In a dimly lit dining hall nestled within The Coppers restaurant, a quiet cultural exchange unfolded—fewer than three dozen guests gathered not for ceremony, but for communion over Argentina’s most prized grape: Malbec.
The event, hosted by Harbour Wines & Spirits, marked a sophisticated nod to World Malbec Day—not with speeches or spectacle, but with food, wine, and the subtle diplomacy that lives in shared taste. Behind the scenes, Harbour’s executive team partnered with Argentine Ambassador Marcelo Balbi Calvo to orchestrate an immersive culinary journey—a five-course evening where Malbec wasn’t poured, it was woven.
Guests didn’t simply drink wine—they experienced it. Each course offered a new encounter with the grape: from the soft sweetness of a Birds & Bees Malbec paired with warm fig bruschetta to the deeper complexities of Trivento Eolo Icon Malbec closing the night beside an Argentinian-style alfajor.
Chef Ramesh Maragh, known for his restraint and detail, treated each plate as a canvas for Malbec’s range. A caramelised onion soup fused with wine reduction, a salad where wine played hide and seek in its acidity, and mains that included pan-seared tenderloin and glazed salmon—all subtly laced with Malbec in both preparation and presentation.
“Wine belongs in the process, not just the glass,” Maragh noted quietly between courses. “It belongs in the soil, the steam, the sauce.”
Though not formally announced, the ambassador’s presence carried diplomatic weight. As he moved from table to table, wine in hand, he shared snippets of Malbec’s origins and its evolution in the high altitudes of Mendoza. “This grape is more than agriculture—it’s identity,” Calvo shared with one guest. “And tonight, it’s a bridge.”
Perhaps the most telling moment of the evening was not a toast, but a gesture—Calvo presenting Spence-Minott with a personal book on Malbec’s legacy, and in turn, receiving a bottle of Eolo, a symbolic exchange of history and hospitality.
The night ended not with applause, but silence—glasses emptied, plates cleared, and guests lingering a bit longer in the candlelight, perhaps unaware that what they’d just experienced was less a dinner, and more a dialogue between nations, held in the language of flavour.
