My daughter’s school, United World College Southeast Asia (UWCSEA) Dover Campus in Singapore, holds an annual event to both celebrate the diversity of food and culture represented by the school’s students, parents and teachers, and to raise money for charities associated with the UN and the UWC Primary School Global Concerns. Read More >
Updated May, 2014:
Unfortunately Martin Bosley’s is now closed, due to extraneous circumstance—the landlord, that being the Yacht Club, having a different view of what Wellington diners want than one of the most accomplished chef’s in the country—and wanting to dumb down the restaurant to more casual dining. Read More >
Greetings and my apologies if you had difficulties when visiting the Wandering Palate website the other day; my webserver has now fixed the problem—which turned out to be an overload of traffic—a nice problem to have. We now have more grunt in the engine and hopefully enough to handle an exponential growth in viewers with another record month in October—771,036 hits—and with 2 days to go 800,000 hits looks achievable and on course for our target of 1 million hits per month by Christmas. Read More >
In preparation for my daughters school United Nations Day food festival and the New Zealand stand, we are putting together a slide show with the theme of New Zealand native trees and supporting Project Crimson a charity organisation dedicated to planting Pohutukawa or Rata trees, which is greatly supported by Ata Rangi vineyard with proprietor and tree lover, Clive Paton, very much involved. Ata Rangi have sent me some pictures including this amazing image of a majestic and dazzlingly coloured Pohutukawa tree; an awe-inspiring illustration of New Zealand’s unique natural beauty. Read More >
The Wandering Palate website traffic continues to grows and reached another record month in September 2013 with a very encouraging 677,818 hits; but more strategically each visitor viewed an average of 10.4 page views daily and whopping daily average of time spent on the website of 11.29 minutes, almost unheard of in limited attention span of the web world. Read More >
Project Crimson – There are many ways we can save our planets unique ecosystems and combat climate change, some more pragmatic than others but none more beautiful than planting Pohutukawa or Rata trees in New Zealand – you don’t need to live there to understand the logic – click here
Pohutukawa www.projectcrimson.org.nz
Australian Wine Maker and wine company founder Peter Lehmann AO has died aged 82, it is hard to imagine any winemaker past, present or future that will ever have such an impact on a wine region or endear himself to grape growers as quite the same way as Peter in his beloved Barossa Valley. Read More >
Nicolas Olivry joined me for breakfast this morning. He thought we should try pairing chardonnay with fried eggs and pork sausages… as he refuses to accept “A meal without wine could only be breakfast…” And yes chardonnay does goes well with fried eggs and pork sausages, or specifically Monteverro Chardonny 09 www.monteverro.com Love your work Nico! Read More >
We landed our helicopter 3000 ft up on the edge of a glacial lake that feeds the Stirling Falls, surrounded by the sheer rock faces of the Milford Sounds peaks and Te Wāhipounamu World Heritage Wildlife Region, New Zealand which Rudyard Kipling called the eighth Wonder of the World… and I can see why, we felt like the first people that had ever stood in this untouched remoteness. Read More >
Top Gun Sommelier – Lean Mean Service Machine – The Wandering Palate Circa 1988 - all of 25 years old, bravodo and people skills were the required skillset in those days
The Wandering Palate Circa 1988 at Jacques Reymond’s restaurant, Melbourne, Sommelier that evening for the Single Bottle Club Dinner and James Halliday’s 50th Birthday, having just grappled with a Salmanazar of 1937 Bollinger and about to pour the 1918 Oloroso Sherry Pilar Aranda…
The Wandering Palate turned 50 today, the 16th November, an auspicious day indeed and one of deep reflection. Actually, there’s no time for reflection as I am flat out designing a wine list for a new Chinese restaurant in Melbourne, “Mantong Kitchen” opening at Crowne Casino next month and there is a deadline to meet today for the first draft. Alas, no long lunch today… buggar… and not the WP’s normal form, perplexing really – that 30 years in the wine and hospitality business and I am still chasing my tail – “Once a Sommelier, Always a Sommelier”.
Nothwithstanding this great moment in time and confoundment that I made it this far (yes I know it’s a cliché, but in this case it’s true; just ask my mother, my motorcycle dealer, my psychiatrist, my commanding officer… but consistency has been the key, that is consistently Fuckin Up – as the lyrics of Neill Young so aptly describe, a fantastic jam with Young and Pearl Jam you must listen to… but there is more important news for today is a great day in ocean history… and I am a great believer that it is the ocean that will decide the fate of humanity, or that is how we are fucking it up, so to speak…
