Soi Japanese Restaurant Wine Dinner
Our Friends of Forrest club members turned up promptly for this special degustation meal eager to begin the dining experience. They were not disappointed!
Upon arrival each diner received a glass of the Doctors’ Remedy 2005 from the last 24 bottles we have at the winery. The amuse bouche served with this elegant bubbles was tempura fried mixed vegetables. The rich flavoured sparkling, balancing the delicate flavour of the tendon sauce and the tempura.
I gave a brief speech on the history of Forrest and how and why this dinner was created. It all started with a luncheon at the restaurant with our distributor, where I was blown away with the Japanese cuisine with a modern twist. My wife and I have dined at Soi a few times over the last 3 years and became good friends with Toru the owner/chef.
Toru has a rare gift for a chef able to marry the flavours of food with wine. I chose the wines for the dinner and he chose the food to match them.
The first course was the Dry Riesling 2007, chosen because, as John puts it, dry Riesling hits its sweet spot after 6 -7 years.
The second course was the one I was most looking forward to. The Doctors’ Arneis 2012 with the grilled tuna wing with ponzu sauce was simply an incredible marriage of flavours. Dynamite is combination of rice, mixed seafood with JP mayo and finished with Tobiko roe (flying fish eggs).
The third course was Toru’s favourite pairing and his love of the Forrest Semillon 2010 really showed with this combination. As an observer you would not think the wine would work with honey tender pork belly with grille pork dumpling. The dish was simply sublime and my favourite of the night.
The John Forrest Collection Waitaki Valley Pinot Noir 2010 was paired with the wagyu beef, teriyaki sauce and miso marinated beef cheek for the fourth course. By this stage you could say my senses were on overload. This pairing once again did not disappoint and the groans from the diners acknowledged that.
Our tummies were almost full by this stage, but the final course was the long anticipated tempura cheese cake with ice cream paired with our first vintage of Doctors’ Petit Manseng 2013.
The evening ended with Chef Toru thanking all for coming to his restaurant and received an enthusiastic applause for his incredible efforts. We were all overwhelmed by the dining experience and many commented that they had never dined at Soi before and would definitely be back. I have been involved in many degustation meals over the last 20 years and this one certainly ranked in the top 5 for me. We definitely have to do it again next year!
Mbah on
3rd January 2011 at Hello!I LOVE Forest Gump! It’s such a heart-warming movie. I mean, sad and tragic at times, but the edinng is like . And I guess I just have a soft spot for any kind of fiction that attempts to increase understanding of mental disabilities and draws attention to the problems sufferers face like that. Ohhh! Chocolate. No one gave US a box of chocolate for Christmas. My mum got a box of shortbread biscuits, gingerbread and a chocolate stocking, but all of it remains unopened on account of my cursed diet. Everytime I open the fridge, it’s like a massive fight with my willpower to NOT open that damn stocking and eat the big Time Out bar. Haha, I miss those kinds of chocolate boxes! I want to open a box of assorted chocolate and pick random ones to see which one I get! Even if I totally look them up on the box first . Like with Roses. I always eat the caramel and strawberry filled ones first . Your poor mum! I’d have been heartbroken if the whole box only had ONE chocolate I liked . And how funny. Of all the four chocolates you picked out, they were ALL the same . The probability of that happening is probably not very huge? LOL, I can’t even remember how to calculate . Forest Gump is totally right. You DON’T know what you’re going to get with life, no matter how much research you do (look up chocolates on the box? Hahaha!) or no matter WHAT you plan. He was one WISE person . But life is AWESOME . Live life to the full. Like Mr Gump .