One of Australia’s most underrated white wine grapes must surely be the Portuguese import, Verdelho. It’s a style which for some reason is mainly used for blending in dry white blends, such as Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. But with the intensity of flavour and the delicious overtones of lime and honeysuckle, I reckon it’s an…
Read more
Well before George Constanza claimed to have invented the “it’s not you, it’s me” routine, sauvignon blanc and I had long broken up. Though as Jerry Seinfeld observed “I thought things were going great”, but that was before the Marlborough Sauv-o-lanche. Back in the days when sauvignon blanc was green, grassy and showed herbaceous and…
Read more
Make light of the changing season As summer approaches and temperatures climb, many wine lovers put aside the heavy reds in preference for lighter styles like Pinot Noir or even make a complete colour change to the vin blanc styles that can be chilled within an inch of their lives. And if you’re anything like…
Read more
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
The cool climate, dry autumns and elevated vineyards in Orange, New South Wales, make it an ideal environment for growing Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, but it may be the Alsatian inspired Pinot Gris grape that puts it front and centre of the viticultural map. In the United States, Pinot Gris is now the second biggest…
Read more
The value end of the retail wine spectrum is a busy if not duopolistic space, but if you can look past the “specials” promoted by the Coles and Woolworths operations, there are some Australian made wines punching well above their weight. Like the De Bortoli Sacred Hill Chardonnay 2015. It’s a product of the Riverina…
Read more
Chardonnay may still be the world’s biggest selling white wine varietal, but at least in the United States, the star of Pinot Gris is well and truly on the rise – so much so that it’s now comfortably the second biggest selling white wine in that country. Amongst Australian wine consumers the style lags well…
Read more
The Central Otago region in New Zealand’s South Island may be world-renowned for its sensational Pinot Noir, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice to overlook their Pinot Gris and Rieslings next time you are scouring the shelves for a suitable white. With only about 86 hectares of Riesling vines in the Central Otago region,…
Read more
It may be a style that waxes and wanes in its popularity, but at least from my palate’s perspective, good Chardonnay never goes out of style. And I accept that at times Chardonnay can be pricey and occasionally become over-oaked and sometimes even fall flat, but if you stick to cool climate regions, you’ll seldom…
Read more
Whether you’re a wine novice, occasional tippler or even a connoisseur, we all have very different palates when it comes to the type and style of wine we find most appealing. As they say, one man’s meat is another man’s poison, and in wine, there is no more divisive style than Riesling. It’s a grape…
Read more