Invivo in the Chapel for Christmas

Invivo Wines celebrated being Chapel's "wine of the month" with a 'Ponsonby Christmas Long Lunch' on Friday 18th December, with a four course Kiwi Christmas meal created by Chapel chef Luke Dallow, and wine-matched to Invivo wines.

Winemakers Tim Lightbourne and Rob Cameron welcomed guests to long tables set festively inside the Ponsonby bistro. Tim said they had a lot to celebrate, with Invivo being wine of the month at Chapel and at Sale St bars, and completely selling out their October shipment to the UK of 14,000 bottles. Selling at 9 pounds a bottle -  the average New Zealand wine retails around 6 pounds 20p  - certainly proves its popularity and saleability; a great achievement many winemakers would be grateful for at the moment.

Below: Tim and Rob from Invivo with Jillian de Beer, wearing Zambesi. 

Below left: Zambesi's Neville Findlay at the lunch. Neville's favourite Invivo drop is their Pinot Gris, notwithstanding that the Sophie's Rose (now sold out) is named for his daughter. Zambesi designed the bottle labels for Invivo and are just one of the artistic colabs that Invivo is taking part in, fostering its relationship and tight links between art, fashion and wine. Watch this space for a future colab in 2010 with artists for a charity project.

Chapel's Luke, and Casey, serving Invivo at the bar.

The first course, a prawn cocktail, was matched with the 2009 Pinot Gris.

The second course saw an enormous honey glazed ham carved in front of guests with an assortment of seasonal vegetables and salads on platters, wine-matched to Invivo Malborough Sauvignon Blanc 2009. This wine won a gold medal in the International Aromatics Competition and was one of Winestate Magazine's top 5 Sauvignon Blancs of 2009.

What a cracker; the Invivo long lunch.

 Words and photos, Megan Robinson 20 December 2009