All posts filed under: Wine and Spirits

Tasting Menu with Matching Wines

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I was stoked to be invited to a Zomato Foodie Meetup at One Tree Grill last week. As much as I love food and wine (like, HEAPS), I have never experienced a tasting menu with matched wines. I was in for a treat. I was annoyingly early for our 6.30pm start. When I arrived I was greeted by Charlotte who I know from what feels like another era. About 8 years back we lived and breathed a restaurant and bar in Parnell called Blowfish. It was a funny time. Charlotte took my coat and set me up with a delicious Xanadu Shiraz on a comfy couch. We chatted about old times and One Tree Grill. There were 8 of us and it was a pleasure to dine with other foodies and we had plenty to talk about food-wise and about our experience. Bloggers at the dinner were Cecilia from Ultimate Om Noms, Amy from My Dining Journey, Tiffany from Heartshrooms, Jen from Mango and Beans. The decor is inviting with dark wood furniture, white tablecloths, neutral colours, a large …

5 NZ Wines paired with 5 NZ Cheeses

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I prefer to buy New Zealand cheese and wine. We have such wonderful products here it seems a pity to buy imported. I recently bought some NZ wine from the Advintage Online Wine Store who – like many New Zealand wines – are based in the Hawkes Bay region. Advintage offer a range of wines including wines from NZ, Australia, France, Spain Italy, and USA. What I liked about the Advintage website is you can easily sort wines by price, region and variety. They also have a few useful categories such as SPECIALS, CLASSICS or HIGH ROLLERS depending on how your shopping/drinking style. Prices are per bottle or per case with good savings for both. I found it super cool that their case pricing applies to mixed cases. You don’t have to buy all the same wine take advantage of their case pricing, as long as you buy 12 bottles of any wine, you’ll pay the case rate. I selected five New Zealand wines priced from $18-$22 on Advintage but actually retail at $24-$35 elsewhere. The wines I picked where ones …

Anticipating Wine AKL

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In the last year, a new phase in my wine drinking has developed. I don’t drink as much, but every time I take my first sip of wine, I sigh aloud: “I loooooove wine”. I can’t help it. A glass of wine is classy, relaxing, social and delicious. It demands to be appreciated. I used to drink red or white, but these days I am a staunch red wine drinker. I’ll always pass on the white but I’ll drink any red. Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cab Sav, Syrah, Shiraz, Malbec. Oh yes. This weekend is Wine AKL. I’ve never been before but it looks a bit like Taste, except instead of a celebration of our loveliest restaurants, it is a celebration of our wine makers (and wine drinkers). As part of the Auckland Restaurant Month celebrations, the wine glitterati of NZ will be there talking all about wine. Over 60 of New Zealand’s wine makers will be represented. Entertainment provided by Base FM DJ Murry Sweetpants. Reasonably priced food provided by Euro’s pop-up restaurant. Pop Up Menu Can …

Bastille Day Wine Tasting

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Our Bastille Day Cheese and Wine Tasting was a barrel of laughs. Tasting different wines side by side was awesome. You taste a little of each and then go back for more until it’s all gone. The wines changed as we drank them and some that I didn’t like at the start were delicious at the end. I suspect a combination of booze and air affected the taste. At our wine tasting, there were ten wine tasters and six bottles of red wine. There were three French wines in honour of Bastille Day, two Australian wines and one New Zealand wine. A good mix. I asked each guest to bring either  cheese or a red wine that they hadn’t tried before, with a price limit of $20. Loose lips and dutch rudders Being the slightly crazy foodie that I am, everyone was encouraged to take notes on the wines based on some key points. Strong opinions and poetic license were held in high regard. Our rating system from 0 to 10: 0 = yuck 5 = …

Bitch and Wine

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Here are the tasting notes from Saturday’s cheese and wine tasting party. The budget was $15 which is a common budget for all the drinkers in the group and I asked my guests to buy a wine that they had never tasted before. There were 6 wines and they were all reds. I really enjoyed being able to taste the reds side by side and there was no shame about trying one and then another and then going back to the first one just to “make sure”. Drinking wine helps the creative review process. Whether it is a valid opinion is…up to you to decide. Disclaimer! The following are the drunken opinion of a group of 11 amateur wine tasters. These notes do not reflect the feelings of this blog or of sober adults. Right to creative license reserved. In alphabetical order… 1. Durbanville Hills Pinotage South Africa, 2009 “Gives me grabby hands” Looks like Purplish Smells like Food A petrol station on fire with a terminator walking slowly from the flames Kind of gritty, …

Cheese and Wine Tasting Party

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Yussss. Got to cross off something from my to do list by throwing a cheese and wine tasting party. I suddenly had a free weekend so got together a few friends for a party on short notice. My geekiness was met with understanding and all the tasters were great sports at sharing their opinions on the cheese and wines. It’s not surprising that the opinions got more colourful as the bottles of wine emptied out. Rules Bring a cheese or a wine that you have not tried before Budget $15 Some guests brought both cheese and wine and we ended up with 8 kinds of cheese, 6 kinds of wine as well as plenty of breads, crackers, antipasto and oils to share between 11 of us. I had a box of backup wine in case we ran out. Can’t have guests going thirsty! We gathered around the dining table with wine glasses in hand and rotated around the table tasting each item until there was pretty much nothing left. We tasted everything once, going back …