Wine and Food Pairing at Hatten Wines Bali

Wine.. Yes! Everyone knows what wine is but so few of us know anything about wine and food pairing. What kind of wine it is, which food is best with red or white wine, and things like that. I do enjoy wine and drink wine sometimes but I admit I know nothing about wine until I join this class.

Lucky us! Hatten Wines invited Bali Beauty Blogger to experience this thing. If you drink wine, you must've heard about Hatten Wines. It's a Bali's own winery that been making wine in Bali since 1994. As you know, wine is usually made in subtropical country, but they succeed to make wine in this kind of hot tropical weather. No wonder they were chosen as the Winery of The Year 2017 by Asian Wine Review.

Pretty kitchen with Gaggenau

Hatten Wines has a big office in Sanur but it's not an ordinary office, it's a facility with  a warehouse style building, bubbling with activities: wine classes, wine tasting, private dining room, wine distribution offices and a new wine lifestyle boutique housing its own wine accessories line. I'm in love with the architecture and interior! They also partnered up with German luxury home appliances Gaggenau, high end glassmakers Schott Zwiesel and elegant cabinetry makers, Toto Kitchen.

Source: Majalah Laras

This new building goes far beyond being merely an office facility: by conceptualizing the building as a wine hub, Hatten Wines is expanding its reach to its clients, with education in mind. The 21 year old company has now set its eyes on the next generation of wine professionals, wine connoisseurs and amateurs, by creating a venue for training which is opened to all programs related to wine and food and beverage, from the basics of wine to Sommelerie classes ranging from basics of wine to Sommelerie with the Asia Wine Institute.

Wine Display at Entrance

We can have free wine tasting here before buying. If you're a beginner or new to wine, this will help a lot. As you know, there's no other place that serves sample for wine, right. Try Alexandria, it's my favorite of all time.

Outdoor Area inside the Building

Sheila, the head marketing of Hatten Wines kindly greeted us and brought us around for a building tour this unique building. I've never thought that they have outdoor area inside, so unique and beautiful. I can imagine I'm having a day party here, it's the perfect place!

The wine and food pairing was held at the private dining area. This room is so comfy and feels warm inside with all the wooden interior and modern kitchen by Gaggenau. Hosting exclusive dinners with our home chef or featuring guest chefs, the Private Dining Room boasts a 1.8 ton iron wood tables made of solid beams, and comfortable sofa seating.

We started by having six glasses of wine to go! At first, we learned about the name, wine characteristic and how to describe wine. It's not that easy and everything has its meaning, never thought of that before. I'll share to you some things that I've learned there.

Glass

Wine glass is expensive. Everyone knows that, but why?

It's not a regular glass, a good wine glass is made from crystal and has pores so it will help the aroma to come out even more. To get better taste, don't forget to swirl before drinking and don't hold the bowl part, just the foot only. One thing to remember, wash the wine glass only with warm water, detergent can damage the crystal pores.

Wine Taste

The taste of the wine can be described as light, medium to full bodied. The light bodied wine are more delicate and clean while full bodied wine has bold and strong taste. Put on paper with writing on it or your watch at the bottom of the 45 degrees laying wine glass, if you still can see it clearly then it's light bodied, if you can see but not clear then it's medium bodied while the full bodied means you can't see a thing.

Sometimes we'd like to say that wine is sour, but it's not the right term to describe it. When it's sour, we can say it's 'refreshing' and the astringent taste can be said as 'high in tanin'. Tanin describes how much the wine has skin contact, that's why red wine is higher in tanin than white wine.

Wine Color

Not as simple as red and white only, wine has something called clarity. It can be seen on the point of the wine when you lay your wine glass for 45 degrees. The wine color will be shown more, Chardonay is more gold and Alexandria is greener.

Hatten Wines - Tunjung Sparkling Wine

Miss champagne? Try sparkling wine. I really love this sparkling wine, so perfect for hot summer weather in Bali. It's so refreshing and soothing at the same time, great for celebration too. It's a good pairing with salty food because it's lowering the acidity from the wine while sweet food is the opposite.

Two Islands - Chardonay

It's a full bodied white wine and dry which means it's strong and not sweet. Two Islands is kinda different with Hatten Wines because the grapes comes from Australia while the process is here in Bali, that's why the price is higher too.

Hatten Wines - Alexandria

Definitely my favorite!
It's a light bodied wine and semi sweet. Almost perfect for any kind of food especially with Asian food which has strong taste. This is their best selling in Bali, no doubt! Who can resist a light and sweet wine with summer weather like this. I can't!

Two Islands - Pinot Noir

I like this red wine too. It's a light bodied red wine and semi sweet too. Feels so refreshing and a perfect pair with spicy food.

Two Islands - Shiraz

This is the strongest wine I've ever tasted. I'm a fan of white wine so red wine isn't really my thing but I do enjoy them too. This gives a strong feels on the throat after drinking it because it's a full bodied red wine and spicy. It's a perfect pair for mild food.

Food pairing time! First, we tried the wine one by one then it's the protein and sauce time. They gave us 3 different protein (chicken, fish and beef) with 4 different sauces (rendang sauce, spicy coconut sauce, red wine sauce and butter rosemary). What I learned from this was doesn't matter what the protein was, it's all about the sauce. For long time, people always think that seafood goes well with white wine while beef goes with red. Nope! Something with heavy taste like rendang, balinese food, and butter goes well with white wine or light bodied red wine while something plain goes well with red wine (especially the full bodied one to balance the taste).

For my preference the perfect pair is:

- Spicy coconut sauce: Alexandria, Pinot Noir

- Butter rosemary: Alexandria, Sparkling

- Rendang sauce: Sparkling, Alexandria, Pinot Noir

- Wine sauce: Shiraz, Alexandria

Alexandria wins! as it's my favorite of all time..

Cute wine barrel at the dining room

Stairs to the reading area at the office, so cute!

With Mr Richard, the Director of Hatten Wines

Spotted some Two Islands at the office

Bali Beauty Blogger at Hatten Wines

Yes! It's a wrapped... Thanks Hatten Wines for the invitation. I'm having fun for sure and will come back to this place for sure! They can arrange dinner or party for you with food by request too, just contact them because this place is so comfy and beautiful for sure. Free flow wine? Why not..