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