Boutique wines paired beautifully with gourmet eats, alongside brisk convo at ‘Fire Down Below’ – a fab social hosted by The Wine Shop at Lady Musgrave Road last Sunday. Organised by Wine Shop’s partners Ahmet ‘Ossie’ Osman and Sean Gonzales, the event scored unanimous praise from the assembled party, who incidentally were members of the almost year-old wine bar.

Seated about the grounds lit by tiki lamps, and featuring a bamboo swing here and live food stations there, guests imbibed pedigree wines from New Zealand and France, in-between forkfuls of seared Asian snapper, grilled herb chicken, beef tenderloin, and chicken pasta whipped up by chefs from Top Shelf.

As we caught up with Osman over glasses of Chateau Couronneau, he told Thursday Life that Sunday’s event -an ode to sautéed food and wines – marked the fourth social hosted by the Club for its members. “We enjoy food and wine and love to pair them together, and want to expose more people to this kind of dining experience, especially with wines,” Osman disclosed. Next up for the Wine Club, Osman revealed, are two food-pairing events: a wine cruise in September that will have a seafood-centric menu followed by a Harvest Supper in late October or early November that will cap their social calendar. The latter supper event, he said, is meant to celebrate the end of grape-picking season for the winemakers in villages in Italy and France.

If you’re interested in attending the next Wine Shop social, you can find them on Facebook, send an email to wineranch46@gmail.com or stop by the shop at Southdale Plaza

— Omar Tomlinson