By Margaret Swaine
Today as I struggled along with my playing partners to make par on at least some holes of the first game of the season, I realized our conversation centred on two themes. The number one topic of course was our golf game and how long it would take to find our swing after the winter hiatus. The other was food, restaurants and who would be in the kitchen at our respective golf clubs. The calibre of the 19th hole matters to most club members.
Private club golfers spend big bucks on the game. They expect to eat well after a day on the links. Delivering to those expectations is a tricky business. Golf club dining is as seasonal as the game itself in Canada. Every spring the kitchens in golf clubs start anew, sometimes with a returning chef but almost always with new foodservice staff. Yes some clubs stay open year round, however most close during the off-season. Even the chef and restaurant manager take a job elsewhere at this time. I met up with Taboo Golf Resort’s chef, Jay Scaife, on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent this winter. He was trading snow and turf for sand and surf at Young Island Resort until his Muskoka based employer re-entered high season.
Some clubs import their seasonal chefs from Europe – the training is superb in countries like France and Switzerland. A highly skilled twenty-something chef from there often is keen to come to North America for the adventure and the experience. I know several top chefs in Canada today who came over initially for summer jobs. Golf management programs at Humber in Toronto and Niagara College in Welland Ontario also teach foodservice as part of their curriculum. Their grads have few problems finding a job.
Wineries that tap into the golf market tend to be savvy to the needs of golfing gourmands. Ironstone Vineyards is a California winery that throws marketing dollars into both the golf and culinary worlds. It’s no surprise then that Ironstone products are found on the wine lists of King Valley, Magna, The National, Bigwin, Eagles Nest, Essex, St. George’s, York Down and a slew of other golf clubs.
Every spring Ironstone celebrates the new vintage of their white Obsession Symphony with an International Chef’s competition (along with an international art contest). This year Clint Polnicky of Halifax created the winner in the ‘entry’ class of the 2006 Ironstone Vineyards annual Spring Obsession Chef’s competition. This is the third year in a row that Canadians have snagged a top prize. Polnicky’s winning dish, spiced salmon over chive parsnips with roasted beets, beet greens and a lemon Obsession sauce, was a perfect match with the wine itself.
Obsession California Symphony is an off-dry wine with a spiced bouquet of orange zest and flowers. It’s made from the symphony grape, developed in California in the 1960’s from a cross between the muscat of Alexandria and grenache gris. The grapey nature of the muscat comes through as does the spiciness of grenache in a harmony of fragrances and tropical fruits. Unoaked with a fresh finish, it matches well with Asian spiced dishes, poultry with fruit salsas and fish such as created by chef Polnicky.
Another of their popular wines in Canada is the Ironstone Cabernet Sauvignon. Aged a year in oak, it has an easy drinking style, medium body and smooth sweet berry fruit with cedar and eucalyptus notes. Rather than demand attention, it slips down the throat to mellow out even the worse of days on the links. No wonder it can be found at many of our golf courses.
Ironstone, located in the Sierra Foothills in the heart of former gold rush country, is one of the top ten remaining family-owned wineries in California in terms of size. Leaping Horse is their value priced label from Lodi vineyards. Ironstone Reserve is their high quality label, even then at a good price. The Old Vine Zinfandel Reserve from hundred-year-old vines sells for under forty dollars. They export to over 51 markets with Canada being one of the largest. Joan Kautz-Meier, the dynamo daughter of Ironstone’s founder, married a Canadian and lives in Toronto. She makes sure our market is well looked after, right down to partnering with this magazine in every issue in 2006. And encouraging Canadian chefs to excel in recipe creations.
Swaine Top Picks
Ironstone Obsession California Symphony $14.95
Ironstone Cabernet Sauvignon $17.95
Agent in Ontario: Lifford Agencies 416-440-4101
Agent in the Atlantic Provinces: Churchill Dauphinee 902-425-6314
www.ironstonevineyards.com