Wine & Musings

Come and share my passion for wine and food.

Wine Tasting. Photo credit Paul Foley

World Class wines in the Hunter Valley

The Hunter Valley, less than a couple of hours northwest of Sydney and 45 minutes due west of Newcastle, has a relatively short history by global standards, but it is still the oldest wine region in Australia. Despite its relative youth, the region boasts some of the world’s oldest grape vines, largely because of the…
Read more

Seville Hill

A Taste of Italy

It could simply be logistical challenges and the tyranny of distance, or perhaps because Australian made wines offer such good value for money, but lovers of Old World wines aren’t exactly spoilt for choice in our local bottle shops. The term “Old World” simply refers to regions that are considered to be the birthplace of…
Read more

Eldridge Estate Gamay

Gamay

Despite that famous line from the 2004 movie, Sideways “If anyone orders Merlot, I’m leaving. I am not drinking (expletive) Merlot!”, the style has long been the compromise for red wine drinkers seeking a softer but fruit driven style. It appeals to palates that find Shiraz and Cabernet too heavy, but desire more weight that…
Read more

Domaine Du Grand Montmirail 2014 Gigondas

Gigondas

By Australian standards, good French wine is undeniably expensive. While we consider the “best” Australian brands like Penfolds Grange to be ridiculously expensive (at prices approaching $800 a bottle for the current release), many French producers would consider the ask of our winemakers to be “entry level”. After all, the Premier Grand Cru French Wines…
Read more

Stoneleigh Wild Valley 2015

Stoneleigh Wild Valley 2015 Sauvignon Blanc

It’s sweet, flabby and possibly cordialesque, yet the kiwi sauvalanche continues. The shelves of almost every bottle shop in the Country seemingly overflow with Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc yet despite its lolly water tag, it still outsells any other style many times over. And it’s not that I am some kind of purest or a jealously…
Read more

McGuigan Wines

Langhorne Creek and McGuigan Hand Made Shiraz 2013

Despite living in the shadows of South Australia’s high profile wine regions, Langhorne Creek boasts a remarkable history and has been a prolific contributor to the development of the Australian wine industry. The region is thought to have first been settled by cattle drover, Alfred Langhorne in about 1840 and by 1981, the first Shiraz…
Read more

It’s time to restock the cellar!

Much has been said in real estate and financial circles about the growth of the Chinese middle class and their penchant for foreign investment and consumption, but if you place much credence in the 2016 Wine Australia Report figures, it seems that the Australian wine industry could be headed in the same stratospheric direction as…
Read more

Rouge et or 2015 by Chateau Minuty

Provencale Paradise

Another day in the French Riviera, and another opportunity for some serious viticultural research. Though, given that Rose from Provence is beginning to dominate the pink vin de table market, one hardly needs to travel the 16,000 kilometres to Cannes to sample wines from the region! Just take a look at the origin of the…
Read more

Conde Valdemar Rioja 2012

Conde Valdemar Rioja 2012

It’s a wine that can be difficult to pronounce and challenging to find in local bottle shops, but the Spanish Red Rioja (pronounced Ree-Oh-hah) is an old world wine that you can buy even if you don’t have the bank balance of a real estate tycoon! In northern Spain on the banks of the Oja…
Read more

Wynns Coonawarra Harold Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 Review

Wynns Coonawarra Harold Cabernet Sauvignon 2013

IT’S been a while (perhaps 15 years or so) since Wynns released a single vineyard “Harold” Cabernet. But after a lengthy hiatus, the 2013 iteration is bottled, labelled and soon to hit the shelves. And it seems that winemaker Sue Hodder is taking a new direction with the fruit from this premium parcel of Coonawarra vines. Where…
Read more