Wine & Musings

Come and share my passion for wine and food.

Longview Vineyards with Travis Schultz

Award-winning Longview Vineyard

Italian varietals are on the ascendency in Australian vineyards, and for good reason. Our climate is largely well-suited and our forward thinking and progressive winemakers are proving that they can make Italian native styles as successfully as their counterparts in the country that is famously shaped like a boot. In recent years, Italian varietals have…
Read more

Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay

Australia’s Best Value Chardonnay

The chardonnay grape is undeniably Australia’s most important white wine varietal. According to the 2020 Wine Australia report, it’s the second most widely planted grape (after shiraz) and the most widely grown. With 285,000 tonnes crushed, it accounts for some 19% of the total crop in Australia and (at least in my opinion) remains the…
Read more

People celebrating with wine

Is wine better out of a bottle or a cask? The answer might surprise you!

Call it a goonsack, spacebag, bogan briefcase or plonk pillow, the humble wine cask is a uniquely Australian contraption that revolutionised large format wine sales through the 1970’s and to this day, remains as Aussie as vegemite on your toast or lamb cutlets on your barbie. Since the design was first patented by Australian Winemaker,…
Read more

Howard Park Wines

Home-grown bubbles are worth the pop!

With over 8,500,000 bottles imported in 2020 – an annual increase of 11.2%, it seems that Champagne has never been so popular amongst Australian sparkling wine consumers, at least for now. Like so many other industries, pandemic-related supply chain issues and increased demand have left many retailers having to impose sales limits of many favourite…
Read more

To ice or not to ice – is NEVER the question

Like fingernails on a blackboard or a knife scrapping a dinner plate, the sight and sound of ice cubes being plonked into a glass of red wine is an irritating insult to my senses.  My older sister does it; frequently. It drives me nuts. And to think, my siblings have the gall to suggest that I’m…
Read more

A few thoughts on Dessert Wines

Dessert wines may not be a regular feature of Australian entertaining, but with the festive season upon us, there’s no better excuse for cracking the screwcap or pulling the cork off a “sticky” dessert wine after the mains are done. My mum’s pavlova or sticky date pudding never tasted so good as when it was…
Read more

The Hidden Sea – wine with a higher purpose?

Like most consumer-facing retail industries, the wine sector is no stranger to adaption and accommodating change. Over the years, customer preferences and prejudices have resulted in savvy winemakers adjusting their style, experimenting with varietals and refreshing strategies to market their product to new and emerging markets. We’ve seen the wax and wane of biodynamic winemaking,…
Read more

Miles From Nowhere Shiraz

Shiraz has long been Australia’s biggest selling red wine with the vineyards of South Australia being the biggest contributor to the annual national Shiraz crop. In recent decades, the world has fallen in love with our voluptuous, ripe and jammy Shiraz that is undeniably mouth-filling, palate-pleasing and popular with wine drinkers both domestically and internationally.…
Read more

Brown Brothers – red, white and now sparkling!

Wineries, like restaurants, come and go with changing consumer tastes; the uncertainty of Mother Nature; poor management and fluctuating international tariffs playing a role in their demise. Sometimes wineries fail or merge. Occasionally they are forced to contract or reduce production, whilst others seemingly go from strength to strength. In Australia, we are blessed with…
Read more

2018 D.E.N RESERVE CABERNET SAUVIGNON

A Cab Sav so good you’d pour it on your cornflakes

Cabernet Sauvignon is the most planted red varietal in the world – and the most popular. From the tannic styles from Rioja in Spain, to the concentrated examples from Bordeaux, to the ripe Barossa wines or the mint-laced versions from the Coonawarra, there’s a Cabernet for virtually every palate. In Australia, the floral styles from…
Read more