The sheer delicious pleasure of drinking riesling, young or old, and the efficacy of screw caps for both early drinking and cellaring wines came through at the recent National Wine Show exhibitors’ tasting. Faced with 1400 wines and just four hours’ tasting time, quick forays into chardonnay, cabernet and shiraz turned to a dedicated look … Continue reading Riesling sizzles at the National Wine Show
The Limestone Coast wine zone takes in all of South Australia south of Lake Alexandrina, bounded to the east by the Victorian border and to the west and south by the sea. This unique limestone plain is home to The Coorong, Naracoorte World Heritage caves, the extinct volcano, Mount Gambier, the Robe crayfish industry, vast … Continue reading Winners from the Limestone Coast show
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
Results of last week’s Canberra Regional Wine Show confirm shiraz as the district’s outright star. Various delicious examples won four gold medals and, for the sixth consecutive year, the variety earned the ‘champion wine of the show’ trophy. But for the first time since I’ve been judging at the event, shiraz met a serious challenger … Continue reading Judges’ eye view of Canberra District wine show 2005
Schild Estate Barossa GMS 2004 $19 Ed Schild and family own vineyards sprinkled between the banks of Jacob’s Creek and the village of Lyndoch in the southern Barossa Valley. A significant proportion of the vines are mature (up to 150 years old) and produces wines of stunning quality – like this gift made from vines … Continue reading Wine review — Schild Estate, Oxford Landing & Penfolds
Rose’s long predicted moment in the sun may, at last, have arrived – in a very small but dynamic way. According to A.C. Nielsen, Australian retail sales of bottled rose grew 108.3 per cent by volume and 79.5 per cent by value in the year to November 2004. By the end of December, says Orlando-Wyndham’s … Continue reading Rosé — a bland, surplus-driven boom
Boag’s Honey Porter, about $10 to $12 for 4 375ml bottles Luscious is the word for this wonderful new Tassie brew. It’s a tad paler than some Porters – a deep, appealing, mahogany rather than black. But it’s full-bodied and complex, combining malt and roast malt flavours with fragrant hops, a terrific, drying hops bitterness … Continue reading Wine & beer review — Boag’s, Redbank & Annie’s Lane
By April this year, Clare and Eden Valley riesling makers could hardly believe their own good luck. They’d barely finished crowing about 2002 — the best vintage in twenty years, they said — even better than the excellent 2001s. And, here were the barely fermented 2003s looking every bit as good as the 2002s, perhaps … Continue reading Vintage 2003 — outstanding for Aussie rieslings
As a Johnnie-come-lately of the wine world, Australia boasts some remarkably old wine dynasties. We can’t equal the 600 years of Italy’s Antinori family; nor the 952 years claimed by my old mate Ferdinando Guicciardini of Poppiano, Florence. Considering the comparative recency of our own industry — and the lack of a popular wine-drinking culture … Continue reading Saltram celebrates 140 years
Despite the massive re-shaping of Australia’s wine landscape now under way, South Australia remains — and looks set to remain — not just our biggest wine producer, but our biggest premium-wine producer. The massive explosion of vine planting and re-writing of our wine map shows in preliminary data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), … Continue reading South Australia — still the wine state