Last Tuesday I joined my friends, Darryn & David at &Union for one of their, get this, totally FREE wine tasting sessions.   These sessions happen every Tue & Thu from 6pm to about 7pm.

I sadlly got there really really late.  As you all know, it was the State of the Nation Address last Thu eve, so on Tue & Wed eve, they decided to close of all major roads around Parliament so they could practice whatever it was they needed to practice.  This  meant a trip to Bree St from mine which normally takes about 5min took me just over an hour.  Aaaarggghhh.  Needless to say, by the time I finally got there, I was in serious need of wine… and lots of it!

The tasting was structured to be a bit of a Stellenbosh vs Elgin wine region battle,  with a selection of Thelema (Stellenbosch) and Sutherland (Elgin) wines up for the challenge.  But the real interesting part was that these two wine wineries are actually run by the same people.  You see Thelema wines has been in existence since 1983 after the McLean Family Trust took ownership of an old fruit farm.  But then in 2000 they also bought Sutherland, which was an apple orchid at the time.  So there you go.

There were six white wines up for tasting, covering three different varieties, with one from each farm so you could do a direct comparison in taste:

• Thelema Sauvignon Blanc (2011)
• Sutherland Sauvignon Blanc (2011)
• Thelema Chardonnay (2009)
• Sutherland Chardonnay (2009)
• Thelema Riesling (2009)
• Sutherland Riesling (2009)

Hmmm, that should be enough to help calm my road rage…

Thomas Webb from Thelema wines was there to take us through the taste journey and give us some interesting background info on the two different regions, how the wines are produced and why they vary in taste.

Thomas doing his thing

I rushed in just as they were talking through the two Riesling options.  Riesling isn’t really a wine I would normally order, purely because I don’t really know that much about it.  So it was cool to give these a bash and listen to what makes them unique.  Out of the two, the Sutherland one was my favourite.  But I really enjoyed both – so I guess Riesling is something I’ll be adding to my repertoire from now on.

The crowd hanging on every word…

After the tasting had come to an end, Gemma (the lovely lady who organises these events) was also nice enough to give me some of the Sauvignon Blanc.  I think she could see I really needed it. hehe

Even though I only got the tail end of the tasting, I really enjoyed it.  This is a pretty awesome thing the people at &Union have put together.  If you wanted to, you could come here twice a week and become a total wine expert in no time.  I’ve already put my name down to join them again tomorrow eve…  and then likely the next Tue and the next and… well you get the picture.

After the tasting we ended up staying on for some food, live music and a good catch up.  &Union is one of those spots which has a way of sucking you in without realising, love that.  And we got to try a new addition to their menu, their new kick ass burgers:

Cheese, gherkins & bacon…. a must have!

But listen up now folks – if you’d also like to join in for these wine tasting sessions, you have to book a spot before hand.  It’s essential!  Email Gemma on: gemma@gabrielcollective.com to make sure you don’t miss out.

xxx