Every good restaurant – particularly those with an AGFG Chef Hat – has a dedicated Sommelier, or Beverage Manager taking care of a carefully curated wine list to accompany the menu.
Who better to ask what’s trending in the vino world right now than these knowledgeable wine buffs? Cheers to our ‘Wine of the Week’ series, where we highlight particular wines on the radar of restaurants around the country.
Classic yet unexpected, Heritage Wine Bar on St Georges Terrace in the heart of Perth’s CBD is the perfect balance of old and new. Set in one of the city’s most beautiful heritage venues, think Donnybrook sandstone, Jarrah wainscots, harlequin floors and a handcrafted pewter bar top. Pouring one of Australia’s best wine lists with more than 100 wines by the glass, celebrate wine masters while exploring emerging and new-wave producers.
In charge of the wine list is Sommelier Lisa Chambers, whose curiosity and a keen appetite for the stories behind the bottle have given her a special knack for great finds. Sourcing and maintaining an ever-evolving trove of wines for the bar, bottle shop and tasting nights, it’s a role that continually tests Lisa’s know-how in the best of ways.
She recommends pairing the wine bar’s dessert of strawberries, almond and tapioca pudding with a glass of 2019 Braida Brachetto d’Aqui.
"Everything about this dessert and wine pairing makes me smile,” she explains. "Beautiful local strawberries macerated and cooked through with tapioca pearls and topped with strawberry syrup, strawberry sorbet, smoked almonds and rosemary oil, paired with a delightfully aromatic sweet red wine made in the frizzante (slightly sparkling) style.”
Braida Brachetto 'Aqui is produced by Rafaella & Giussepe Bologna, the third generation of a family committed to innovation and the future in the picturesque Rocchetta Hills of the Monferrato area, Piemonte.
It shines a bright ruby colour in the glass, while the nose is youthful, energetic and generous, bursting with aromas of fresh wild red strawberries, violet and dried rose. It is soft on the palate, mimicking the nose with its vibrant fruitfulness and finishes refreshingly, minerally and long.
"This wine is playful, alluring and serious all at the same time,” Lisa says.
Fun Fact:
There are suggestions the ancestry of Brachetto d'Aqui dates back to Roman times with Vinum Aquense, a wine said to have aphrodisiac powers!
Legend has it that both Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony sent wineskins of the Vinum Aquense to Egypt to the court of Cleopatra in advance of their arrival; the Queen was said to have used the sweet Brachetto to rekindle the passion of her lovers.
