So much wining

I frocked up for a fancy degustation dinner last night to celebrate Taylors Family Flagship Release of fine wines.

It was very flash. There was a spangly violinist and everything.

The location was a restaurant called The Calyx in the Royal Botanic Gardens, which is filled with beautiful plants and home to one of the largest green walls in the Southern Hemisphere.

The dress code was supposed to be “cocktail attire” but I masked up and caught the bus into the city, so I wore flat boots with an old Leona Edmiston frock.

When I arrived it was one of those terrifying moments where you don’t know a single person in the room, so I sipped a sparkling wine and flitted around taking photos to make myself look busy, then took a deep breathe and made friends with a few people and went on a non-essential trip to the bathroom to pass the time.

When I emerged from the powder room I struck out across the restaurant again and the chief winemaker Mitchell Taylor said hello, which threw me because I didn’t think he had the slightest idea who I was other than being a middle-aged woman who took selfies with him at events.

I ended up talking to his lovely wife for ages until it was time to take our seats:

The name card beside me said “Huon” which I presumed was supposed to be famed wine writer Huon Hooke, but he failed to materialize and his seat was given to Michael West after he gave a really cool Welcome to Country.

Michael is my vintage so we had a lively conversation about how much we love KISS and our verdict on musicals and concerts we’ve attended recently.

All the guests proceeded to sip their way through 10 amazing wines, concluding with a drop called The Legacy that has a $1000 price tag. Ermagerd.

It was delicious.

It also loosened my tongue. Admittedly it’s already pretty loose, but the editor of Gourmet Traveller Wine is now fully up to speed on the brief but expensive lives of the eldest’s trio of rats and my COVID riddled trip to Fiji.

I’m pretty sure that’s not what she was expecting from her evening of fine wine.

Anyways …

As for the food, we are butter seared cod with beetroot sauce and smoked potato puree; sweet red miso baked eggplant with okra and sesame; grilled portabello mushroom with chive mascarpone and fig balsamic; porcini crusted lamb with turnip puree; with a cheese station for dessert.

We still had two courses to go when DD texted to say he was going to bed.

I finally meandered out into the night at about 11pm and treated myself to a cab home, as I was eager for my bed.

Unfortunately Sydney Harbour Bridge had other ideas for my bedtime and budget.

The traffic was horrendous, totally jammed. Freaking roadwork, with the metre running, dammit.

So I’m a bit weary – and broke – this morning, but up at the crack of dawn as I need to deliver the youngest to the allergist at 7.45am for her first desensitizing treatment.

Catch ya. No song of the day, too sleep deprived.