GAUCHO ARGENTINE WINE FAIR

In my ongoing pursuit of improving my knowledge of wine (slowly but surely...), I recently attended the Argentine Wine Fair held at Gaucho, located within the state-of-the-art O2 arena in Greenwich. It has been a while since my last visit to Gaucho, an Argentine restaurant which specializes in beef, exclusively sourced from Argentina. They only use grass-fed free-to-roam Aberdeen Angus-bred beef which comes from 45 hand-picked farms (estancias), all of which use traditional rearing methods. 

I've always known Gaucho for their speciality and focus on quality beef, but was never quite aware of the wine aspect, where the Gaucho passion for the best of Argentina seems to have embraced the country's wine production, particularly over the last 15 years.

 

This one-off afternoon wine-tasing event was hosted by Gaucho's Director of Wines, Phil Crozier, otherwise nicknamed 'Mr Argentina'.

Well-known as a true pioneer of Argentine wines in the UK, Phil was the first ever buyer to produce an all Argentine wine list outside of Argentina - forging extremely close relationships with many of the famous wine-makers in Argentina in this time, and has worked closely with young wine makers, embarking on a journey to produce wines with them in 2002. He has built a wine list with over 200 top quality Argentine wines over the years, working with top vineyards from Salta in the north to Patagonia in the south.

The afternoon involved a showcase of what has been his labour of love over the past five years, where we were presented with a selection of Gaucho's new and diverse wines that are not available anywhere else in the world. 

There were about 8 different stations featuring wines from the regions across Argentina, and we also got to sample some of Gaucho's famous empanadas and ceviche.

The Torrontés was probably the one that I most favoured amongst the ones that I tried, a typically Argentine grape that is mostly found in the provinces of La Rioja, San Juan, and Salta. 

Their wholly-exclusive, fully-Argentinian wine list that is set to launch in October - do check out their website for information on more of their exciting up-coming events.

The Cheekster, signing out x

EMIRATES AIR LINE, SHOREDITCH, & MISSING FOOD!

I am currently cooling off with my tiny tub of Haagen-Daz Secret Sensations creme brulee - my twin pack has obviously been intruded upon leaving a single lone tub in the freezer, I have a feeling I know who has eaten it...again.

I'm really not one to get too bothered about people eating my food as long as they ask for my permission.

List of missing food items to date:

1. can of sweetcorn

2. pack of yoghurt

3. 1L carton of juice

4. half a bottle of rose wine

5. mini tub of Haagen-daz Secret Sensations

...do people not know/remember what they bought?...or probably just being plain ignorant.

I don't really feel like voicing out my annoyance just in case I sound too petty, so I've decided I'm going to start taking some desperate measures...by putting my name on them (!) there is after all no excuse for illiteracy - this is even worse than house/flat-sharing in university.

Ranting aside...today I went to try out the Emirates Air Line (also known as the Thames Cable Car) which opened just over a couple of weeks ago. It runs between the two new terminals Emirates Greenwich Peninsula by the O2 and Emirates Royal Docks.

The fare was £4.30 single-way and the journey lasted 5 minutes, or probably less which was much quicker than we expected! We were busy snapping pictures and before we knew it we were landing.

You can either purchase a ticket there and then...or be a street-wise, true Londoner, and make sure you have enough credit on your Oyster card so you can skip the unnecessary queues for the ticket counters like we did!

Off we go!

O2 Arena

Hurry take a picture before we land!

We have just landed...on the other side of the river

We had lunch at O2 Arena Slug & Lettuce as the half-price offer was on til 3pm - yes always looking for a bargain! We both shared the Fisherman's Platter and a bottle of Rekorderlig cider. That sharing platter was definitely enough to have as a main meal for two!

Next stop - Shoreditch.
Has a browse around Brick Lane and the markets - I just LOVE the atmosphere here, it's one of my favourite hang-out places. I don't think my dressing would ever reach their level of...'cool-ness'...if such a word exists, but hey, it's all fun and games!

I was still kind of full from lunch, but was tempted by a nice slice of carrot cake from this little stall at Old Spitalfields Market, served by a friendly young man ;)

Note: The brownies are de-lish.

And as always the shopaholic in me has an eye for pretty things...like this cute lace dress and gold bangle to add to my collection!

Cute lace dress made in Korea

There wasn't a changing room available so we both were just pulling the clothes over ours in a corner of the stall. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a man was smiling/staring at me trying on the dress - I wasn't sure if it was because the dress looked pretty on me or if it was a look of amusement...I'll just assume that it was because of the former ha!
And we had the comfort of a 'portable' mirror a.k.a. the salesgirl who was trying to multitask balancing my clothes and holding the mirror steady for us!

Today's arm candy, plus my new addition - 'Moving forward never looking back'

I'm going to get back to my final book of the Fifty Shades trilogy - I WILL finish reading this...eventually.

I've got a date tonight - with a glass (or two) of rose wine...

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Hope you all had a good weekend x