All posts tagged: pinot noir

Pinot Pinball at Pinot Palooza

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My friend Miss A and I attended the first Auckland Pinot Palooza on Saturday at Shed 10. This celebration of pinot noir is aimed specifically at wine drinkers rather than wine snobs. There was very little else aside from pinot noir so it was eye-opening to try pinot noir from different climates and vintages all one after the other. Pinot Palooza has been running in Australia for 5 years and has a cult following of feel good wine drinking over there. With over 60 pinot noir producers on site, each offering an average of 3 bottles each, there was no way we would get through them all. Not even close and especially since we weren’t spitting. Sauvignon Blanc are the number one planting in our vineyards taking a massive 72% of our production but Pinot Noir is (a very distant but growing) second with 8% of NZ wine production (Source: NZ Wine). After starting with a couple of wines from Wine Australia followed by Framingham in Marlborough, we quickly devised our plan of action which …

Did someone say Palooza?

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I consider Pinot Noir the “gateway red” and next Saturday on September 3rd, Pinot Palooza, a celebration of Pinot Noir is coming to Auckland. Auckland’s first Pinot Palooza features unlimited tastings of 150 wines, 60 producers from New Zealand and Australia. Regions represented are Central Otago, Hawkes Bay, Marlborough, Wairarapa, Waipara Valley, North Canterbury and Nelson. You may recognise some of the producers such as: Pegasus Bay  Neudorf Sileni Estates Giesen Wines Villa Maria Though there are many more, check out the full list here: http://pinotpalooza.com.au/auckland-your-wine-list/ If you’ve been to any other Bottle Shop Concepts events such as Game of Rhones, then you can expect the same token-free experience. That’s right no tokens meaning you can taste wines to your heart’s content without worrying how many pieces of silver you have left in your pocket. There will be music, there might even be dancing. Who knows? Tickets are $60pp which includes an EPIC crystal Plumm RedB Glass (value $35) or VIP tickets which includes early access, a food voucher, a curated tour and a special …

Cook Duck (thanks to Nosh)

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Singing songs like “The Man I Love” or “Porgy” is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck. – Billie Holiday As much as I adore duck, I have never cooked it. Until now. When I saw Nosh’s recipe for duck this week, I knew that I had to make it. Absolutely had to. With a title like Sticky Cherry Duck legs with Parsnip Mash and Roast Fennel, I didn’t stand a chance. They even listed Nipple Hill Pinot Noir for the marinade. Cherries, duck legs and nipples. I don’t know where this is leading to, but it sounds sexy. The recipe can be downloaded from their website here. It is a pdf so don’t freak out when your computer pauses for a moment to download and open the file. My only adaptions were that I used bouillon instead of stock, garam masala instead of allspice (I thought I had, but turns out I didn’t have allspice) and I roughly split the recipe in half since I was cooking for …