1107 days ago

More on Wine, Foodography and Winter Classes

New Zealand School of Food & Wine

For the last few weeks I have been travelling around NZ running a series of Wine Tasting Competitions for the NZ Sommeliers and Wine Professionals for which I am chair. It's been fun putting together a selection of 40 classic wines and preparing sets of questions to test our teams of winelovers.

We have used Kahoot! which has been enormously successful as a electronic quiz platform in these Covid times. It adds the results instantly and takes away the risk of calculation errors plus the backend provides detailed analytics on who got the answers to how many seconds it took to answer correctly. We know that of the 24 teams the highest scores were 75% correct with over 8 teams achieved above 68% correct. I can see we will use this platform for sometime!

It seems that interest in wines and spirits programmes is also bounding upwards and we have had record enrolments for all our wine classes including WSET Wine and Spirit Education Trust from UK.

This week I had the results of the latest WSET Level 2 Certificate in Wine and with a class of 20 students, 60% gained distinction, a pass of over 85%. Exciting.

Our NZQA Certificate in NZ Wine Micro-Credential is also going for strength to strength and we are about to start offering Corporate & Team Building wine options so that you can get together a group of 8 people and we will run a private programme.

New Zealand wines are much more diverse that most people imagine and it's a great thrill to be able to share lesser-known wineries and underrated regions with our participants as they taste through the wine selection. For more information, email admin@foodandwine.co.nz.

Coming up we have the Winter Forage with Riki Bennett which provides an opportunity to explore our native flora along with innovation around urban hāngi kai-cookery techniques. The FOODOGRAPHY Dinner is back and this year our theme is a Midwinter Christmas Dinner. Both events are part of Auckland's Elemental Festival.

On Sunday 1st August, we host the NZ Sommelier of the Year Awards along with wine tasting events and a Gastronomic Dinner prepared by Chef Finn and our students.

Ngā mihi,
Celia Hay

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More messages from your neighbours
1 hour ago

Happy hump day, here's a riddle to get you through the rest of the week!

Riddler from The Neighbourly Riddler

I am always hungry and will die if not fed, but whatever I touch will soon turn red. What am I?

Do you think you know the answer to our daily riddle? Don't spoil it for your neighbours! Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm.

Want to stop seeing riddles in your newsfeed? No worries! Simply head here and click once on the Following button.

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9 days ago

Show us your winter craft or DIY projects

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

When we are stuck inside, it can be a time to get creative. And we think Neighbourly members are quite a creative bunch. So, let's fill the Neighbourly newsfeed with crafty creations from across the country.

Share a photo below of your craft projects, recent DIY, or your hobby. You may just inspire someone else!

4 days ago

Poll: Should you ask before planting tall shrubs/trees near your property line?

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

It may be fine now but in a few years trees can block out light or views for neighbours.

Do you think neighbours should ask before they go ahead and plant these?

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Should you ask before planting tall shrubs/trees near your property line?
  • 69.6% Yes, always ask
    69.6% Complete
  • 29.5% No
    29.5% Complete
  • 1% Other - I'll share below!
    1% Complete
1575 votes