Want to try something new, and not already a member? Come on your own, grab a friend, workmate or partner and join us for our next tasting. Take a look and see who's presenting.
This was a superb evening featuring worldwide bubbles.
The special food matched some of the wines and was well thought out and tasty. It is always interesting to see what change the food makes to the wine you drink.
This has left everyone with some thoughtfully selected wines to source for Christmas celebrations.
As a reminder of what to put on your shopping list, the wines we tasted were:
De Bortolli Family Selection Sparkling Brut NV – Australia
Graham Norton Prosecco D.O.C. – Italy
Perelada Brut Reserva Spanish Cava – Spain
Pongracz Sparkling Brut – South Africa
Hunter MiruMiru Marlborough Methode Traditionelle Brut – New Zealand
Aimery Grande Cuvee 1531 Cremant De Limouix Rose NV – France
The Black Chook Sparkling Shiraz NV – Australia
Pegasus Bay Encore Noble Riesling 2007 AND 2017 – New Zealand
It was an interesting and fun evening for everyone, thanks to Wayne, Murray, Terry Gayl, and everyone else who helped with the food on the evening.
Where you will be greeted with a glass of Club bubbles
This is a b.y.o. event, so please bring along your best French wine, or two, from your cellars, plus to enhance the atmosphere for the evening, dress with a little je ne sais quoi in red, white and blue!
Below is a reminder of the menu for the evening, noting that you have previously selected your Main course and sent this to Wayne [he will be emailing all attendees to make sure he has recorded your choice correctly and to advise you of your seating number] :
Entrée
3 mini entrees served to each person (Quiche Lorraine, one soup, mini goat cheese salad)
Mains
Beef Bourguignon Monkfish with Saffron Sauce Chicken Provencal
Dessert
3 mini desserts in the style of petite fours
Public transport
If you would like to catch public transport for the evening, please note:
Nearby is the motorway overpass and just south of that is bus stop 5492 which is used by bus routes 1, 19e, 24, 25, 26, 52, 56, 57, 58, 60e and 83.
When it comes to going home, you can use bus stop 5024 just north of the motorway overpass. So again, just a short distance away.
This will be an evening to remember: Club bubbles on arrival, shared meal dishes – some new/some old favourites, b.y.o. wines to share – perhaps try and match your bottle with Malaysian food – Gertz, Riesling, a Rose’, Pinot Noir or a Cabernet Sauvignon.
This is the 30th year of operation for Istana Malaysia, with Danny, the owner/chef, still on board. Everything is prepared fresh in the kitchen daily, guaranteeing quality and enjoyment.
We have planned no dessert for the evening, but please bring your favourite dessert wine, as this will complement both the food and finish the evening off nicely.
PLEASE NOTE: This will be on our usual Wednesday night, 14th December -not on a Saturday, arriving at 7 pm for a 7:30 pm start. The cost is $50 per head incl. GST and corkage.
January – The Club BBQ
A great way to kick the 2023 tasting year off. Details to follow.
From weekend brunches to housewarming parties to casual happy hours at home, popping a bottle of bubbles generally promises a good time. However, knowing what you’re drinking and which bubbles to seek out is key.
This month the club intends to present a number of different wine styles of quite a diverse quality in the hope that we can make your Christmas buying a little easier and more informed.
And our plan is to do so in a number of different ways, some of which will be with nibbles, whilst others may require a little deduction on your part to decide what is in your glass.
The wines are currently being sourced, but our plan is to include wines from around the world that will reflect the varying degrees of dryness/sweetness that is typical of the areas being tasted. These are likely to include Prosecco, a Cava, Champagne and several Méthode Traditionnelle wines from elsewhere.
We don’t want to say much more for fear of spoiling the surprise, But the slightly higher door price reflects some of the quality you will taste and some of the additional costs of bringing this tasting to you.
We look forward to you joining us for this fun evening with bubbles.
This was held at Field & Green in the Wellington CBD last month. It was well attended, albeit we did have a couple of last-minute cancellations due to Covid, which meant we did not hit the maximum seating of 48 that we were booked for at the beginning of that week.
Everyone was welcomed with a glass of the Club’s bubbly, and a good variety of wines was brought to create a jovial atmosphere for the evening. The food was well presented, and the committee received a host of favourable feedback after the event, indicating that this was a venue that members would like to attend again sometime in the future.
We know members particularly enjoyed the Treacle Tarte with clotted cream. Laura, the chef at Field & Green, has kindly agreed to share her recipe with club members, and you will find it as a separate attachment to this newsletter. Thanks, Laura and thanks, Helen, for securing this for us.
We thank Terry Friel for suggesting Field & Green and working with them to produce an excellent menu for the night.
MONIQUE FORD/STUFF Wine emojis to help you choose a bottle.
If you feel lost as to what wine to serve at your Moroccan-inspired dinner party this weekend, one website is on a mission to help – using a database of unique, and very cute, specialised emojis.
When lockdown forced Wellington’s Noble Rot Wine Bar to close in March 2020, three wine experts used the downtime to create a database of wine profiles. The ultimate goal was to simplify the wine-buying process for the average consumer.
Two years later, Wine-oji, is a website featuring 221 emoji-like images designed to help anyone pick the perfect bottle of wine, whether they know what wine they enjoy or not.
Noble Rot owners Josh Pointon and Maciej Zimny, with head sommelier Jessica Wood, launched Wine-oji last December. Wood says the response has been “amazing” from consumers and producers.
But what exactly is Wine-oji, and how does a collection of wine-related emojis help someone pick a bottle of wine?
MONIQUE FORD/STUFF Wine-Oji was an idea born out of lockdown.
The website is a colourful, busy and interactive library of images used to describe flavour profiles, production methods and ideal food pairings for wines.
The list is pretty extensive. Images are allocated to primary aromas, such as fruits and vegetables, as well as floral notes such as jasmine and honeysuckle or earthy tones of oak and wet stone.
Secondary aromas, which come from the winemaking process, oak ageing, oxidation and bottle ageing include popcorn, butterscotch, oak, berries and fruit and tar and rubber, among others.
Wood says while the library of wine emojis is fun, the interactive “find your perfect match” section is where customers can hone in on exactly what they are after in a wine.
“You can search any winery or flavour,” she says. Users can also simply search for the food they plan to eat and find the perfect pairing.
“If you’re cooking snapper tonight, you can type snapper, and it will bring up all the wines that have any of those Wine-ojis allocated to the profile.”
MONIQUE FORD/STUFF The initial idea began when Wood realised she was fielding questions from customers at Noble Rot about what certain wines taste like.
She says the site also allows people to open their minds a bit to try new wines.
“[You can find] things you’ll actually like, rather than based on wine that’s discounted heavily at the store, or because you tried it before, or like the label. It’s actually all about your experience of the wine.”
The initial idea began when Wood realised she was fielding questions from customers at Noble Rot about what certain wines taste like, and what wines pair best with certain foods.
And so the idea of creating a database of flavours, profiles and distributor information began to form.
“We … started composing a list of the key aromas and flavours, and structural components of the wine, that we could then build into a bit of a library. That became the new language – the language of Wine-oji,” she says.
The creation of the images was hugely important, Wood says. They brought in a local graphic designer to help create the library. They needed to be well-designed, but they also had to appeal to people who are not wine experts.
MONIQUE FORD/STUFF People need no previous knowledge of wine to use the emoji wine website.
“They had to be easily recognisable, quite quickly, by the average consumer.”
“There is a huge problem in that people don’t know what wine they like, or what wine they should buy. There’s never really been an understanding of their flavour profile or their taste preferences.”
“We were thinking, how can we translate to people quickly and instantly what’s in their bottle of wine using images rather than words?” she says.
The resulting database is something Wood insists people need no previous knowledge of wine to use.
“You just need to know if you like something or not,” she says.
Using the interactive section of the site, a search for “lemon” results in 33 bottles of wine. Of those, two are Pinot Gris and 12 are Chardonnay. The selections can be further filtered by wine type or vintage.
For each bottle, the full Wine-oji profile can be viewed. There are eight sections: aroma, flavour, sweetness, acidity, body, oak, finish and food. Each is illustrated with the relevant Wine-ojis.
MONIQUE FORD/STUFF Wine-Oji will give you the nous to have a good nose for wine – no experience required.
My 2019 Main Divide Riesling, for instance, had an acidity rating of 4½ lemons out of 5. Its sweetness is only worthy of one lollipop, however, and in terms of the body, my chosen riesling shows 2½ bodybuilders out of a possible 5.
My chosen wine also pairs well with prawn skewers, pad thai, Moroccan couscous and snapper ceviche.
And after two years of creating an extensive database of wine-related imagery, what are Wood’s favourite Wine-ojis?
She has a few, including lily, jasmine and ginger. She is also a fan of the food pairings.
We welcome you all to our mid-winter dinner at one of Wellington’s best restaurants. The recipient of a Cuisine Good Food Awards ‘Hat’, Field and Green offer seasonal selections to reflect European influences showcasing the very best of New Zealand flavours. Taking into account your feedback on previous dinners, this establishment is spacious, at ground level and close to public transport, being a 4-minute walk from Courtenay Place.
In keeping with their emphasis on seasonal food, the chef is creating a new Winter menu and we will be some of the first to taste it. The dinner will be announced at the Club’s Te Mata Tasting on 8th June and bookings will also be open that day. While we expect to be able to cater for everyone that wishes to come, the restaurant has a limit of 48, so bookings will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
Do not miss this opportunity to dine at the restaurant which the Cuisine review says:
The lack of opulence that greets you as you step off the busy streets of Wellington into Field & Green belies the richness of the rustic culinary experience that awaits.
To get the scoop on the best way to bring your barbecue fare to life with wine.
Our January Cellar Club BBQ is going ahead on the last Sunday of this month and as previous, it will be a No Charge event requiring you to contribute a bottle of wine [ie its BYO] and food.
All wine is pooled so it can be enjoyed by others who appreciate the variety. We would ask people not to take wine away to individual tables, as this limits access to wines that people might want to try. Remember though that the Club provides no wine for this event, so ensure that you bring enough if you think the summer heat will make you thirsty.
For new and prospective club members, this is a great afternoon/evening to get to know the other Club members and join in to start off 2022 in a wonderful setting.
Also, if members have friends as prospective members, then this is an ideal time to see the club in action.
This year your committee is trying something different with the format of the BBQ and club members are asked to bring whatever they would like to nibble on for their appetiser. The idea is to share what you bring at whatever table you are seated at, and we will also provide popcorn [thanks Anne]. There will be no cheese or bread as that tends to be an issue on hot days.
We are also going to try venison patties with a cranberry sauce and gourmet sausages as the meat dishes this year, instead of using salmon and precooked sausages.
As in previous years, you are asked to please bring a salad if you are an even numbered house, or a dessert if you are an odd numbered house. This should be sufficient for about 8 people.
If you are bringing a dessert, because of a limited fridge capacity, could we please have some without cream or the need for ice cream this year. Thanks.
An exclusive evening of excellent wines, delicious canapés and fantastic banter beaming right into your living room
As COVID-19 has altered the way both businesses and functions operate NZ-wide this year and next, the Hawkes Bay’s Winter FAWC celebrations were altered too.
FAWC notified all their regular attendees of a new event which was ‘FAWC Night In’. This was to be for an hour, 5-6 pm, on Saturday 15th August.
‘Gather up to 10 of our friends for an exclusive evening of excellent wine, delicious canapes and fantastic banter beaming right into your living room.’
The cost for people joining in for the virtual wine tasting was $250.00 for the hamper that held the contents for the tasting – this included five bottles of wine and the ingredients for the carefully matched canapes from the iconic Hawkes’s Bay Farmers’ Market and suppliers.
‘To discover the flavours of each of the wines, why different varietals have excelled in the varied terrain of Hawke’s Bay and to enjoy the witty tete-a-tete from the industry insiders.’
Our hamper arrived the Thursday before the event, and we refrigerated what contents needed to be in anticipation of Saturday! Along with the zoom meeting invite for the event.
So, we had:
5 x 75ml pours of wine
5 x bite-sized canapes
We had a lot of fun with this new format being tried out by region’s leading wineries and winemakers, the getting together with friends and the sharing:
Richard Painter – Te Awa Estate 2020 Cabernet Franc Rose’ – matching canape Origin Earth Takenga Gold Cheese with Berry Bees Manuka Comb Honey Tasting: strawberries, almost sweet but not too much Visually: blush in colourCanape brought out the saltiness in the wine – a really interesting match
Amy Hopkinson-Styles – Halcyon Days Wines 2019 Kotare Sauvignon Blanc/Gewurztraminer – matching canape Nieuwenhuis Goats Cheese on crackers Tasting: smooth on the palate, not the usual green apple taste, but pleasantly gooseberry-ish; had a small measure of pinot noir and gertz combined in it! Was quite a savoury taste Visually: pale yellow Canape was a well-matched selection.
Matt Kirby – Clearview Estate 2019 Chardonnay – matching canape Pig & Salt Pork Rillettes, Preserve & Co. Peach Chutney on Hapi Paelo Bread Tasting: highly anticipated as the last time we had this one at the Club is was from the first batch in new American Oak and tasted strongly of coffee! This brew was completely different and most enjoyable. It smelled and tasted like a buttery chardonnay – vegan friendly! Hand-harvested from their own block and naturally fermented Canape was a nice compliment to the wine.
Michael Henley – Smith and Sheth 2017 CRU Heretaunga Syrah – matching canape Pig & Salt Lamb Terrine with Hapi Paleo Bread Tasting: dark berries came through with a smooth-dry-ish after taste on the tongue – this had been a difficult vintage in the Bay to work with, but this could successfully be cellared for 7 years Visually: lovely dark red Canape was a nice compliment.
Julianne Brogden – Collaboration Wines 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon – matching canape Hapi Harore Cheese with OMG Cracker Tasting: blackberries on the tongue, most pleasant, this wine is 100% Cab Sauv from two sites Bridge Pa and Gravels and the grape variety is the last to ripen in the Bay. It has had two years in oak barrels and was very pleasant while being more sophisticated than the old Cab Sauv’s we remembered! This can be cellared for 10-12 years Visually: dark red Canape didn’t really enhance the wine any but was pleasant.
This was a strictly limited ticket numbers event, but I think we all felt it could have been a bit longer, as we enjoyed it so much! Would definitely recommend any upcoming events to members.
For the last 3 years, our November tastings have been a bit different with an emphasis on a foreign country and wine and food matches. November this year will be no different although this year it is a region, rather than a country.
Our presenter, Cenna Lloyd, departed after last month’s tasting for a 3-week tour of South American vineyards so her offer to return and give us her insight into the wine sub-regions we will taste was just too good to pass up.
The recipes have already been allocated and there will also be a special surprise that hopefully will add to a carnival atmosphere. Like last year, we will need to limit numbers to fit our catering. Unlike last year we will need to enforce that number or the risk will be the early bird may miss out on their worm. Ok, so it is a bad metaphor but you get the idea.
More information on how you can reserve your place will be released after this month’s tasting.
It would be a great help to meeting organisers if members responded when asked if they will be attending tastings. For events like the Maison Vauron tasting and the upcoming November meeting, where some catering is required, it is a great help for the organisers if they have a reasonably accurate idea of numbers attending. Your assistance in this regard would be appreciated.
We would like to be able to create a roster around looking after the club’s glasses. We are working on reducing the number to a smaller tray than the current two but would like some offers of assistance from people who would be prepared to take the glasses home, clean them as required and bring them back to the next meeting. This would not be onerous if we had a number of members willing to help. Let us know if you can assist.
Yalumba tasting
In researching information for the Negociants/Yalumba tasting this month it is apparent that space in this newsletter does not allow for the inclusion of all the information we might like to pass on. Wayne has been “surfing” and found some interesting stuff on the Government of South Australia site. I include two links here which you might be interested in looking at. The first is about Yalumba Wines while the second is a Wine Quiz. Have a look.
Saigon Van Grill Bar
We have been talking to Saigon Van Grill Bar after many members were disappointed over the July dinner. They had offered a voucher, presumably for use at their establishment, but the committee thought that this might be difficult to use appropriately. We have been negotiating for something more feasible but are having little joy at present. We will keep you informed. In the meantime, some of our members will remember that the site now occupied by Saigon Van (201 Cuba Street) was occupied by Orsini’s, a top Wellington restaurant. We have uncovered some snippets of Orsini’s history which are included in “In the News”. Makes interesting reading.
