Quaffing with Qype
We’re a little foggy-headed in the Qype office this morning thanks to the selection of rather tasty New World wines we sampled at the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy event last night.
In case you missed our earlier blog post, this was the latest of our ‘Big Adventure’ outings, where we invite a few Qypers along to indulge in something a bit special (last month was chocolate tasting, and we’re seriously considering sushi making for June, but if you have any better ideas let us know here).
Yesterday evening a small group of us (Guernican, Timinator, Annie Mole, Tiki Chris and Shiny Gemma, plus myself and Andrew) went to the rather posh 19th-century venue, Il Bottaccio on Grosvenor Place to take part in a showcase of half-a-dozen wine producers.
We kicked off in Western Australia (complete with surfboards and imported sand!) at the Cape Mentelle display and got our palates in gear with their Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chiraz.
As the vino flowed and the debates about ‘pepperyness’ and ‘drinkability’ began, we traveled to California courtesy of Newton whose ‘unfiltered selection’ didn’t really do it for us (although their nut snacks went down a storm!), before soldiering bravely back to Oz and Green Point’s top notch rosé (dangerously drinkable stuff!). The watermelon foams they were supplying were a big hit too.
Next up was Argentina and Terrazas de los Andes. These guys definitely had the best ‘gimmick’ of the event: tiny plastic drawers each containing a mini-morsel of food to accompany their three wines. So we all got to tuck into some mini crème brûlée (for the Chardonnay), a minute but delicious serving of lamb (for the Malbec, which we all really liked), and a morsel of beef (for the Cab Sav).
Finally, with everyone just about able to tackle the staircase, we went downstairs to try out the selection on offer at Cheval des Andes, a South American/French joint production whose Malbec-Cabernet Sauvignon blend got nods of approval all round.
And then it was down to the pub for a few well-earned beers!
Here’s a few snaps that Tiki Chris took of the event (there’s a few more on the Qype UK Flickr stream), and if you’d like to get involved in the next Qype Big adventure then keep an eye out right here on the blog and make sure you join in the conversation in this thread.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Written by Rob on May 15th 2008. Category: Food and drink blogs, London blogs, Qype, events
Having a wine « The Plummet Onions responded on 15 May 2008 at 1:19 pm #
[...] here it is written up on the Qype blog. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)The Good, The Bad, And The OverpricedBW Online [...]
Rob responded on 15 May 2008 at 2:01 pm #
Nice night. But a ghastly, ghastly photo of me. Thanks for that, Chris ;)
Annie Mole responded on 15 May 2008 at 3:26 pm #
Fab pictures Chris. Hope you all got home safely - sorry I had to leave a little early as I couldn’t afford to get too wazzed as I knew I had a heavy day today. Rob & Andy thanks muchly for the invite. It was nice to see my old pal Rob / Guernican again as I hadn’t seen him for about 3 or 4 years, so it was good to catch up on goss over some lovely wines and nice tasty nibbles (that duck was superb).
Rob you need too see more pictures of the other Rob before you can define ghastly, ghastly photos
Tiki Chris responded on 15 May 2008 at 4:19 pm #
I’m glad y’all enjoyed the pics. Last night was blast. Thanks again.
Here’s my blog post about the evening:
http://tikichris.blogspot.com/2008/05/wine-tasting-with-qype.html
Cheers!
Chris
Gemma responded on 15 May 2008 at 5:57 pm #
I promise my blog will go up eventually, when my server finally decides to start working again.
Until then, thanks so much for the invitation, it was a fab night.
Andrew responded on 15 May 2008 at 6:15 pm #
Great fun. Looking forward to the next one! Thanks all for coming.
Timinator responded on 15 May 2008 at 7:24 pm #
Yeah, thanks a lot for inviting me, guys. Feel free to do that anytime!
Qype*Vibes » Qype visits the cheese cave of West London responded on 17 Sep 2008 at 10:19 am #
[...] Ninja Event’, to treat our most dedicated Qypers. In the past we’ve tried our hand at wine tasting, chocolate making, sushi and sake matching and even [...]
The Qype Blog » Qype visits the cheese cave of West London responded on 25 Feb 2009 at 9:49 pm #
[...] Ninja Event’, to treat our most dedicated Qypers. In the past we’ve tried our hand at wine tasting, chocolate making, sushi and sake matching and even [...]