Canary Islands

Summery Daysss

The Dapper Lads of Fantastic Mr Fox

All of you should know about the books of Roald Dahl, the ingenious children's literature genius/author. He's the one who gave us the great's such as Charlie and the Chocolate factory, The Big Friendly Giant, Revolting Rhymes and of course my favourite - FANTASTIC MR FOX. Such a sly dapper little fox.

Now, a very fond director of mine Mr Wes Anderson has recreated Mr Fox in film (see trailer below). He's created quite a lot of funny quirky films. Most notably Darjeeling Limited, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquitic and now Fantasic Mr Fox. All o Wes Anderson's films all seem to have a real sophistication to them. Whether it's what his character's are wearing in the film or the awkwardness of some scene's & character's in his films. Whatever it is, I actually like. I'm particularly fond of those printed luggage cases in Darjeeling Limited.






With all Wes Anderson film's comes some classily dressed men and women. See below George Clooney with gorgeous new girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman all putting a classy take on the traditional black tie look at the world premiere in London. Both Felecity and Sophie Dahl were both present at the world premiere also. So exited to see this film. For some reason the actors and the classiness of the film just reminds me of international luxury and VIPs.

Here's to old Roald Dahl, thankyou for giving me imagination

Lorenzo Galli l'Erudito

So, I opened my emails the other day to find that someone had put my name down to compete in the l'Erudito essay competition run by Lorenzo Galli Estate.

The competition consists of an essay with a three different questions to choose from. The best 12 submissions get offered a place at a two-day masterclass in January - on italian wine's no doubt. The dux of the two-day masterclass then wins a $10, 000 paid trip to Italy, to be completed within the year end.

Due to the fact I just haven't had the time to complete a 1500 word essay on prolific italian varietal winemaker's in Australia! You can only assume I haven't entered for the two-day masterclass, with the competition ending date being Friday 15th October (tomorrow).

There's also he fact I'd be competing with people of the same calibre as Sally Humble, Culter & Co. Sommelier and last year's dux. Which I'm more than likely not so ready for.

Nonetheless I look forward to counting down the days until next year's competition (sarcastic/cringeworthy outloud laughter followed).

Wish me luck!

Giesen Wine Tasting

Now I know I haven't posted lately and I DID say that I would do it regularly. But I've just been so busy with work and Uni that I really haven't had the time. So I do apologise to all of my loverrrly readers.

So, about three weeks ago at work, my boss - Mr Mark Bailley, Head Somme at the Botanical, declared that I would be "wine stewarding", I guess you could say, at the Giesen Wine Dinner.

The Host for the evening, who was to provide the wines, was David Le Mire MW (left), owner/operator of Vino Pronto and La Linea Wines. The food of course was to be prepared by new Head Chef Paul Cooper (former Sous Chef to Shane Osborne at Pied-a-Terre London).

As you could imagine I was absolutely packing my dacks as new owner Chris Morris, of Colonial Leisure Group (also owner of Computershare), Head Somme Mark and General Manager Ian Rayner were all sitting on the wine dinner.

The dinner consisted of four courses, each course with a wine flight. The first two course had three white wines (all Sauvignon Blanc) for each course and the last two courses had two red wines (all Pinot Noir) for each course.

Unfortunately, I have since lost the sheet detailing each course and the wine's with the wine flight. I can safely say though that there were four Giesen Wine's, the Sauv Blanc, The Brother's Sauv Blanc, Pinot Noir and The Brother's Pinot Noir - all drinking extremely right now. However, my pick of the bunch was the Ata Rangi Pinot we had to substitute because one of the red's (Domaine Chevalier) was corked.

What also should be noted is I accidently poured the Brother's Pinot Noir in the third course flight when it was meant to be in the fourth course flight. The result being I had to take back and replace 8 glasses, resulting in an extremely red face on my part.

However it was an extremely good night, I got the chat to David LeMire and a couple of the blokes from Negociants wines. I'm looking forward to stewarding the next wine dinner, minus the embarassment's.

Again & Again Virus

Dirty Little Secrets

Young Teenage Love

Slow sloww drive

And at the end of a good night...

How I Feel on my way to going out

The Sound of the Sun Coming Out

Birds & the Bee's

I was in at university the other day and thought I needed something cheap and easy to spice up my room.

I remembered that I'd passed this different type of florist on Flinders Lane, adequately named "Pollon", in the city numerous times (right next door to Alphaville). Pollon is designed and owned by designer/florist-to-the-stars, Nicholas Minton Connell. This time I thought I'd go in and have a peek as to what they actually sold and found some of the most refreshing floral decorations I've ever seen in my life (without trying to sound too gay - please note that I'm not gay).

I straight away bought a bunch of pussy willows and blossoms (basically big long twigs with blossoms sprouting of them). I may have looked like a complete twit walking from Flinders Lane to the station and sitting on the train with my new bunch o' twigs, however it was all worth the while after seeing them in my room, and I strongly suggest that anyone looking to brighten up their room should go have a look.

Nick's designs are also the closest to what you'll get, in Melbourne, in comparison to Helena Christensen's & Lief Sigersen's floral design store BUTIK (situated in NYC). At $30 a bunch it's seriously worth a look for anyone who's happy to have a different sort of artistic material in their house/room.

To taste or not to taste

Well after starting two weeks ago at my new job at the Botanical Restaurant, as Assistant Sommelier, I had my first wine tasting with my new bosses - Head Somme & Beverages Manager of the Botanical complex.

It was at the Hilton Hotel (quite an ugly old building) on the Monday passed and was quite an event run by the Fine Wine Partners brand.

There were quite a few wineries present, the most notable of the fourty represented wineries being the By Farr winery, Innocent Bystander, Tappanappa Winery and some suprisingly delicious unkown italians.

My tiple of choice for the event was a Moscato made by a producer called Gavi, which tasted almost like caramelised apples & pears, bringing me back to the days when I actually enjoyed apple pie.

I also met budding new Sommelier Sally Humble of Melbourne's & Andrew O'Connell's famed Cutler & Co (picture below). If your looking for a night to lash out and certainly break the bank, in quite the opposite of areas, then do try it. I will be making my way there soon I can assure you.

Je suis ooo la laaa baby

And for those who bat for the other team baby...

Where the world comes to meet..en film

Happy kids a good kid

Lookin' Good

I take inspiration from many things in life, particularly inspiring/warming photos while listening to some also inspiring music

FOR EXAMPLEEE...................
(please note I do have more photos than shown below)

Reminising on childhood memories...

Hunting for buried treasure...

Sunday arvo drinks...

Admiring classy gents...

Kissing in public...

Or, just staring into the wild...

While listening to some wicked tunes...

Inspiration to the Nation

Old School Cool

Pretty sure I want one of these chairs. With or without Audrey on it....

The Tribute

I was reading MAN ABOUT TOWN magazine yesterday and was quite touched that they had a small tribute page to, the king of photography, Richard Avedon.

Richard Avedon, along with Robert Doisneau have given me quite a lot of inspiration through their maticulous work and beautiful black and white shoots. Long live the king...

This is by far one of my favourite's .... Homage to Munkacsi

The Other Night

Last night I got a rather late email from a friend and wine contact, Sommelier Ben Knight. Ben runs a company called BenandWine (benandwine.com). He writes wine list's for three gorgeous restaurants in Melbourne (The Commoner, Bottega Restaurant & Punch Lane), consult's for numerous little wineries, write's occasional columns in newspaper's, conducts wine lessons and can also be seen at regular tastings, which is exactly how I met him.

The email entailed two free available seats for his French wine class, which one of the numerous classes he conducts often. Myself and my good friend Jonathan headed down to the class in the city on Swanston street. The restaurant it was held at was "La Vita Buona" (see below) and fantastic place to stop off and have a quick after work snack or nibbles. The wine list and some of the drinks on offer by the glass are amazing and worth a stop off. Lot's of internationals for very cheap price's by the glass.

The class included eleven different glasses. One champagne, four white's, four red's, a sticky and a cognac. It was great to see how far I'd come in my palate and tasting knowledge since the last class and would STRONGLY suggest these classes to anyone. At $50 a pop, it's an absolute steal, I literally have no idea how Ben make's any money from it. At the end of the class too the bottle's are left for anyone to take or finish off there.

Myself and Jony thought it'd be a great idea to grab the Southern Rhone Rouge (although the Beaujolais was quite nice) and the beautiful Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise sticky and heade off to his work (Council Bar) just on Little Collins St to grab a bite for dinner.

The '06 Beaumes-de-Venise (pronounced, BOAM DE VE-NISE and see below) from Domaine De Durban was another fantastic sticky. Almost comparable to a '05 Umani Ronchi Botrytis Sauv Blanc I had a week or so ago at a tasting which was just amazing, absolutely coated your mouth with honey and golden syrupy flavours. This Muscat was very much the same however it had a bit more alcohol/acidity at the back of the palate which was surprisingly nice for a dessert wine and would be great with some goats cheese or maybe even as a pre-dinner drink to get your stomach churning ready for food.

Once we arrived at Council Bar, a beautiful little tapas come cocktail bar at night, jony ordered these amazing prawn spring roll things that were almost like prawn crostini with a caramel dipping sauce. We also got some bread with some dips and of course some croquettes.

What a nice way to spend a usually boring Monday evening, mmm.

The Future

Many months have passed since I made my last past. Over a year in fact....

Since then I've acquired myself a fantastic/gorgeous girlfriend who I've been with for over a year and a half now and loving every minute with her (looks like a combination of Freja Beha Erichsen and Leighton Meester off GG, see pictures below). I lost my original job yet acquired an even better one (assistant sommelier at The Botanical in Melbourne), started my first year of university and finally come to the conclusion about possibly what I want to do with my life.

This blog shall now be about what I enjoy. Something that can help me in my search for what career I want to pursue. Right now I'm completing a Commerce degree at University and working part time as an assistant Sommelier in at a beautiful restaurant in, the leafy suburb of, South Yarra (right across from the botanic gardens) in Melbourne. I quite enjoy what I do, particularly serving some expensive Bordeaux's and Bourgogne Rouge, however I can't see myself continuing working night shifts past the age of 22.

I'd much prefer a job where I can enjoy the earnings of a firm worker yet enjoy the interesting and good things in life that come in and the freedom of having your weekend off and having a quaint little apartmet in South Yarra with my partner/girlfriend. I'd love to work somewhere in one of the big four firms or possibly in a publishing firm like Conde Nast Publications.

I'm quite big on anything culutural - wine, clothes, etiquette (due to my lack of it), economics/entrepreneurship, photography, film, architecture, language and of course food. From now I shall model my post's like my very own magazine focusing on these vary interests. I'm going to take inspiration from magazine's such as Mens Vouge, Mens Stlye, GQ and most importantly my facourite magazine, MAN ABOUT TOWN.

So from now on I shall make a post at least once a week and keep you all updated with the going's on of my new and exciting life after high school into the adult world and lifestyle.