2005 may be seen as a turning point for the Australian wine industry – the year when surplus production, created by an export induced vine planting spree a decade earlier, finally began to take its toll on winemakers and grape growers while providing drinkers with a cornucopia of low priced wine.
The squeeze on margins, while […]
Shelmerdine Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2004 $24-$26
This was the Chateau Shanahan preferred wine of three mid-$20’s 2004 Yarra Valley pinots tasted recently. St Huberts 2004, while pleasant, captured little of pinot’s magic; Giant Steps 2004 presented the dark-berry fruit, power and gaminess of the variety – a very, very good wine on a quality par […]
After a half-decade absence, Wynns Coonawarra flagship reds are to be re-launched in March.
Once headline grabbers and eagerly sought by collectors, Wynns John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon and Wynns Michael Shiraz fizzled and faded at the height of the red-wine boom, giving up the game to a flood of new, mostly unknown $50 to $100 hopefuls.
Management’s […]
Leasingham Bastion Clare Valley Riesling 2005, Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 $10 to $14
What a terrific couple of new releases from Leasingham, the Clare Valley arm of Hardy Wine Company. The white delivers the freshness, delicacy and vitality of Clare riesling with that extra fruit power of the excellent 2005 vintage. It’s just perfect for the remaining […]
Victoria’s King Valley stretches northwards from the sub-Alpine country around Whitlands, at a chilly 800 metres above sea level, gradually descending and comparatively narrow, before fanning out over the hot Oxley plains around Milawa at around 170 metres.
Growing conditions vary greatly in this thirty kilometre long valley. Varying altitudes, rainfall, latitudes, soils and aspects produce […]
Krinklewood Vineyard Hunter Valley Chardonnay 2003 $25
This is a delicious example of how top-notch grapes and sensitive winemaking produce a first-class wine that’s truly expressive of the variety and region. Suzanne and Rod Windrim grew the fruit on their biodynamic Krinklewood vineyard at Broke in the lower Hunter Valley; Jim Chatto made the wine at […]
An air picture of Casella’s Yellowtail winemaking facilities shows rows of stainless steel tanks, each holding 1.14 million litres of wine! And there’ll soon be 68 of them.
Gigantic as they seem, they’ll hold less than half of the 200million litres of wine stored at this site – home to a brand launched in the USA […]
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 $21 to $30
City Supa Barn last weekend offered a sky-high stack of Wynns 2002 at $20.99 – a bargain price for this satisfying, long-cellaring Coonawarra classic. It was one of my twelve gold-medal rated vintages at a recent tasting of all the Wynns cabernets back to the 1954 vintage. […]
Grape production figures for Victoria’s King Valley (stretching thirty kilometres northwards up the King River roughly from Milawa at 170 metres above sea level to the Whitlands plateau at 800 metres) reveal the tiny scale of some the most interesting wines in the valley – tiny plots of Italian varieties like sangiovese, nebbiolo and arneis.
In […]
Pizzini King Valley Arneis 2005 $20, Verduzzo 2005 $18
The 2005s, due for release in February, taste even better than the lovely 2004s. Arneis, a Piedmontese variety, can be neutral but this one’s full of character with nashi-pear-like flavour and the extraordinarily zesty, pleasantly tart bite to make a mouth-watering aperitif or refreshing, all-purpose summer food […]
Morris Rutherglen Shiraz 2001 $12 to $16
While I suspect the extra bottle age has more to do with sluggish sales than maturation policy, I won’t argue – it’s just so rare to find maturing reds at the right price. A winner of a gold medal and trophy at last year’s Great Australian Shiraz Challenge, Morris […]
A number of readers have asked how to gain a better understanding of wine without wading through hundreds of books and journals. That’s too dry a route to knowledge they say. Perhaps they’re on the right track. For no matter how much reading you do, enlightenment lies inside the bottle.
Professional judges, tasting thousands of wines […]
Penley Estate Coonawarra Phoenix Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 $19.99
At last year’s Limestone Coast Show, Singapore based writer, Ch’ng Poh Tiong awarded Phoenix the International Judge’s Trophy as his favoured wine of the show. Together with James Halliday, we’d ranked it at the top of the small 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon class, noting its vibrant, sweet, fruity aroma […]
Hanging Rock Heathcote Shiraz 2003, about $55
This one’s got class stamped all over it – a wonderful red from one of Australia’s leading shiraz producing regions, stretched along the red-soils-above-Cambrian-bedrock of the Mount Camel Range, Victoria. The label declares an alcohol content of 15 per cent. But there’s nothing heavy about the wine. The colour’s […]
The release this week of the magnificent McWilliams Mount Pleasant Lovedale Semillon 2000, reminds us that greatness is often accompanied by idiosyncrasy.
And in the case of Hunter semillon, idiosyncrasy begins with a paradox. How can a comparatively delicate wine style emerge from such a warm, humid and wet climate? Haven’t we been told for decades […]
Hanging Rock Heathcote Cambrian Rise Shiraz 2003 $27
Winemaker John Ellis calls this the ‘son’ of Hanging Rock’s flagship $55 shiraz reviewed last week – and it is very much a chip off the old block. At half the price, it offers great value as it has the rich flavour, silky smoothness and finesse of Heathcote […]
If we are to believe the market, then it’s a big thumbs down to Wolf Blass Black Label red – a wine that bounced onto dinner tables in the mid seventies priced at a modest discount to Penfolds Grange, the most expensive Aussie red of the time.
It was a bold statement by Wolf Blass. Some […]
Wolf Blass Black Label Shiraz Cabernet Malbec 2002 $125
Black Label’s renaissance seems to have begun in about 1996 and to have gathered pace with the arrival of winemaker Caroline Dunn, the opening of a new small-batch cellar at the Blass winery in 2001, the encouragement of Fosters’ chief winemaker, Chris Hatcher, and the co-operation of […]
Each of Australia’s icon reds has a unique story – from the clear-sighted vision that sparked Grange’s steady march to international renown; to the brick-by-brick building of elegant classics like Cullens Margaret River Cabernet Merlot; to the bumpy, variable quality route traversed by Wolf Blass Black Label Cabernet Shiraz.
Blass’s flagship arrived with a thump and […]
Ravensworth Canberra District Marsanne 2005, Sangiovese 2005 $22
Two wines due for release on March 22nd confirm Bryan and Jocelyn Martin’s Ravensworth as one of Canberra’s defining labels. The Marsanne is a weighty, viscous and highly distinctive drop, bristling with delicious, vibrant, honeyed flavours. And the Sangiovese rates as one the best Australian shots I’ve seen […]
They say that history never repeats itself. But in the Barossa Valley, the grape oversupply crisis of the mid 1980s could be about to repeat itself.
This time around, it’s not just the small growers being caught in the spiralling price decline, but the owners of the broadacre plantings of the 1990s.
It’s in tough times like […]
Bridgewater Mill Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc 2005 $16 to $18
In general I’d rate Marlborough sauv blancs a country kilometre ahead of those from the Adelaide Hills. Marlborough’s offerings deliver buckets of pungent varietal character plus the full, juicy mid-palate richness often lacking in the local versions plus a unique, racy acidity. The 2005 vintage, however, […]
Surrounded by cries of doom and gloom and real pain being suffered by many winemakers and grape growers, it’s easy to overlook the huge and continuing success of Australia’s wine industry.
In many ways it’s a model, market-focused, export-driven agricultural industry, delivering, in the main, highly-value-added exports – totalling $2.8 billion dollars in the year to […]
Balnaves Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 about $35
2002 in Coonawarra was a small and very cool vintage. This produced many wines with great flavour concentration but also many cabernets showing the distinct leafy, green edge of under ripened fruit. Presumably through rigorous fruit selection, winemaker Pete Bissell sidestepped the latter problem to produce this particularly fragrant, […]
Turn your back on a pinot noir vine and it’s likely to mutate. No kidding. Not that it has much chance to these days because, like all grape vines, they’re bred pure from cuttings — avoiding natural reproduction and the mutation that does with it.
Thankfully French monks maintained pinot’s purity through the Middle Ages. And […]
Bay of Fires Tasmania Pinot Gris 2005 $27
Bay of Fires is the premium Tasmanian brand of The Hardy Wine Company, made in Tasmania by Fran Austin. Fran’s pinot gris – sourced from the Coal River Valley near Hobart and from the Tamar River, north of Launceston – possesses some of the underlying textural richness experienced […]
Last year I promised to come back with an extended shopping list of 2005 vintage Australian rieslings. As a group these present an extraordinary buying opportunity because they offer exceptional drinking and, in most cases, can be found at discounted prices in Australia’s extraordinarily competitive market.
Australia — and especially South Australia — has an abundance […]
The flavours found in Asian cuisine vary from the pure, unadorned simplicity of natural produce – as we see in Japanese food – to the most complex blends of meat, vegetable, fungus, spices, herbs and piquant sauces. The spectrum of textures is similarly wide, ranging from watery to soft and creamy to rubbery to hard […]
Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet 2003 $9 to $15
As regular cannon fodder in the Coles Myer’s First Choice versus Woolworths’ Dan Murphy discount war, Koonunga Hill’s price is periodically shot down to about $9 a bottle — hence the very large price variance encountered in retail outlets. The 2003 is another solid wine under this […]
Yalumba Eden Valley Wild Ferment Chardonnay 2005 $16 to $18
I’ve mentioned before the ‘trickle down effect’, where wineries spend decades developing their top wines at great expense and how this learning trickles down to lift the quality of cheaper wines. This is unquestionably the case with this wine – a junior sibling to Yalumba heavyweights […]
In late April The Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation tipped a 2006 grape harvest of around 1.96 million tonnes – about one per cent down on last year’s record harvest.
AWBC’s estimate includes the assumption that, just like last year, two to three per cent of the 2006 vintage will be left on the vine or […]
Leeuwin Estate Art Series Margaret River Chardonnay 2003 about $90
For around two decades Leeuwin’s Art Series has been the benchmark Australian chardonnay, albeit with a growing number of contenders. From personal experience, it has never disappointed. Indeed, in Langton’s masked classification tastings last year I scored the 2000, 2001 and 2002 vintages, respectively, 18.5, 19 […]
While older drinkers might remember Seppelt for everything from sherry to bubbly to long-lived reds, younger people may have noticed nothing more than the amazingly good reds and whites now appearing under its retro label.
This striking suite of wines from western and south western Victoria — while owing much to the current winemaking team – […]
Seppelt Coborra Pinot Gris 2005 $25 to $29
This is a striking and individual pinot gris that appeals as soon as it’s poured. The brilliant pale straw colour promises the great freshness that follows. There’s lots of aroma here with pear-like fruit and a mineral edge. The palate is intense, pear like, and very finely structured […]
Do we really need to breathe or decant high quality wines to get the most enjoyment from them? For most wines, the answer is no. Breathing is almost never necessary and often detrimental. And the only practical reason for decanting is to separate clear wine from sediment in the bottle.
The idea of breathing wine almost […]
Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 $19 to $25
Two years ago I was fortunate to taste the entire sequence of Wynns Coonawarra cabernet’s from Ian Hickinbotham’s inaugural 1954 vintage (still drinking well) through to barrel samples of the 2003 and 2004 vintages. Clearly the wine has an extraordinary pedigree. And, fittingly, we see in the […]
Most of Australia’s wine shows are packed into the last six months of the year to allow whites from the current vintage to be shown. From this burgeoning wine show scene come all those trophies, gold, silver and bronze medals adorning labels.
But what does all this glitter mean to a wine drinker? Are gongs really […]
Lenton Brae Margaret River Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2005 $19
The Tomlinson family operates this small, much loved — and very vocal on wine-tax-issues –winery, located at Willyabrup in the heart of Margaret River. It makes one of the region’s more serious Semillon Sauvignon Blanc blends, opting for the subtle use of barrel fermentation to add complexity […]
We could be forgiven for thinking there were no happy stories in the wine industry. The well publicised grape surplus and a Deloitte survey indicating that forty per cent of Australia’s two thousand winemakers operate at a loss tell of the pain out there.
But within our own backyard we have one example of a tightly […]
Ravensworth Canberra District Shiraz Viognier 2005 $30
Winemaker Bryan Martin works at Clonakilla Wines, Murrumbateman, helping Tim Kirk with the Clonakilla products and making his own wines under the Ravensworth label. Bryan’s first Ravensworth Shiraz Viognier blend improves significantly on the very good straight shirazes of recent years. It’s a seamless, seductive drop squarely in the […]
A tasting of wonderful Hunter reds last week brought home what an amazing winemaking heritage we have in Australia. It also served as reminder of how terribly slow we’ve been at taking this message to the world.
As we reach the end of a tremendous boom that took our wine exports from a few hundred million […]
Business people have been easily seduced by the sheer size of China. Surely, the argument seems to go, if I can sell just one widget for every ten of the 1.3 billion population, then I have a market for 130 million widgets.
But in China – as in every market – the devil is in the […]
Helm Canberra District Pinot Noir 2005 $28
Tasted Ken Helm’s 2006 riesling just before bottling early this week. It’s a lovely, intensely flavoured, finely structured drop. Watch this space for a full review when it’s released in September. Ken’s little surprise, though, was this Pinot Noir, sourced from Frank Van Der Loo’s Mount Majura vineyard. With […]
Judged by share of media voice, Australia’s fragrant, refined, cool-climate shiraz styles have the upper hand over the sturdy, ripe warm-climate styles.
Steadfastly, however, Australia’s wine investors and consumers continue to back the robust, ‘old fashioned’ warm-climate shirazes. Some might say that this is just the old guard doggedly sticking to the past, forever blind to […]
Yalumba The Octavius 2002 $89.95
Yalumba’s inky, oaky Barossa shiraz began life in 1988 – a burly overstatement, says winemaker Brian Walsh that the old firm had renounced the wispy, wishy-washy reds of the 1980s. In recent vintages, however, ‘Oaktavius’, has become less inky, oaky and burly – thanks in part to a toning down of […]
Despite a glut sloshing around the world, Australia continues its parochial wine-drinking ways. Indeed, distance — aided by a weak dollar — seems to be a one-way tyranny these days, holding back a potential flood of cheap, surplus foreign wine while allowing the free passage of our own in the other direction.
Thus in the year […]
Last week, as part of a cost cutting drive related to its acquisition of Southcorp, Fosters Group announced the sale of one of Australia’s most cherished and visited wine estates, Seppeltsfield.
The 185-hectare property is a treasury of Barossa winemaking history dating to the early 1850s. Visitors to the site drive through an avenue of date […]
Leconfield Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 $26 to $30
In the early eighties some Coonawarra makers flirted with early-picked cabernet styles. The resulting thin, green wines enjoyed wine-show support for a time before good sense and ripeness once again prevailed. Leconfield hung onto a green component in its cabernets for much of the nineties, so it’s good […]
For many small winemakers Canberra’s Winewise Small Vignerons Awards is the most important Australian wine show, overshadowing the usually prestigious and larger – but to them irrelevant – Sydney, Adelaide and National Wine Shows.
So how did this little home grown show assume such importance?
What began for Lester Jesberg (then a tax office official) and others […]
Cullen Diana Madeline Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 $90
In recent years we’ve seen this wine grow in quality and status under Vanya Cullen, daughter of the late Kevin and Diana Cullen. In recent cabernet tastings it’s consistently ranked amongst the best, distinguishing itself for perfect ripeness, intense flavour, fine tannins and elegant structure. So often […]
Seventy-one years ago Australian scientist, Ray Beckwith, joined Penfolds Wines. A little over a year later, with the blessing of Leslie Penfold-Hyland, he purchased the company’s first pH meter.
Shortly thereafter he found a cure for ‘sweet wine disease’, a malady destroying about thirty per cent of Australia’s fortified wine — the industry’s then major export […]
McWilliams Hanwood Shiraz 2005 $7.99 to $11
This, to me, personifies, the general superiority of brands over cleanskins. While the latter come and go and vary in quality from batch to batch, brands like Hanwood evolve steadily for the better over time. What began as a predominantly Riverina product is now a blend from higher-quality areas […]
What’s the connection between Olivia Newton John and two buck Chuck?
Yes, there is one. And it’s in some blue coloured wine bottles sold through Woolworth’s BWS chain a few weeks back.
But before we discover the connection, let’s meet two buck Chuck.
A couple of years ago American retailer Trader Joe’s released the Charles Shaw varietal wine […]
Peter Lehmann Barossa Shiraz 2005 $15 to $18
At a tasting in Sydney last week (full report in next week’s column) winemaker Andrew Wigan presented all but two of the Peter Lehmann shirazes from the inaugural 1980 vintage to the current release 2004 – all made by himself. It was an extraordinary line up of lovely, […]
The story of how Peter Lehmann rescued grape growers abandoned by Seagram — then owners of Saltram Winery — in 1979 is well known. Perhaps less well appreciated is that in doing so, Lehmann probably spared a century-old winemaking tradition from extinction.
Lehmann had been winemaker at Saltram since 1959. He’d taken the reins from Bryan […]
Chateau Pato Hunter DJP Shiraz 2004 $45 & Old Pokolbin Vineyard Shiraz 2004 $29
Chateau Pato, founded by the late David John Paterson and now run by his son, Nick, makes impossibly small batches – 160 dozen and 180 dozen respectively – of these classic Hunter Shiraz styles. The first, bearing David’s initials and from a […]
In 1997 when BRL Hardy Ltd (now Hardy Wine Company, a division of US-based Constellation Brands) announced ambitious plans for Canberra, the local industry, then twenty-six years old, produced about thirty thousand cases of wine annually from about 400 tonnes of grapes.
It was a time of great optimism for the Australian wine industry. Surging global […]
Tulloch Hunter Chardonnay 2006 $14.99
After decades in various corporate hands the Tulloch label finally moved back to the Hunter in 2001 following Southcorp’s acquisition of Rosemount Estate. A syndicate consisting of the Tulloch family, Inglewood Vineyards of Denman and the Angove family now owns the brand and out sources the winemaking. Canberra-bred Jim Chatto made […]
After the decade-long, tenfold expansion described here last week, Canberra’s wine industry remains – from a drinker’s perspective, anyway — principally a boutique affair.
While the announcement of Hardy’s Kamberra project in 1997 encouraged several large vineyard plantings and delivered us one quite big and outstanding winery, the district’s identity still comes primarily from the wines […]
Helm Classic Dry Riesling 2006 $25 & Premium Riesling 2006 $39
Ken Helm’s been out of the blocks quickly with his 2006 rieslings having hit a gold-medal score for the Premium Riesling at the recent Winewise Small Vignerons Awards and winning bronze medals for both in the 2006 Melbourne Show – where the cheaper Classic Dry […]
Shortly after keying last week’s column on the glories of the 2003 rieslings, I received a note from Petaluma’s Brian Croser. Like the other makers referred to in the column, Brian expressed excitement at the quality but, at the same time, was aware of what scepticism might attach to claims of two consecutive vintages of […]
Len Evans, Australia’s greatest wine man died suddenly of a heart attack on August 17th, just two weeks shy of his 76th birthday.
Len crammed a lot into those years – perhaps too much his cardiologist might say. But nothing was ever going to mollify Len’s ebullience, creativity, energy, love of great wine or commitment to […]
Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 1996 $180-$240
In today’s salute to Len Evans it seems fitting to include two contrasting luxury Champagnes from the great 1996 vintage. The all-chardonnay Taittinger Comtes de Champagne – sourced from top-ranking vineyards in the Champagne district’s Cotes de Blancs sub region – has Champagne’s elusive combination of intensity […]
Talking to a few local winemakers recently led to a little flurry of samples arriving on the tasting bench. While far from a comprehensive review of what the district has to offer, tasting the wines confirmed a view that Canberra excels with shiraz, looks increasingly good with riesling and offers pretty good value at the […]
Brindabella Hills Canberra District Sauvignon Blanc 2006 $15
It seems appropriate that Dr Roger Harris — the scientist whose CSIRO colleagues identified methoxypyrazene compounds as sauvignon blanc’s pungent flavour source — should make such a wonderful expression of it. The 2006 is just delicious – fresh and zesty with juicy, refreshing tropical-fruit flavours to enjoy over […]
Believe it or not, there’s a move away in some wineries from the ‘sunshine in a bottle’ or ‘fruit bomb’ styles that propelled our wines to international success.
That it can be desirable for fruit to be ‘dumbed down’ — to use Kamberra winemaker, Alex McKay’s, words – can be tasted in some of our best […]
De Bortoli Yarra Valley Sauvignon 2006 $22
If one wine displays – deliciously — the fruit muting underway at DeBortoli Yarra Valley, it’s sauvignon blanc. They’ve even pruned the name to ‘sauvignon’, indicating that’s something’s up. And what’s up begins with low yields in the vineyard, hand picking, gentle handling and spontaneous fermentation (i.e. no cultured […]
In the last few years the very best Canberra district wines have increased in number and quality. Importantly, more wines have streaked away from the me-too ranks to stand comparison with the best of similar styles from Australia and, in one instance, the world.
Having judged the local regional show for some years the lift in […]
Ravensworth Canberra District Sangiovese 2005 $22
I recommended this now gold medal winner back in March as a wine that “just needs a little time in bottle to emerge as a vibrant and sophisticated expression of the variety”. As noted earlier this is one of the best Australian shots I’ve seen with this Italian variety, standing […]
Not the least of the pressures facing winemakers is the constant demand for capital. In an industry notorious for low or negative returns to investors — just ask any of the estimated forty per cent of Australia’s wineries currently losing money – this means a reliance on external funding.
That funding might come from the day […]
Petaluma Hanlin Hill Clare Valley Riesling 2006 $19-$23
Brian Croser fermented Petaluma’s first riesling – a 1976 from Mitchelton Vineyard, Nagambie – in a spent Maralinga rocket-fuel tank. From 1979, having acquired the Hanlin Hill vineyard, Clare Valley, he made the first of the single-vineyard Petaluma rieslings that’ve given the wine its well deserved blue-chip status. […]
Sniffing around the Barossa last week – after judging the area’s wine show – turned up a number of wonderful, off the radar wine ventures.
Just as we’ve seen in Canberra this week following Hardy’s decision exit from the region, Australia’s grape surplus, combined with industry rationalisation, has been driving change, often in unpredictable ways.
It might […]
Pewsey Vale Eden Valley Riesling 2006 $15 to $18
Pewsey Vale 2006 earned a bronze medal winner at last week’s Barossa Valley Wine Show. As with so many bronze-medal, current-vintage rieslings, a sip in passing on the tasting bench reveals far less than a chilled bottle consumed at a leisurely pace. What started as a refreshing, […]
Despite a reputed $2million public subsidy, Hardy’s bailed out of its reported $10million Canberra wine investment after just six years. So, has the Kamberra venture turned from white knight to white elephant? Or can the legacy be sustained under new ownership?
Whoever the new owner might be, there’s one thing for sure: Hardy’s winemaking experience in […]
Vinecrest Barossa Semillon 2006 $16
Vinecrest was one of three delicious gold medallists in a semillon class that I judged recently at the Barossa Regional Show. It passed the real-life, glass-or-two with food test at the awards presentation dinner a few days later, too. Proprietor Ian Mader tells me that it’s sourced from the central floor […]
John Glaetzer, former Wolf Blass winemaker, says he saw it coming: the day that bigger companies might pull back on grape supply. And come it has, with a vengeance, as Canberra growers contracted to Hardys learned a few weeks back.
Driving from the Barossa Valley to Langhorne Creek with John in late September, the gentle weather, […]
Lambert Vineyard Canberra District Shiraz & Reserve Shiraz 2004 $25 & $30
At Wamboin, one of the higher and cooler parts of the Canberra District, Ruth and Steve Lambert competently produce a spectrum of elegant wine styles: riesling, chardonnay, pinot noir, pinto gris, shiraz, merlot and cabernet merlot. It’s worth a drive and a taste, especially […]
Ah, wine shows. They seem to be everywhere. Canberra alone has five that I know of: in chronological order, Winewise Small Vignerons Awards, Canberra Regional Wine Show, Murrumbateman Cool Climate Wine Show, the Hyatt International Riesling Challenge and the National Wine Show of Australia.
Different people with different objectives operate them, but each one aspires to […]
It’s amazing what a bit of altitude and rainfall can do to a wine region. To see what I mean, hop in the car one weekend for the three-hour drive to Orange, via Yass, Boorawa, Cowra, Canowindra and Cargo.
I did this last week to judge at the Orange Region Wine Show. In the forty-minute drive […]
Rather than tut-tutting, Italian winemakers ought to applaud Guenther Aloys’ launch, in designer cans, of Rich Prosecco, a semi-sparkling wine from Italy’s Treviso Province.
In a series of Paris Hilton hosted parties, starting in a Tyrolean ski resort last April before fanning out over Germany (and even to Munich’s beer-drenched Oktoberfest), the little gold tinny and […]
Last week’s article on the success in Germany of Rich Prosecco — the Paris Hilton endorsed Italian sparkling wine in a designer can — attracted an email from Melbourne based Barokes Wines.
Barokes say that in the last year, even without the help of Paris Hilton, they sold over 2.3 million cans of Australian wine worth […]
Last week the Chateau Shanahan lined up ten pinot noirs from Australia and New Zealand to get a little snapshot of the state of play.
As the tasting consisted only of unsolicited samples, the omissions are greater than the inclusions. But it revealed that both countries now produce convincing pinots across a number of styles and […]
In 2001 brewer Lion Nathan acquired Petaluma, the upmarket wine company founded by Brian Croser in 1976. In January 2003, Croser — in partnership with, Jean-Michel Cazes of Château Lynch-Bages, Bordeaux, and Société Jacques Bollinger, the parent company of Champagne Bollinger — purchased the Koppamurra vineyard at Wrattonbully, near Coonawarra.
The partnership — Tapanappa Wines Pty […]
Tapanappa Whalebone Vineyard Wrattonbully Cabernet Shiraz 2004 and Tiers Vineyard Piccadilly Chardonnay 2005 about $75
Brian Croser’s new Tapanappa releases come from single vineyards in Wrattonbully and the Piccadilly Valley, South Australia. The red, a blend of seventy per cent cabernet sauvignon, twenty per cent shiraz and ten per cent cabernet franc, is highly perfumed, elegant […]
Depending on who you talk to, the wine surplus of a few months back has either turned to shortage already or, by a more conservative reading, might be on the wane, allowing supply and demand to harmonise by 2008/2009 – a few years earlier than previously expected.
While the turnaround is unlikely to mean an instant […]
As Christmas 2006 approaches Australia’s wine industry finds itself undergoing a major mood shift. Thanks to drought and savage spring frosts, the domestic wine lake that appeared to be permanent just a few months back seems to be evaporating.
By conservative reckoning – assuming continued growth in domestic and export markets — grape supply will align […]
Bob Oatley, the bloke behind Rosemount Wines, recently hopped back into the wine saddle a little over a year after dismounting. And like anything Bob attempts, it’s a venture on a serious scale.
If you don’t know Bob, think – or imagine — back to 1969. Australians had just begun to embrace table wine and Bob, […]
At Len Evans’ wake a few months it was inevitable that in the kick-on party venerable old bottles of Hunter shiraz and semillon appeared. Served on Len’s home turf these regional specialties hit the spot. But to the unconverted they remain idiosyncrasies.
Idiosyncratic is a key word here for each is as eccentric as it is […]