The Holiday Inn excelled itself with its latest wine tasting evening. (Aussie F&B) Dan Boswell brought in almost everything from the 70’s jingle “We love football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars” (well he did get the meat pies right). He might well have waved the Boxing Roo flag with the following offerings – Chiko rolls (origin Adelaide said Dan), Lamingtons (But not the Lady Bjelke Petersen recipe, I was sorry to see) and Macadamia nuts (a genus of four species of trees indigenous to Australia, and constituting part of the plant family Proteaceae. They are native to north eastern New South Wales and central and south eastern Queensland).
Oh yes, there were wines as well, and all from Australia too, three from McGuigan wineries and three from Tempus Two. These covered a Private Bin Chardonnay, a Private Bin Merlot and a Private Bin Shiraz from McGuigans and a Silver Series Sauvignon Blanc, Silver Series Cabernet Sauvignon and a Silver Series Shiraz all from Tempus Two.
The very successful format for the Holiday Inn’s wine tasting evenings has the wines provided in 25 minute flights, alternating in this case between McGuigans and Tempus Two.
A very varied buffet did have many Australian items, but also some very enjoyable cheeses, with a Caciocavallo stretched-curd cheese made out of sheep’s or cow’s milk produced throughout Southern Italy, particularly in the Apennine Mountains. Another was the Buffalo mozzarella made from the milk of Italian Mediterranean buffalo a dairy product traditionally manufactured in Campania, especially in the provinces of Caserta and Salerno. Plus the afore-mentioned Chiko rolls and mince pies.
Wine tasting is always to be thought of as a very personal judgment, so my opinion does not mean one wine is better than another, but the Holiday Inn wine tastings do offer the wine drinkers the opportunity to compare several wines to be looked for in the future. The wines that were on offer that evening were also for sale with prices THB 1500 to 1800.
I found that in general, the Tempus Two wines to be very bland, whilst McGuigans had more body. The stand-out wine (for me) was the McGuigans Private Bin Shiraz followed by, in the whites, the McGuigans Private Bin Chardonnay.
The next wine tasting at the Holiday Inn (in a couple of months, I believe) will feature Wallaby Wagyu, Koala and Platypus and as a special treat there will be renditions of Up There Cazaly by the resident Respect Band with Dan Boswell on T-Chest Bass (remember them?)
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