I know its winter and the cold & flu season has well truly arrived, especially in the hospitality segment where we are on the front line, coming into contact with each and every nasty bug. With this in mind when I had a day off I headed straight to Spirit House at Yandina knowing Helen Brierty and Annette Fear specialise in producing traditional and modern Thai dishes utilizing the freshest seasonal ingredients available. Lucky for us Queensland continues producing an amazing variety of fresh fruit and vegetables even through the cooler winter months!

The wine list in this venue has been noticeably and thank fully well worked over the last year and now lists a range of local Aussie and International wines that are full of texture and great aromatics, a perfect match to their superb fresh flavoured dishes.

Three delicious Rieslings represent three equally diverse regions of Australia. The classic Clare Valley Riesling has text book lime and white blossoms. Wallflower Riesling from the cool climate Mt Barker region of Western Australia is crisp and juicy with a touch of lime juice and green apple sweetness. The Stefano Lubiana from Tasmania is pretty and floral with mandarin and citrus overtones a great match to so many of the dishes at Spirit House, especially good with the Steamed Prawn & Pork Dumplings with Palm Sugar, Ginger & Lime Sauce.

I have to say the Sauvignon Blanc selections were less than inspiring with three being from New Zealand two from the Marlborough region, the fourth was from Margaret River but felt a more savoury style barrel fermented Sauvignon would have slotted into the line up nicely.

The Aromatics selection of the list was the most inspiring, with offerings of Margaret River Chenin Blanc, Italian Pinot Grigio, Gewurztraminer from New Zealand and a delicious Albarino from Rias Biaxas in North West Spain. It was a fantastic pairing with the Tamarind Chilli Sauce that coated the whole crispy Goldband Snapper the wines aromatic orange blossom and pear notes marrying harmoniously with the sticky sauce.

The red wines were also thoughtfully selected with a tendency towards the lighter bodied aromatic styles, with some good Pinot Noirs chosen. It was also nice to see a couple of medium bodied Spanish reds in the line up like Grenache and Tempranillo. The only downfall was the Shiraz choices or lack of, really is the Barossa the only region in Australia producing Shiraz and is it necessary to have four from the one region? There are some amazing examples of cool climate Shiraz being produced in the Yarra and Great Western regions of Victoria and Canberra districts which would probably be a thousand times more suitable for the dishes on this menu, but this is a minor fault to a generally well constructed list.