I had the pleasure of chatting with and listening to Dave Dobbyn when he played his 2 intimate ‘Harmony House’ shows here a month ago.

Apart from the intimacy, what made these shows ‘different’ was that the focus was squarely on HIS favourite songs. So while many in the audience may have expected to hear ‘Be Mine Tonight’, ‘Outlook for Thursday’, ‘Whaling’ – and even ‘Bliss’ (which was a Dudes song, not just Dave’s), we got something else entirely – which was our blessing.

A few ‘audience favourites’ did make an appearance, but the highlights for many were the other less familiar songs.

Beautiful songs; ‘Blindman’s Bend’, ‘Belltower’, ‘I Can’t Change My Name’, ‘Howling at the Moon’. Ironic songs; ‘Hallelujah Song’, ‘Madeleine Avenue’. Cool grooves; ‘Rain on Fire’, ‘Hanging in the Wire’, ‘Pour the Wine’.

That these largely ‘unknown’ songs (not ‘new’ songs) were so well received on the night goes to show what an incredible songwriter & craftsmen he is.

Dave kindly signed his ‘Beside You – 30 years of hits’ double-CD for me. I have been listening to it ever since. Not so much CD1 with all the ‘hits’, but more CD2 that contains the (previously ‘unknown’ for the most part) songs mentioned above.

If Dave hadn’t played these less familiar songs here, I never would have known or listened to them. Now that I know & love them, that would be a travesty.

While you should definitely purchase this CD if you like DD (and you will probably only find it online or instore at Marbecks or Real Groovy)…that is not the point of this post.

The point is – Try-new-things.

Food

Music

Wine

Comedy

Walks

Places

Points of view

People

Books

Listen to Blindman’s Bend or Belltower and you will see why.

This recipe came from our friend and Healthy Food Guide editor Nikki Bezzant.

If you want a quick, easy, tasty, nutritious & inexpensive dish the family will love, try this…

I bet that after you have, like me you will add it to your repertoire!
Would love to know if you enjoy it,
Cheers

Darryl Soljan
Ascension Wine Estate

Chief Bottle Washer and part-time home chef

Harissa & Yoghurt Chicken with rice (serves a hungry 4 people)

Prep time – 10-15 minutes

Cooking time – 40 mins

8 chicken thighs (skin off, bone in)
1 cup plain unsweetened yoghurt (can be low fat if you wish)
2 Tbsp Harissa (a North African chilli paste you can find at the supermarket)
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 cup rice
1 cup mixed frozen veges (like Chuckwagon mix – corn, peas, carrot, capsicum, etc)

1. Mix the yoghurt, harissa, cumin & coriander together in a large bowl.
2. Dip each chicken piece into the bowl and fully coat it in the mixture, and place on a baking tray.
3. Bake at 200 C for 35-40 minutes, or until golden and cooked through.
4. Toward the end of the chicken cooking, prepare your rice.
5. Simply cook your rice and set aside for a few minutes while you cook your frozen veges.
6. Drain the veges and stir them through the rice.
7. Serve the chicken on top of the rice, with a garnish of spring onions and red capsicum (when they aren’t $4 each!)

The Media lives on bad news. Its a sad fact of life. Even sadder is that we buy it and tune into it – without demand for bad news the media would need to change its tune.

It’s not gonna happen – human nature seems attracted to knowing about the suffering of others.

So, here is a TRUE GOOD NEWS STORY that happened recently at Ascension Wine Estate.

Probably no one will read it, being good news and all.

Recently I was asked to contact a guest by phone after a visit to Ascension.

When I occasionally get these requests, 99% of the time I am phoning somebody who was not 100% satisfied with their experience here. Fair enough, we appreciate the opportunity to put things right.

So, I phone Fran as requested. A bubbly voice answers and I introduce myself.

AND THEN I AM BLOWN AWAY! Read the rest of this entry »

When was the last time you praised a complete stranger?

With the Rugby World Cup here this year ‘hospitality’ in its various forms is a big topic. Regardless of the year, ‘hospitality’ is a major employer and contributor to the NZ economy.

As owners of a wine and ‘hospitality’ business ourselves we take a special interest.

The NZ ‘way’ is not to make a fuss and this also means that compared to many other cultures we are less likely to ‘complain’ – at least directly to the person or business you aren’t happy about (we will of course tell as many other people as we can).

This was the topic of what I believe was a very disappointing NZ Herald editorial recently that encouraged NZ’ers to ‘get out there and really complain about bad service’.

Read the rest of this entry »

With summer here you will be enjoying plenty of cold wine.

Chances are though that it is TOO cold!

You have paid good money for your wine. If you want to get full bang for your buck and taste all the aromas and flavours you have paid for, don’t plan to do so by pulling it out of your fridge at 4 degrees C. That is way too cold for anything other than sparkling wines.

White wines and Rose at this time of year generally just need an hour in the fridge. When you start serving the bottle either pop it in an ice bucket or return it to the fridge.

Don’t believe me? Try this.

Read the rest of this entry »

I ask myself this both as a winemaker and as a person who loves experiences – and giving experiences to other people.

Like most guys in their 20’s and early 30’s, I loved spending money on ‘things’. But as I discovered that things quickly tarnish and depreciate (I mean intrinsically as opposed to financially), I also discovered that experiences actually ‘appreciate’.

As a family, that’s how we tend to spend our ‘disposable’ money now. Sometimes we might buy a ‘thing’ but usually only if it’s part of an ‘experience’.

Read the rest of this entry »

As a small business we can’t afford to take out full page ads in the Herald or 30-second TV commercials. Their days are numbered anyway.

Like most enterprises we need to make every dollar really work.

‘Marketing’ is not rocket science (which is just as well for me). Instead a lot of it is actually ‘doing’ something as opposed to ‘thinking about doing something’. Doing something, even at 50%, achieves more than not doing something at 100%

Here is an example of how I recently turned a $35 bottle of Ascension wine into what will end up being worth over $300,000 to us, plus even more for our local economy. That is $9,000 for $1 invested!

Read the rest of this entry »

Doctors have been known to ‘prescribe’ a glass of wine. The health benefits of moderate consumption of red wine in particular have been scientifically demonstrated.

That is not what this post is about, but it IS doctor related and I believe it’s the MOST IMPORTANT post I have written to date! Read the rest of this entry »

Planning a wedding? Got a staff Christmas function to arrange later in the year? Family birthday celebration or christening to arrange?

Whatever the event, there will be a bunch of people there who will need feeding and watering to some extent.

I am regularly asked how much wine to buy for a party, wedding, function, event… and how much of each type.

Now of course every situation and group of people is different but below is my ’magic formula’ for working out how much wine to serve – magic because it is usually pretty accurate!

Read the rest of this entry »

Richard Prebble wrote a book called “I’ve Been Thinking”. I haven’t read it but I am guessing it is quite a short book.

I have decided that from time to time I will write a short Blog entry called “I’ve Been Drinking”. It will be shorter even than Richard’s book and way more interesting!

I do drink a fair amount of wine. Let’s call it ‘work’ because that’s what I call it. I am always happy to do overtime!

I drink mainly non-Ascension wine to benchmark where we are at, to learn what is happening elsewhere, and of course I do get a wee bit of enjoyment from this ‘work’ as well.

Lots of people ask me what I drink, which are my favourite wines. Well, I am actually Read the rest of this entry »