Valentina Harris announced the launch of her new website “Valentina’s Masterclass” www.valentinasmasterclass.co.uk at a Dinner at Ransome’s Dock. Valentina, author of some 20+ books on Italian cookery, has teamed-up with www.auswineonline.co.uk to offer this new service. Valentina and auswineonline are both based in London and have recently launched what is proving to be a very popular way to hold a “dinner party with a difference”. You invite up to 8 of your friends to a “Valentina’s Masterclass” in your own home. Valentina provides the expertise and skills to teach you all how to make and enjoy the wonderful experience of home made pasta, risotto and original genuine Italian fish and meat dishes from scratch. Wonderful food accompanied by a selection of superb boutique Australian wines.
Valentina commented “the difference about these masterclasses is that as well as the culinary experience we combine Italian food with a selection of fine Australian boutique wines-a completely new angle on the delights of food and wine matching. You chose the menu with our guidance, matched with our stunning award winning Australian wines”.
Gift vouchers for your friends and family are available. For larger groups of up to 25, there is a Central London venue available. These unique food & wine pairing events can be a great activity for team building and corporate entertainment.
Perth Royal Wine Show 2009
Boutique Geographe Bay winery Flametree Wines was named the competition’s most successful WA processing under 300 tonnes. Flametree Wines Cabernet Merlot 2007 Vintage won the award for best dry red table wine (blends).
This wine is made by Andrew Hoadley in Denmark, WA. Andrew has this to say about La Ciornia:
"The inspiration for La Ciornia comes from my time spent working in Barbaresco in Piedmont 2002-2003. The local Piedmontese varieties (the well-known Nebbiolo, Barbera and Dolcetto, and obscurities such as Freisa, Grignolino, Pelaverga) encompass the extremes of red winemaking (in terms of site expression, colour, tannin, aromatics, acidity, using oxygen constructively, etc) so you need to think creatively and have a steady nerve to get the results. Also, being an important culinary centre, most often the focus is on how the wines will function in context with food - rather than aiming for maximum ripeness/fruitiness/extract. When I first came to Denmark and tasted the extraordinary 2007 Kalgan River shiraz in barrel, I immediately had the desire to get hold of some fruit from that vineyard and see what I could do with it, aiming for a slightly divergent style - a shiraz that my Piedmontese friends would
love to drink - relatively strict and unadorned, expressing the vineyard character.
So, the name Ciornia (meaning "dark" or "black" in Russian) carries the 19th Century Romantic sense of being drawn by a fatalistic necessity to act decisively... ideally people will sing the song Oci Ciornia when they are drinking it.
From Oci Ciornia (Dark Eyes) by Hrebinka:
Oh, not for nothing are you darker than the deep!
I see mourning for my soul in you,
I see a triumphant flame in you:
A poor heart immolated in it.
Perhaps more significantly, in Piedmontese dialect, ciornia is a term for an attractive woman.
A very attractive woman.
It is also a pretty bad pun on Cornas, that hotbed of potent shiraz-making on the Rhone.
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James Halliday has just included Flametree in his latest list of "Top 10 new Australian wineries". What an accolade! Here is Halliday's comment:
"FLAMETREE Margaret River, WA
This is the newest of new winery ventures, a partnership between the Gordon and Towner families that resulted in the erection of a winery shortly prior to the 2007 vintage, the first (the partnership does not own any vineyards). The wines have had resounding success, the 2007 Cabernet Merlot winning multiple trophies at the WA Wine Show '08, the trophy for Best Cabernet Blend at the Margaret River Wine Show '08 and, the biggest prize of all, the Jimmy Watson Trophy, all in the same year. Jeremy Gordon's winemaking skills extend across the full range of Margaret River styles, and it is quite certain the Flametree name will continue to burn brightly in the years ahead."