With the Yuletide holiday on the horizon, and the reason to pour libations becomes a natural order, the launch of the Jamaica Observer’s Salut! Wine and Champagne Week, sponsored by Scotiabank, was well-timed on Monday evening, as OPA! Greek Restaurant hosted a wine tasting of selections from its Greece-imported red, white and rosé portfolio.

Affable host Alexx Antaeus, who opened the doors of his Hope Road-located Greek eatery a year earlier, welcomed a hand-picked gathering of Scotiabank executives, headed by Monique Todd, vice-president, marketing, public and corporate affairs, as well as Observer execs, and wine purveyors from J Wray & Nephew, Betco and Select Brands for a taste of Greece.

Paired alongside each poured wine (that included such whites as My Big Fat Greek Wine, reds the likes of Hatzimichalis Kapnias, and such rosés as Lafkiotis Kleoni) was a choice sampling of Grecian fare from the in-house menu, ranging from octapodi (grilled octopus with red wine vinegar and virgin olive oil) and keftedakia (Greek-styled meatballs baked in a caramelised tomato sauce) to decadent desserts as baklava (filo layered with chopped walnuts and sweetened with honey).

The charmer of an evening, bristling with lively conversation and fantastic fare, culminated with the cutting of pâtissière Nadene Lazarus’s Salut! two-tiered chocolate and passion fruit cake, and promises by many for return engagements.

Here’s to Salut!

— Omar Tomlinson

(PHOTOS: GARFIELD ROBINSON)