LOS ANGELES, Nov. 23 /PRNewswire/ — For foodies, New Zealand is a veritable playground, renowned for its award-winning wines and farm-fresh cuisine.

On March 30, from New Zealand to Australia, luxury specialist Crystal Cruises is showcasing the epicurean appeal of the region on a 12-day Wine & Food Experiences of Discovery cruise. Master Sommeliers Robert Bath and Cameron Douglas – the first and only Master Sommelier from New Zealand – will guide guests through the nuances and pairings of New Zealand’s finest vintages, while optional Crystal Adventures take guests to celebrated Cloudy Bay Vineyards, Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough. Sailing to Sydney, leading Australian chef and innovator Serge Dansereau will share regional specialties via cooking demonstrations, tastings and special menus, while top Australian food purveyor Simon Johnson will host tastings of artisanal cheeses and gourmet chocolate.

Read the rest of the story here.

This will be my last post until I return from Ohio following Thanksgiving (either 11/30 or 12/1). I hope you enjoy!
 
This past week I ran a column in the Nashua Telegraph (Thanksgiving recommendations from the experts) that paired terrific Thanksgiving inspired recipes with their perfect wine pairings. The contributions came from a panel of truly creative and talented chefs, restaurant owners, a sommelier and even a trailblazing winemaker.

The Reds (pictured above)

- 2007 Chateau Pesquie Terrasses, Rhone Blend, Cotes du Ventoux, France – $10.99 (reg. $12.99)

- 2008 Chalone, Pinot Noir, Monterey, California – $12.99 (reg. $15.99)

- 2005 Castano Solanera, Mourvèdre and Cabernet Sauvignon, Yecla, Spain – $13.99

- 2004 Antinori Villa Toscana, Cabernet Blend, Tuscany, Italy – $21.99

- 2008 Seghesio, Zinfandel, Sonoma, California – $22.99**

- 2007 Benton Lane, Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon – $25.99

- 2007 Domaine Drouhin, Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon – $43.99**

I know that it is cliche to say “life is too short to drink bad wine”, but it is true. There are a tremendous amount of wines out there that are crafted by winemakers whose sole intention is to share their artistry with you. The wines above are a good introduction to food-friendly wines that are crafted with love. This Thanksgiving I ask you to invite them into your homes to help enhance your memorable Thanksgiving dinners!

** indicates my top 2 picks per category

Celebratory bottle of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2000. V crisp “clean” taste, working well with the fish. Would definetely recommend to others. Between £16-£20

@COMPCOMM

(Extra notes:

Wifey tells me1) th is is her favourite wine (I knew that – racking up the brownie points!); 2) this is a bottle from a case I bought for her birthday back in 2001 (lost all my brownie points there!)

New Zealand is a leading wine region for Sauvignon Blanc and as a result, my dad has studied it extensively. As an analog, my dad is about as a crazy on wines as I am about coffee, ‘cept he’s been at it a lot longer.

About five years ago, my dad introduced me to the Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc. He described it as a wine with a cult following, with limited quantities that made it hard-to-find. When I finally had it, it was brilliant—light and refreshing, with something that just made it glide off the tongue on the finish.

Later on, knowing Cloudy Bay earned me a lot of street cred with Barry Givens, my first boss at Microsoft, when I ordered it at dinner during WPC ‘05 in Boston and Barry found himself reading about it in his magazine on the flight home. (Having Cloudy Bay at WPC has since become an annual tradition.)

Hence, no trip through New Zealand for us would have been complete without touring a view vineyards. Dad decided on Allen Scott, Saint Clair, and of course, Cloudy Bay.

Each winery had a “cellar door” where they showed us a list of wines to taste from. Allen Scott and Saint Clair had different levels, which ranged in quality/price. This was interesting, as we were able to try a Sauv Blanc blended from multiple grape blocks and produced in quantity, then move to sample one sourced from a single amazing block of grapes. The flavors explode off the palate and the way the liquid runs down your tongue is incredibly different. Both are great in their own right though. At $20-30+ per bottle, the quality already impressive.

The real surprise for us was the burgeoning Pinot Noir. New Zealand PN has been emerging in recent years and having sampled an ‘07 at each of the wineries, I can say that these guys are onto something. It’s really tough to find a good Pinot Noir (it’s notoriously tough to do well), but the single-block PNs we tried were amazing. It’ll be a few years until they’re consistent at an export quantity, but look out for this one.

All in all, if you haven’t given Sauv Blancs from these three winemakers a chance, now’s a good time. In the case of Cloudy Bay, I’ll pass on the suggestion of skipping the ‘08 vintage (cold weather year) and waiting around for the ‘09. And explore the wines when you make it down here!

When it comes to choosing a white wine, there is an inordinate amount of choice. Whatever your taste buds like, you will be able to find a wine to suit you as the styles range from crisp, dry, light wines through to fruity, sweet wines.

However, when it comes to Sauvignon Blanc, it is definitely New Zealand who is leading the way in the New World wine market.

The original Sauvignon Blanc wines are from the Loire valley in France, in particular from Sancerre, a small town east of Orleans. Sancerre is known for making wines of great flavour and elegance.

New Zealand’s Sauvignon Blanc is now, however, seen as being on a par with the world’s best. Championed by wine critics such as Oz Clarke, Jancis Robinson and Master of Wine John Avery, the wine itself is typically crisp and pure in flavour. Try it for yourself, and discover its fuller flavour.

The first production of the wine was back in the 1970’s. This was in many ways due to the economic situation in New Zealand at the time. Britain had just joined the European Economic Community and this meant an end to historic trade terms for New Zealand, meaning that the agriculture industry had to restructure and specialise wisely according to its strengths. The result was an increase in viticulture.

The first wines of note were produced in the Marlborough region of New Zealand. This is on the South Island and the area includes the now famous Cloudy Bay which lends its name to one of the best known New World white wines, Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc. The grapes for this wine are not actually grown at Cloudy Bay but further inland.

Marlborough has more than 40 resident winemakers. The area has optimum wine growing conditions: lots of sunshine, dry autumn weather and great drainage. The result of this geology and these agricultural conditions is a lot of producers of Sauvignon Blanc (there are other types of wine produced here too, but this is the Ferrari of wines for this area) apart from the Cloudy Bay label, others to look out for include multi award-winning Saint Clair, Vidal, Hunter’s, Jackson Estate and Vavasour.

Besides the Marlborough region, there is another area of New Zealand that is producing some exceptional Sauvignon Blanc wine. Hawkes Bay in the North Island is traditionally seen as being a red wine region, but it also has a finger in the white wine pie too. The Sauvignon Blanc here is one to watch out for and some of the wineries associated with it are: Villa Maria, Matariki, Brookfields and Trinity Hill.

So next time you want to buy a white wine that is flavoursome but not overwhelming, search out a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

Why not take a look at what is on offer at Averys (Dot) Com.

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc

Place: Marlborough, New Zealand
Price: $24
Aroma: Floral, Dewy Spring Morning, Sweet
Color: Pale Yellow Green
Taste: Balanced, Acidic, Crisp
Flavors Detected: Tropical Fruit, Citrus

This was the wine that we decided to finish off New Year’s Eve.  Unfortunately, the label does not warn that consumption may cause you to fall asleep before midnight and miss the ball dropping!  I’m sure the tastings from the other bottles had nothing to do with it!

As far as drinkability goes this was a good wine and we both enjoyed it.  We guessed it would go well with fish and shellfish, but didn’t get to test out that theory.

Score: 7

NEW ZEALAND sparkling wines have beneflted from French Champagne corks not popping as often this Christmas season in Britain.

Majestic Wine, Britain’s biggest wine warehouse chain, reported that the recession had made drinkers turn to less expensive sparkling wines.

The strength of the euro against sterling had also made New World wines, including New Zealands, even  better value.

Majestic chief executive Steve Lewis said the most popular sparkling wines included Lindauer and Cloudy Bay Pelorus from New Zealand and Green Point from Australia.

The company’s New Zealand wine sales for the 10 weeks to January 5 had risen by 29 per cent, helped by strong demand for sauvignon blanc in the £5 to£7 (NZ$13 to NZ$18) range, The Times of London reported.

New Zealand Winegrowers chief executive Philip Gregan said New Zealand wines were continuing to trade strongly in Britain despite the recession, “which is pretty pleasing news”.
Most New Zealand wine in Britain sold for between £5 and £6 a bottle.

“That is part of the market that is very much focused on quality wine, and where we can be profitable, given our costs of production and the long distance to the market.”
Mr Gregan had no flgures for recent New Zealand sparkling wine exports to Britain. but said the fall in French Champagne was “what you’d expect in
recessionary times”.

“People who want to drink sparkling wine often trade down to a slightly cheaper product, and New Zealand would have been the beneficiary of that practice, along with other New World producers,” he said.
Currency movements had also been in New Zealand’s favour. Mr Gregan said New Zealand wine exports to Australia had been doing well and the industry hoped exports to the United States would improve this year after the fall of the kiwi dollar against the greenback, but that would depend how hard the recession bit in the US.

NZPA  12 Jan 2009

Após o ultimo mergulho em que deixamos o sal no fundo da piscina, arrumamos as malas. Ainda há tempo para uns figos com presunto de Parma, no terraço. São os últimos cartuchos de quatro dias a torrar ao sol. Parece pouco mas o bom tempo e os dias de Junho sem fim ajudam a parecer muito. Uma última vistoria ao frigorífico e descobre-se um fundo de garrafa do Cloudy Bay que acompanhou um dos jantares dos últimos dias. E é essa a imagem que fica: a de um gole de sauvignon blanc Neozelandês bebido pela garrafa. No nº4 da Quinta dos Amigos. Cheers!

I love food. I’m not sure if I love food, or the act of eating. But I’m pretty sure I love eating more than I love food. Otherwise I’d probably worship peppers and pray to salamis like a freaking freakazoid freak.

When some people cook this is what they do:

1. Look at recipe
2. Gather ingredients
3. Measure
4. Measure
5. Measure
6. Get a bit anal about something or rather
7. Look at recipe
8. Start cooking
9. Look at recipe
10. Shout “Get the hell outta my kitchen, boy.”
OR
“Uh-uh, you ain’t wearing that. I can see your tits from here a mile away!”

(or something like that)

But the food usually comes out pretty alright. No biggie. You know what home cooked meals are like. Mom or wife gets sick of cooking and it becomes cooking as a responsibility. Taste and garnishing goes out the window, and then you eat for the sake of having to live! No fun, no fun at all.

However, I believe that when you have lost the pleasure of eating, it’s time to die. As the French say (cue French music and Eiffel Tower in the BG) “Food….it’s the symphony of life”. I dont know which French said it but I sure didn’t make that up. HONEST!

Anyway, as I was saying, food is simply one of the best pleasures in life so now you’re expecting me to give you some funky fancy modern fusion Asian-Western-Ethnic cooking tip eh? Oh, the build-up! When I cook, this is what I do:

1. Open a bottle of wine (No vintage rubbish for me. A nice South Australian’ll do me just fine. And I aint talking about the women!)
2. Open fridge
3. Take everything out
4. Try and play Food-Tetris with the stuff and see what and what fit best
5. Sip wine (a sip, depending on your culture, varies in size and volume)
6. Turn on the radio (or iTunes) and get a li’l bitta samba, and a bitta venga
7. Decide on what I’m going to cook
8. Sip more wine (see point 5)
9. Up the volume, Up the tempo
10. Sippy, sippy
11. Pri pair de food
12. Take large swig of booze
13. Put eberyting in oven
14. DANCE DANCE DANCE!

So, after having a very good time, some time last week, I’m going to share with you a recipe, straight out of my kitchen. I call it Mark’s Potato Pie (spare me the jokes!)

Here’s what you need:
Potatoes (the £1.50 for 4 type) – some
Mushroom (The big-ish ones) – some
Dried herbs from the supermarket – normally comes in bottles
Mature cheddar cheese – I used half a block.
A tip for buying le cheddar: Don’t buy those Cathedral City fancy named cheddar. Cheddar is a farmhouse, old-skool kinda cheese. Get it in the supermarkets, those without the fancy packaging. AND definitely not from Lidl. They do great food, but not cheddar. If you can, get cheddar from the farm! Or just the regular supermarket own label stuff is alright. I’ve tried Sainsbury’s, Tesco’s, Waitrose’s and M&S’s – they’re alright. Any other supermarket, you’re on your own.
Salt and Pepper – As much as tickles your fancy. And let’s stop using this lo-sodium nonsense. Nasty, nasty stuff. That’s what pants must taste like.
Garlic – one
Olive oil – Lots

Here’s what you do (feel free to add wine wherever you like)
1. Peel potatoes and slice them. About 1/2 a centimeter should do it
2. Toss in salt and pepper. Leave
3. Slice mushrooms to the size of the potato slices. This is the tricky bit. If the potatoes are significantly bigger than the mushrooms, it will taste nothing like mushrooms. And if your mushrooms are bigger than the potatoes, you really have to stop smoking pot!
4. Smash garlic and rub the insides of an oven-safe dish. The dish has to be at least 3 inches deep, otherwise, you’re in trouble when mom/granny/wife/pet fish/girlfriend/boyfriend finds the doo-doo your dish has done!
5. Lace the dish with olive oil.
6. Lay the potato slices AROUND the walls of the dish (I learned my lesson – I WILL take pictures next time) so that they look like you’re preparing an egg salad – each slice overlapping the next. You’ll find a void in the middle. chuck all the small insignificant potato slices in there.
7. Sprinkle fresh herbs and olive oil on this layer.
8. After you’ve done one layer, arrange mushrooms, similar fashion, but a bit trickier, so I just dumped a whole bunch and lay them flat. Then sprinkle salt and pepper. I like the taste of mushrooms so I used only pepper instead.
9. Lay the remaining potatoes on top of mushroom layer to form another potato layer.
10. Finally, the cheese. Seriously, not the whole block! Use slices. I’ve had people from all over the world ask me, “How do you measure cheese?”. And after thinking about this and doing my research, I’ve finally found the answer: your preference for cheese, will be determined by your pinky. So regardless of body size whether you’re a sumo wrestler or Paris Hilton, your preference for amount of cheese is half your pinky’s width. Yup. For this recipe, Look at how thick your pinky is, half that, and that’s how thick you cheddar slices should be! Now once you’ve sliced them, pile them onto the top potato layer and make sure there are no holes.
11. Leave it in the oven ’til the cheese is brownish and looks like as thought it has burnt and has stuck to the sides of the dish. Believe me, this is PERFECT, and it will come off easily, and it’s so so yummy!

You can serve with a side of olives, mushroom and sundried tomato antipasto, or just have it on its own. Have a bottle of nice Cloudy Bay, a couple of Kangaroo’s testicles, and have a G’Day, Mate!

Tell me what you think of the recipe when you’ve tried it.

This post is being written sitting in evening at a quiet London suburb, staying with family and resting after quite a stressing semester. Some wines were tasted in the last two days, some of which will be mentioned later. For dinner today our hosts pulled a bottle I heard a lot about but haven’t tasted yet.

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2006

Pale yellow with green notes on the glass, the nose starts with a layer of fruit, at first dominated by citrus (mostly lemon), followed by flowers, later showing melons and green grapes, with hints of grass in the background and some more tropical fruit which I didn’t recognize. Light to medium body, with very mild and pleasant fizzy-ness, which is the scenery of a crazy dance between sweet ripe white fruit and lively acidity, wonderfully combined and follow to medium finish that just begs for another sip.

Most complex and enjoyable white I’ve had so far, but leaving all the elaborate descriptios aside – just fun and tasty to drink.

Décidément il n’y a rien à faire: pas moyen de faire un album, scrapbook, whatever de voyage rapidement après mon retour.

Je suis pleine de bonne volonté pourtant: je charge bien toutes les photos sur le PC, je les classe. Non je ne commande pas celles qui me plaisent en prévision de l’album “réel”, non, ça ça va me prendre au moins 6 mois.

Je relis mes notes de voyage, je fais le tri parmi toutes les brochures, doc et autres rassemblées pendant le périple.

Mais je m’arrête là. Ce doit être une malédiction liée au fait que je ne trouve jamais d’album qui me plaise ou coûte moins d’un rein. On va dire que c’est ça la raison, hein?  Une bonne petite malédiction.

Eureka, le blog est là me suis-je dis lorsque j’ai pris le clavier! Je vais poster mes photos préférées et y adjoindre mes commentaires et anecdotes.  Pas d’album à choisir, pas de malédiction.

Ca avait plutôt pas mal commencé pour la Nouvelle-Zélande. Et puis ça s’est arrêté là.

Zut, flûte, parachute!!!

Et les moutons alors? Et les petits conseils pratiques? Pfff, quelle nazette cette Nahn!

Promis je vais les terminer ces mini-chroniques néo-zélandaises. Je vais même commencer par me faire mentir, moi qui ai répété à qui voulait l’entendre qu’on ne mangeait pas super bien en Nouvelle-Zélande.

Parce que c’est vrai qu’on ne mange pas très bien. Ils ont des fruits et légumes à profusion, mais ne savent pas ce qu’est l’agriculture intelligente et raisonnée, résultat ni goût ni saveur les abricots, aucun intérêt les avocats
La viande? Humpf, bof…
Les fromages? Euh, leur donner le nom de fromage est un peu abusif. Ca a un minimum d’odeur (et de saveur) le fromage.

En résumé, les aliments de base ils ne savent pas faire. Il faut dire que leurs inspirations sont britanniques et américaines. Je ne vous fais pas de dessin, la cuisine ne les intéresse pas.

Par contre, par contre, ils ont de très bons poissons et fruits de mer, ils ont appris à faire le vin et ils sont gourmands comme des chats!

Il faut donc envisager un énorme sacrifice en Nouvelle-Zélande: se nourrir éxclusivement de langoustes, crevettes et autres moules accompagnées d’un délicieux petit chardonnay et faire couler le tout avec une part de carrot cake couvert de topping au citron de la mort qui tue.

Il faut savoir faire quelques sacrifices (sa balance notamment) lorsqu’on visite ce pays far far away.

L’adresse de ce joli restaurant:
42°25 South café
146 Esplanade
Kaikoura (Canterbury)
Réservations: south4225@yahoo.com

On mange très bien sur les plages aussi. Chez nous il y a des barraques à frites ou à chichi-beignets-chouchous. Là-bas c’est plutôt barraque à crayfish…

Bizarrement nous nous sommes arrêtés à Kaikoura à l’aller et au retour. Allez comprendre pourquoi.

Petite pause à l’ancienne Wool House des anciens docks d’Oamaru…oui, tout est vieux dans cette ville, à part le carrot cake. Enfin, si 1870 peut être considéré comme du vrai vieux pour les Européens que nous sommes

Et pour finir ce pourquoi la Nouvelle-Zélande commence a être très célèbre: son vin.
Dégustation au domaine de Cloudy Bay (Marlborough). Luxe, calme et volupté.

A retenir: en faisant quelques petits sacrifices on peut vraiment se régaler en Nouvelle-Zélande. Il faut juste enlever les mots de diététique, régime, équilibre alimentaire, raisonnable de son vocabulaire.