In the nineties as Australian wine regions agonised over their boundaries, Tasmania got smart. Its winemakers saw that as small, comparatively homogenous producers, their interests would be best served by promoting the island as a whole. In opting for ‘Tasmania’ as their only entry in the register of protected names they neatly avoided the distraction … Continue reading Tasmania rolls Burgundy and Champagne into one
The International Riesling Challenge, held in Canberra in October, reminds us that riesling remains our best value-for-money white wine variety. The results catalogue is packed with delicious, potentially long-lived wines available at modest prices. However, riesling remains a niche variety, ignored by the vast majority of drinkers, despite the decades of praise heaped on it. … Continue reading Big value in niche rieslings
Draytons Vineyard Reserve Pokolbin Shiraz 2007 $30 This is one of those beautiful old school Hunter reds – medium bodied, gentle, supple and soft but savoury and earthy, too. It’s sourced from two old Drayton family vineyards at Pokolbin, a sub-district of the Hunter Valley – the 40-year old Bull Paddock Block and 110-year-plus Old … Continue reading Wine review — Draytons, Yalumba and Running With Bulls
Disaster Bay Pambula River Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2009 $20 In 2000 Dean O’Reilly planted about a hectare of vines on his parents Pambula River farm. The site was too cool for the Bordeaux red varieties, but the whites, semillon and sauvignon blanc, perform well. Dean crushes the grapes on site then transports the juice to … Continue reading Wine review — Disaster Bay, Peter Lehmann, Murdoch Hill and Toolangi
As reported last week Cowra’s wine output recently halved as demand for its grapes evaporated. In response, a dozen independent growers formed Cowra Winemakers to promote the area’s soft, fruity, easy-drinking, inexpensive wines. Like South Australia’s Langhorne Creek and Wrattonbully regions, Cowra’s broad-acre developments fed largely into multi-regional blends. As a result Cowra became perhaps … Continue reading Cowra boutique wines — part 2 of 2
Two weeks ago a dozen independent Cowra winemakers visited Canberra. Their story is a microcosm of the shrinking act now underway in Australia as big makers pull the pin on grape contracts, export and local prices decline, and domestic tastes shift dramatically away from chardonnay to sauvignon blanc. Cowra, the group told me, had already … Continue reading Cowra part 1 of 2 — honey, they shrunk the wine industry
Richmond Grove Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2008 $18–$24 Barwang 842 Tumbarumba Chardonnay 2006 $30–$35 Shaw + Smith M3 Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2008 $35–$40 Petaluma Tiers Vineyard Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2005 $100–$130 What a gorgeous line up – beautiful, complex oak-fermented and matured chardonnays with neatly aligned price and quality. Richmond Grove is the value offering, especially … Continue reading Wine review — Richmond Grove, Barwang, Shaw+Smith, Petaluma, Helm, Kirrihill and Arete
In his great book, The story of wine, Hugh Johnson wrote of wine’s unique ability to banish care. Across the ages many of our greatest writers, scientists, historians and philosophers felt strongly enough about wine to record their thoughts for posterity. Today’s column is a little tribute to these writers, featuring snippets from across more … Continue reading Wine quotes across the ages
In the early days of chardonnay in Australia we probably all gagged on an over oaked vintage and heard the usual jokes… splinters in the tongue, build a weekender out of it… the list went on. Perhaps the most colourful metaphor, though, was penned about ten years ago by UK writer Jilly Goolden. In The … Continue reading Oak jokes are old hat
A recent database published by Winetitles, Adelaide, lists 2320 Australian vignerons, mostly small and sprinkled across southern Australia. As a judge at the recent Winewise Small Vignerons Awards, I was struck by the diversity of styles and high quality now offered by these small makers. Indeed we judged at such a leisurely pace (for a … Continue reading Winewise awards — a view from the judge’s bench