Roadtrip to Raleigh

A trip to the Mid-North Coast this Easter long weekend wouldn't have been complete without a trip to a local winery, so of course I found time to squeeze one in!

The winery of choice was a little place called Raleigh Vineyard and Winery in the Bellinger Valley, 15 minutes south of Coffs Harbour. Its quite a small winery situated on the Bellinger river which is a gorgeous spot to stop and have a cheese platter and a bottle of vino.

We were greeted by the very friendly hostess and worked our way through each of the wines, my favourite of which was the semi sweet Rose, which had a mourish cherry-like flavour. Once through the wines and port, we were treated to the most exciting bottle of all....the Raleigh Brandy Cremes.

I'm not a huge fan of Baileys or other cream liquors, but this was amazing! The instant we tasted it we ordered a bottle each and asked for the order form for more! The creme is thick, sweet and creamy with a hint of brandy flavour that is perfect on its own or in coffee or dessert.

Needless to say, I don't think the bottle will last long and I'm already planning to put it into an Eaton Mess to eat while watching the Royal Wedding on Friday night. Yum!

Helen

A new take on BYO

Last night a good friend and I ventured to House, the new Thai restaurant on Elizabeth Street in Surry Hills.

The food was spicy, spicy Northern Thai and absolutely delicious, but one thing that really caught my interest was the BYO situation.

Most Thai restuarants in Sydney including Spice I Am, House's big brother up the road, take BYO, but House has a clever new concept. Rather than bringing a bottle, you are invited to walk into the pub next door through an adjoining corridor to buy your wine where they have a special 'House BYO' wine list. You can purchase wine by the bottle to take back to the restaurant or buy any other drink you like and walk it back through.

I like this idea as its just like eating in a pub restaurant, but with the benefit of sitting in a beautiful outdoor restaurant setting away from the hussle and bustle. The drinks were also incredibly reasonable with a glass of house Sem Sav Blanc costing just $4.50. Bargain!

Bye for now and happy Easter!

Helen

Bubbles and Bakas

This week feels like it's been one of the longest in my life, filled with dinners, presentations, workshops and of course.....drinking wine!

First off the rank this week was the Wine Communicators of Australia's Taste and Tweet night on Tuesday with special guest speaker Rick Bakas from Bakas Media in the US.

Part of WCA's lecture series this year, Rick's talk focused on social media and the wine industry. Having worked in this area for a while now, it was interesting to hear another person's perspective and gauge the audience's knowledge of this topic.

After the talk, guests were invited to bring along a bottle of wine they liked (the theme being 'Wines that define Australia'), crack them open and Tweet the tasting results. It was interesting to see everyone twittering away with posts appearing up on a large screen at the end of the room. My personal favourites were the Arras Grand Vintage 2003 champagne (kindly pointed out by Champagne Jayne), and the Ring Bolt Cab Sav 2007.

Moving swiftly and more glamorously onto Wednesday night and I was lucky enough to take new drinking buddy Jayne to Uccello for their champagne tasting night as part of March Into Merivale.

I don't think I need to force the point that getting to taste 24 glorious French champagnes while nibbling on canapes and overlooking ivy's pool is really a great gig! Jayne was an expert guide to the tasting process while Simon (Simon Food Favourites) snapped away to get some lovely shots of the food and bubbles.

The first champagne off the rank and my favourite of the night was the NV Bereche Pere et Fils, a light and refreshing semi-organic champagne that was just the ticket. Other favourites on the night included the NV Henriot 'Blanc de Blancs', NV Ruinart Rose and NV Perrier Jouet 'Grand Brut'.

The canapes matched the bubbles perfectly, including the mouthwatering figs with foie gras and almonds, peaches with prosciutto and beef carpaccio. Yum!

Guests seemed to be having a smashing time and there were lots of smiling faces when the event finally came to a close just after 9.30pm.

To see a full review and pics from the event, check out Simon's post.

Over and out

Helen