Australians all let us rejoice for we are young and free/ We've golden soil and wealth for toil/ Our home is girt by sea;

First an apology, as some of you know I have just moved to the UK and being in the middle of moving house, my wife getting a dream job and preparing for my move to New Zealand next week for two months of harvest has meant the blog has suffered. I promise lots of fun stuff once harvest starts for me next week. Another season of rotting fruit for a living! So now that the apology is out of the way, back to original programming

One of the benefits of being in London and being part of "the trade" as they say is getting to attend some pretty amazing tastings. Last month I rocked up to the annual "Australia Day Tasting" put on by Wine Australia at Arsenal Football Stadium. Over two hundred producers (with well over five hundred wines) showed up to highlight the diversity and quality of wine from Australia.

One of the new initiatives from Wine Australia is their "Regional Heroes" program, designed to highlight the iconic wines from regions that have distinct and diverse characteristics, was on display through focused varietal tasting rooms dedicated to Shiraz, Cabernet, Semillon, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc. To me it was quite clear that while Australia still produces the world's best Semillon, and some Shiraz that can compete with top Rhône producers, we are still taking baby steps with our Pinot Noir and there are still only a couple of producers of Chardonnay that can be said to be playing on the world stage.

Some of the highlights of the tasting for me:-

2006 Ten Minutes by Tractor Pinot Noir
Brilliant light cherry color. Elegant floral nose and scrumptious red fruit flavor. Great palate weight, soft integrated tannins and feminine finish make for a great example of Mornington Peninsula Pinot!

2005 Yabby Lake Pinot Noir
Where Ten Minutes by Tractor was light on its feet, this was all power! Dark cherry in the glass. Rich, opulent and broad balanced by lovely acidity. My only gripe is that it was missing a bit of mid palate. Very different example of what Mornington Peninsula can be.

2006 Bay of Fires Tigress Pinot Noir
A Tassie entry - very light strawberry color, translucent almost. Screaming acid which works with a high toned floral wine. Tannins are a tad harsh right now but this is only a puppy. A couple of years in the cellar should make for a great refreshing Pinot for Turkey day!

2005 Stonier Reserve Pinot Noir
The Pinot standout of the day. I have been disappointed in my experiences with Stonier before, but not this time. Brilliant and bright red cherry in color. Yummy red fruits (cherry, raspberry and wild strawberry) and highly floral. A touch of baking spices, super soft tannins, crisp acidity and a singing, long finish make this wine a winner. This tastes so good right now!

2005 Giaconda Estate Chardonnay
One of the few estates that can be said to compete on a global level with the best of Burgundy and California this wine combined the soft mouthfeel of sur lie vinification, peachy and creamy malolactic notes with a lovely high toned finish. The oak is dominant at the moment but my experience with Giaconda is that it needs time to integrate before showing best. A stunner in 4-5 years.

2006 Shaw & Smith M3 Chardonnay
The new kids on the block. A stony and briny flavor (think a beach of slate with the surf misting around) with some lemon and melon and toasty, briochy oak. Super long finish. I may be a convert.

2005 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay
The first wine I started collecting (since 1995) and still one of Australia's best Chardonnays - although I think they have ceded the title in recent years to the likes of Bindi and Giaconda. This wine was classic Leeuwin Estate. Honeyed with ripe peach and pear. Has that "maltiness" that Leeuwin always seems to have when young and a charry oakiness that needs a few years to integrate. Lovely soft mouthfeel from traditional sur lie vinification. This wine still has its baby fat in full view and while it will be a good wine, not the best I have seen from the estate.

2006 Glaetzer Amon Ra Shiraz
Ben Glaetzer is a genius and is younger than I am! He is already making world class wine and his 2006 Amon Ra is no slouch. Rich, blackberry, spicy and deeply brooding. A softer oakiness that comes from his "new school" use of French rather than American wood. This wine is unctuous in the mouth and should be a stunner in 5 years. Kudos!

2004 Kay Brother "Block 6" Shiraz
Made with fruit from vines planted in 1892 (since phylloxera wiped out France in the late 19th Century these are probably some of the oldest vines in the world!). Aged in 100% American and Balkan oak in the traditional Australian style, this wine was a deep inky purple in the glass. Notes of pepper, blackberry and meat predominate. Cheek coating tannins. Superbly concentrated - this is a wine to enjoy on its own in your favorite chair and contemplate. A Parker favorite - he gave it 98 points!

2005 Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz
Always a favorite in the Nielsen household - this is Hunter Shiraz at its finest. My experience with Graveyards is they need 10+ years to shine and this one was a tight as a drum. Just a brilliant, rich dark wine with amazing clarity. Traditional Hunter spice and sweet leather came through. Black cherry and blackberry. Its 80% new oak shows but that will mellow with its 10 years in the cellar. A little "hot" on the finish which should integrate with time (hopefully).

2005 Giaconda Warner Vineyard Shiraz
The "best in show" Shiraz for me by a country mile was another Rick Kinzbrunner stunner. Floral and "blue fruit" dominant (which I love in a Shiraz) with tannins that were so soft and luscious. Boy, oh, boy this is a winner!

2005 John Duval "Entity" Shiraz
Deep purple, blackcurrant and blackberry. Big robust tannins says "age me! age me!". Lovely spiciness and some oak that needs time to integrate. A super long finish - ahhh, this is wine! Incredibly well constructed wine that shows off John's skills from his 28 years at Penfolds including 16 years of being in charge of "Grange". Get in on this one before the world catches on!

As if the French weren't behind the eight-ball enough already!

According to Decanter, a French court ruled that articles on wine in newspapers should carry the same health warnings as you would see on bottles and in advertising. From Decanter:-

'Any communication in favour of an alcoholic drink, such as a series of articles in favour of Champagne, constitutes advertising and is therefore subject to the public health code,'

The court said that the article was 'intended to promote sales of alcoholic beverages in exercising a psychological effect on the reader that incited him or her to buy alcohol'

French wine is already at a disadvantage on the world market (of course I am ignoring the 0.001% of the worlds wine that is the 1st Growth Bordeaux or Grand Cru Burgundy). Their wine labeling laws even prevent winemakers from specifically naming what grapes make up their wine (educated wine consumers may know that Châteauneuf-du-Pape red wines are a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mouvedre but does 99% of the wine drinking public know that?) unless they are willing to call their wine "vin de pays" (table wine) with all of the negative connotations that have always been associated with it.

No wonder Australian brands like Yellow Tail have beaten the French into submission on the world stage!

What says Iowa like wine?

Dr Vino has a fun post up on his blog that plays the old "if you were [insert inanimate object] what would you be game" with the Presidential hopefuls.

My favorite ones:-

John McCain: He used to be more of a loose cannon eight years ago. Now, the fire in the belly appears as mere embers. His wine is a 10 year old Turley Zinfandel, fiery in it’s youth, now sadly without vigor.

Dennis Kucinich: Given his hhhhot young wife (born 1977), he clearly likes youthful reds. We’ll put him down for a California Pinot, most recent vintage available.

John Edwards: he’s made it far on his “two Americas” theme. We know what that means–beer America and wine America. We’ll split the difference and put him down for a Franzia box wine.

It has been rumored though that on a trip to Estonia in 2004 that Hillary and McCain got into a "vodka drinking" contest so maybe wine isn't their tipple of choice!

A reminder of the power of wine to inspire

I just received in the mail Campbell Mattinson's new book, Why The French Hate Us, which is available for sale here.

Campbell has always been one of my most favorite wine journalists because he is not afraid to wear his beliefs proudly and has always been an unabashed supporter of Australian wine and the rightful positions of our "icon wines" alongside the best of Hermitage, Montrachet et al.

I will return to comment on this book because it focuses on issues with the Australian wine industry that has had me concerned, and as an aspiring wine maker, more inclined to pursue my dream in California.

But for now I wanted to share a anecdote from the opening chapter where Campbell recounts the moment that wine became more than just "booze" :-

...something changed in me forever, at the sip and the taste and the sensation of a particular wine. I was bitten by Dracula or a werewolf or, more appropriately, by a malaria-carrying mosquito. Something went funny in me. My heart got an erection. From that moment, I may have looked the same, but I was changed. I had become a mad wine hunter. I suddenly wanted to be on intimate, personal, intense terms with all of the most beautiful wines that I could afford - or could wangle to drink.

While being a "wine geek" for many years, it was that fateful 2003 Kosta Browne Sonoma Coast that I ordered off a wine list in Scottsdale, Arizona that changed me forever. The exquisite beauty, the artistry, its ephemeral chameleon-ish morphing from one sensation to another broke me. In that moment I knew that I had found my life's calling - I had to craft a wine as outstanding as this and I would travel to the ends of the earth to apprentice with the greatest wine artisans to acquire the tools and inspiration to make it happen.

In the UK, the Americans have conceded the Shiraz/Syrah war

Why fight it?

Fetzer, one of the biggest US brands on UK shelves (not that there are many here outside of Gallo, surprising since the dollar is so low is against the pound) has given in to the Australian juggernaut that is SHIRAZ!

I had a bit of a giggle myself so I had to buy the bottle. I suppose with people having to remember Côtes du Rhone and Shiraz, the marketing department at Fetzer must believe that there is not enough space for Syrah in the public consciousness and went "Bugger It! We lose to the Aussies enough in sport, might as well throw in the towel on varietal spelling as well!"

And Americans have the gall to call the French "cheese eating surrender monkeys"!

Bins, Bins, Bins

I finally arrived to start my new career and I have been thrown in the "deep end". Hundreds of fermentation bins and barrels to sanitize before the first fruit arrives in a few weeks. It is often said that for every hour of what one would call "romantic winemaking" there is four hours of washing up. Well if that is true then I have a LOT of winemaking due my way!

That said this is a great time to be in the winery - getting to know your fellow interns, having time to scope out the facility and getting acquainted with all the barrels that will be loving filled with Pinot before too long.

So sorry there hasn't been a post in a while but the "Internets" are sketchy up here (something to do with all those series of tubes, I guess). Anyway, promise to post more soon!

I like to call it the "goon bag effect" ™

Sure, some may say that correlation doesn't imply causation. Others may say that wine consumption tends to rise and crime tends to fall with rising disposable incomes, implying that they both have a common cause (disposable income) but neither causes the other. Another explanation trotted out is that the US has an aging population and it is primarily the young who commit crime and older folk who drink wine.

Personally I subscribe to the "goon bag effect" ™.




More people are drinking boxed wine. Boxed wine makes people happy. Happiness makes people less likely to commit crime. Quod erat demonstrandum!