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Kitchen Spy: winemakers Bruce and Chris Tyrrell

Stephanie Clifford-Smith

Haigh's dark chocolate Murray cod.
Haigh's dark chocolate Murray cod.Supplied

Bruce Tyrrell's wife, Pauline, reckons he burns the water when he makes a cup of tea so cooking's not really his thing. His son, Chris, is more at home in the kitchen and will take over culinary duties for a family or other festive occasion. Together they run Tyrrell's Wines in the Hunter Valley. Chris and his siblings, Jane and John, are the fifth generation continuing the family business which began in 1835.

The staples

My pantry: Bruce: Vegies we grow ourselves are always in the pantry and fridge – spuds, tomatoes, beans, snowpeas, lettuce, wong bok, radishes, all the herbs. We try to use the local fresh olive oil and we like Olio Mio. Lots of the restaurants around here use that too.

Bruce Tyrrell, Andrew Spinaze and Chris Tyrrell sampling at the winery.
Bruce Tyrrell, Andrew Spinaze and Chris Tyrrell sampling at the winery.Jonathan Carroll
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Chris: My wife's from Abbotsford in Sydney so every time she goes to town she raids the IGA in nearby Haberfield for Granoro tinned tomatoes, De Cecco pasta. I've always got about 700 tins of Ortiz anchovies for cooking.

My fridge: Chris: We both love Lurpak butter, Neil Stevens' local honey and I always have Schulz bacon from the Barossa.

Bruce: Vegemite's in the fridge because my wife's from Queensland and they refrigerate everything. One of my grape growers, Bev Mikisch, makes the best tomato relish which I could eat by the spoon – she exchanges it for wine.

Knife by John Hounslow-Robinson.
Knife by John Hounslow-Robinson.Simone De Peak

 

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Asprey double carving set.
Asprey double carving set.Simone De Peak

Last dinner at home.

Chris: Home-made pizza with mozzarella, chillies, anchovies and basil.

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Bruce: Risotto with pumpkin, zucchini and home-grown tomato.

Bruce and Chris Tyrrell.
Bruce and Chris Tyrrell.Simone De Peak

Secret vice

Chris: Connoisseur cookies and cream ice-cream.

Bruce: Haigh's chocolate from South Australia – all varieties.

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Lurpak butter
Lurpak butterSimone De Peak

I'm drinking

Chris: I'm obsessed with coffee and Dad and I both drink an obscene amount of it. I like Toby's Estate India Monsoon Malabar, which improves with age, like wine. I have a double-shot flat white in the morning. I love Hoddles Creek 1er Pinot Noir 2013.

Bruce: I get my coffee from a car wash called Diamond Finish near Sydney airport. There's a coffee shop where they serve their own coffee, unbranded, and it's great. We drink a lot of sparkling water from the SodaStream. I love our Vat 63 chardonnay semillon, which I like to drink at eight to 12 years old. You get the wonderful richness of chardonnay and the incredible freshness and toasty characters of semillon.

Bev Mikisch's tomato relish.
Bev Mikisch's tomato relish.Simone De Peak
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Saturday night tipple:

Chris: I like Tanqueray No. 10 gin with Fever-Tree tonic

Bruce: For me it's Dewar's Aberfeldy single malt scotch. My wife and I love Pol Roger champagne, just to celebrate it's a Saturday night.

Olive oil
Olive oilSimone De Peak

My toolkit

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Chris: My Expobar coffee machine's amazing

Bruce: Yeah it'll drive a mechanical harvester as well as make coffee!

Toby's Estate India Monsoon Malabar coffee
Toby's Estate India Monsoon Malabar coffeeSimone De Peak

Favourite

Bruce: As a wedding present my parents gave us a double carving set from Asprey's in London and I use the steel from it every day.

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Chris: My knife made by John Hounslow-Robinson in Tasmania is a work of art. He's a master cutler and he doesn't really sell his knives, just barters with them, so I swapped him a case of wine for it.

Tyrrell's Vat 63 Chardonnay Semillon
Tyrrell's Vat 63 Chardonnay Semillon Simone De Peak

Inspiration

Bruce: I'm a fairly basic cook and I only do it when my wife's away. I get my inspiration from her – she leaves all the stuff and tells me what to do with it.

Chris: The internet and eating out give me ideas, trying to recreate what I've tried in restaurants.

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Schulz bacon
Schulz baconSimone De Peak

Kitchen highlight

Where normal kitchens have an island, we have a little four-seater table which has been the scene of many a party over the years. It used to be used as a child's desk but we moved it in here thinking it'd be handy.

Discovery

Granora tinned tomatoes
Granora tinned tomatoesSimone De Peak
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There's a great mobile butcher called Rare Meats who supplies the local restaurants and since our local butcher closed down, he's become a lifesaver supplying us out here at the winery.

Most unforgettable meal

Chris: It was at Iggy's in Singapore. I was there selling wine with our importer who by chance had just flown in a Japanese tuna farmer. So we got to eat a 10-course lunch with the chef of fish that'd been caught that day in Japan. We were drinking our Vat 1 semillon and it was all amazing.

De Cecco pasta
De Cecco pastaSimone De Peak

Bruce: We had lunch at Les Crayeres in Reims in the Champagne region of France. Salmon poached in lime and ginger was brought wrapped in foil and opened at the table. I'll never forget that smell as long as I live. We drank some great booze too and it was all typically French. There was even an old bird at the next table with a dog on her lap.

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