Stories from the Bulletin Place front line, with apologies to Franz Liszt
My brief review of Len Evans’ memoirs provoked some fascinating contributions from those who were there in the wild old days of Bulletin Place with Len and Anders Ousback and John Parkinson and Anne Tyrell. These anecdotes and contributions came in by email rather than as comments on the blog post, so I’ve listed them here in ascending date order. They add colour and dimension in a way that I could not.
Kim
Hello Kim,
I appreciate your discourse on Len Evans. It opened many memories of obsessive passions given to wine around Len. I loved this era and the times I spent with him, in particular with the younger members of his staff from the beginning of the 70s, a number of whom became life long friends. I also made similarly close friends amongst other moths drawn to the bright Evans flame.
I first met Paul Ferman at Lens ‘Bulletin wine club’ premises on Parramatta Rd, Leichhardt, in 1971. Also Nick Bullied. This Est. was being run by John Parkinson and offered a tasting room full of now mythical Oz wines. Len created this wine club through the Bulletin magazine column he was writing in and was prompted to do so by its editor (?) who loved long lunches and much wine. It was a big cash-cow contributor to Bulletin Place.
One Saturday afternoon in May 1971, during a drop-in visit, John opened Penfolds 1962 Bin 60a and Woodleys ‘56 “skeleton”. (When I ordered 2 of the 60a, John dialled a number and pretty soon a blue Lancia sports car pulled up and out popped Anne Tyrrell with bottles in hand. We drank another of the 60a and went out to dinner.
Slippery devils, I don’t know what happened to the second bottle but I didn’t go home with it!! Anne was managing Lens Bulletin Place rooms. John managed the club for many years, assisted by Hellen Guy (married to Colin ). Anne (now Anne Ellis, Hanging Rock ), John and Paul became my life-long, close friends.
Anders Ousbach was another, rather gifted member of Lens team. I got to know Anders well, but he too was a very complex, flawed, intriguing character that gave Len oxygen, adding to Lens mystique. Anders opened many Great wines for me, and I remember one lunch at his Hunters Hill home (actually, he was living with David Ell, who had exquisite taste in esthetiques) with myself and Tony Bilson, where Anders opened a 1911 Haut Brion, which was incredibly youthful.
Anders broke many a bottle. He was showing a Bulletin Place patron how he dropped an incredibly rare and expensive German wine (1959 Erbacher Marcobrunner Beerenauchlese ….. I really can remember most wines I’ve had over 40 years of drinking… It’s amazing, but I can) by juggling it, and dropping it, so, true to Anders style, he started juggling, and dropped the second bottle. Len was soooo pissed-off.
Len, I believe , loved the trio of Anne, John and Anders. He thought highly of Ferman and shaped his palate. I met Peter Snowball in the early years of the 70s, introduced by Anne at one of Lens wine tutorials. I instantly liked Peter and observed he had an “Englishman’s palate” with a love of German whites and “Claret”.
Len ran many great tutorials in the 70s. We hear of the ” Len Evans Tutorials ” of the modern era post Len, but in the 70s they were truly amazing. I remember seeing O’shea wines from the 40s. The number of DRCs (Domaine de la Romanée-Conti) we could easily then buy and frequently drank via Evans Est. would today seem a lie to the Parker generation. Len was above all very generous. Incredibly so. He opened many , many Great wines for Ferman and me over various occasions and I saw the private man that people mystify about.
I owe him!! I won’t argue with the Philip White assessment. I too have thought those things about Len. He had big faults, but he had a big, generous heart for those he liked. Loyalty was sacrosanct to him. And, as I have just said, I owe him.
Thanks Kim. Your jottings on this last of Evans is truly a sketch of a very real, human character we were luck enough to have had. Love him or criticise him, I certainly loved this era.
Very best Regards.
Jeffrey Daley.
17/11
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Thank you Jeffrey for your detailed reminiscences, and how well they resonate with me, although I arrived on the Sydney scene somewhat later and never even knew of the Leichhardt establishment you describe.
Kim, I hear what you say, and it is fair and reasonable, but the fact is, Evans was a great ball of FUN. That is why rich businessmen lent or gave him their money… they did it because they loved to be around this great character, and he put fun back into their lives.
I have never heard anyone complain about the money they invested or lost in Evans’s various ventures. That says a lot.
And as you say, Jeffrey, he was an enormously generous person. Often with other people’s money, and/or wine, but generous nevertheless! One of the many mysteries is that Len was great at talking about wine, at educating people verbally, but he wasn’t actually much good at writing; certainly not at communicating as much in writing as he did in spoken word.
I have just re-read the little book “How To Taste Wine”, which was the first of the two books the family published posthumously. They arguably shouldn’t have bothered. It is a thin, poor effort. I was shocked at how poorly written it is, how little thought seems to have gone into it, and the slapdash feel it has. I found myself asking repeatedly: “How come the man who many, including the wonderful Hugh Johnson, described as the greatest palate they had known, had so little wisdom to impart in a book with such a grand title?” How many little pearls of wisdom or insight are contained within its covers? Hardly any.
Disappointed, but my curiosity stirred, I then picked up Michael Broadbent’s tiny Mitchell Beazley pocket book “Winetasting”, and what a contrast! This is beautifully written, thoughtful, detailed, practical, and full of the kind of insight you might expect of a man who has been at the top of his game for so many years and drunk more great wine than we could ever imagine.
Kim was disappointed in the second book: “Not My Memoirs”. I found it a lot of fun, a very enjoyable read. Yes, it’s a bit superficial, but that’s OK, it is not pretending to be profound. There is room for that kind of book, full of witty anecdotes.
Best wishes to all,
Huon Hooke, 17/11
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Hello Kim.
‘A confession! I was filling in time last night past midnight, the Rugby game @ 1.15am my goal …..when I had finished my jottings, satisfied , I closed the pad down and went off to bed forgetting completely about the game minutes away. Was it the Chambertin Clos St Jacques? I dreamt about my Bacchanalian adventures, the bucksome wenches…the wild dancing…. er….well, no, I always drank too much and was no threat to anyone except myself. Ahh!
Yes, an Evans story …! One tutorial, he was wound up following the description of the Le Chambertin we had just looked ( tasted ) at and described the scene of a Napoleonic officer doing what I dreamt and, finally hauling the drunken wench over his shoulder,a bottle of Chambertin in the other hand, he climbed the stairs to finish off the night. In the morning he couldn’t remember the wenches name, but could remember the wine was “Chambertin!!!” . I can’t help feeling my life is incomplete …
Very best Regards
Jeffrey Daley
18/11/2012
Bulletin Place today, looking rather lifeless without Len and friends
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Hi Kim, Jeffrey, Huon, Chris and all,
I have thoroughly enjoyed Kim’s critiques and the comments and reminisces from you all. I only knew Len Evans briefly but his ebullient and generous character were self evident. What Len Evans did know and has Been a wonderful and very enjoyable part of my life has been the unifying influence of the love of wine.It has meant knowing and loving many great people including you bunch. That is one of the great legacies of Len Evans.
Warmest Regards
John Levi, 18/11
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In the book, Len makes mention of Anders Ousback more than any other individual so one can conclude that Len learned plenty from Anders, as well as the other way around.
This is a small Anders story – I was working at the Wine and Spirit Buying Guide as Advertising and Sales Manager when John Parkinson was the Editor and Colin’s wife Helen his assistant. At one of the regular monthly wine tastings, all conducted formally, white coats and masked bottles etc., Anders, who was one of the tasters, declared that a blend of three particular wines would be better than each individual one. The date was 3rd April 1978 and he picked up an empty Redman magnum and wrote on the back label as follows
2/5 Birks Shiraz 1976
2/5 Bowen Estate c/s 1976
1/5 Leconfield Coon. Cab sauv
He jammed in a cork gave me the bottle and told me to drink it in twenty years. I did not follow instructions and opened it in 1996 and it was superb. That man had real natural talent in many areas – just look at his obituaries.
I still have the empty bottle – do not ask why!
Peter Snowball, 18/11
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Hello Kim. Hello young Peter.
Ah, yes , Anders Ousback. Now he really was an intriguing fellow. He was admired greatly, beyond this countries embryonic food & wine scene, by the likes of Michael Broadbent and Hugh Johnson. They thought his palate was exceptional and his knowledge of great French wine quite unusual. He moved to England in the late 70s/early 80s, although he had confounded Broadbent in Australia on prior occasions … picking at blind tastings what Broadbent thought was impossibly difficult French wines. He even gave some lectures at the ‘ Masters of Wine ‘ program in London, but I don’t know how this came to pass.
Anders had an intuitive feeling for wine. He ‘understood’ it, if that’s possible to claim. And blending opened bottle left-overs at the end of an evenings tasting at Evans Est. was his skilful play thing. Peter Snowball remembers well this game of his and the longevity of his blended concoctions would surprise even the most seasoned wine maker. Even Broadbent fell for one…. .. ‘You rotter !!!’ ( Terry Thomas style ).
Blending:
At lunch one day in the late 70s , Anders plonked down on the table a masked bottle and asked me ‘ local or imported ?’ Hmmm? Welllll, ‘LOCAL’, I whimsically cried. He paused, then as if he were addressing an audience, then he declared ‘all those who said BOTH are correct.’ The bugger had blended classed Bordeaux slops with Coonawarra slops. Actually, it was very good as I recall.
Then, he plonked down another masked bottle…’ Local or imported ?’ Oh, alright , I’m up to your little game, I cunningly thought…. ‘IMPORTED AND LOCAL’ ….just try and trick this little rooster again, will you. ‘All those who said imported ONLY, are correct …. it’s 1928 Montrose!’ ‘Ohh, double bugger!!!???’ He too, like Evans, was incredibly generous with wine friends.
Catering:
Anders moved back to Australia in the early 80s and tried his hand at catering, anywhere!. But he remained incredibly clumsy . He was an accident in waiting. Murray Tyrrell was throwing a grand lunch at his Pokolbin home and called Anders in on advice from possibly Paul Ferman??
So I meet Anders in the kitchen. He looks thrown, somewhat not his confident self. He explains …. ‘I was turning into the gate of the homestead, off the Broke road, when we became somewhat “airborne”…’. Airborne!!!??? He was taking the turn and entrench a little too fast, cleared some space between the tyres and surface as the drive quickly descends , and landed, fish-tailing and skidding sideways for 20 feet. Ooops!!! Lunch nearly gone … and nearly an angelic Anders, probably. Murray had no idea.
While we are talking of the near death experience, Murray, who was impeccably empathic as ever, popped his head into the kitchen and gruffed ‘when are you poofters going to serve lunch?’
At the end of the day , Anders and his team quietly packed up and slipped away.
You want some more tales about Evans??….. Well that’s for another day.
I think some Murray Tyrrell stories are more fun!!?? He did the Chicken dance at my wedding.
Very best Regards to all.
Jeffrey Daley 20/11
Anders and the chef at The Clock Hotel circa 1999
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Peter and Jeffrey,
I decided to crawl the web to find out more about the late Anders Ousback. Here’s some of what I found:
‘Before becoming a major style maker of Sydney cafes, Anders ran a catering business. This came about after he was asked to review a book about New York caterers called Glorious Food, which convinced him this was what he had to do. He had no funds and the deposit he asked of his first clients was not because he didn’t trust them, but to fund the purchase of the food. The party was a success. As with everything else that he has applied himself to Anders became a great caterer.’
This piece, which has no other attribution than miettas, is much more generous to Anders:
‘Is it possible to ever catch Anders Ousbach (sic) off guard? He has perfect timing and always seems to know when to appear and what to say. I remember him as sommelier at Hermann Schneider’s Two Faces, then with Gay and Tony Bilson at Berowra Waters Inn, but his experience and influence in both front and back of house in the restaurant and catering industry is hugely more extensive than that.’
‘Talking to him at Sydney’s revolving restaurant, The Summit, the renovation which he realised in 1999, he was ready for the inevitable questions about his past and his answers are exquisitely to the point – “What goes around comes around. It is funny when you stand back from things and you look at starting points and you realise that every time you think that was the starting point it actually goes back to something slightly more cataclysmic. I worked here 25 years ago as a trainee manager, so I walk around and my past comes before me.” ‘
More photos from the Clock http://miettas.com/photopage/one?id=75_all
http://miettas.com/Photographs/Chefs_O/Clock_Ousback_anders/Anders_Ousback_The_Clock_1999
http://notjustcake.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/anders-ousbacks-grilled-pepper-relish.html
[Anders Ousback took his life in 2004, and I’ve included these two obituaries]:
Lonely death of restaurateur with perfect taste, by David Dale and Valerie Lawson, May 31, 2004 http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/30/1085855437766.html
A man born with good taste, John Newton, SMH, June 3, 2004
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/02/1086058912666.html
This is a really good piece – anyone know John Newton?
Kim, November 20, 2012
Kim,
John Newton lives in Glebe and is one of the Australian food writers I most admire. He has written on food for Good Living on and off and has penned some books, including the annual SMH Foodies Guide to Sydney. Also the memorably titled Wog Food – about olive oil, garlic, etc.
Re Anders, a very special person. There are some people who seem so rare and gifted that they make you want to believe in the Buddhist idea that we have all lived before. Their intuitive abilities, talents and superior insights make sense if you can believe that they possess the accumulated wisdom of past lives. Many of the anecdotes about Anders, including some of these, give a sense of his evanescence.
Some of us of course were mere plodders in our past lives!
HH 20/11
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Thanks for those insights, Huon.
John Newton’s obituary got so much closer to Anders Ousback than that from David Dale and Valerie Lawson. At least that was my impression. Clearly a most inspiring character, and someone I really wish I’d met and got to know a little. Some of us are plodders in our current lives, Huon, but I’m working hard to run faster.
Kim 20/11
