I’ve been following with interest the experiments with decanters at Shiraz. Can Michael taste the difference between various decanted wines? The results are surprising. When I next have a weekend with some time I quite fancy extending the experiement and inviting a couple of wine pros over to help judge: 1. The effect of freezing [...]

{ 0 comments }

Once upon a time there was a big wine store on Chapel St Prahran. It was called Dan Murphy’s and was pretty flash. Then it was bought by Woolworth’s and moved into a smart new warehouse building across the road – it was the flagship. It is still there but now the flagship is in [...]

{ 3 comments }

When a man grows tired of champagne he grows tired of…press conferences. True. Champagne can be very tiresome when you’ve spent over 20 years having it poured down your gullet by enthusiastic PRs. Part of the problem is the quality of what is poured which usually is run of the mill Moët & Chandon. And [...]

{ 5 comments }

Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes and mistakes. Of course, the first one was hundreds of years ago when the grapes left to freeze on the vine. It looked like the second mistake was going to be the ice wine I bought for this Wine Blogging Wednesday #27 hosted this month by Kitchen Chick. Being a southern hemisphere [...]

{ 8 comments }

“Judging Australian wine shows is the closest I’ve ever come to hand-to-hand combat.” So says wine writer Tim Atkin the Uk’s The Observer: “No one actually exchanges punches, but the verbal fisticuffs can be brutal. If you’re brought up to be polite and to consider someone else’s point of view, the bare-knuckle opinions can come [...]

{ 0 comments }

I wanted a Pouilly-Fumé. but you have to remember I live in Australia and it is much more difficult to find a decent Loire wine here than in Europe or possibly in the US. Bearing this in mind it doesn’t give me much choice for Wine Blogging Wednesday #24, the second anniversary of the event [...]

{ 4 comments }

Yes, it is young. But the 2004 pinot noir from Pier 10 on the Mornington Peninsula isn’t a bad dop. At 14 per cent alcohol it is strong but not in an over-the-top way; you won’t need to add water to it to make it drinkable. It’s full bodied with those wonderful apple-like flavours that [...]

{ 2 comments }

A weekend drinking tip thanks to Kate from Sydney, down the pub, Friday night: We’ve all had the problem, a night on the full-on smack in the mouth Aussie Shiraz and red teeth the next day. Accoriding to the girls hanging out in a certain Sydney pub loo you start the night with Shiraz and [...]

{ 2 comments }

Barbeques should be used year round, Vivi’s right. As host of Wine Blogging Wednesday#23 Vivi’s set the challenge of matching wines with barbeque food. Last night I wasn’t barbequeing but there was a lot of griddled (broiled) meat on the menu while out at supper. One two inch thick porterhouse, a similarly thick eye fillet [...]

{ 2 comments }

It’s Yendah right. Not Yenda where the wine is made. So the marketing people have dictated for the latest batch of wine from Casella Wines. Yes, that’ the Casella from Yenda (no h) in New South Wales. With an h or not these wines are a decent well-priced (around A$16) drops designed to be drunk [...]

{ 4 comments }