Hawksworth Vancouver

OzsTravels Food, Food & Wine, North America, Vancouver, Wine , , 3 Comments
Hawksworth Vancouver

My hosts, Lou and Ken, had arranged for dinner at Hawksworth in The Hotel Georgia. Hawksworth has been recognised as one of the best restaurants in Canada, so was really looking forward to it!

Photos courtesy of www.hawksworthrestaurant.com

Whilst it is an upmarket restaurant, they don’t have a formal dress code (thankfully). It is also not a big place, so booking is a must. The menu is not huge, but it is interesting and was more than enough for me!!!!! The wine list was interesting, had a few surprises on it, one of which I selected for the table (thanks Ken for letting me do at least something!). For more

Share on Facebook

Grouse Mountain

OzsTravels North America, Vancouver , 0 Comment
Grouse Mountain

Whilst I was in Vancouver I stayed with friends, Lou and Ken, who planned an interesting couple of days, with just the right balance of touristy stuff and relaxing. The first tourist destination was Grouse Mountain.

Grouse Mountain is about 15 minutes from Downtown Vancouver and, at its peak, 1,231m high. There a 4 chair lifts, 1 magic carpet and 26 ski runs. To get to the lodge and chair lifts you take a cable car called the Grouse Mountain Skyride.

For more

Share on Facebook

CX888

OzsTravels Flights , , , , , 2 Comments
CX888

The first leg of my holiday was on CX734, Singapore to Hong Kong, it was a standard economy flight, where nothing interesting happened, unlike my business trip of the previous day when we had a special guest in the economy cabin from Perth to Singapore of QF71. A blind gentleman had bought his very well-behaved seeing-eye yellow Labrador on board. For the entire 5 hour flight the dog never made a sound or moved from their spot in seat 4D-F. This was a first for me!

CX888

CX888, Hong Kong to Vancouver, was a totally different story to CX734. Firstly the Pier First Class Lounge is in a different league to the DNATA Lounge in Terminal 1 of Changi Airport. A great place to wait for a flight and enjoy a beverage or three (although I do prefer the Wing, you are right in the middle of aircraft operations and it has very different feel about it, will need to go back to HK and take a few photos).

Next up was the flight.

I was lucky enough to have accumulated enough points to be able to book a First Class seat for the 11 hour flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver. My seat was 1a. On some Cathay Pacific Boeing 777 aircraft there are 6 First Class seats, which are sort of between a seat and suite. For more

Share on Facebook

Wine, Words & Wednesday, No. 119 — The Armchair Sommelier

OzsTravels Uncategorized 0 Comment

Today’s words come from Jack Stuart, retired winemaker at Silverado Vineyards in Napa Valley. I’m in the throes of my WSET Diploma studies, so these words resonated with me, and reminded me of something very important. The full quote, for reference (and Latin buffs) is this: Fine wine is food for the table; it’s meant to be […]

via Wine, Words & Wednesday, No. 119 — The Armchair Sommelier

Just had to post this, no truer words spoken!! Thanks to the Armchair Sommelier!

Share on Facebook

Adelaide Hills – Shaw + Smith

OzsTravels Australasia, Australia, Places, Wine, Wineries , , , , 3 Comments
Adelaide Hills – Shaw + Smith

The second winery we visited on our Adelaide Hills Wine Tour was Shaw + Smith.

I had high hopes for this winery and was a bit disappointed. The tasting room is where the original restaurant was situated, it has a nice view out over the duck pond up to Mount Lofty.

My disappointment was the commercial nature of the tasting, the staff were helpful and knowledgeable, but the tasting was very impersonal and formulaic, which was the disappointing bit. The tasting was $12 per person and an accompanying cheese-plate was $6, so for $18 you get a decent taste of 5 wines paired with three cheeses. Our tasting line up was:

  • 2016 Sauvignon Blanc, recommended cheese pairing was the Ashed Cherve by the Woodside Cheese Wrights
  • 2016 Riesling, recommended cheese pairing was the Ashed Cherve by the Woodside Cheese Wrights
  • 2015 M3 Chardonnay, recommended cheese pairing was the Triple Cream Brie by the Woodside Cheese Wrights
  • 2014 Pinot Noir, recommended cheese pairing was the Mature Clothed Cheddar by Alexandrina Cheese
  • 2104 Shiraz, recommended cheese pairing was the Mature Clothed Cheddar by Alexandrina Cheese

Whilst it was an “OK” tasting it was not great, no personality. I did not feel the inclination to buy anything, not sure if it was because nothing grabbed me, the commercial nature of the place or a combination of both, probably the latter. For more

Share on Facebook
close

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)

Please subscribe if you would like updates