Category: Waterfront

Thank god that’s over

I can’t claim to speak for all the Welling­ton­ista, but I have to say it: Sev­ens week­end is hor­ri­ble. There’s a lot of gushy talk in the main media out­lets about how colour­ful and vibrant and alive the city becomes, but one could say the same about a nasty fun­gal rash. Many of us who live in the cen­tral city can attest to how colour­ful and vibrant and alive the city is most of the time, and in an appeal­ing, organ­ic and inde­pen­dent way, but we found the CBD close to unbear­able dur­ing the week­end.
 

What is it that appals us so much about this spec­ta­cle?

We can’t has riceburger?

We see that there are ‘For Lease’ signs in the win­dow of Chilli Jam on Ade­laide Road, and that their web­site is no longer exist­ing. Any­one know any­thing more about it?

Wine from the other side of the world

We’re reg­u­lars at Cel­lar-Vate’s Wine­mak­ers’ Din­ners, because we love meet­ing the wine­mak­ers, we love New Zealand wine, and we love hav­ing it matched with tasty tasty food. But we’re not just patri­ot­ic racial­ists, oh no. We’ll drink wine from any­where! And that’s why we’re excit­ed about the upcom­ing Euro­pean Wines Tast­ing in the Cab­i­net Room above the Back­bencher next Wednes­day Octo­ber 22 at 6pm:

The thriv­ing wine indus­try in New Zealand and Aus­tralia has pro­vid­ed us with a vast array of superb wine to savour or cel­lar, but it’s easy to for­get about the ancient viti­cul­tur­al tra­di­tions of Europe. As imports of Euro­pean wines grow steadi­ly, there is now a great selec­tion avail­able. How­ev­er, the region­al denom­i­na­tions and clas­si­fi­ca­tions can be intim­i­dat­ing, and the New Zealand wine indus­try’s focus on sin­gle vari­etals means we are often cau­tious about buy­ing Euro­pean wines because we don’t know what they are made from. This is a shame, as Euro­pean wines often rep­re­sent great val­ue, and due to their food-friend­ly nature are great to enjoy with friends and fam­i­ly. This tast­ing is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn about some unfa­mil­iar grape vari­eties, which grapes you should expect to find in wines from dif­fer­ent regions (and there­fore how the wine should taste), and to nav­i­gate some unac­cus­tomed flavours.

Tick­ets are $40 for sev­en wines matched with six small cours­es with matched wine, and book­ings are still avail­able if you email becs[at]cellar-vate.co.nz. We’ll see you there — we’ll be the ones hold­ing out our glass­es for a top-up.

UPDATE: Here’s the menu for tomor­row: