One of our lovely regular customers turned the ripe young age of 94 today! Happy Birthday Joan. The secret to her good health is apparently … Wine!!
Celebrating 94 years!
Author: Amber
Garcés Silva Vineyard Tasting Supper
Last night we had another amazing wine supper, this one hosted by Matias Garcés Silva from Garcés Silva Vineyards (one of the family members who started this vineyard).
The first vineyards were planted in 1999, and three years later construction was finished on a winery equipped with the latest technology – an unprecedented event in the Leyda Valley. Finally, in 2003 the family made their first wine: Amayna. The Garcés-Silva family and its Amayna wines have earned worldwide recognition over the years and have demonstrated their passion for high quality and innovative wine production. http://www.vgs.cl
We chose the wines and then we created a menu to match the fantastic wines. We tasted three wines from the Boya range (Boya being the Spanish for buoy – a salute to the wine’s oceanic origins) and two wines from the Amayna range (“amayna” in Chile loosely translates to “the calm after the storm”).
The winners of the evening, apart from Matias of course, were the Amayna Barrel Fermented Sauvignon (Chilean Sauvignon Blanc but not as you know it!) & the Amayna Syrah, both were huge crowd pleasers.
If you would like to be informed about our next tasting supper, then please join the Camber Wines mailing list on our website www.camberwines.co.uk then click on the link on our home page. #tastingevents #winewednesday #sippingsaturday
Karen & Dave’s Belgium Trip
Karen and Dave spent last week in Belgium trawling bars to sample as many of their 400 plus beers as was physically possible…Well someone had to do it!…and we gave it our best shot. Favourite for the trip was Orval, a medium bodied hoppy beer with a dry orange finish. At 6.2% the alcohol is modest by belgian standards, with typical offerings at 8% and above. It was hard to single out a favourite as we didn’t find a single beer we didn’t like. The food was fun too. Nothing too refined, just good fodder. Moules, Moules and more Moules. Dave was hooked on Stoemp and Karens hit was Chicken Waterzooi. Look out for the Belgian influence creeping into abarbistro portfolio very soon..
Abar staff party!
Monday 4th Jan 2016 was the day all staff members had been looking forward to after working hard all Christmas. For the first time, a decision was made to do lunch, instead of dinner, at Hotel Du Vin in Winchester. The staff arrived in the their finery to be driven by coach to the destination (via the William Walker pub for a swift half!) The staff, food and atmosphere were all phenomenal. A perfect afternoon was made complete by one of our own, Elise, who performed a classical opera song which blew us all away followed by (a few too many) drinks back in Southsea! A huge thank you from all of the staff to Dave & Karen for a truly memorable day. Here’s to next year!!
The Jet setters are off!
The jet setters are off!
It’s farewell to our beloved Kelly sisters, Amber & Autumn, who have been with us for a total of 12 years combined. They took to the skies making sure they got one last Christmas bash in for good measure! They’re travelling up the east coast of Australia in a (true to form) very stylish Land Rover Discovery for the next 6 months. Big thanks for all your hard work. Have a Ball!!
Antinori Wine Supper
After the craziness that was Christmas we are back to normality now. There is only #wetjanuary here!
Earlier this week we held one of our ever popular wine suppers. This one was hosted by Luca Soldo, Ambassador for Antinori Wines in Italy.
The Antinori family has been involved in the production of wine for over six centuries, ever since, in 1385, Giovanni di Piero Antinori entered as a member, the “Arte Fiorentina”, the Winemakers’ Guild of the city of Florence.
Today the firm is run by Marquis Piero Antinori with the support of his three daughters, Albiera, Allegra, and Alessia, directly involved in the work of the house. Tradition, passion, and intuition have been the three driving principles which have led the Marquis Antinori firm to become a leader in Italian wine. http://www.antinori.it
This evening was a great success with fantastic wines and beautiful food to compliment each wine served.
A very generous customer of ours also found a couple of bottles of extremely old Antinori Chianti Classico in their cellar and donated them to us so we could do a raffle for our chosen charity … The Rowans Hospice.
We managed to raise £200 and both the lucky winners were born in the year of the wine that they won … Amazing coincidence!
A great night was had by all.
The next supper in our diary is 9th March #winewednesday
Katie and Steve tie the knot!
We feel we just have to share with you all the greatly anticipated Martin wedding…
The weather wasn’t kind but that didn’t dampen the spirits of the 10 strong bridesmaids team and 8 groomsmen who welcomed family and friends at Upwaltham barns to share the happiest day of their lives. And they did it in style with magnums on the tables and the happy couples favourite foods for the wedding breakfast before dancing the night away to an epic swing band all before jetting off to Whistler where they spent Christmas and New Year on the slopes
Congratulations the Martins!
***January Competition Time!***
To be in with a chance to win a £50 voucher, please like our abarbistro facebook page and share this post which you will find at the top of the abarbistro facebook page.
The competition will close @6pm on 31st January and the winner will be announced on 1st February.
Good Luck!
We are officially the largest fundraisers for the rowans hospice in 2015
It’s official, all the hard work of Amber and the team has helped raise £10,000 for the Rowans Hospice in 2015. Over the past year we have been the Rowan’s Hospice largest fundraisers and today we handed over the cheque. Thank you for all the support from our valued customers during 2015.
With all the Christmas chaos….
We forgot to say a massive goodbye to our wonderful Sous Chef Leo!
Leo has been with us for mannnnnny years and we wish him lots of luck in his new profession.
Thank you for all you have contributed to the abar team. We will miss you.