FermentAsian in Tanunda, South Australia | Asian restaurant

FermentAsian

Locality: Tanunda, South Australia

Phone: +61 8 8563 0765

Address: 90 Murray Street 5352 Tanunda, SA, Australia

Website: http://www.fermentAsian.com.au

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• Restaurant
• Asian restaurant
• Vietnamese restaurant

24.01.2022 A good night’s work. Thank you Tony Love. Thank you Mark, Jeremy, Mitchell, Olivia K, Jadz, Jono and team ferment. Thank you Tuoi for giving me the investment opportunity! And thank you loyal customers.

24.01.2022 Yes, it has been a while since our last post. And what a time we are facing. But human history has proven to us that we will all get through this eventually. Just remember if you have a family to come home to, if you have the privilege to look after your loved ones, and the people around you, you are already lucky. For now fermentAsian will continue to operate as usual. We are also in the planning stage of offering Take Away, yes, Take Away but for people who can’t feed them...selves or their families for that day due to this hard time. We will cook a meal for them to take home on us. It might just be a simple meal but I will make sure that food is cooked with lots of love and to show my Vietnamese heritage. We will let you know of the exact date for this service. For now, more than ever, please take care and look after people around you. Tuoi Do

22.01.2022 We're enjoying the run into Christmas, selling out of many of our listed wines, but we're very aware that it's a time of the year when our guests wish to try so...me very special offerings. I'm confident that these will be very suitable additions. Thank you Steve Beraglia, Brett Trewartha, Sam Scott, Kym Teusner. And all you good people who inspire, suggest and keep me up all night with these musings. 2011 Naked Run ‘The First’ Riesling Clare Valley, SA 13 During the years of living and working in the Barossa, I kept hearing stories of a long tradition of late-night athleticism, intended, despite the admonitions of the local clergy, to assuage the effects of overindulgence at the evening meal table. Yes, the ‘nudie run’. My understanding is only based on oral history, but the stories were many and richly nuanced. In particular, I remember one highly respected older lady recalling the time she had tripped and fallen on one such run through a Biscay-soil vineyard. Her false teeth had gone flying and were never found. Summer Biscay cracks can be like that. They can swallow a tractor. This Naked Run Riesling, made by Steve Baraglia, is further proof that the prejudices against 2011 are often unjustified. This is mouth filling and richly textured, with lime brûlée and wet stones filling a palate that surprises with its vibrant freshness. 2017 In Praise of Shadows Grenache Blewitt Springs, Clarendon, SA 14 Pale, ethereal, and appetising Grenache made by old mates Sam Scott and Brett Trewartha. This is early picked, (multiple pickings) crunchy and deliciously juicy. The sweet jubey berry aromatics generated by carbonic maceration are balanced by the amaro spiciness of long maceration. This is perfectly weighted for so many of our dishes. You could even add an ice cube or two. 2012 Teusner ‘Avatar’ Grenache Mataro Shiraz Barossa, SA 14 Kym Teusner is at the top of his game, producing outstanding wines that showcase the Barossa’s ability to produce wines of power and wisdom from fruit sourced from 90-year-old Grenache, Mataro and Shiraz vines. Nearly seven years after vintage, the wine is unapologetically rich and toothsome. Profound rather than playful, it delights the palate with a rich smorgasbord of both blue and black fruits, white chocolate, and thickly-spread Nutella on buttered toast.

19.01.2022 I have posted about 4 Facebook posts for my entire life so It feels strange that I post 2 Facebook posts in 2 weeks..we must be living in a strange time. FermentAsian is open as usual. First of all, I would like to thank everyone for their thought and support of fermentAsian over the last 9 years and especially at this difficult time. It means a lots to me. Forever grateful. Also I would like to thank all my current staff who have been so loyal, so kind, so caring. I am grate...ful for every single one of you. We will get through this storm together. Secondly, as you all are aware of the incident in the Barossa over the last few days. It is normal that everyone feels anxious BUT again this is the time for us all to come together as a great community. This is the time for us to show that we care. This is the time for us to prove that kindness, above all, will win this battle. So please spare a thought for those affected. Imagine getting sick in a foreign country with an unknown disease which everyone on earth is frighten of getting it. Again, NOW more than ever, we need to look after everyone around us. For our part, I have left message for our friend to offer a helping hand catering for those guests who are currently need to be taken care of. Also, I would like to confirm the date for our take away service ( Free of charge) to support families who are unable to feed themselves at this difficult time is on every 2nd Monday from 6/04/2020. So please share this and pass it on to someone you know who will be able to benefit from this service. Again, please take care everyone, watch out for the people around you. Keep your moral high. Keep your chin up and get ready for the next punch as my close friend/ accountant would remind me every time I talk to him. Tuoi Do

19.01.2022 The people have spoken. I’ve contacted TripAdvisor so many times to change our ‘fine dining’ status to ‘food for the people’. To no avail. But nice to be recognised. Keep those internationals darkening our doorway.

17.01.2022 Summer's coming. We're making the neccesary adjustments. Yes, that is a Sauvignon Blanc... NEW pours on this week at ferment. Thank you Michael Hall, Phillip Lo...rd, Scott Wasley and Brett Grocke. 2016 Michael Hall Sauvignon Blanc Piccadilly, Adelaide Hills, SA 13 Just the second time (in 8 years) that we have served an Australian Sauvignon Blanc by the glass: both times it’s been wine made by Michael Hall. Managing to defuse the grape variety’s usual circuitry, Michael has buried any suggestion of the ubiquitous asparagus pee behind a wall of skilful winemaking. Barrel ferment complexity, lees-derived texture and aristocratic oak balances out notes of nectarine and grapefruit. A tight noose of mineral acidity keeps it running at a fair clip down the centre of the tongue. 2017 Casa da Passarella ‘A Descoberta’ Rosado Serra da Estrella, Dão, Portugal 11 Touriga Nacional, Jaen, Alfrocheiro and Tinta Roriz are grown at elevations of between 700 and 800 metres in granitic soils in north central Portugal. Dry, tangy, mineral, raspberry-saturated and very moreish. Summer was invented to accompany wines like this! 2017 Eperosa Grenache Mataro Barossa, SA 14 Brett Grocke has sourced Grenache from the Stonegarden 1858 vineyard up in Springton and from his own 1950-planted Magnolia vineyard tucked into the side of Mengler’s Hill. Mataro comes from Adrian Hoffmann’s Sand Block in Ebenezer, planted in 2000. This is another wine poised to gauge just how far Barossa Grenache blends have evolved during the last decade, thanks to thoughtful, sensitive winemakers such as Brett Grocke, Abel Gibson, Jason Schwarz, Craig Stansborough, Riley Harrison and Marco Cirillo. Forget the old boiled-lolly sweetness and searingly high alcohol. Forget the aldehyde-courting winemaking and ‘hot shed’ maturation of the Barossa’s Grenache past. Instead, enjoy the lifted spice and lingerie-drawer pot pourie aromatics, the earth, the freshness and the Amaro Nonino finish. A complete package of ‘blue-collar-pinot’ that will work so well with our food.

15.01.2022 Dear everyone, FermentAsian is close until further notice. We thank you all for the love and support during this unprecedented time.... We are looking forward to welcoming you back when this storm is over. We are still committed to provide meals whenever we can for those in need. The collection place is at the Tanunda Hub, 83 Murray street, Tanunda. We will have some meals ready this Friday. Hopefully we will get out of this difficult time together. Stay safe everyone. Tuoi Do and the FermentAsian team.

14.01.2022 A bunch of new pours on from tonight. All as interesting as they are delicious. Thank you Alex Katsaros, Robert Walters, Marcel Bellenger, Neil Pike, Damon Koer...ner, Belinda van Eyssen and Daniel McDonald 2017 Gentilini / Paulmara Estates ‘Crossed Paths’ Robola Kefalonia, Greece 14 Tuoi and I often feel as though the Adelaide Greek community has adopted us. We feel so fortunate to have been drawn into the inner sanctum of one particular Greek family; I’ve lost count of the number of spinning charred and garlicy lambs we have helped demolish. Once, while I was enjoying the company of Antoinette, George, George, Yianni, Yianni, George, Yianni, Con, and Con, I was introduced to cousin Alex, who was working at the time as a winemaker for Geoff Merrill. Alex Katsaros has recently collaborated with Barossa grape grower Paul Geogiadis and Petros Markantonatos, owner of Gentilini Wines on the Ionian Island of Kefalonia. High altitude (up to 800m) Robola is tank fermented, on partial lees. Unique, savoury, zesty and very appetising, the wine tastes of Seville orange skins and mountain rocks that have been macerated together. 2012 Navazos Niepoort (Palomino) Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain 17 From Manzanilla country comes this single vintage table wine, raised under flor. Palomino from the chalky, sun-bleached soils of a stunning Albariza vineyard is vinified using a winemaking method used more than two centuries ago. The must is fermented in butt with wild yeasts and then aged under a naturally occurring flor. Sea spray and seaweed; kelp tea. 2018 Pike & Joyce ‘Les Saignees’ (Dolcetto, Pinot Noir) Adelaide Hills, SA 11 Delicious Rosé from the high altitude (593m) Pike & Joyce vineyards in Lenswood. This rosé thrills me with its tart cranberry, watermelon and raspberry ripple flavours. Underlying barrel-ferment leesiness keeps the experience very adult. 2016 Koerner Nielluccio (Sangiovese) Clare Valley, SA 13 The Koerner boys are concocting a whole world of deliciousness across their already diverse portfolio. This Sangiovese, is given the Corsican name for the variety ‘Nielluccio.’ Picking early and subjecting the fruit to whole-berry, partial whole-bunch fermentation and 10 months in concrete egg, has imparted Damson plum notes and springtime florals. The frictive porousness of the concrete is felt across the upper palate and gently embellishes the wine’s tannin structure. 2016 The Cutting Shiraz Stonewell, Barossa Valley, SA 16 An exciting small-batch Shiraz from fruit sourced from the Stonewell region, not far from Tanunda. While expressing the expected richness and density of Shiraz from this sub-region, I’m impressed by the wine’s definition and containment. Picking time has been perfectly judged (within what the French call the ‘terroir window’) so that fruit sweetness never masks the connection with the dirt beneath the vines. A delicious chalky tannin profile and a long, lip-smacking finish complete the picture.

11.01.2022 Dear all, FermentAsian is now offering Take Away from this week Wednesday 13/05. We thank you all for your love and support during the last few weeks. ... We are looking forward to welcoming you back in the next few weeks but for now you can enjoy fermentAsian at home.

10.01.2022 A few photos from the fermentAsian staff Christmas lunch, held at Chianti Ristorante in Adelaide on Christmas Eve. The biggest challenge of running a successful... restaurant in a regional area, is the recruitment and retention of quality staff. I must say, that the current crop represents the strongest lineup we’ve ever had. And we will be bolstered further when Giorgia Bicego returns from Italy. Our wine team is enjoying representing the list, and is very appropriately skilled for a Barossa restaurant, including as it does, two winemakers (Mark and Jeremy) along with Mitchell and myself. I love coming to work alongside these boys and girls. And the comments from customers have been very reassuring. I wish every staff person a very happy Christmas and New Year, and together, we all wish our customers a happy and safe holiday period.

06.01.2022 Cooling bottles for a warming world: New pours this week. Thank you Andrew Guard, Tim Smith, Brendon Kies, Michael Dhillon, Robert Walters NV Diebolt-Vallois Bl...anc de Blancs (100% Chardonnay) Cramant, Côte des Blancs, Champagne, France 27 A perrenial favourite at fermentAsian, it’s such a pleasure being able to offer this fine Champagne by the glass whilst guests are in the mood for ushering in a new year. Fine and elegant with succulent flavours of white spring flowers, Granny Smith and plenty of chalky mineral acidity, this will stimulate your appetite before that first spring roll! 2017 Tim Smith Viognier Eden Valley, SA 13 A deliciously heady Viognier, drenched in the ample richness of late summer, but still fine, chiselled and pure. Ripe apricots are muddled with Galangal flowers, elderberry blossoms and fresh ginger. There’s no unnecessary weight or oiliness. I really love this! 2017 BK Wines ‘Ovum’ Pinot Gris Lenswood, Adelaide Hills, SS 12 Brendon Kies makes some incredibly compelling wine. It’s rare for a fermentAsian lunch or dinner service to go by without us recommending one of his Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs or skin contact whites. When Brendon dropped an opened sample bottle of his ‘Ovum’ into the restaurant on the day that it had been bottled, we immediately scheduled a pour. Wild fermentation in concrete egg has conjured fresh aromas of spiced green apple and ripe quince, but the bouquet offers no forewarning of the sumptuous, leesy, custardy creaminess, essence-of-Josephine and faint bruised spearmint that fills the palate. All this voluptuousness is tethered to a chassis of driving acidity that pulls everything into a puckering shape that rolls languidly through the mouth. 2012 Bindi ‘Composition’ Pinot Noir Macedon Ranges, Victoria 18 I love it when wines that are marketed as being from ‘declassified parcels’ of ‘younger vines’, intended ‘for early drinking’ provide more pleasure than so many wines that proclaim more serious intent. Nearly seven years after its vintage, this svelte and sophisticated ‘Composition’ Pinot with soil-dusted cherries, ripe pomegranates and a faint insinuation of Aperol on the finish is so perfectly paced and shaped to harmonise with the menu at this address. 2011 Domaine de Marcoux ‘Les Petite Cailloux’ (100% Grenache) Châteauneuf du Pape, Rhone, France 20 A one-off relerase from the biodynamically farmed Les Gallimardes lieu-dit in the south of the AOC. The site is famous for its thick blanket of river stones, or petits cailloux, from which this cuvee takes its name. This is again a declassified younger vine blend, fermented and raised in concrete for 14 months. Soft, silky, fleshy, long and harmonious, it’s a great introduction to Marcoux.

02.01.2022 Tis the season. Busy lunches, busy dinners, which means that we are selling through our by-the-glass stock. So a new brace of pours from tomorrow night. Thank y...ou Brett Trewartha, Ashley Ratcliff, Robert Walters, Matt Dunning, Abel Gibson, Steve Pannell, Bill Downie, Scott Wasley, Ben and Sarah Chipman 2012 Ashton Hills Sparkling Shiraz Clare Valley, SA 20 Stephen George and Robert O’Callaghan are two aging knights of the wine realm, both having sired many enduring wines and wine styles that have thrown the international spotlight onto the vinous legacy of our state. Both gentlemen have made ageable sparkling red wine a central pillar of their oeuvre. Rockford’s Black Shiraz is legendary, and I spent many years of my life proudly championing it. But this Ashton Hills Sparkling Red is just as formidable, carved out from one of Australia’s most revered vineyards, including a patch of vines planted in 1919. 2018 Ricca Terra Grenache Blanc Waikerie, Riverland SA 10 Punchy and pungent, this is one of the first Australian expressions of the great southen French white mutation of Grenache. Grown by Ashley Ratcliff at Ricca Terra in Waikerie as part of an exploration of ultimate varietals to grow in warm dry climates, this demonstrates the richness of palate weight and the depth of flavour one can coax from Grenache Blanc. By Riverland standards, production is tiny: a mere 100 cases. 2017 Lindsay Wine Estate Semillon Barossa Valley, SA 14 I’m turning the spotlight back on Semillon, our great white variety grown on the Valley floor. Whilst a majority of diners in Australian restaurants will be sipping on Sauvignon Blanc tonight, we choose to showcase the unique character of our local Semillon. Matt Dunne’s expression is unashamedly rich, textured, soft and mouth-filling. Flavours are bolstered with quality vanillin oak, which never dominates the lemon curd flavour profile. The subdued fruitiness and pronounced savouriness make this a great gastronomic wine. 2015 Moreau-Naudet Chablis Vieilles Vignes ’Pargues’ Chablis, Burgundy, France 20 If you’re like me, you select your Chablis’ from wine lists seeking quintessential stony minerality; it can come as a real surprise when you find one that overdelivers to the extent this expression does. Sure 2015 was a warmer vintage, and September hail damage concentrated flavours, but the combination of limpid purity, ripe Josephine, tensioning salinity and rolling full-bodied old-vine sappiness is both convincing and beguiling. 2015 Ruggabellus ‘Sallio’ (Muscat 40%, Rieling 31%, Semillon 29%) Eden Valley, Barossa, SA 10 Abel Gibson’s wines often fill this slot on the list. The 2015 Sallio brings the burnished glow of Muscat aromas to the mix, aromas that survive the varietal muting that long maceration and skin contact often bring. Deeply orange, and infused wih flavours of Angas Park Mixed Peel, this provides hauntingly appropriate counterpoint to the Cha Ca and squid dishes. It can also surprise when matched with Tuoi’s Pork Belly. 2017 G.D. Vajra Dolcetto D’Alba Piedmont, Italy 14 A selection of wines from this characterful and authentic producer is now being brought into Australia by Steve Pannell, who worked at Vajra over several northern vintages. This is blue-fruit driven, (think mulberries and blueberries) robust, tangy and expressive. Balancing tannin gently abrades the top of the tongue. 2017 Tomfoolery ‘Young Blood’ Shiraz Light Pass, Barossa Valley, SA 12 Juicy lipstaining young local Shiraz, made in a ‘joven’ style by Ben Chipman, one of my old Rockford colleagues. Loaded with fruit, the youthful aromatics are restrained with a proportion of whole clusters but there’s nothing to constrain the explosion of raspberries and Stella Cherries as they burst across the palate. 2013 William Downie ‘Yarra Valley’ Pinot Noir Yarra Valley, Victoria 19 Brave, minimal intervention winemaking has crafted a wild, bright-fruited Pinot that fills the nose with brambly, wild strawberries, faded rose petals and fennel flowers. Fine, indeed silky across the palate; evolved fruit flavours jostle in the glass with earth and geological nuance and restless tangy natural acidity. A lovely Barossa connection frames up the flavours: Peter and Alex John from AP John Cooperage here in Tanunda have developed a sophisticated routine that maximises the immediate freshness and oatmeal subtlety of just-toasted oak. Alex personally toasts each of the William Downie French oak barrels; they are immediately shrink-wrapped and loaded onto a truck, and driven to the Yarragon winery in West Gippsland where they are filled with Pinot within 24 hours of being fired. 1995 Urbina Gran Reserva Especial Rioja, Spain 25 Earthen complexities, smells of baked mudbrick and worn rusty equestrian harnesses counterpoint the dusty remnants of rich black fruit. On the palate there’s stewed prune, black-olive-and-dried-thyme tapenade and the faded complexities offered by old American oak. Together these olfactory elements conspire to make an outstanding savoury and delicious old Rioja. One of my old friends suggested that it’s a bit like licking red wine from out of the cracks in the seat of an old Chesterfield in a smoke filled pub. And she’d definitely know.

01.01.2022 Fresh from our Best Wine List Award on Monday night, I am delighted that we have two new players on the floor who can expertly lead our customers to an unforget...table wine experience. Come and meet Mark and Jeremy, both with winemaking credentials and experience; both of whom share my wine curiosity. There's a new energy in our wine program, a new focus on Riesling and Chardonnay. New wines to be poured during these weeks leading up to Christmas include these. But some of these will be lucky to last the week. Thank you Lynette Collins, Ian Hongell, Steve Flamsteed, waiting staff and my muse. 2018 Otherness ‘Skuld’ Riesling (by Ian Hongell) Eden Valley, Barossa, SA 14 Hand-picked in the early hours of 5th March, 2018, the cool, precise lime and lemongrass flavours were captured by immediate gentle cool pressing in the Torbreck cellar. This has a brilliant cool purity, laser-like focus and the talcy mineral acidity of the best of High Eden. Ian was formerly chief winemaker for Peter Lehmann and responsible for many of the great Wigan Rieslings released over the last decade. He was thrilled to continue his Riesling legacy with Otherness in tandem with his chief winemaker duties at Torbreck, where he is crafting some of the Barossa’s most exciting wines made from classic Rhone Varietals. Skuld is one of the three Norns in Norse mythology: female deities that decide the destiny of both gods and men. 2017 Rockford ‘Vine Vale’ Riesling Vine Vale, Barossa Valley, SA 17 One of the Barossa’s unique Riesling experiences, this rolls through the mouth with the power of an indomitable rising tide. The characteristic nervy purity that defines most local Riesling is here surmounted by a richness of fruit and a certain beguiling physicality. It’s like comparing a full string orchestra with a string quartet. There are deeper resonances here than we are familiar with, yet the shape through the mouth remains perfectly elliptical, the finish briny and long with echoes of grapefruit, vanilla bean and kaffir lime; echoes that continue to resonate long after you have reluctantly pulled the glass away from your face. 2016 Giant Steps ‘Primavera Vineyard’ Pinot Noir Yarra Valley, Victoria 17 Made by a much-loved winemaker with an enthusiastic and affectionate following here in the Barossa, few other Australian Pinot Noirs offer such pleasure. Tastefully imbued with subtlety, sensitivity and nuance, the performance is without grand gesture or any overt display of winemaking. Riper fruit flavours are held in check by the 75% whole clusters, which umbue the wine with smoky undercurrents, earth and spice. Thank you Mr Flamsteed.