barefoot
Levantine Hill
If you are a fan of those huge big and bold Barossa reds, then you should stop reading now. On the other hand if you have got to that stage where you are chasing wines that are more about elegance, finesse and restrained power then have I got a winery for you. Levantine Hill winery in Yarra Valley’s Coldstream has been knocking out wines for only a handful of years now, but already they have built...
Avion Tequila
The Minister for War, Finance and All Things Fun has been away with work for the last few weeks, and it’s allowed me to catch up on some TV. Like most people, I never seem to have any spare time that just allows me to sit down in front of the TV and veg out, I’m still on series two of Breaking Bad, the Rick Grimes’ little group have just helped Hershel and I’m finally on series seven of Entourage...
Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc
1985, “We are the World” was playing everywhere you went, the wreck of the Titanic was found, Microsoft released the first version of Windows, Canterbury rolled the Saints 7 to 6, and the mighty Bombers thrashed the Hawks 170 to 92 to win a consecutive premiership. Across the ditch, in an Auckland harbour, the French got a bit sneaky and sank the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior, and over in Ma...
Heineken
Heineken, it is one of those “Ford vs. Holden” beers. You either love the stuff or you love to point out its flaws and foibles (I’ve always wanted to use that word in a review). Personally I enjoy the brew. Especially when it comes to those 500ml tins that seem to fit so perfectly in an esky, it’s like they were meant to be there! Heineken has been on some pretty good discounted specials lately, s...
C’Mon get Savvy
We don’t get out for dinner often; with kids, work and general “stuff” to be done around the house, but we recently made that happen. We were supposed to travel over the Valentines, but the roads were cut, so out we went, and of course being Valentines, there were more people around than a Drug Intervention at the Titans Rugby League Club, and not having booked because we weren’t supposed to be he...
World Series Cricket Beers.
Way back in the 70’s a movement happened that made a lot of us sit up and take notice….One Day Cricket was born. During the 80’s it evolved to 50overs, C’mon Aussie C’mon ruled the playground chants, not to mention shooting to number one in 1979. This was back when tough men wielded the willow; they were moustachioed, smoked and didn’t cry (well not till a bloke called Kimberley Hughes decid...
XXXX Gold
Australia Day last year saw me sitting throwing myself whole heartedly into festivities at the Kurramine Beach pub. Trying to eat my body weight in snags, throwing of thongs and even getting myself wrangled into a tractor pulling competition. The whole time I kept myself in peak tractor pulling conditioning by keeping up my fluids, namely with Australia’s best selling beer Fourex (or simply XXXX) ...
John Boston Beers
The really big boys of brewing, the multinationals for example, spend a lot on market research and marketing, in some cases more than the GDP of a small country, working out when to release a beer, how to market it, what to make it look like. The aim is to create a brand that has a very distinctive image in terms of packaging and is easily marketed, leveraging off other arms of company (if there ...
Cricketers Arms
Ahh the Test Cricket has returned to our TV screens. As enjoyable as watching the Matador Cup and the International One Day matches have been, it’s just not the same as watching an International Test. Especially when we are playing the Poms. Yes, I’m one of those tragics that can spend five days at a field watching grown men chase a little red ball around a field, throw it back to another bloke wh...
Little Creature on TAP!
I’m a big fan of Little Creatures Pale Ale, its one of my favourite summertime drinking beers. A lot of people have bagged the brewery, not the product, since it was bought out by Lion Nathan (the makers of all things Fourex and Tooheys, just to name two of their vast range). A lot of press has been from the hard core, hard nosed craft beer drinkers being disappointed that one of our leading indep...
Moa
Well the Bledisloe has been run and won again by the All Blacks. Too big, too strong, too fast. But it was while having to throw back a tin of the very interesting tasting Tui Lager as being on the losing end of a bet with a Kiwi mate, that I realised that us Aussies get to have the last laugh, we have the better beer. The term “interesting” is used more in a politically correct way here, the edit...
West Cape Howe
A few weeks ago, just as I was packing our camper trailer to head off for the long weekend, I received a call from Gavin Berry, Winemaker/Owner of West Cape Howe Wines in Western Australia’s Great Southern region. He was in town and wanted to swing past to show his new vintages of his fantastic wines. It was stinking hot in the shed, I was covered in sweat, had just realised I had mistakenly rewir...