Fifty Riviera owners settled into the Academy of Enjoyment marquee at the Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show with little idea of what lay ahead. What unfolded across the next hour was Dare to Pair, a brand-new event created as part of the 2025 Riviera Festival of Boating, built around four boutique Queensland wines and four chef-crafted dishes designed specifically to complement them.
The partnership at the heart of the event grew from a straightforward brief. Riviera approached celebrated culinary artist Sally Jenyns and asked her to develop a tasting menu drawing inspiration from the wines of Granite Belt winery Savina Lane Wines. Co-owner and vigneron Brad Hutchings rose to the occasion, assembling a selection of boutique varietals that sit well outside the mainstream, far removed from anything as familiar as a Shiraz or a Chardonnay. When the delivery arrived and Sally tasted what Brad had sent, something clicked. A genuine creative collaboration took shape, one that reached beyond matching flavours to weave together stories, philosophy, and shared passion.
“It just… clicked,” Brad recalled. “We weren’t just pairing wine and food—we were building a story together.”
The Saturday session opened with a vibrant ocean trout and kingfish crudo, lifted with pink grapefruit and fennel, served alongside Savina Lane's 2023 Fiano Quintessence. The wine's pear, melon, and stone fruit character, underpinned by balanced acidity, proved a natural companion to the dish's brightness. Brad used the moment to reframe the whole idea of pairing for his audience. "Historically, foods and wines came from the same place, the same season. That's where pairing began. But today, with global choices, people need guidance."
Coconut curry prawns followed, creamy and boldly spiced, matched with Petit Manseng, a full-bodied white varietal that few in the room would have encountered before. Its quince and pineapple notes played against the curry's warmth in a way that drew the crowd into genuine contemplation. At one point the marquee went completely quiet.
Sally knew exactly what that silence meant. "It's a reverent kind of silence," she said, drawing on her years cooking aboard luxury charter boats, where that same hush had always been the clearest signal that guests were utterly absorbed in what they were eating and drinking.
The third course brought spiced lamb on hummus, finished with a touch of yoghurt and preserved lemon, paired with Savina Lane's Graciano, a variety Brad has nicknamed Lady of Spain. Aged for 14 months in French oak, it delivered supple tannins and a thread of black pepper complexity that suited the dish's warm spicing. Sally described Brad's wines in terms of personality, each one a distinct character in need of the right companion at the table.
The final pairing closed proceedings with Pecorino Romano goat cheese set against the rich, red-fruited Montepulciano, Force of Nature. Long after the last plates were cleared, guests remained in their seats, deep in conversation with Brad and Sally and reluctant to let the experience end. Mark, a Riviera owner from Perth, put it plainly: "I had heard of food and wine pairing but had never experienced it. I was truly blown away."
For both Sally and Brad, Dare to Pair was never simply a culinary exercise. It was a shared celebration of quality, authenticity, and the pleasure of discovery, values that sit comfortably alongside the Riviera name. In a single hour, they took their guests on a journey across global flavours anchored firmly in Australian terroir.
