First Glass and Fettucine

The first thing that Al and I ever owned jointly together was a 'First Glass' VC card.  For those that don't know, First Glass is a wine shop on Huron St, Takapuna run by the legendary Kingsley Wood, and about 11 years ago we started going to his Wednesday night wine tastings.  Basically it's a sample of 12 wines for $15 and all the cheese and bread you can eat, attended by an average of about 60-80 people.  When Al first came along, I'm pretty sure it was the cheese that got his attention, but now he's developing a really good palate.  (Don't tell Kingsley but we weren't even officially going out at the time we had our first VC card.  It was before he sent out his newsletters by email and we thought we'd save some money and share a copy! 2 months later we were an item - see what a good wine shop can do!)

Last night's tasting was with the folks from Pernod Ricard. They showed some of their new Latitude wines from Stoneleigh, but my favourite wine of the night was the Church Road Cuve Series Merlot 2008.  It is consistently one of my favourite New Zealand merlots - nice fruit, not too jammy and it has recently won a gold at the NZ International wine show and a trophy at the Royal Easter Show.  I will have to remember Phil Bothwell's method for distinguishing Merlot at a blind tasting - if it tastes fruity but you can't quite pick the fruit, it's likely to be a merlot.  The way he described cabernet franc was kind of rude, so I'll leave it at that! Let's just say his Irish humour was a good accompaniment to the wine!

Afterwards, we went to a local Italian restaurant called Botticelli which we haven't been to in ages - we used to go there all the time when we first started our Wednesday tastings and for some reason, it fell off our list.  There is only one thing we ever get, which is the entree sized 'Fettucine al caposante e salmone' or Fettucine with Scallops and Salmon.  It is exactly as good as we both remembered it the last time we were there - they do it so well. The pasta is fresh (not made on the premises but by Pasta Nostra who sometimes sell at the Takapuna markets) and it is accompanied by a creamy, lemony sauce with capers and spinach and of course the seafood.  Lip smacking good.  To be frank, I have no idea what else is good on the menu, nor do I care.  This, to me, is as good as a pasta dish gets and I can't look past it (sort of like when duck is on the menu!).  Not sure my photo really does it justice, but it's from my blackberry.  I will have to improve my photography I guess, as I venture on the blog universe.