 2012 Kalleske old vine Grenache.

This cheese was flat out incredible. Full, creamy and with a tangy aftertaste it ticked all the boxes for me. The rhubarb compote was smooth and sweet, but managed to retain a little of the sourness that the plant is known for. It went really well with the cheese and the crisp, thin lavosh.

The Grenache was smooth and mature, again an ideal choice to accompany and highlight the cheese.

Our second last course was a lovely simple cheese plate of d'Argental Brebirousse with house dehydrated grapes served with a 2013 Kalleske 'Fordson' Zinfandel. Hailing from Lyon in France, this brie style cheese was creamy and velvety in texture, with a slightly fresh flavour. I really enjoy my soft cheeses and this one felt very decadent but not overly rich which was great considering we were all starting to feel quite full around this point in time.

I skipped the accompanying wine for this course (I had a sip of Jeremy's though of course for research purposes) since I'm a lush and I tend to get drunk very quickly. As I was already tipsy I can't tell you what I thought of it! I'm lucky to remember as much as I had so far!

Our final course for the evening for me was the most inventive after the first course tomato waffle cone. As soon as it hit the tables around us there was a collective ooh aah moment that made our eyes light up. Yes we were full, but there's always room for dessert.

The Yarra Valley Dairy Gentle Goat reverse cheese cake with lemon myrtle, caramel and apple gel was beautiful and light. I loved cracking into the centre to reveal the hidden treasure trove of caramel goodness. It wasn't too sweet or too bitter, just dark enough to remind you how a good caramel should be.

We washed every last bite down of this course with a 2013 JMK Shiraz Vintage Port which was sticky and sweet with it's aromas of black current, raisin and mature brandy. A great way to finish up an epic night of eating and drinking.

For me, the Trustee is a staple in my wheelhouse. From their dessert degustation, to their comforting dishes of lamb risotto and even just sharing a bowl of their shoestring fries with my friends... it's become a regular for me and I always enjoy my time there. A big thank you to the team there for treating my boy and I to such a lovely evening.