BS&B, CityCat

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I'm a member of the Beefsteak and Burgundy international wine club which is based out of Australia — while most of the clubs are in Australia and New Zealand, with a few in East Asia, there is a local chapter here in St Marys where we live. Ours is the Stonetown Beefsteak and Burgundy Club (club #227) and was formed some time ago (1991) by our friend Pierre who had discovered the club while on sabbatical in Australia. I've been a member for many years and had a tenure as chapter president (2015-2017).

Membership in the club is a passport, of sorts, to friends and events when travelling to Australia. Anytime we're in Australia we try to find a local club (e.g., there are many in Brisbane) that is having an event that we might go to. Over the years we've been to several clubs around the country (in Perth, Melbourne and here in Brisbane) and always are welcomed. We looked for a club in Fremantle and Perth but there were no events that worked with our visit. When we go to these events, sometimes a tasting, sometimes a dinner, we always have a good time, some good food and drink, and sometimes make some long lasting friends. See our Brisbane BS&B (2006) blog (a visit to "Brisbane" (club #17) at the United Service Club near the old city centre) and note photos of Murray and Baggins. Murray was a great friend who we met with many times outside the club. He is sadly missed.

The Fortitude chapter (club #138) has a regular first Wednesday of the month event which would work while we were in Brisbane. I reached out to see if we could come and, as expected, we were welcomed with open arms. Chris, the president, and Mick, the secretary were kind gracious hosts to us. Although their club is a men only club they were happy to have Kate come as a guest. The event was a chef prepared gourmet lunch at the Royal Queensland Golf Club, in Eagle Farm, a far eastern suburb of Brisbane towards the airport and near the river before the Gateway Bridge. We took an Uber to the event and planned on riding the CityCat back along the river.

As you can see from the photos the lunch was quite a spread; a gourmet meal accented with gourmet wines. The wines were all presented blind, poured from bottles wrapped to hide the label, so you did not know what you were drinking. The objective of the game is to call on various people to have their say about what the wine was they had just tasted. This is a bit of a laugh because 9 times out of 10 the guesses were wildly off (at least beyond that was a red, we could seldom guess the grape let alone the country of origin or date). That's interesting as all the members, like Kate and me, drink a lot of wine and should do better. Our wine club has a similar blind tasting at our January event. Kate, who is a bit of a super taster, was able to correctly identify several of the wines. She was, to my mind, the champ at this game.

Some of the wines were from their wine cellar. Brisbane is a tropical climate and wine cellars are rented from a cold storage company. Some of the wines would have been recent purchases. And some wines were awarded in a draw. The event also included some money to replenish the cellar. They are a long standing club and have quite an investment in their wine cellar. So much so that they've recently, at the recommendation of the parent club, incorporated and are insured to limit liability as there is a large investment in their cellar.

I was called upon to speak to the main plate. One comment I had was on the mustard served with the beef. In Canada mustard is slathered on dishes and adds a tiny bit of heat. Dijon mustard adds a lot of heat. But the mustard they had absolutely took your breath away! It seemed to have the wack of horse radish.

There were several guests to this event, several women as well. Within the BS&B club system there are lifetime members; a special status for long standing members who have contributed a lot. We have a couple at our club. This club had an interesting informal designation for older members who are no longer regulars. They're called "Old Bulls", an apt title, and are invited to events. This helps to make sure that friendships are maintained and they have good attendance at their events. We should do something similar at our club.

We chatted with many members. They even gave me a copy of the recently published BS&B history book. I am constantly surprised at how well travelled Australians are. Many we talked to had been to Canada and all were more than hospitable. When the event wrapped up we hitched a ride to the nearby CityCat landing at "Northshore Hamilton".