By Dave Swinfen
The high-class satisfaction of balancing the delicate flavours of your favourite meat or fish with a truly great bottle of wine is the essence of enjoying gastronomy. SideView took a five-day wine-tasting trip care of Agoda.com and Bangkok Airways, and set about rediscovering oenology and wine pairing in a setting of absolute luxury in North Phuket.
Phuket Island is a place which has worked hard over recent years to establish itself as a high-class destination. Many guests return year after year to revel in its excellent seafood, uncluttered roads, great opportunities for enjoying water sports and a very good choice of upmarket resort options.
The reason for our trip is really rather specific. SideView has four back-to-back nights of wine tasting to enjoy, under the title of “Grapes and Grazing”; an international celebration of excellent wines and gourmet dining.”
This is an event which eschews the virtues of the norm, with four very unique wine brands on display; renowned Australian maker, Peter Lehmann, vivacious Italian marque, Frescobaldi, the diverse collection of Majella, and the ever-popular New Zealand exporter, Spy Valley. Whilst I am no stranger to the concept of wine pairing, what fascinated me about this trip was the chance to be able to hear chief oenologists from the gathered winemakers talk to each other to discus how they felt about each type of wine.
This very special week allowed guests to sample these oenological delights in four very distinct properties in the North Phuket Resorts portfolio. Indeed, the resort group motto is, “Discovering sophistication in a most idyllic location.”
Each night featured a VIP menu, a selection of the best wines produced by a single house, and a new resort to enjoy them in. They included the well-equipped Renaissance, the beachside Sala residences, the stylish JW Marriott, and finally, the superb luxury private villas of Anantara. This last locale is truly a stand-out. It features private villas arranged over a large plot which immediately summons the sensation of a jungle adventure; wooden boardwalk bridges with tiki lamps on either handrail; a treetop bar overlooking the suitably green-tinged lakes, and reception areas with no air conditioning. This is pretty much what I want from my island escape; a feeling of isolation, but access to every creature comfort imaginable within the villa itself. The private pools are breathtaking, with a submerged bathtub and causeways which meet with full-length patios, allowing VIP guests to access the pool from anywhere within the villa.
The wine tastings took place in the evenings, which meant ample opportunity for discovering Phuket’s myriad of high-class visitor attractions in the daytime. A trip to the South East, with its coral shallows and well-developed tourist areas will cater to your scuba and snorkelling fantasies. If you enjoy photography, then a round trip on the coastal sweepers will offer plenty of opportunities for some nice wide-angle landscape images to take away as keepsakes.
Make sure you pay a visit to the North’s Khao Rang, where you can enjoy a cool glass of wine under the watchful gaze of the playful Pig-tailed Macaque monkeys, who have set up camp around the local spirit house! Otherwise, short daytime adventuring by road offers a seemingly endless chance for you to waft in chauffeur-driven comfort, to lunch in the lavish surroundings of Andara, on to the coveted Blue Elephant restaurant; a recently renovated country property with an exquisite dining room and selection of local food.
One senses as you venture around the island that significant efforts are being made to move the whole Phuket experience up several notches. This is a now a resort island which can be enjoyed by those of us with a higher expectation for the VIP experience. If you have not ventured this way for a number of years, it certainly pays to reacquaint yourself with the finer things in life, and Phuket, with its renewed focus on the five-star and the high-end, is now the perfect place to get away for your own week of unsurpassed food, and the enjoyment of Heaven’s nectar; incredible and newly discovered wines!
