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) … Continue reading Winewise small vignerons awards
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. … Continue reading Wine review — Helm, De Bortoli Gulf Station & Jr Jones
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 … Continue reading Wine review — Penfolds, Pikes & Pirramimma
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 … Continue reading Exporting our way out of surplus
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 … Continue reading History repeating itself in the Barossa
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 … Continue reading Lovedale Semillon and the emergence of a Hunter specialty
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 … Continue reading King Valley overview
David Farmer — former Canberra wine merchant, in town last week to launch his new Barossa-based business, Glug — believes traditional liquor retailing has gone forever to Coles and Woolworths. Even after the current margin-sapping wine glut clears, consolidation among producers and retailers virtually ensures a changing landscape. For independent retailers that means finding a … Continue reading Farmer finds independent retail niche
Eileen Hardy Shiraz – flagship red of the Hardy Wine Company was introduced in 1973 to celebrate the 80th birthday of family matriarch, Eileen Hardy. That wine, a selection of the best McLaren Vale Shiraz from the 1970 vintage, still drinks well today. What began as a birthday gift became a company flagship, despite significant … Continue reading The Eileen Hardy story part 2
Part 1 28 August 2005 Amongst Australia’s two thousand wineries, mostly comparatively new wineries, significant numbers date from the mid to late 19th century. Some — like Penfolds (established 1844) – now belong to larger companies. Others, like Tyrrell’s, Drayton’s, Yalumba and Bleasdale remain in the hands of their founding families. Amongst these family-owned veterans, … Continue reading Tahbilk — retrosective tasting higlights unique wine style