Featured Articles

WIN: 1 x double pass to the World Class Australian cocktail competition finals in Melbourne

Written By Katrina Holden Posted on

Fred Siggins, one of three winners of the Summer round, making a cocktail made from The Singleton of Glen Ord Single Malt Scotch Whisky. Image by Jim Lee Photography

You and a friend have the chance to win a ticket (valued at $73.40 each) to the World Class Australian semi-final cocktail competition on Sunday 20 May (4-8pm) at Melbourne’s Blue Diamond Club. 

Join nine of Australia’s ‘World Class’ semi-finalists for an afternoon of classic and modern cocktails and canapés, hosted above Melbourne’s skyline. World Class is a global search for the best bartender across almost 40 countries.

The nine semi-finalists from the best bars across Australia will showcase their bartending talents at the Blue Diamond Club – a stunning art-deco cocktail lounge penthouse in Melbourne’s CBD.

Help the experts decide the Aussie winner, as you’ll have a chance to play a role in deciding the winner by voting on the day for your favourite drinks. Guests will also vote for their favourite bar talent to help them through to the national final in June, where they will have the chance to be crowned Australia’s best bartender.

Warm up, tasting your way through Gentleman’s, Hot and Dessert tipples, concocted with luxury spirits: Don Julio Reposado tequila, Zacapa 23 rum and Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve blended whisky.

The winner will be drawn and notified on Thursday 17 May. To enter, simply tell us the name of your favourite cocktail. YOU MUST PROVIDE YOUR PHONE NUMBER WITH YOUR ANSWER. 

For more information or to book tickets, visit here

  1. (required)
  2. (required)
  3. (required)
 

cforms contact form by delicious:days

 

WIN: Double pass entry to an exclusive VIP Sundowner wine tasting in Noosa with Robert Oatley Vineyards

Written By Katrina Holden Posted on

Wine critic James Halliday and Nicky Tindill from Robert Oatley Vineyards at the 2011 Noosa Sundowner Drinks

Get set for some stylish sips, sippers based on the Sunshine Coast! You and a friend could be sipping in style on Thursday 17 May 5-9pm at a penthouse in Noosa, at an exclusive wine tasting soiree with Robert Oatley Vineyards from Mudgee, New South Wales.

Indulge in pre-festival sundowner drinks at the start of the Noosa International Food & Wine Festival. Delicious canapes will be served, created by Martin Boetz and Sam Christie from Longrain in Sydney and Melbourne. You’ll be sipping on the newly released Robert Oatley Signature Series of wines and be among the first to sample the new Robert Oatley super-premium releases, due out in July.

This is an exclusive media and trade tasting, not open to the general public. Two lucky stylish sippers will enjoy a fabulous chance to rub shoulders with some of Australia’s top chefs, wine critics and food media. And as for sipping in style – it’s a given! Our friends at Robert Oatley look forward to welcoming and hosting you.

To enter, simply tell us in which wine region of Australia is Robert Oatley Vineyards based? Please also provide your PHONE NUMBER with your answer. Winners will be drawn Wednesday 16 May and will be notified by phone and email.

  1. (required)
  2. (required)
  3. (required)
 

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Friday night Farmer’s market: Sydney’s Zeta Bar

Written By Katrina Holden Posted on

All images by Dominic Loneragan

Want to make a cocktail using market fresh ingredients? For six weeks, starting Friday May 4, Zeta Bar at Sydney’s Hilton Hotel is transformed with their new Farmer’s Market on Fridays at Zeta. 

Sippers can wander and pick seasonally fresh fruit, herbs and spices from the stalls. Proceed to the Farmer’s Market counter with your shopping basket of produce and select a base spirit with a Zeta Cocktail Grocer, who will hand craft a bespoke cocktail using your chosen ingredients. Choose a cocktail name and your drink and recipe will be recorded in your own receipt and a photograph of your new concoction.

At the Zeta Farmer’s Special, where your Zeta Grocer will talk you through a hand crafted cocktail, while a DIY Bloody Mary Stall lets you choose your own tomatoes, herbs and spices for a custom-made version of the cocktail classic.

Waiters will even be serving edible soil and edible jelly worms served in mini flower pots!

Grant Collins

The event has been created by Grant Collins; Zeta Bar’s international bar consultant and mixologist.  ”The Farmer’s Market at Zeta is a quirky and interactive way to showcase the talent of our mixologists and highlight the extent of fresh, seasonal ingredients that we use in our cocktails. It is also a great chance to educate our guests on the creative construction and balancing of cocktails,” said Grant.

Zeta Bar Farmer’s Market

Hilton Sydney

Level 4, 488 George Street

Sydney NSW 2000

Open every Friday from 6pm, launching Friday 4 May for a six-week period. 

www.zetabar.com.au

 

John Walker still walking, carting diamonds and platinum

Written By Katrina Holden Posted on

The team at John Walker & Sons have been busy of late. A new product, Johnnie Walker Platinum 18YO Whisky launches this month, fitting between Johnnie Walker Gold and Johnnie Walker Blue at $130 RRP. Already available in travel and duty free markets, they’ve sold four times as much stock as they had predicted.

In addition, the team have created an extremely limited, hand-crafted ‘Diamond Jubilee’ commemorative bottle to mark 60 years of rule by Her Majesty The Queen.

In Sydney recently, myself and some other members of the drinks media were given a sneak peak of the world’s only ‘touring bottle’ of the Diamond Jubliee by John Walker & Sons at the Australian head offices of spirits giant, Diageo.

Whisky dinner at Diageo's head offices, McMahon's Point, Sydney

If diamonds really are a girl’s best friend, then you’d get the feeling The Queen would be loving this tribute from John Walker & Sons.

The Diamond Jubilee commemorative bottle with a half carrat diamond in the neck

Only 60 bottles have been produced, with a price tag of a cool £100,000. The whisky was carefully crafted using a unique blend of grain and malt whiskies that have been distilled and matured since 1952 (the year the Queen acceded to the throne). Only the finest grain whiskies from the Edinburgh area and malt whiskies from the Speyside and North Highland regions were hand-selected for their unique characters before being blended using age-old techniques. The liquid was then placed in two small marrying casks of English Oak from the Queen’s Sandringham Estate before being bottled in bespoke diamond-shaped hand blown Baccarat crystal decanters on 6 February 2012 – exactly 60 years since the Queen took to the throne.

At the Sydney preview, John Walker & Sons global brand ambassador, Jonathan ‘smooth’ Driver charmed the guests with tales and anecdotes from his 25 years with the company. “Whisky is nothing if not stories,” and Jonathan has plenty of them.

We learned that John Walker & Sons has had a long connection with the Royal family.  King George V was the first British monarch to grant a Royal Warrant to John Walker & Sons for the supply of Scotch Whisky to the British Royal Household in 1934.

Katrina (and everyone for that matter) took in the craftsmanship of the John Walker Diamond Jubilee, and the diamond itself!

So with the Diamond Jubilee, the company felt a particular responsibility to create something incredibly special. “With the whisky inside this bottle, we were really challenging ourselves – failure was not an option. It’s a blend that has enormous maturity but a lovely vitality and freshness,” said Jonathan.

We had to take his word for it  - understandably, only serious prospective buyers are given the opportunity to taste prior to purchase, and every decanter comes with a 100ml vial.

Continue reading →

Unlocking the cellars for some finely aged sips

Written By Katrina Holden Posted on

Every now and then, some tastings and events remind us most vividly why wine is no ordinary beverage.  Last week, I was fortunate enough to attend the Yalumba Museum Tasting in Sydney at the Deutscher & Hackett art gallery in Surry Hills. (Yalumba and others will be pouring some more stylish sips at an event in Sydney on 4 June – read on for more details sippers). 

At the 16th tasting by Yalumba (the first was held in 1977) Yalumba, Australia’s oldest winery established in 1849, delves deep into its extensive and prized cellar collection of rare and fine wines to share with its guests.

Yalumba chief winemaker, Louisa Rose

Yalumba’s chief winemaker Louisa Rose, who has completed 21 vintages with the company, greeted us all and gave the 50 guests the house-rules (only 50 because they had to make these old gems go a long way, extracting 50 pours from each). Louisa was joined by well-respected wine journalists Huon Hooke and Angus Hughson.

There were some remarkable wines to try, including a 1942 Yalumba Eden Valley Riesling; a 1959 Yalumba Cabernet Sauvignon Claret and a 1923 Shiraz Port. The ageing ability of all the wines on display was highlighted at its absolute best – some were more tired than others, to be sure, but many still had brilliant aromas, good acidity, power and structure. Old age, for the most part, has been kind to these beauties.

YOUR CHANCE TO SIP ON SOME GOLDEN OLDIES

While the Yalumba Museum tastings are over, and being quite small in nature were not able to accommodate many wine-lovers, there’s another fabulous opportunity coming up stylish sippers that may be of interest if you want to try some more classic style wines.

It seems Yalumba does not allow the dust to settle on the keys to its famous cellar-vault, because once again, owner of this family-owned company, Robert Hill Smitth, is cracking open the best for a special ‘Unlocked’ tasting in Sydney at Ivy Ballroom on Monday 4 June.

Some of the AFFW family members you'll meet at Ivy, here enjoying wines over dinner in the Yalumba underground cellars. Image by Angela Trapani.

Yalumba, along with 11 other iconic family-owned Australian wineries, are part of a collective group called ‘Australia’s First Families of Wine’ (AFFW)- which really means that together, the team can promote their wines both here and abroad with some more oomph than doing so alone. Until now, the group have been promoting quite extensively overseas, waving the flag for the quality of Australian wines. But now it’s our turn stylish sippers and the special ‘Unlocked’ tasting will feature some rare, prized and highly collectible wines in a masterclass tasting. What makes this tasting unique, is that you’ll be able to speak directly to the families who, for decades, have proudly made wines with their names on the label. Rest assured, they’re only going to bring the good stuff with them sippers!

What’s more, you can meet the current generation of leaders, recognised as some of the best in winemaking in Australia – but what you also might enjoy is the chance to meet their ‘kids’, the AFFW Next Generation – a young, fun and savvy breed, who will carry the family wineries into the future. They’ll be showing off their new-direction wines on the night, no doubt in style.

The AFFW member wineries

Brown Brothers , Campbell’s Wines, d’Arenberg, De Bortoli Wines, Henschke, Howard Park Wines, Jim Barry Wines, McWilliam’s Wines, Tahbilk, Tyrrell’s Wines, Taylors Wines, Yalumba

Some of the wines on offer:

2005 McWilliam’s Lovedale Semillon

2005 Tyrrell’s Vat 47 Hunter Chardonnay

2005 d’Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz

2006 Jim Barry ‘The Armagh’ Shiraz

2005 Henschke Hill of Grace Shiraz

2001 Yalumba ‘The Reserve’ 

1981 Tahbilk Cabernet Sauvignon

1999 Taylors St Andrews Cabernet

2006 De Bortoli Noble One

Campbell’s ‘Merchant Prince’ Rare Rutherglen Muscat NV to finish.

Tickets aren’t cheap, at $300 each, but that’s hopefully a good sign sippers, that this should be one stylish sipping affair –  featuring a two-part masterclass tasting, substantial canapés from the team at ivy, and the chance to meet and mingle with the family members after the tasting. Perhaps a gift idea for the stylish sipper who has everything?

More info here. 


Penfolds super-styling

Written By Debbie Pearce Posted on

The release of the latest Penfolds ‘Bin’ range is always done with flair. This year we gathered at Berowra Waters restaurant near Sydney, and were also treated to jaunts on a blinged up yacht that Jay-Z once hired, so they literally pushed the boat out.

The 2012 Penfolds offerings were from a mixture of good and indifferent vintages. They range from 2007 to 2010, which saw drought and heat, although 2010 is good. The red styles are a mix of big, powerful, muscle-bound wines through to slightly more elegant personalities. There were two reds from the ‘Bin’ range that were particularly good and offer value for money in the context of Penfolds.

The first was the 2009 Kalimna Bin 28 Shiraz. It has been a stalwart of the Penfolds ‘Bin’ range since 1959 when it was sourced from the Kalimna vineyard in the Barossa Valley. These days it is a multi-regional wine with fruit sourced from Padthaway, Barossa Valley, Langhorne Creek, McLaren Vale and Robe, in South Australia.

It’s a curvaceous, ripe wine showing lots of black fruits and a smidgen of dried dates. The palate displays red and black fruits along with mocha, chocolate, anise and earthy spices. It does appear to be balanced though, with fine chalky tannins and harnessed oak, and is very approachable now. (14.5% ABV. RRP: $37.99). Drinking well now until 2020.

 

 

 

Due to being matured mostly in declassified Grange barrels, the 2009 Bin 389 is often referred to as ‘Baby Grange’. It’s a blend of 51% cabernet sauvignon and 49% shiraz with the fruit sourced from Padthaway, Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Coonawarra, Wrattonbully and Robe regions of South Australia, and 2009 celebrates its 50th consecutive release.

Full-bodied and deep purple in colour, vibrant, spicy, black fruits rise out of the glass and sucker-punch your senses before a black pepper, chocolate and star anise follow-through. The palate is rich and juicy showing those sweet, ripe black fruits, balanced acidity and powdery, up-right tannins that linger. It is a big wine with evident oak, but it is in check and needs a couple of years to settle. (14.5% ABV. RRP: $74.99). For drinking between 2014 and 2028.

For more information, go to www.penfolds.com 

Where to sip in style: Mrs Sippy

Written By Katrina Holden Posted on

Mrs Sippy

37 Bay Street

Double Bay

Sydney NSW

In the picturesque and exclusive Sydney suburb of Double Bay, sippers will find a suitably colourful and stylish oasis at Mrs Sippy, a restaurant and bar open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

There’s lots of illuminating, clean white – as well as restrained colour going on here, with touches of a New York style bar – but with far more bright and breezy elements to reflect an Aussie beach-side culture. An exposed brick wall and leather chesterfield couch line the main part of the restaurant with zinc table tops, industrial style pendant lamps and an open kitchen. Stylish sippers also spill onto a small deck area and at table settings on the footpath. Great people watching! By day, it’s a fairly stylish set of women lunching, businessmen, young mums with bubs. By night, it tends to draw a younger crowd.

But if you’re just here just for a sip, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the spacious and lengthy space out the back where sippers are serviced in a sun-drenched courtyard, with its own dedicated bar and chilled out seating spaces.

Continue reading →

WIN: Tickets to Melbourne’s Great Australasian Beer Spectapular

Written By Katrina Holden Posted on

WIN: One of two double passes to the Great Australasian Beer Spectapular in Melbourne, on Sunday 13 May, 12-4pm in Carlton.  

Presented by The Local Taphouse (Melbourne and Sydney), The Great Australasian Beer Spectapular (GABS) features 60 exclusive and new beers by Australia and New Zealand’s leading craft brewers, taking place during Melbourne’s Good Beer Week.

Promising a unique beer festival, GABS takes place at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton, which will feature classic wooden tables and generous bench seating with the centrepiece being four amazing container bars.

In the finest European tradition there will be gourmet food to match the beer, entertainment and beer education sessions.

Stone & Wood, James Squire, Little Creatures, The Monk, Mountain Goat, Matilda Bay, True South, Feral and Burleigh are among the Australian brewers to reveal their fresh and unique creations during the festival. The Yeastie Boys, Epic, 8 Wired and Tuatara are among the 16 breweries flying the Kiwi flag. For further event info click here. 

To enter, simply tell us on what your favourite beer style is. Winners will be drawn and notified via email on Thursday 10 May. 

  1. (required)
  2. (required)
  3. (required)
 

cforms contact form by delicious:days


Stylish sipper: Simone Higginson

Written By Katrina Holden Posted on

Simone Higginson and her husband of three years live at Bondi Beach in Sydney, where together they own a café called Birichina,

Where do you work?

After just finishing a stint in the corporate world for 6.5 years in the wine industry, I finally got the push I needed to start my own venture in marketing and communications. I have such amazing contacts in wine and fashion and have worked with the most remarkable people. Going out on my own seemed a little daunting at first but I love the freedom and new lease on life.  I also own a café in Bondi Beach with my husband called Birichina, so this keeps me extremely busy also.

What will you be sipping this winter?

For reds I will be drinking pinot’s from regions such as Tasmania, Mornington Peninsula and Central Otago and cool climate shiraz from Canberra is my new favourite. Such elegant and sophisticated wines, simply delicious!

A white wine I’ll be drinking is a grape variety called Gruner Veltliner from Austria. It’s a great food wine. I am also excited to try some Australian versions of this really soon.

If you were a drink, what would you be and why?

Champagne – the fine bead and the excitement that comes with it. There’s always a reason to celebrate.

Do you have somewhere special you like to sip in style?

I am really loving the small bar scene at the moment, 121 BC, The Commons, there are so many popping up each week but right now Neild Avenue has to be on top of my list. The first Tuesday of every month they have a Jazz and Pinot night. Two perfect combinations. They had 20 Pinot’s on offer ranging from around $50 to $300 a bottle. You can purchase a full glass or just a tasting size of any you like. It really was a great way to taste some amazing wines that you would never normally try. I was like a kid in a candy store.

Who (or what) are your favourite style icons?

Love Audrey Hepburn for her classic beauty, she is divine.

Bohemian Chic is a style I love and brands like Winter Kate & House of Harlow do it well.

And my mum – she had the most amazing style growing up.  I wish she kept most of her wardrobe as I’d be wearing it all right now.

Working in drinks and fashion, what do you love about each? 

Working in wine has similarities to fashion. Each has a specific style and there is always a trend being set.

The wine industry is a challenging one but I think that’s why I love it so much. Developing plans, strategies and giving consumers what they want and working out how to stand out from the rest. It’s the people that have really inspired me along the way, like working with entrepreneur Lisa McGuigan and winemaker Liz Jackson.

In fashion I love the fact that you see the designer’s aesthetic come alive each season.  Such a creative industry that marks every occasion – a bit like wine again. It really comes back to the people and I have been very grateful to work with many amazing designers through my wine industry days, which has given me the opportunity to now work in this industry.

What trends in drinks are you enjoying at the moment? And in fashion?

Cool climate everything.

European styles like Gruner Veltliner and Montepulciano

Colour blocking is all the rage but I am loving Sass and Bides latest jewellery collection – the imprint cuffs, kiss life bracelets and the composition of the behind the scenes belt made from 100 per cent brass and 100 per cent chrome plated copper with a touch of leather through it!  Stunning!

Your tips for maintaining style and sipping in moderation? 

Always have a glass of mineral water by your side and in between drinks. It helps hydrate you and keeps you looking fabulous!

 

Stylish sipping at Sip Your Modo

Written By Katrina Holden Posted on

More than 230 stylish sippers joined us at Sip Your Modo: Australian Flavours, Italian Style on a Sunday afternoon for some aperitivo sipping at Sydney’s Global Gallery, Paddington.

Nine wineries including Brown Brothers, Coriole Vineyards, Crittenden Estate, Dal Zotto, Di Lusso Estate, De Bortoli, Oliver’s Taranga, Pizzini and Tintilla Estate poured their Aussie wines of Italian origins, as part of the celebrations during the A+ Wine Celebrations festival during April.

The cool beats from the Margherita Trio, the vibrant artwork and the stylish sips kept the crowds entertained.

To view our photos from the event, head here.

To watch several videos from the day, produced by Aussie Wine TV, click on the links below.