Battle of the Booze

We CANNOT believe its been a week since our 1st battle of the booze event!!
On Friday 2nd of Dec, together with Luvians St Andrews,  we hosted the first (of hopefully many) Battle of the Booze. It was a night of bloody good food, fricken fabulous wine & beer pairings, all things that make a chilly december night worth braving the cold!!

The night consisted of 5 amazing  courses (if we say so ourselves) and both matching wine & beer flights!! Wine and beer flights were specifically chosen for each dish by Luvians, Archie & Christina.  So there was also a Husband Vs Wife side competition going on.
​Our guests of the evening then decided at the end of each course which pairing they believed worked best with the dish! 
At the end of the night we tallied the scores to reveal the winner - Grape Vs Grain 

​Keep reading to find out who won......

Scallops W' Apple 3 Ways 

Delicious seared scallops with fried apple, natural apple slices & apple puree. 
Archie was pairing all beers for the evening and chose to serve with Burning Skys, Saison Le Printempts for this course. 

Burning Skys Saison Le Printempts is this years seasonal beer. With refreshing notes of citrus, peaches, rosehip & vanilla. These light fruity flavours pair wonderfully with the delicate meat of the scallop and the sweetness of the apple 3 ways. 

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Salmon Sashimi W' Wasabi Mayo & Pickled Cucumber 

Showing off our A grade salmon perfectly with Sashimi. The heat from the wasabi and the sweet tones from the pickled cucumber marry in amazingly with the salmon. 

Christina chose the wine pairings for the event and in this case chose the Iona, Mr. P knows Pinot Noir for this course. Light and attrictive raspberry, cherry & pepper spice notes work together with the sugar from the pickle solution that we created for the cucumber.
The spice from the Pinot Noir & the wasabi mayo also cleanses the palette keeping the dish really refreshing. 

Hake W' Artichoke & Spiced Lentils 

Chargrilled Hake served on a bed of spiced lentils, artichoke crisps & artichoke puree. Paired with Samuel Smiths Nut Brown Ale and
Sancerre White Wine! 
The Nutty ale really worked with the lentils and the sauvingnon pairs perfectly to white fish. Grapes grown in limescale clay in France really bring out the flavours from the spiced lentils.

Famous Humble Haddock & Chips

We cannot possibly hold an event and not serve our famous fish & chips!! 
Luvians paired this with sparkling rose wine & a citrus pale ale called Happy Chappy!
Both pairings here are designed to cut through the fat from the batter & the 2x fried chips! The Bubbles from the sparkling & the citrus from the pale ale both do this perfectly. 

Pear Poached in Mulled Wine W' Cinnamon Ice Cream

So for this final course we decided to give a little taste into our new christmas menu. - Available now, just FYI - Poached pear in mulled wine served with Luvians cinnamon ice cream.  
Which Christina matched perfectly to a delicious sweet, rich dessert wine and Archie also matched amazingly to Wild beer companies, Gazillionaire. 
​Rich, complicated stouts are the perfect taste to end the night. Full of flavour and sweet enough to satisfy even the most sweet tooth. 

Both Grain & Grape and Husband & Wife put up a great fight!! Both were eager to win but it was all down to our guests to decide!
After the last course we counted the votes and tallied the scores and...........
​the winner was...........    Grape!!
Christina won the over all competition with her immaculate wine pairings!!
Our guests felt that the wine chosen paired much better to the majority of our seafood dishes on the night. 

This was an amazing event, one that we hope to make a Tailend tradition. We had so much fun and everyone left with full tummies and just a little bit tiddly- just what we wanted. 
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We would like to extend a huge thank you to Archie & Christina from Luvians for all their hard work on the night. Both pairings were amazing buttt... Christina cinched it with the wines! Better luck next year Archie!!

Photo Credit to Gastronim Agency