Until my first wine making lecturer talked about drinking yourself sober with Austrian wine, I never thought about Austria in any sense. When she wrote the words ‘Grüner Veltliner’ on the top of my notebook my fate was sealed. Further study (that does include drinking) opened me up to the world of their two standout … Read more
I had resolved to stop relentlessly talking up how good Riesling is. That was until I walked into the Riesling DownUnder’s trade tasting with a prospective employee who said “all Riesling tastes the same…” Well…!?! Let’s call him ‘Q’. He got grabbed by the bicep and manhandled to the nearest quality Riesling stand. Thankfully, it was … Read more
Over the years I have hosted numerous private tastings and dinners. When I got the call that the team at Telstra wanted to do a second one I knew I was in for a rowdy night. So I roped in some help in the form of Rob Hall from Kellybrook to entertain them. We decided to … Read more
On a warm summer night and only a week after my second Bordeaux 2010 dinner, I walked into my last wine dinner of 2013. And with high hopes, we sat down to six vintages of Antinori’s Tignanello. Tig, as it is affectionately known, is one of the original Super-Tuscan. The wine is exclusively from the … Read more
For the past two years I have been proud to raise funds for the Heart Foundation. To help achieve my goals I pulled a whole bunch of wine from my personal cellar and organised some customers and friends to attended a dinner at the wonderful restaurant Scopri. The end result was I raised $970 on the night. Plus … Read more
Occasionally a cynical wine taster gets to go to a tasting where you are excited before you arrive, you love the first wine and then continue to love every wine after. The only thing left to grumble about is having to spit out the wines so you can drive home. Mac Forbes grew up in the Yarra … Read more
It is time to look at issues close to home. Happily, we’ve got a wealth of talented wine makers producing some of the most amazing wines you will see anywhere in the world. I’ve decided to highlight a few of the more topical (ie actually have wines to sell). This is not an exhaustive list as I don’t … Read more
I will cheerfully admit I am a huge fan of Austrian wines. When a winemaking teacher tipped me off to the existence of Gruner Veltliner it opened up a whole world of textural, aromatic white wines that are almost more fun to smell than to drink (almost but not quite!). After years of enjoying Austria’s Riesling … Read more
Riesling is one of the ‘noble’ varieties of grapes used to make wine. I believe it to be the King (or should I say Queen?) of the aromatics. Found in most wine producing countries over the globe, and if made by someone with a passion for the variety, they will usually have success. However, Riesling … Read more
Wine of the Week Paradigm Hill Riesling 2011 Paradigm Hill is an impressive vineyard on the Mornington Peninsula. Probably most famous for their Pinot Noir I have always had a soft spot for their Riesling. We visited Paradigm Hill on Sunday when Main Ridge Estates cellar door was closed (so sad). It is a great experience … Read more
Kate Hill Riesling 2011 What? White in winter? Yes, and it is fantastic. For more than ten years Kate has been making wine in some of the world’s prime wine-making regions including South Australia, Tasmania, France, California and Chile in both large companies and small. After all this experience she chose Tasmania to settle down, … Read more
Over the past little while, I’ve been tasting wines from TWD’s cellar to make sure they are still in good condition (yep, that is the real reason for sure!). Here are some of the highlights. You can see the current list here and email any orders or questions to: [email protected] DOMAINE RASPAIL-AY GIGNONDAS 2008 & 1998 … Read more
Today is my 30th Birthday. What better way to celebrate then tasting some of my favourite Australian wines? That’s right, on my birthday I was willing to brave inclement weather and bad Melbourne traffic to taste wines – so they would have be special. And I wasn’t disappointed. These wines are for sale and wines I … Read more
Last week a friend from paintball, Rob, decided to take me wine touring as an early birthday present. Well, that’s what he claims, but it was school holidays…. Maybe he just wanted to leave the house? Either way, it was good fun. He chose two wineries, I chose two and away we went. Redbox – … Read more
A memorable night for two reasons – some truly amazing wines, and the fact that two people pulled out last minute so there was a lot more wine than we needed. The plus side was there was no real disappointments, the downside was it was hard to decide what not to drink. We started of course with … Read more
A nice relaxing lunch yesterday at Mr Bianco in Kew was a great excuse to pull out a bottle that had been burning a hole in my cellar. We started with a bottle of the Frankland Estate Isolation Ridge Riesling 2010 – You’ve no doubt heard me go on (and on) about it before, but it is stunning. Here are … Read more
Imagine coming back from holiday and a supplier asking if you’d like to attend a large Riesling tasting featuring some of the best German producers (with a few ring ins). Well that is what happened, and feeling myself Riesling to the occasion of course I said “Oh God yes!”. It is after all the best … Read more
One of the highlights of the year is Patrick’s Bring A Bottle Night. Not to take away from his hard and inspired work of assembling wines of a theme and quality suitable for our demanding palates, but on this night everyone pulls out all stops to bring a bottle of incredible quality. We did have … Read more
A selection of wines I have tasted in the recent past that I have enjoyed. DR BURKLIN WOLF TROCKEN PFALZ RIESLING 2009 – The Bűrklin-Wolf estate is based in the Mittelhaardt, the quality core of Germany’s world-renowned Pfalz. Since the 2001 vintage Bűrklin-Wolf have classified their wines according to the vineyard site (similar to Burgundy) … Read more
One of my most favourite traditions (second only to Burgundy on Boxing Day) is Patrick’s Monday dinners held every second month at Matteo’s in Brunswick. This month we get to look at Bordeaux 2001. An underrated vintage that offers high-quality Bordeaux. We also drink four German Riesling from the excellent vintage of 2007. Plus the usual Champagne on … Read more