Best of the Maldives: Brazilian Wines – Constance Halaveli

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Constance Halaveli Brazilian wines

If you prefer your seaside fun in the sun to be more loud, boisterous and frolicsome, then Brazil’s Carvinale starting today offers the energetic antonym to Maldivian idyll. Especially with World Cup Rio just weeks away and the Summer Games in Rio next on the Olympiad calendar, all things Brazilian will have a bit more cachet and buzz these days.

For a taste of effervescent Brazil in the tranquillity of the Maldives, Constance Halaveli’s sommelier Cedric Jacob (see above) offers a distinctive collection of Amazonian varietals which he shared with us during our trip…

“The wine makers that I mention is Lidio Carraro. A pretty new winery because they open in 1998 and a pure family business that we could say ‘Boutique’ winery. What I particularly enjoyed while tasting those wines was the fruit character and the purity of the wine. I love wine that express themselves naturally without adding any ‘make-up’, these kind of wines that you can literally bite in the fruit while drinking it. Among the one I tasted, here was my favorite:

  • Lidio Carraro Davidas Chardonnay;
  • Lidio Carraro Davidas Merlot / Cabernet Sauvignon;
  • Lidio Carraro Agnus Merlot;
  • Lidio Carraro Elos Touriga Nacional / Tannat

It is actually funny but since we were talking about all the things that are going to happen in Brazil, especially the World Cup, I just rode that Lidio Carraro became the official sponsor for this Event in 2014. “

Obrigado!

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Best of the Maldives: Rare Scotch – One & Only Reethi Rah

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Macallan 50 year old

 

“The ev’ning gilds the ocean’s swell; All creatures joy in the sun’s returning.” – Robert Burns

Break out your neeps and tatties and put e’ haggis on de fire. It’s Burns Night. A chance to celebrate all things Scottish. And for an obligatory oblation as rare and mellifluous as Rabbie’s own verse, One & Only Reethi Rah serves a 50 year old Macallan. Not sure what Reethi charges for a wee dram, but the bottle retails for £30,000.

“Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive, Bethankit! hums.”

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Best of the Maldives: Secret Bar – LUX* Maldives

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LUX Maldives secret bar

Secret bar! ‘Nuff said.

That was certainly the reaction by the TripAdvisor Maldives Forum when word got out about the ‘Secret Bar’ at LUX* Maldives. It’s just one of the countless surprises in the neverending adventure that is a stay at LUX* resort.

The ‘Secret Bar’ is on wheels so it can change location daily. When our family would visit the Maldives each year with our children, one of the ritual highlights was a treasure hunt we would stage for them on our own buccaneers isle. If we stayed at LUX* back then, I know that one way I would get an extra hour’s sleep and get them nice a tuckered out would be send them on a daily sortie to find Dad’s ‘Secret Bar’.

It works like a public mini-bar on an honesty system (genius) and so far they haven’t had any problems with unsavoury scallywags pirating liquid lucre.

Shiver me timbers! Me’ll have two black jacks’ of grog.

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Best of the Maldives: Breakfast Juice – Soneva Gili

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Soneva Gili breakfast juices

This is photo of Soneva Gili by Six Senses is courtesy of TripAdvisor.

If you prefer your revitalising fluids inside you rather than around you, then you might want to start you day off at Soneva Gili. I was first alerted to Soneva Gili’s exceptional juice array by Sakis in a Trip Advisor Forum post where he noted proposed Gili as one of the best breakfast buffets in the Maldives: “One of the best is Soneva Gili for breakfast buffet, the choice among 60 fresh juices makes it also unique.” Few people have seen more Maldive resorts than Sakis so it’s a pretty compelling endorsement to me.

Their juice menu is full of healthy and tasty concoctions like…

  • “Ocean Basic” – Apple and Carrots
  • “Morning Berry” – Raspberry, Apple, Orange, Spirulina
  • “Bloody Carrot” – Carrot, Beetroot, Celery, Lime).
  • “Green ‘n Pear It” – Broccoli, Celery, Pear (great name for anything with broccoli in it).

As you can see, their offerings include veggie juices as well as fruit. Each item on the menu also has a complete nutritional breakdown as well as notations on benefits to Energy, Detox, Immunity, Degestion and Skin.

Soneva Gili juices

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Best of the Maldives: Whiskey – Island Hideaway

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Island Hideaway Meeru Bar whiskey

“Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o’ a grace
As lang’s my arm.”

– Robert Burns, Address to a Hagis

Scots at heart around the world will be raising a wee dram in honour of ‘Rabbie Burrrns’ tonight. And if you are in the Maldives, then the best place for a Burns Supper is Island Hideaway with its Meeru Bar which boasts “the largest malt whiskey selection in the Indian Ocean.”  Indeed, they serve up 60 different types of whiskey including Macallan 25 Year and Handmade 1976 Vintage Bourbon. The bar manager tells me that Macallan and Glen Moray are the most popular.

If you are having difficulty deciding on which malt to fill your glass with such a baffling array of options, then I suggest the following handy guide – Single Malt Whiskey Flavour Map.

To the health of the women!

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Best of the Maldives: Vodka – W Retreat

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W Retreat vodka

 

Today is the Red Bull Air Race over Hulhumale capping off yesterday’s Red Bull Air Show (see photo below)

The classic, near iconic, Red Bull cocktail is the ‘Vodka Red Bull’. And if you are looking for the best place for vodka, the barn storming winner is without doubt the W Retreat. Specifically, it’s night club ’15 Below’ which prides itself on its dozens of varieties of vodka on offer in its vodka wall (see photo above).

Their most unusual vodka is Roberto Cavalli from Italy. Their most popular vodka cocktail is ‘Kiwi Spring’.

Right up there with the Ice Bar at the Ice Hotel as one of the best vodka bars in the world.

Check out series of videos from the event on YouTube.

 

Red Bull Air Show

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Best of the Maldives: Hot Drinks Cafe – Kandooma

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Kandooma Bokkuraa Cofffee Club

 

At first glance, one would expect that refreshing pina coladas and tropical coolers would be more the order of the day than a steaming mug of brew. Coffee and tea is more the craving for those colder, cloudier climes (like today which saw our first frost of the year at our home in England).

But for those visitors like myself who hail from those areas, our caffeine and other pet addictions don’t necessarily disappear despite the sunshine. I still love a satisfying latte in the morning or a cappuccino to top off a lovely meal. I find that one of the find things I have when I get back home is a fresh cup of home brewed coffee as one of the things that I miss during my trips to the Maldives. Relatively few resorts get this important beverage just right by the standards of the European and American cafe and Starbucks culture (though the rise and popularity of Nespresso machines have become de rigeur accessories for a 5-star room these days). Those that do don’t have anywhere near the decadent array of choice that we are also spoiled by. But Kandooma has introduced its Bokkuraa Coffee Club with a broad range of specialty coffees and teas served in an stylish outdoor cafe. It even has soy milk.

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Best of the Maldives: Re-fresh-ment – Kandooma

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Kandooma orange juicer

Kuramathi wasn’t the first resort to offer locally made beverage. While coffee presses are all the rage at the luxury resorts, Kandooma offers a more natural orange juice press in every room. My wife and I enjoyed fresh OJ the mornings we were there and it was a real re-FRESH-ing treat and change from the bottled, processed stuff normally found in a mini-bar.  As the old jingle goes, ‘A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine’…and that would be a real shame in the Maldives!

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