Winetopia 2020

Winetopia came to town this weekend. More than 50 wineries offered 30 ml tastings of their products in our own takeaway Spiegelau glass. We explored some new wineries and also enjoyed listening to tales of wine and music with musician and composer Laughton Kora.

We're generally white wine fans (apart from oaked wines, chardonnay and pinot gris) and made some great additions to our yes list in 2019. This year we looked for more sauvignon blanc, sparkling wines, dry Riesling, Grüner Veltliner, Albariño and Viognier. We quickly spent our tokens, bought a few more and purchased four bottles to take home of wines that aren't too easy to find locally. A very successful evening.

Take home collection

2020 yes list highlights

• Big Sky (Martinborough) 2019 Sauvignon blanc 
• Big Sky (Martinborough) 2016 Grüner Veltliner
• Dancing Petrel (Northland) 2018 unoaked Viognier
• Dancing Petrel (Northland) 2019 Sparkles
• Dancing Petrel (Northland) 2020 Sparkling Isla Rosé
• Decibel Wines (Hawke's Bay) 2019 Viognier
• Forrest Wines (Marlborough) 2019 Albariño
• Two Rivers (Marlborough) 2020 Sauvignon blanc
  

Afternoon tea with lots of talk about baking

Wellington on a Plate moved to October this year and once again I've planned a busy itinerary for myself. The title of my first event is quite a mouthful - just like the delicious afternoon tea we were served. Everything you could ever want to know about baking, all in one afternoon was hosted by three industry veterans at Floriditas. Ruth Pretty, Julie le Clerc and Julie Clark delighted us with tales from their baking careers, baking failures and advice for those of us still practising our craft.

During the talk, we were served afternoon tea featuring menu items from each chef. 

An enticing menu

 I swapped my hot drink for a refreshing mocktail.

Seville orange and mint cordial

Food was presented in two courses: savoury and sweet. The savoury selection included a roast chicken cocktail sandwich with bacon and herb stuffing, spinach za'atar puff and an asparagus, parmesan and gruyere croissant. So very cheesy!

Savoury selection

We all know I'm really about the sweets. Our sweet treats included a little Persian love cake, a soft ginger kiss, passionfruit and white chocolate macaron and a decadent dark chocolate strawberry tart. Divine!

Sweet treats

This was a delightful afternoon with lovely company and great advice. If only we could enjoy afternoon tea like this every weekend.