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Saturday, September 10, 2011

Giveaway: Win 1 of 9 Yearly Subscription to Wine Companion Magazine

Balanced, Clean, Dull, Elegant, Harsh, Mellow, Powerful, Sharp and Vigourous.

You could mistakenly think that those words are to describe a person, but they are actually to describe wines. Wines are complex items and can be very intimidating for most people. I profess to very knowledge about wines, even though I really enjoy drinking them. As with most people, I started drinking alcopops as a teenager, liking their sweet tastes which actually masked the alcohol. Beers were a constant feature during university given their abundance at various university events. However, now as I have some money to enjoy fine dining, my liquor of choice is definitely wines to match with the food. The depth and diversity of wines really help to enhance food, as well as being enhanced by food.

I enjoy red wines far more than white, except I am NOT drinking any f**king Merlot!. I like to drink new wines all the time and make notes on the ones I like. My vocabulary to describe wines is rather limited. I can usually only identify a few distinct flavours and know whether I like the wine or not. So I'm very interested in the new Wine Companion Magazine that will be launched soon. As an offshoot to the wine Bible James Halliday's Wine Companion, the magazine is targeted at a younger audience who like to learn some more about wine. The magazine hopes to make wines more assessable to their audience while still imparting useful information.

The magazine features
- tasting tips and tuition
- tasting notes on wines
- internationally rated wines
- travel stories through the wine regions of Australia
- recipes and tips on food and wine matching
- interviews with wine and food producers

The magazine is released every two months from October 28th, 2011.

Image of cover is a mock-up only.

GIVEAWAY

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COMPETITION CLOSED

The winners are: Emma, Miss Melbourne, Celeste, April, Vida, Ecliss, Leaf, Agnes, James.

I shall be contacting you directly about the prize.
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To celebrate the release of the magazine, I have 9 Yearly Subscriptions to giveaway to my readers.

HOW TO ENTER

Leave a comment and answer the following:

Tell me with a bit of detail about a wine and food match that you enjoy.

Make sure there is a way for me to contact you, either via Twitter, a blog or an email. If you don't want to publish your email in the comments, please email me at ieatblog[at]yahoo[dot]com and let me know which comment was yours. If I do not hear back from you after 5 days upon contacting you, I will redraw the prize.

Conditions of Entry
- One entry per person.
- Australian readers only.
- Competition closes Friday September 16th 8pm AEST. The winners will be announced on Saturday 17th and published on this same post.
- 9 winners will be randomly drawn. I will contact the winners directly to inform them they have won.

Thanks to Q Strategies for organising the prizes.

19 comments:

  1. I love matching wine with food because it feels so much better to be drunk on a FULL stomach than an empty one! x

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  2. My favourite wine and food matching experience was at The Press Club, where we had lamb paired with a 2006 Stellenrust JJ Picalot.

    The wine was described by the sommelier as being "leathery" and "sweaty" (!), and drinking it seemed to suck all the moisture out of my mouth. It sounds a bit scary, but I promise you it went so beautifully with the lamb, and it was the first time I'd ever experienced wine improving the food and the food improving the wine.

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  3. I love the look of this magazine! A food-wine paring that I love... Hmmm, apart from the obvious steak (with a creamy thyme and mushroom sauce) with a Cab Sav, I'd probably have to say a rich, spicy Sicilian styled pasta with a nice dark Shiraz. Mmm!

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  4. I've been enjoying a Shiraz Viognier with anything Italian recently. And it's great with food too.
    *boom tish*That was terrible, sorry :)

    I'm fairly good with reds, but I'd love more words in my repertoire for white wine other that "grassy" and "tastes like wee".
    The best food and wine matching I've done was at Chocolate Rush Festival where Monsieur Truffe matched various dark chocolates with Campbells' wines, including a Tokay with 60+ year old wine included in the base. Freakin amazing.

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  5. I like champagne and oysters. But only the best champagne and freshly shucked oysters for me, of course. :p

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  6. I eat a lot of Chinese food, but it can be hard matching the huge variety of flavours to a single wine.

    I've found that reds then to work better than whites, and that a good riesling will do the trick and provide balance.

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  7. Best food and wine match I've ever experienced was the degustation at Jacques Reymond. Opened my eyes to the world of wine matching. Only problem was I fell behind and ended up with 3 wines on the go by the end.. 8 wines & no hangover = win!

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  8. Hubby wanted me to enter on his behalf, as you know how much he likes his wine!

    Here is his comment:
    I’ve found a good Clare Valley riesling (Pikes is one of my favourites) is perfect with mud crabs with ginger, shallots and noodles. It’s light and dry enough not to overpower the delicate crab flavour but match the flavour of the ginger & shallot sauce, and also crisp and acidic enough to cut through some of the oiliness of the sauce. Then again, I’d drink just about anything with mud crabs :)

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  9. Definitely from THe Point's New and old dinner: Smoked whiting, fennel and bacon with - 2008 Red Hill Chardonnay, Mornington Peninsular VIC.
    an element of smokiness, a bit of sweet acidity and hints of meaty bacon and caramelised fennel scattered across the plate add complexity. A tiny sip of Red Hill Chardonnay to moisten the half-masticated-food in the mouth brings into play the sweetness of honey, notes of citrus and toastiness. =perfect marriage

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  10. I don't normally drink reds. But give me a steak and you have to give me a red. I can't take whites with a steak!! And you should NEVER do it either!

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  11. You know my husband loves to cook and has made some amazing meals for us. But when it came down to it, my absolute favourite food and wine combo is take away Chinese duck with steamed rice, steamed Asian greens and a glass of pinot (or three) in front of the tv watching the Friday night footy.

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  12. Hahaha I'm here to laugh at April's hubby's comment.

    PS. I don't drink wine. Unless it's free. Then only grudgingly and minutely small amount and probably am allergic to it anyway.

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  13. What a great prize! I love wine but am very limited in my vocabulary when it comes to describing what I'm tasting.

    I never choose Merlot. For me the ultimate is a big, gutsy Hunter Valley shiraz with a grass fed, medium rare steak, maybe some blue cheese sauce and a buttery mash with a side of greens. Hearty and rich.

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  14. Burgundy and truffles. Any way at all. I don't really care what the truffles are with. There is an insatiable marriage these two create. Earthy. Rich. Above ground and below ground - no two things are more connected to the earth in flavour.

    James
    Twitter @jasaretta

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  15. Dark chocolate desserts and Bual or Malmsey Madeira. Chocolate is very hard to pair with wines, but the Madeira’s combination of acidity and sweetness works extremely well with it.

    One of my all time favourite pairings at the end of a meal.

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  16. My favourite wines have to be blends, and especially reds with a good hint of Cabernet Franc. The flavours of the wine are just so much more complex...

    Perfect food match to a good Shiraz Cab Merlot Cab Franc? Slow cooked wagyu beef cheeks with a Vietnamese broth. AMAZING!

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  17. I would recommend trying the Mt. Difficulty Pinot Noir 2009 with duck confit. Most pinot noirs go well with duck and this is no exception. It is very balanced with an aroma of cherries and raspberries. It has enough acidity and tannins to give a smooth finish.

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  18. Would definitely love to learn more about wine. For my pairing, I'm going to go with a dessert wine, the Krinklewood Lucia, and match it with a cheese platter. That would be divine enjoyment!

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