Murray Street Vineyards 2017 Red Label “The Barossa” Fans of the comedy series, Frasier, would be acquainted with the French style, Châteauneuf-du-Pape; the red wine that Frasier Crane is frequently observed ordering while eating out at French restaurants. It’s a blend of red varietals from a region in the southern Rhône area near Avignon which…
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It’s an ironic twist, but as a child I loathed any mention of the Coorong or South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula. But these days start talking Fleurieu or Currency Creek, and like Pavlov’s Dog, my taste buds set my salivary glands in to overdrive! It must have been the English teachers I had for parents but…
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Wine Tourism is growing and the Gippsland Region should be top of your list Wine tourism is a burgeoning industry in Australia and with a falling Aussie dollar that trend seems destined to continue; especially for regions that are blessed with ideal terroir, temperate climate and close proximity to a large airport. One of the…
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As the mercury climbs a cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling usually becomes a Sunday afternoon staple, but a rise in the temperature doesn’t have to mean that the red varietals have to be banished to the back of the cellar. In fact, there are plenty of reds that are well suited to the…
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According to the well known Charles Caleb Colton aphorism, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Or for the Oscar Wilde disciples, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness”. So when winemakers leave their regional heartland to source fruit from a competitor district, it must surely be taken by…
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They were long, hot and often dry summers, but some of my fondest childhood memories are of spending the Christmas school holidays going to the beach, swimming in my friends’ pools, and spending countless hours with eyes glued to a static-ridden tv screen listening to Richie Benaud calling the Ashes. I loved watching Dennis Lillee…
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There’s naturally a degree of hesitation in expressing an opinion about wine, wine regions and winemakers. After all, opinions are rather self-indulgent and often, ill-considered, half-baked and formed in ignorance of the facts. So when I was recently asked for my view as to which region produces the best Shiraz in Australia, I baulked! How…
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The Cowra wine region covers around 1,250 square kilometres in the Lachlan River Valley at the southern end of the Central Ranges zone in New South Wales. Unsurprisingly, the district is named after the largest town in the region and it’s amongst the lowest altitude and warmest parts of the Central Ranges region. And while…
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Sangiovese is the most commonly grown red grape in Italy and presently accounts for 250 000 acres of plantings and almost 10 % of all winemaking grapes planted in the country. It’s a versatile fruit that does best through the middle of the of the “boot” and in recent years it has been expanding its…
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The terms “Vielles Vignes” or “old vines” have become to the wine industry what buzzwords like “superfood”, “natural” and “organic” are to products on the supermarket shelves; terms that sound impressive to the consumers and get the cash registers ringing, but beyond enabling a price premium to be achieved, does it really make any discernible…
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