Dropped at you by McGuigan Wines
There’s nothing fairly like beginning a month off with a bang—particularly with younger 2023 dragging its heals. However March has actually hit the bottom at a tempo and is making up for a while misplaced.
Even simply two weeks in, we’ve hit a number of nice locations in Sydney to eat and drink, celebrated Sydney WorldPride and Mardi Gras, Worldwide Ladies’s Day and our anniversary, and have even organised some journey plans.
Better of all, we’ve bought information on the prospect to win fairly some huge cash—like one million bucks with 1000’s in secondary prizes.
So strap your self in, we’ve bought a number of great things to let you know about!
Cheers – Jim & Christina x
To kick issues off, let’s discuss cash. So we learnt {that a} favorite little Hunter Valley vineyard—you’ll have heard of it—has began an unimaginable competitors.
McGuigan Wines (I informed you you’ll have heard of them!) is providing a jackpot of $1,000,000 to 1 fortunate winner with one other $10,000 in secondary prizes. And all it’s a must to do is purchase a bottle.
Click on right here to seek out out extra.
When you’ve purchased your bottle of McGuigan wine (keep in mind to maintain the receipt) and have registered it right here on their web site, winners will likely be drawn on June fifth 2023.
The winner of the draw then has a 1-in-100 likelihood of selecting the $1m card however continues to be assured a $10k-minimum prize in the event that they don’t decide the biggie.
There are additionally 10 $1000 runner-up prizes going.
The comp runs from March 1 to Could 31 and is barely out there to Australian and New Zealand residents who’re 18+. You should buy and register a number of bottles too, and bottles purchased from Liquorland or First Selection Liquor earn you a double entry!
However all of the Ts and Cs are laid out right here.
McGuigan Wines is a implausible vineyard with an unimaginable historical past going again over 100 years and 4 generations of winemakers, and is a number one mild within the Hunter Valley and Australian wine business.
It was one of many first wineries within the Hunter Valley we ever visited and we all the time make an effort to return there each time we’re within the area.
We’re able to have fun successful with a bottle of McGuigan Cuveé from their Shortlist vary.
However when the wine’s this good, successful a cool million once you purchase it’s only a bonus.
However whereas we dream of successful one million, Christina and I make our manner for drinks on the not too long ago opened Spice Dealer—the rooftop cocktail bar of the Porter Home Resort on Castlereagh Avenue in Sydney.
A part of the Accor model, the Porter Home and its part eating places and bar are all as lovely as you’d count on. Even the grand artwork deco facade of this 1876 constructing offers you a way of the outdated world attraction you are feeling once you enter the Spice Dealer.
Spice Dealer takes its title from the age of mercantile commerce that swept Sydney alongside to wealth within the late 1800s. And the decor of the bar displays that bygone period too.
Shiny brass notes, wooden heat paneling and white marble surfaces, accents of turquoise towards uncovered brick and hurricane lamp-like fittings, and a characteristic wall of the unique spices and herbs that have been all however forex again within the day.
Drinks at Spice Dealer are fantastically made and the signature cocktail menu incorporates a component of spice too.
Christina’s Commerce Wind Clover Membership—a shiny but spicy interpretation of the basic gin cocktail. Utilizing a Grenache-infused gin from By no means By no means Distilling in McLaren Vale, cassia bark extract and raspberry protect, it’s a scrumptious riff.
My Penicillin—a whisky cocktail that has a punch of ginger to it—is divine. Spice Dealer has swapped out the standard blended whisky base for French cognac after which adopted the remainder of the recipe with ginger, lemon juice, honey and a peated scotch layered on prime. The dice of candied ginger for garnish is a stunning contact.
Right here you too can see the complimentary popcorn Spice Dealer is known for. They’ve plenty of completely different flavours you possibly can strive.
Bar snacks at Spice Dealer are additionally value . In addition to our popcorn we strive the spiced tuna tartare with salted cucumber served on crunchy puffed crackers, yellowtail kingfish sashimi with a deliciously wealthy soy sesame dressing and Korean chilli and what the menu merely calls ‘milk buns’.
In actuality, the 2 sticky spherical rolls, coated in chives and crispy garlic, are magically crammed with slow-cooked lamb shoulder with a teriyaki seasoning. Completely unbelievable.
This menu modifications seasonally, so count on ever larger issues every time you come right here.
We end our time right here with a pair extra cocktails: a Quickdraw made with tequila, jalapeño agave, lime, and cassia spiced salt and a Cascara Negroni—Australian-made amontillado sherry, Mancino Ambrato vermouth, recent nectarine and cassia bark.
There’s additionally a secret menu you possibly can entry utilizing a QR code. This brings up an inventory of smaller variations of lots of the basic drinks they make right here at Spice Dealer. Fairly cool.
Tonight, Christina and I are out once more, this time again to certainly one of our outdated haunts in Surry Hills. Mille Vini Pasta and Wine Bar, simply throughout from the Clock Resort on Crown Avenue, has been a Sydney establishment for years.
We got here right here with Christina’s mum and pa when Mille Vini first opened within the mid-noughts. It’s a splendidly cosy spot, hiding you away from the busy Crown Avenue crowds behind its lovely sandstone partitions and beneath its uncovered timber rafters.
We get issues began with a few cocktails. Christina’s La Vie En Rose (with 4 Pillars’ Shiraz gin, Peychaud’s bitters and lemon) is scrumptious, however my vastly elaborate negroni, made with a difficult-to discover small-batch Italian gin, vermouth and home Campari is great.
They use a smoker to infuse the drink at your desk utilizing wooden chips from France (additionally arduous to get) then place an enormous dice of ice by means of the smoke into the drink adopted by a sliver of orange peal. Perfection!
TL-BR: aperitivi, anchovy crostini, zucchini flower, entrees of burrata and bresaola
At our server’s suggestion, the 2 aperitivi (small bites) we strive—crostini stracciatella with anchovies and zucchini flower—are wonderful.
The virtually brittle crostini, smothered in luxurious stracciatella cheese, works with the tender salty anchovy fillets. You too can select prosciutto or marinated capsicum if you happen to’re not an anchovy fan.
As for the zucchini flower, the tempura-style batter is mild and crunchy, whereas the flower is smooth and delicate. Inside the flower is fluffy ricotta that’s been combined with truffle pecorino cheese and on the plate a honey that’s been combined with pepper to provide spice and sweetness to the dish.
Like I stated: wonderful.
Then with entrees subsequent of a plump shiny burrata on smooth ox coronary heart tomatoes, olives and basil, and a plate of wagyu bresaola sliced so skinny it’s virtually clear, artichokes and parmagiano reggiano, we’re apprehensive about how we’ll get by means of our mains!
Mains quickly arrive, together with our decisions of wines: a saffron tagliatelle with prawns, zucchini for Christina and a rigatoni amatriciana with smoked pancetta and pecorino romano for me. Discuss consolation meals, these dishes make me virtually sit up for the colder coming months.
Our wines, each Italian reds from the very beneficiant by-the-glass menu, are simply the ticket for these wealthy, full-flavoured dishes.
Though we take a look at the waters with a dessert–a tiramisu that re-establishes my confidence within the dish after too many unhealthy ones–however it’s a bridge too far.
Scrumptious as this tiramisu is–a wealthy, full-flavoured instance of a candy that I mark arduous towards Christina’s Italian aunt’s–there’s simply not sufficient room! We have now a fast look around the mezzanine and admire Mille Vini’s cool decor earlier than dragging ourselves to the road for a taxi dwelling. What a meal!
This night, Christina and I’ve made our method to Newtown to the vaunted partitions of Bloodwood for a double celebration dinner.
Not solely is it Worldwide Ladies’s Day right now, it’s additionally our 14th marriage ceremony anniversary!
That is in actual fact a working dinner for Christina although: she’s the host for the IWD night placed on by Nip of Braveness, an organization that sells Australian craft spirits.
Nip of Braveness is a big advocate for girls and has in actual fact arrange the Ladies of Australian Distilling, a collective that promotes, encourages and helps ladies and gender numerous individuals inside the Australian craft distilling business.
TL-BR: the spirits represented this night; Christina chatting to the opposite audio system; the Nip of Braveness crew Kendell, Roz, Keeley and Zandria; Bloodwood signal
Bloodwood has been the venue for Nip of Braveness’s Worldwide Ladies’s Day celebrations for years now and it’s all the time a enjoyable occasion.
That is Christina’s first time to MC the occasion and she or he (clearly) nails it.
The night’s an enormous success–the cocktails are all very good, made with the spirits from distilleries represented right here tonight: martinis with North of Eden’s Oyster Shell Gin, vodka sodas with Mom of Pearl Vodka, gimlets with Ester’s Robust Gin and a style of Black Snake’s Pechuga mezcal-style agave spirit and a welcome drink of an RTD gin and soda can with 4 Pillars’ Yuzu Gin.
Meals by the superb Claire Von Vuuren, proprietor and head chef of Bloodwood, is spectacular and a very constructive feeling across the room usually. What a stunning method to have fun IWD and our anniversary.
We hope you’ve loved this version of TWE. Chat to you once more quickly.
Cheers – Jim & Christina xx
