COMPARATIVE vertical wine tastings of Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay, as well as cooking classes with restaurateur and author Kate Lamont are the highlights of a wine and food weekend at Bali’s Karma Kandara cliff top and beach resort.
The gastronomic Valentine’s Day weekend opens with a late Saturday morning cooking class with Perth’s Ms Lamont.
For those with less interest in the kitchen side, an optional six-wine vertical of the greatest of the recent vintages of Australia’s greatest cabernet blend, the Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Merlot, will be available at the same time.
Leisure time, either on the Friday before the welcome evening Australian winetasting, or on the Saturday or Sunday afternoons, can be spent in the Karma Spa, the luxuriously appointed pool surrounds of your own villa, or by taking the cable car down the 150m tree-covered cliff face to the resort’s Nammos Beach Club.
Alternatively, you could just relax and dine at Karma’s di Mare restaurant.
This must have at least the equal of any of the world’s great restaurant views from its isolated cliff-top perch, hundreds of metres above and overlooking kilometres of pristine sandy beaches and rolling surf.
The Lamont-inspired and hosted evening dinner includes a four-wine vertical of the finest recent vintages of Australia’s greatest white wine – Leeuwin Estate’s Art Series Chardonnay – compared with a couple of white burgundy’s biggest names (an Etienne Sauzet Premier Cru and a William Fevre Grand cru) matched with the two entrees.
The main courses are paired with four of Moss Wood’s great vintages that will be contrasted with two classic Bordeaux reds (including a Chateau Pichon Lalande).
Moss Wood is another of WA’s three great cabernet producers.
A late Sunday morning scrumptious breakfast after a cable car cliff face descent to the resort’s private ocean side Nammos Beach Club will be made even more enjoyable by the presentation of four of Australia’s finest sparkling wines.
These will be mixed and matched with the 2000 Dom Perignon and the truly extraordinary 2002 Louis Roederer Cristal, one of Champagne’s most highly reviewed wines since the classic 1996 vintage.
The wine selection and discussions at this WA wine and food weekend are been handled by yours truly after 12 months of discussions of how to do more for this State’s wine and food with the UK’s globetrotting but Swanbourne-domiciled Karma Resort Group’s founder and chairman John Spence.
Karma Kandara is the most beautiful resort that I have seen in either real life or in any magazine article.
Every aspect from the winding path, private swimming pool or public place is picture-postcard material.
Neither Ms Lamont nor I, nor our associated businesses, though offered, are receiving any financial benefit for this crammed three-day trip.
The goal is to promote the most interesting of WA’s produce to attendees from across the region.
This foodies’ weekend is just one of a series of internationally oriented events being hosted by Ms Lamont in early 2010.
Visit www.karmakandara.com.