Jane Ferrari’s visit to Ballymaloe House and Ballymaloe Cookery School
Guest author of this blog: John Quinlan, Ballymaloe
On Thursday 29th of September I was delighted to meet with Jane Ferrari, the wine ambassador of Yalumba which is located in The Barossa in South Australia., and have lunch with Jane in the Ballymaloe Cookery School earlier in the afternoon. Over lunch, Jane met with ‘’ Famous Auntie Florence’’ (see Jane’s blog here about Aunty Florence here ) and fellow Ballymaloe Sommelier and wine tutor Colm McCan. We had a really interesting conversation about Yalumba and The Barossa as I heading to The Barossa in 2012 to get work experience in the wine industry.
After lunch we went to the Afternoon Demo in which Darina Allen was teaching, and Darina very kindly took some time out of the busy afternoon cooking schedule, and welcomed and introduced Jane to all the students. Pictured below is Jane and Darina with all the students getting a talk from Jane about the region and history of Yalumba and The Barossa. She spoke about the food, heritage and wines of her region which was really interesting. Our thanks to Kieran Coady and Aonghus Walsh from Cassidy Wine Merchants for arranging the visit of Jane Ferrari to Ballymaloe)
Later that afternoon we attended a wine tasting of a very interesting selection of some of the different wines from Yalumba. (also see Billy Lyons ‘Restaurants and Food in Cork’ great blog and line-up of wines here about this Yalumba event at Ballymaloe with Jane Ferrari). I picked up some very interesting information on the wines.
Jane gave a fantastic presentation and tasting – she got a standing ovation at the end (first time ever this has happened at a wine talk in Ballymaloe – well done Jane), and also mentioned her enjoyment and love of all things Sporting, especially Rugby and Horse Racing (two things Ireland excel at – come on Ireland in the Rugby World Cup), and Jane is a fan of local rugby hero, Corkman Ronan O’Gara (Munster and Ireland)
Jane also spoke about her background – growing up in Alice Springs with her Italian background – she remembers having wine on Sunday as a young person – with a drop or lemonade or water added to it! All part of life in the good old days. She had the room in knots of laughter when she compared Viognier to Paris Hillton – ‘constantly needs lots of attention’ and compared Grenache to George Clooney – ‘turns up well dressed and well mannered all the time!’
John Quinlan, author of this blog on Jane Ferrari’s visit to Ballymaloe, pictured here at another recent very interesting event at Ballymaloe Cookery School (in the middle of the glasshouse at the Ballymaloe Cookery School – ‘Outstanding in the Field’ – a concept where 100 people have dinner at one long table ‘outstanding in the field’ – as close as possible to the source of the ingredients for the dinner- see Ballymaloe’s Colm McCan wine blog on this event here the blog of The Irish Country Houses and Restaurants Association ‘The Blue Book’.
Jane also hosted a great wine dinner that evening in Ballymaloe – pictured are JR Ryall, Pastry Chef, Ballymaloe House, with Jo, Chef, and Colm, Samuel, and John (taking the photo!) at Ballymaloe working (hard at work – someone had to do it!) on matching the Yalumba Botrytis Viognier to a desset by JR – we matched it with Raspberry Almond Tartlet, Creme Brulee and Autumn Raspberry Ice-cream – delicious!