Olivia Hotel & Vanguardnist Fruitful Pursuit

Fruitful Pursuit, the wine event business, is holding something they call Winemakers by the Fire at the Olivia Hotel on Friday evenings. It is located on Hutt St., a five-minute, three block walk. We come for the June 6 event with Vanguardist wines.

When we first lived here, this place was an upmarket gourmet pizza restaurant. It is now a small restaurant/pub. Perhaps a contributing factor to the demise of the pizza business is that the place has a horrible traffic pattern. One enters through a small hall, must traverse a sitting room before finding the bar. The restaurant is in the rear.

As they pour one wine after another, the New Zealand born winemaker, Michael Corbett, talks about them. We have seen quite a few winemakers discuss their wines. He is not very good at this. He doesn't say much about the specifics of the wines but talks more about how he gets bored making the same stuff and is constantly changing his line and experimenting.

The event is held in this cozy room and we manage seats next to the winemaker and in front of the fireplace on this cold evening. With the noise coming from the bar, we can barely hear the winemaker even sitting next to him.