Tag: wellington

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Looking Ahead

Mid-year dinner

July is your Club’s mid-year dinner. This July it is to be held at Le Bouillon Bel Air Restaurant in Tory Street, Wellington CBD.

  • The event cost is $85 per person, and there will be Club bubbles on arrival at the restaurant as usual.
  • You are encouraged to bring your partner – even if they are not a Club member, they are more than welcome to come along to both your club’s meals.
  • This July’s meal is a good time to get out those French wines that you have in your wine cellars to share with friends at the meal.
  • We don’t have the menu at this stage, as the restaurant changes its menus every two months, so you get variety and season’s pickings all through the year. We won’t know the menu until it comes out on 23rd June, but please look at the present menu for a sample of what they offer to patrons.
  • There will be a notice sent out separately that will detail the new menu and payment details. This will require a response by July 4th.

Please read an article featured in Cuisine magazine: Le Bouillon Bel Air – Cuisine Magazine – From New Zealand to the World: “Princely dining for Paupers – Entering Le Bouillon Bel Air one finds oneself set down in a fancy Parisian restaurant, circa 1895. A bow-tied, black-waistcoated waiter leads you past mirrors decorated in the same sinuous Art-Nouveau style as the pierced wooden room divide…. The menu, too, is inspired by Chartier, so rather than being subjected to culinary experimentation as a paying lab rat, expect a comforting sense of tradition.”

August

Gibbston Valley, Central Otago

September

TBC

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Looking Back – Dinner at Le Bouillon Bel Air ‘July 25

This new-ish French market was easy to get to and was pleasant when everyone arrived. We were seated upstairs as a group and the bubbles was swiftly handed around by the staff, who were personable and efficient.

It was well organised in a totally full restaurant, and the three courses rolled out in a timely fashion.

The entrée and dessert were well received, but unfortunately some of the mains were not so well received.

Please give the restaurant a go to experience it for yourselves, as most of your committee will be returning.

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Looking Back – Ohau Gravels, Horowhenua w/Jo Scully

Sign-posted to let you know you're here.
Sign-posted to let you know you’re here.

Wow! What an enjoyable evening. Most people would have known or visited this local vineyard, although it’s now, thanks to Transmission Gully, simply a short drive north of Wellington.

We had 30 people turn up for the evening and we were entertained and informed by the vineyards CE, Donna and Jo Scully. They opened with a Karakia which was a change from the norm for our evenings, then went on to explain that their winemaker was Jayne Cooper, a well known winemaker
and wine judge.

Visit Ohau wines
Visit Ohau wines

They had got up to 4ha of grapes at one stage but were now down to 25ha as a business decision and better knowledge of their grape varieties and the land they grow on. One side of their land used to be used to farm horses, the other as a produce farm, so they are blessed with highly fertile growing soils with a high amount of organic content.

Their wines have been vegan since 2020, but this doesn’t hold them back at all!

As all their wines are ‘made’ in the Wairarapa, they truck their grapes over the hill for production.

This leaves extra barrel time for the grapes to be in contact with their skins, so the wine can have different expression at the end of its journey, when compared to similar varietals grown by other wineries.

As a reminder the wines we tasted on the evening:

View toward Tararua Forest Park
View toward Tararua Forest Park
  • Not the Norm Rose 2020 – opening wine – a lovely drop, liked by all that is substantially Pinot Gris with a small amount of Pinot Noir for colour. This is their second vintage.
  • Ohau Gravels Pinot Gris 2023 – fruit forward and aromatic; they leave the grapes on the vines longer before harvesting this batch to bring out fuller flavours.
  • Ohau Gravels Chardonnay 2024 – they plant their Chardonnay on either side of SH2, as the tarmac provides a natural heat source for these vines and the traffic keeps the flow circulating!
  • Selected Vines Sauvignon Blanc 2012 – made using more than one clone of Sauvignon, this is fully oaked with wild ferment but no added yeast – the French have been ‘oaking’ Sauvignon for yonks! A nice change to the usual taste of Sauvignon for non-white drinkers.
  • Not the Norm Sauvignon Black 2021 – this is made with a mix of skins cold-pressed; stainless steel barrel and oak barrel with wild ferment. Sauvignon drinkers will like this!
  • Ohau Gravels Pinot Noir 2024 – 80% stainless steel / 20% oak cask, this was a light but flavoursome drop.
  • Not the Norm Te Tihi – this is in effect a fortified Pinot Noir. A drop that came about because of COVID lockdown and a cancelled export order of their WovenStone Pinot Noir. The staff thought laterally and took this batch of red to the Brewtown people, asked them to add a white spirit and whala! They have their version of a lighter sweet red – well worth the taste experience, and one of our members of taking it around the country to family this Christmas!

Well worth a visit, their cellar door is open from Tuesday-Saturday.

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