Tag: Red

Decoding Italian Wine & Chasing the Infamous ‘Super Tuscans’

Whether you’re trawling the shelves at your local bottle shop or working your way through the lista dei vini at an Italian restaurant, selecting a wine from the country shaped like a boot can be a confusing (if not intimidating) experience. Leaving aside the barrier of language, Italian wines are regulated by a complex set…
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The Oddball Saperavi: A Bold and Unconventional Wine by Hugh Hamilton

I’m sure it’s not just me and that there are other “oenological bowerbirds” out there; wine lovers that are easily distracted by the shiny new object and constantly on the lookout for something different, intriguing, and experimental. After all, variety is the spice of life, right? Well, if you’re a Bowerbird of the vinous type,…
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Apsley Gorge Vineyard

There are plenty of jokes about Tasmania being “backwards” and twenty years behind the rest of the country, but when it comes to wine, there is a lot that the mainlanders could learn from the oenologists over on the Apple Isle. For a region first colonised by Europeans in the early 19th century, the state…
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Primativo

Wine is many different things to individuals. To some, it’s a social lubricant while to others it’s a digestive served with a meal or even just an end of the week anaesthetic! But whatever it is, there’s no doubt that is used accompanies a conversation or a story – and sometimes the wine can be…
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Jack Harrison Shiraz

2016 Brockenchack Jack Harrison Shiraz

I’ve often heard self-deprecating winemakers profess that 90% of the quality of a wine is derived from what happens in the vineyard. Having recently sampled the Brockenchack Jack Harrison 2016 Shiraz ($60), and with all due respect to the winemaker, Shaun Kalleske, I suspect they might be right! After another ideal growing season in the…
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Castle Rock Pinot Noir - Travis Schultz Wine Review

Castle Rock Estate Pinot Noir 2018

When we think of pinot noir, I suspect that most of us drift towards wines from Burgundy in France, Oregon in the USA or Central Otago in New Zealand’s southern isle, but there are a number of Australian districts that are producing stunning examples of the style and creating what is almost a cult following…
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he Lane 19th Meeting Cabernet Sauvignon

The Lane 19th Meeting Cabernet

When our Easter long weekend trip to the Adelaide Hills had to be cancelled due to a global pandemic, so too were my plans to write up an array of the best wineries from the region – places like Bird in Hand, Nepenthe and Shaw and Smith. The anticipation of the Hills’s best chardonnays, sauvignon…
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Angullong Wines

Angullong Fossil Hill Reds

The Orange region in the Central Ranges of New South Wales is undoubtedly one of the up and coming vinicultural districts of the Australian mainland. Blessed with the ideal geology of Mount Canabolas, a coolish climate and 600 plus metres of elevation, the area surrounding the township of Orange has blossomed since vines were first…
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Brockenchack Jack Harrison Shiraz 2015

I’ve previously written about the genius of Trevor Harch and his winemaking team at Brockenchack, but having recently sampled the Jack Harrison 2015 Shiraz, I felt compelled to “blow” some more of the proverbial “smoke”. Now, to put it in perspective, just before sampling his premium shiraz I had just sipped and quickly tipped out…
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Sense of time and place

Josef Chromy When a wine wins a major award, I’m like a moth drawn to a flouro light and in what must be a form of FOMO, I find myself compelled to track down a bottle to find out what all the fuss is about. So, when I found out that the Josef Chromy 2017…
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