Food & Beverage

Stories

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  The cat that got the milk

  BEING given 60 days notice to vacate the premises was a blessing in disguise for Willis Street café owner Damian Jones. Meow Café’s landlord decided he wasn’t keen on the café being there any longer. “The only reason he really gave was that he’d found someone… Continue

• Public "nuisance"

  A man with a vendetta against liquor licencing has frustrated a group of café and bar owners who have the intention of applying for or renewing their liquor licences. Newtown resident Bernard O’Shaughnessy has lodged a formal objection against outlets that publicly… Continue

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  Beer Necessities Survey 2009

  Brewing up diversity THE top rated beers from this year’s Beer Necessities Survey represent a near perfect cross section of brewing in New Zealand. Represented in the top eight are New Zealand’s largest brewer Lion Nathan, one of the country’s biggest independent… Continue

Columns

• Happy Santa

  PINOT hits the capital once more on St Patrick’s Day when 20 producers from Central Otago colonise the Boat Shed to show us their wares.   The tasting Central Otago Wine: A World of Difference is designed to showcase the terroir of the various sub-regions.… Continue

• Wine of the week - $12

  AUCKLANDER Murray Brennan was drawn to the Gibbston region when he was a uni student at Otago.   He bought some land in 1994 and started planting. Since 2006 his son Sean has been making wine under the family’s own Brennan label, saving for themselves the… Continue

• Guinea pigs, sheep and wine

  SENSITIVITY to the environment is so hot right now.   But well before Al Gore made his documentary An Inconvenient Truth, New Zealand wineries were adopting green principles and raising funds for endangered species.   One of the latest initiatives saw… Continue

• Queen of the pinot

  WINEMAKER Carol Bunn first got into pinot noir while working at Dry River and Martinborough Vineyards in the ‘90s.   Her success with the 2002 vintage at Akarua winery at Bannockburn had her dubbed “Queen of the pinot”. Bunn brings this fine pedigree to her… Continue

• Mediterranean mix

  MY heart was all a flutter when I thought I’d found out that an old boyfriend’s family now owned a winery and olive grove. Who needs to move to the Mediterranean, I thought. Dreams of connections and their benefits were soon dashed, however, when I discovered… Continue

• Pinot envy

  PINOTPHILES, it’s time to start saving your pennies. Pinot Noir 2010 is just a few days away. Mark February 1-4 in your diaries. One hundred wineries strut their stuff, along with guest speakers from around the world, addressing themes of regionality and sustainability,… Continue

• Holiday horrors and hurrahs

  I tasted some of the nastiest and nicest wine over the hols. My worst experience was at a music festival where the bottle proudly boasted “wine made from the vines you’re peeing on”.  I should have known then to expect a killer hangover. On a happier note,… Continue

• How to party with wine

  THE holidays are a time of silliness, happiness and good times. Here is the best way to get yourself in the mood for those long nights partying with friends. Start with something light and bubbly, like Brown Brothers Zibibbo ($16.99).  Named after “zabib”,… Continue

• Topsy turvy twins

  NEARLY 30 years ago, Andrew and Cyndy Hendry bought land at Huapai west of Auckland, planted grapes there and founded Coopers Creek winery.   Now they have vineyards dotted all over Aotearoa. Chief winemaker Simon Nunns creates one of the most diverse wine… Continue

• Toiing with your tastebuds

  NEW kids on the block, Toi Toi, are based in the Omaka Valley, in the same neighbourhood as Cloudy Bay and Seresin. They are enthusiastic about the recent success of their Toi Toi Marlborough Riesling 2009 ($20.90) at the New Zealand International Wine Show… Continue

• Size doesn't matter

  A collective of small vineyards has formed an exciting new label, Little Vineyards of Wairarapa, so that we can “taste the true terroir of the Wairarapa” though their selection of single vineyard wines.   We tasted a red and a white from the range, and discovered… Continue

• A fine tasting year

  THIS year has seen the rise in popularity of pinot gris, especially among the ladies.   At netball drinks nowadays it’s Yealands Pinot Gris 2008 ($15) replacing the old favourite sauvignon blanc. Easier to drink as an aperitif thanks to low acidity, gris… Continue

• Nobel wine

  KIWI rieslings are world famous. One of our most shiny stars comes from Marlborough’s Framingham Estate. Company founder, Rex Brooke-Taylor, was one of the first to plant vines on the rivers bed soils just outside Renwick in 1982. The first riesling under the… Continue

• Scents and sensibility

  FLORAL aromas are the sign of a good wine.   The scent of blooms indicates the use of physiologically ripe grapes. A good pinot noir, for example, might smell ever so slightly of carnations.   Tim Heath of Cloudy Bay is a master at creating such fragrant… Continue

• Why is chardonnay so hot?

  JUDGES sniffed, swirled, slurped and spat their way through more than 2,000 wines at the New Zealand International Wine Show a couple of weeks ago, awarding 156 gold medals, 317 silver and 791 bronze medals.  For the second year in a row a chardonnay won… Continue

• Handbag smells and WOW

  WINEMAKERS from Nelson gathered at The Boatshed last week to open Wellington eyes to the delights of their art, and to share scallops with us.  Aromatics, pinot gris and gewürztraminer were the theme of my night at the Nelson Wineart Show. I started with… Continue

• Tri-nations win

  NEW Zealand’s won the tri-nations… wine competition, that is. A couple of weeks ago, wines chosen to represent NZ, Australia and South Africa (SA) took the field. The competition was stiff, but we came out on top, bringing home 11 double golds to Australia’s meagre… Continue

• Pinot envy

  PINOTPHILES, it’s time to start saving your pennies. Pinot Noir 2010, featuring 100 wineries and plenty of tastings, is just over four months away (February 1-4). Programme highlights include the Winemaker’s Party on the opening night, a tasting of the 2003… Continue

• Spring wine festivals

  THE Eurowine International Winemakers Roadshow hits town on September 22. Just $25 will get you tasting a selection of new releases from Australasia at the Holiday Inn on Featherston Street. There’s always a hard decision to make at these roadshows. There will… Continue

• O Romeo, Romeo

  ONE hundred years ago, an Italian investigated New Zealand’s winemaking potential.  Romeo Bragato’s legacy to the industry is celebrated every year at a conference named after him. Winemakers, students and enthusiasts gathered in the Hawke’s Bay last weekend… Continue

• Wet and winged

  I was heading south for a Classics conference when we stopped at a beach in Pegasus Bay, North Canterbury. It was hot, we were sticky, so we stripped off to our undies and took the plunge. Luckily the only other people in the water were a young couple far more… Continue

• New era at Esk

  I winged my way to Napier for the unveiling of Esk Valley’s new label.  The new look is a brighter cream label, designed to grab the consumer’s attention, as is the “price realignment”.  We started with the Esk Valley Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc… Continue

• A riesling to spring

  SPRING-CLEANING is a necessary evil, best enjoyed with an invigorating riesling. Drs John and Brigid Forrest’s Doctors Riesling 2008 ($22) is an off-dry award-winner that is delicious as an aperitif. Better with food is Forrest’s The Valleys Wairau Library… Continue

Reviews

• The farce of low carb

  I fail to understand why brewers are put under pressure to compromise their craft by producing reduced alcohol beers. Given most beer styles are already far lower in alcohol than wines and spirits, why should brewers have to start tinkering round with them to make… Continue

• Beer from the wood

  IN the sun drenched wine country of California there is a brewery that has taken the Victorian technology of rainy Midlands England and replicated it on a smaller scale. The English brewing town of Burton-Upon-Trent became renowned for producing fruity hop accented… Continue

• A Captain's brew

  TUCKED away in the rural hinterland of Golden Bay, the Mussel Inn has been providing old fashioned country hospitality and some of the most idiosyncratic brews in the country since 1992. Captain Cooker Manuka Beer is the most famous of those brews. Inspired by… Continue

• Crafty brews

  I’VE always found it strange that the UK, with its rich heritage of brewing, doesn’t have a regular publication devoted entirely to beer.  I find it even more remarkable that France, a nation more commonly associated with wine, does. I discovered this last… Continue

• Hot Wired

  8 Wired is the youngest of the new breed of contract brewers to take New Zealand by storm. Contract brewing companies like 8 Wired brew their beers in other people’s breweries meaning they can concentrate on producing striking character full products without… Continue

• Christmas beer

  THE festive season is often seized upon as a chance to publicise the diversity of the wine world and to promote how different wines suit different situations and complement different foods. Sadly beer is often overlooked on Christmas Day being relegated to a… Continue

• Mayhem on the shelves

  BACK in 2006 Epic brewer Luke Nicholas brewed a festive beer for BrewNZ. The brew was assertively called Mayhem and threatened to “willfully maim and cripple the palates of the most extreme hop head”. Formulated as a bigger bolder stronger version of the award… Continue

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  Dine in style

  Khmer Satay Noodle House, Readings Courtenay. WHAT a neat idea to have a traditional restaurant in a mall setting. Khmer Satay Noodle House in Readings Cinema on Courtenay Place provides a mouth-watering alternative when grabbing a quick bite before a movie.… Continue

• Delicacy on a Plate

  Plate Restaurant, 75 Featherstone Street. PLATE Restaurant serves my new favourite dessert, so I’m going to start at the end. If you’ve never tried pannacota with amaretto jelly and amaretto granite, please do. The combination of the amaretto, a white, custard-like… Continue

• Best Indian

  Masala, 2 Allen Street I’VE yet to meet someone who doesn’t love Masala. A two-time winner in Capital Times’ Best of Wellington Readers’ Survey this year, Masala is a must visit for anyone in need of a spice up. Voted Best Indian Restaurant and Best Take-Away… Continue

• Living beer

  REAL ale is not a concept that’s readily understood in this country. Coined in the 1970s by English consumer organisation the Camra, Real Ale refers to beer that has been naturally carbonated by the actions of the yeast in the bottle or cask from which it is… Continue

• Out of the Cellar

  RECENTLY I was privileged to be invited to a very special tasting at local beer bar Hashigo Zake. Owner Dominic Kelly assembled a fantastic assortment of vintage beers from several private cellars for the event, including some beers that are no longer produced… Continue

• Three out of three

  GROWING up in West London in the 60s and 70s I served my beer drinking apprenticeship in pubs where I learned to enjoy the traditional English ales, usually amber or copper coloured bitters and best bitters. In those days although most pubs offered a lager or… Continue