One of those peculiarly named Edwardian or Victorian dishes, like Welsh Rarebit, Scotch Woodcock is simply scrambled eggs on toast with the addition of anchovies. The recipe appears in the May 2008 issue of Delicious (and is detailed on SpittoonExtra) where they top the dish with lightly steamed asparagus. It might sound odd but it’s really fantastic.

A tricky dish to match with wine, you would assume, but I have found a great partner – another wine from the Howard Park stable, this one being the 2007 Riesling. The wine just ‘worked’. The acidity cut through the ‘tricky’ richness of the egg while the fresh flavours were superb with the asparagus. I also think that Howard Park’s Sauvignon Blanc would also be a fine choice.

Wine Tasting Note: Howard Park Riesling, 2007, Western Australia

Available (soon) from Bibendum for £11
Fresh and lively, but rather too young (although this style worked brilliantly wit the Scotch Woodcock). As Howard Park states “This wine will greatly reward the patient enthusiast. Secondary characters with start to develop after two years and will continue to add complexity to this wine for at least 10 years”.

As it stands the wine is very pale, limey on the nose with a flowery edge with the palate offering great acidity, cool, pure flavours and, as mentioned, great capacity to age. Alcohol 12.5%.
Scribblings Rating – 88/100 [3.5 out of 5]

The production process is very interesting – only free run juice, all from the Great Southern region, was used with different batches cool-fermented separately in (the ubiquitous) stainless steel tanks which preserves the delicate Riesling fruit flavours. The blending trials of these different batches must have been fascinating.