Tasting wine in Johnsonville since 1980.
Summer Barbecue – Sunday 27th January from 4pm, wet or Fine – No charge
Derek Thompson’s residence, 4 Arthur Carman Street, Johnsonville
Our first event for the year is the traditional Club Barbecue. We are very grateful to Derek for continuing to make his place available and there is no doubt that Derek has made it fit for purpose.
We will give you more detail in January.
As at last count there are 39 confirmed but there are still a few of you who have not confirmed attendance. We are looking to reach 45 diners so that the Cellar Club can make the most of Hazels on the night.
Let’s just repeat the Hazels Menu. If this doesn’t get those taste buds working overtime I don’t know what will…
Roasted asparagus, forest mushroom salad with grilled pumpkin, buttered green beans & goat feta
Ginger n’ rock sugar glazed turkey breast, asparagus & grapefruit salad
Beef tenderloin, smoked red onion & sweet pepper, tomato relish
Prime pork fillet with smoked nectarine, champagne ham stuffing, blackberry sauce, orange kumara gratin & wilted spinach
Seared salmon fillet with warm potato, confit fennel, pepper salad & almond puree
Prime beef fillet & zucchini fritter, grilled asparagus, baby carrot & sauce bearnaise
Apple mousse with toasted honey syrup apples & blackberries
Hazel Xmas pudding with manuka honey ice cream, praline & vanilla anglaise
Basil pannacotta, kaffir lime flavoured strawberries & lemon mousse
Tea and filter coffee
November – Bubbles with John (Mac) McPhersonStill working on the detail for this evening but be assured it will be special. The wines are not yet finalized but we are working on a catering package and looking into the purchase of flutes so that we will not have to rely on others providing them when we have bubbly evenings.
The door price will be the usual $20 for members and $25 for guests. Whilst we plan to cater for nibbles members should ensure that eat before the presentation as this is another evening where the quantity of wine tasted may exceed the average.
Wednesday 12 December Hazel Restaurant, Marjoribanks Street, Wellington
It’s time to update everyone on our plans for Christmas. You will see from the menu below that it has some interesting choices that I feel sure will go well with those special wines in your cellar.
The club is planning to provide a small subsidy to your meal as well as providing its customary glass of bubbles when you arrive. The final cost to you will be determined at our next committee meeting, but I can tell you that the entire meal will cost you no more than $55 per head.
Hazel Restaurant have said if our numbers reach a minimum of 45, we’ll be able to have the restaurant to ourselves, so we do encourage you to come along and socialise with your fellow club members. So they can determine whether to continue to block out the restaurant, Hazel are keen to have an early indication of numbers.
Please let us know whether you’re likely to be attending, either by emailing Robin or letting us know at the club’s Bannock Brae tasting next week.
Roasted asparagus, forest mushroom salad with grilled pumpkin, buttered green beans & goat feta
Ginger n’ rock sugar glazed turkey breast, asparagus & grapefruit salad
Beef tenderloin, smoked red onion & sweet pepper, tomato relish
Prime pork fillet with smoked nectarine, champagne ham stuffing, blackberry sauce, orange kumara gratin & wilted spinach
Seared salmon fillet with warm potato, confit fennel, pepper salad & almond puree
Prime beef fillet & zucchini fritter, grilled asparagus, baby carrot & sauce bearnaise
Apple mousse with toasted honey syrup apples & blackberries
Hazel Xmas pudding with manuka honey ice cream, praline & vanilla anglaise
Basil pannacotta, kaffir lime flavoured strawberries & lemon mousse
Tea and filter coffee
We don’t get much opportunity to sample SA wines but Richard Gooch is threatening to talk in Afrikaans about Cecil Rhodes as he provides an update on 7 South African Wines, including a bubbly. It will be entertaining and informative in Richard’s usual happy style.
Richard is extremely knowledgeable about SA wines so it seems a waste not to hear what he has to say about some of the wines from this region. We hope you agree. Unfortunately this may be a tasting where there is not much opportunity to purchase some of the wines as Richard is going to pick up some of the wines in his travels, he returns from the UK on the 4th September.
You might recall that we had indicated that the August meeting would involve a presentation from the Mission Estate Winery.
However, an opportunity has arisen, at short notice, to have a presentation from another iconic Australian winery following on from our Brown Brothers meeting in April.
Mission have kindly agreed to take a date in early 2013 leaving the way for a presentation from Luke Skeer, one of the senior winemakers at Wynns on 8 August.
The wines will mainly be from their latest range and hopefully will include a John Riddoch Cabernet blend and possibly a Michael Shiraz.Sadly the Michael Shiraz is unlikely to be available for sale in New Zealand.
Another great evening in prospect.
Thanks to James and the Cellar Room who have made this possible.
Yealands take a sustainable approach to wine making so please take a look at the Yealand’s website to understand what this means for you and New Zealand.
Presenters will be Greg Forward – Regional Manager, Mitch Howard – Business Development Manager based in Hawkes Bay, and Melissa Carr – Business Development Manager based in Wellington.
The Cellar Club Inc Annual General Meeting will be held as follows:
When : 8pm Wednesday 9th May 2012
Where: Johnsonville Community Centre, Moorefield Road, Wellington
Please give some thought to any proposals you might want to introduce for the meeting, and if you would like to make a nomination for anyone to represent the club on the committee. We are always eager for new ideas or different points of view.
We will include a reminder in next months newsletter.
Still some detail to work out but it currently looks like we will have Bernie Atkins, Area Manager, Brown Brothers Wines NZ Ltd as our April presenter.
We are really looking forward to having such an iconic Australian producer deliver from their very wide variety of wines.
More detail next month.
“Stonecroft was the first winery to be established in the Gimblett Gravels, Hawke’s Bay. We also have the oldest Syrah vines in New Zealand. At Stonecroft, we continue to make a small quantity of wine, using traditional methods. Stonecroft is well known for its Syrah, Zinfandel, Gewürztraminer and Chardonnay wines. Only organic practices are used in the vineyard and Stonecroft is now officially ‘in
conversion’ to organic certification.”
The above paragraph gives an indication of the Stonecroft philosophy. We look forward to yet another interesting presentation and tasting. More detail next month.
Sunday 29th January from 4pm, wet or fine
Derek Thompson’s residence
4 Arthur Carman Street, Johnsonville
No charge
Our first event for the year is the traditional Club Barbecue. We are very grateful to Derek for continuing to make his place available and there is no doubt that Derek has made it fit for purpose.
The Club will supply meats, salmon, potatoes, bread and a BBQ chef! You do not need to bring your tasting glasses as the Club will provide glassware.
Members are requested to bring wine plus a salad if you live at an even numbered address and a dessert if you live at an odd numbered address. For the information of our newer members, we suggest that your salad/dessert serves about 8 people.
The world in grapesNot to be confused with “The World in Union”, next month we welcome back an old friend of the club, Malcolm McIntyre who will present wines from some of the participants in this year’s Rugby World Cup.
Which countries will be competing in our tasting is a closely guarded secret although I imagine countries like Japan, Scotland and Fiji will have missed getting into the qualifying pool since drinks like Sake, Whiskey and Kava are not derived from grapes.
And whilst this is intended to be a fun tasting, Malcolm’s company, Blackboard Wines is the distributor for a number of very good value wines from around the world which I am sure will make it onto the playing roster.
More details next month.