THE MARIE PIERRE WINETASTING POST EVENT WRAP-UP

Sunday is the countdown to reality. A few hours and we are back to the hustle and bustle of the week day job. I always love to do exciting and motivating things on Sunday because they determine the note at which my week will commence. I decided to attend a winetasting at Michael Joseph Centre in Westlands, Nairobi. The event was organized by Marie Pierre. The companies that participated in displaying their wine were El Vino and The Wineshop.

Sommelier Juan Ignacio Cambil was at the El Vino station and sommelier Geoffrey Kariuki was at the Wineshop station. What made the tasting interesting is the fact that Juan and Geoffrey were personal friends and they liaised with each other to facilitate the tasting. They displayed their wine knowledge and they collaborated in answering the myriads of questions from the throng of people in attendance.

The once lifeless wine scene is Kenya is burgeoning at an alarming rate and people are interested in knowing about the brands of wine that they consume. They want to know what wine goes with our traditional food.  When I started this blog late last year, I got like 3 views and no comments everyday but this is not the case. People are interested to know more. Someone pointed out that very few people have done a food and wine pairing for Kenyan food and this is one of the reasons very few people in Kenya appreciate wine. Well I tried to do an authentic food and wine pairing here.

Juan Cambil is a respected Somellier and an expert in his field. He displayed his mastery of wine by taking us through a detailed tasting. We tasted five exceptional wines and I will review the tasting notes in subsequent posts. I even got a new favorite wine. The wines we tasted were

• Eresma Semiduce
• Abeso White Frizante
• Abeso Rose Frizante
• Abeso Red Frizante
• Carvida Tempranillo
  

The most exciting thing is that El Vino had not stocked this wine before and it had just been shipped for the tasting. Even the Sommelier confessed that he had not had time to do small tasting earlier on. They were selling the wine at a slightly lower price than the price that it would retail for at Chandarana Supermarket and Caribana Restaurant in Lenana Road. These are the two places that you can find the brands. The Carvisda tempranillo was the best wine I have tasted in a long time and it is definitely something I am storing away for a special occasion like an anniversary, family Christmas or my birthday. It had these undertones with an aroma of molasses. It reminded me of some sweets we had while we were younger, that were made out of brown sugar.

Geoffrey  Kariuki is our very own Kenyan Somellier. I even managed to sneak a small interview with him. Keep reading the blog for his amazing story. He has a relaxed demeanor and he talks with a certain mastery and confidence that keeps people interested in the wines. He works at the Wineshop at Piedmont plaza in Ngong Road. I had done a post on the Wineshop here. We were tasting the hardy VR collection of wine. This included:

• Hardys VR chardonnay 2011
• Hardy VR Shiraz 2011
• Hardys VR Cabernet Sauvignon 2011

The shop stocks a variety of wines from different parts of the world including Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, France, Chile, Italy and South Africa.

Kevin, Geoffrey and Sanjey from the Wineshop

Also in attendance was Kamal Kaur who was the MC for the event.

 I attended the event with a friend of mine who was indifferent about wine. I had hoped that by the end of the evening she would have changed her mind about wine and I have to say I succeeded in that. Sommelier Juan Cambil said that if you are new to wine it is probably a good idea to start with white wine because the reds have potent tastes and complex intricate aromas.

My friend Kendi- new winelover

Below are photos of the guests.

Here were the bitings that accompanied the wine. Cheers!!

Cheers

Photos by Akili Black and The Wine and Food Review

COCKTAILS UNDER THE SUN AT VINEYARD

I have been bee busy during the week and the only time to make sure that I am CONSISTENT in my posts is now. I decided to buff up my blog a bit. After racking my brains for an hour or so, I decided to do something crazy yesterday. I called my pal Cate and told her about this event I had seen on Facebook.When you are a blogger/content creator you will have to get out of your comfort zone. I finished watching Revolution ssn 2 ep 22 and prepared for my afternoon out.
Sunday Afternoons are the countdown to reality. Sunday Afternoons have a certain air around them. The way I spend them defines how my week will start. The city is full of honking buses, smoke ridden air and a lot of chaos. I needed some form of escape where I would clear my head and breathe some fresh air and maybe watch the sunset.Since I did not have the time to travel upcountry and back, this was a great plan.

We got to Vineyard at around three. This establishment is in Rhapta Road in Westlands. It is a serene place that takes you away from the bustle of the city to a place where you can kick back and relax.  

Now I get why this event is called “Cocktails Under the Sun’. It was so hot and we needed to cool off. We met a very great bartender, Kamau, who was skilled at his craft. So how this works is, you tell him what kind of a drink you want and he fixes it for you. All the cocktails are 400. The electroafrique DJs were playing some African music in the Background.  The bartender thought that a ‘mamba’ would be the best fit drink for us, given that was an African event and the sun was not giving us a break.We didn't get to see the sunset because it was obscured by a canopy of trees.

The Vineyard Mamba
The bartender muddled eight strawberries and put them in a shaker, he added the juice of one fresh lime (you can use lemon). He then added one part Captain Morgan Spice and one part sugar syrup. (Sugar syrup is one part water and one part sugar reduced over some heat. The sugar syrup was made before the event). He put the ice in the shaker and he shook all the ingredients thoroughly. He then filled two highball glasses with ice and topped it up with the mixture. He put passion fruit pulp in the drink and the skin as garnish.

I really enjoyed the fruitiness of the drink for it had three fruits in one. The ice really helped us to cool off and the rum had a little kick to it. We hadn’t met with Cate for a long time so we had a lot of catching up to do. The cocktail was a sipping cocktail because of the alcohol and so we sipped it amid conversation It is always nice to hang out with an old friend and laugh the evening away.

 People trickled in at 5 and the mixology stand got busy. The bartender continued making his signature cocktails and they were an absolute hit. As sunset approached, there was a slight breeze. This was just what I needed to clear my head. And the African music was so mellow and relaxing. We left at about six and this experience was somewhat therapeutic. I had the motivation to start my week in a great way.
 Looking for a Sunday Plan? Get to Vineyard. Check them out here.