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 … Continue reading A snapshot of Aussie and Kiwi pinots
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 … Continue reading Wine review — De Bortoli Yarra Valley & Bream Creek Tasmania
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 … Continue reading Why the 2003 rieslings are so good
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 … Continue reading Wine review — Yalumba The Octavius, Trust & O’Leary Walker
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
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 … Continue reading Asian food and wine
There’s never been a better time to buy wine. Equally, there’s never been a more confusing time for wine drinkers. For the very glut of producers and labels currently forcing prices down forms an intimidating wall of brands that confounds even professional wine judges. The diversity of choice and competition-driven low pricing is good, of … Continue reading There’s gold in them thar liquor stores
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 battle for the top of the bottle is diversifying as the pure-cork monopoly crumbles. What was once the domain of the cork came under challenge from synthetic plugs in cheaper wines in the mid nineties before being blown wide open by recent widespread acceptance of screw cap sealed premium wines. But the synthetic plug … Continue reading Aluminium giants Alcan and Alcoa join the wine-seal fray
Rather than being embittered by a long-term decline in Australia’s per capita beer consumption (129.3 litres in 1989; 89 litres in 2001), Australian brewers sought to excite and entice beer drinkers with new products. Hence, the creation over the past decade and more of light beers, mid-strength beer, dry beers, cold filtered beers etc. Despite … Continue reading Brewing Dutch and German favourites in Sydney