19 July 2012

SOUL BAR WINE O'CLOCK

Last night I attended the chardonnay session of the Soul Bar Wine O'Clock. For $35 we had Prosecco to start (Contarini Prosecco Treviso DOC) which was delicously dry and a great way to warm up in the bar before moving to a sensationally good tutored tasting of four chardonnays from around the world by an awesome assemblage of blokes in the know. Not only was it fun, but it was astonishingly good value.

Paul Tudor MW who consults to Soul ran the evening in conjunction with bar manager, Mark Holland. The effervescent Jean Christophe Poirat from Maison Vauron spoke too, as did Misha Taylor of Procure Liquor.

We tasted four chardonnays: Leeuwin Estate Prelude Margaret River 2010 (Western Australia) Louis Michel Chablis 2010 Chablis, France Elephant Hill Chardonnay 2010, (Te Awanga Hawkes Bay) Bouchard Finlayson Heaven and Earth Valley 2009 (Walker Bay, South Africa)

Accompanied by loads of chatter and some very fine finger food from Soul's Kitchen, this was a superb way to spend a couple of hours. All the wines were lovely in their own way.

The Leeuwin was quite elegant, the French chablis fresh, clean and crisp (I'm going to go and get the Grand Cru from the same producer for the husband's birthday but don't tell him), the Hawkes Bay wine appealed to all those who have a 'kiwi' palate and the South African number was big; full of buterscotch and strong buttery flavours.

How different they all were and what a great idea to do a line-up like that so we could compare the styles. As Judith Tabron said,"Sure beats a wine dinner that no-one wants to sit through." If this becomes a trend you heard it here and at Soul first. Go to the Soul Bar website to see future events there.

Pic: Judith Tabron on the deck of Soul. Pic by Aaron McLean