Wine
Flametree Wines
Back in 2007 Apple released the first iPhone , a product that took the world by storm. The Melbourne Storm won not only the minor premiership but also the grand Finals when they defeated, or should I say embarrassed, Manly 34-8. And over in WA’s Geographe Bay, the area that leads into the Margret River area, the Towner family were setting up a little winery called Flametree Wines were opening thei...
Robert Stein new Riesling releases
Many years ago the area of Mudgee fell off the wine radar for a lot of people, and for some reason it has struggled to come back. I’ve heard people say that’s because the wines coming from the region aren’t great, they are too hit and miss or they aren’t as expressive as some of the other wine regions of Australia. I think those people have had their head in the sand over the past few years as the...
Oaked Sauvignon Blanc
Most people tend to think of Sauvignon Blanc as an un-oaked wine, but some of the most interesting sauv blancs that are floating around on the shelves in the local bottleshop these days, are the ones that have seen time in oak barrels. The use of oak in sauv blanc has been creeping back in over the last decade or so, and its not surprising because, winemakers, like the rest of us, can get a little...
Huntington Estate
Its not often that I like to review a wine that isn’t available at your local bottleshop. But every now and again I come across a wine label that is available direct from the winery, that is worth getting a few mates together to buy a carton or mixed dozen with. Huntington Estate in NSW Mudgee district is just that sort of winery. Huntington Estate was established in 1969 by Bob and Wendy Roberts,...
New Wine Varieties
For some years Australian growers and winemakers have been leading the world with trialling new varieties, taking varieties that were almost facing extinction or had been pushed out of favouritism in their own native country and trying their Aussie hand at them. A lot of these have been varieties that our winemakers have gone onto use extremely well and that have created outstanding, individual an...
De Bortoli “Top Summer Drops”
I’m often asked which wines we drink at home, and the short answer is a lot of everything, and it’s always changing, either because of seasons, changing tastes or the quality of a particular vintage of wine. Over the last few weeks we’ve been getting back into our summer wines; crisp and zippy whites, spicy pinots and reds that are best when chilled. However when I say chilled I don’t mean cold, w...
Nanny Goat Vineyards
With the weather heating back up again recently, it’s been time to start looking at those wines for the warmer months. Gone are the days of being able to pull out a bottle of big, bold Barossa red. I find that we start to drink more of the whites, rosés and pinots. Any regular reader of this column will know I’m a huge fan of Pinot Noir, it’s a wine that I drink all year round, from the light drin...
Yalumba’s Little Brothers
Back in 2009 the lads at Winefront nominated the 2007 Yalumba Scribbler Cabernet Shiraz as their #1 in the Top 100 under $20 in the 09/10 Big Red Wine Book. By the time that Gourmet Traveller Wine had decided to jump in and give the 07 Scribbler a pretty solid 94 points, I’d already bought a few bottles and put them away in the cool dark lonely spot. Last week I finally cracked the cap of a couple...