Wine
Campo Viejo
Its not often that I see samples of imports, but a few weeks ago we sat down to what is probably the best known name in Rioja wine. Campo Viejo, Spain’s Winery of the Year, (now fully imported by Pernod Ricard) has won its the sixth Winery of the Year award, cementing their place as the “go to” Rioja wine, the region best known for its Tempranillo. But its been at the cutting edg...
Chateau Tanunda
Chateau Tanunda is one of those names that have been synonymous with wine in Australia, especially the Barossa. Constructed in the late 1880’s by some of the first winemaker’s in the Barossa, its vineyards are home to some of the oldest plantings in the Barossa, dating back to the 1840’s, and its Chateau is Australia’s largest and oldest wine Chateau. Built 40 metres into a Tanunda hillside to pro...
Magic Box Wines
I’ve often remarked in these columns how marketing departments dictate what wines the winery make. Sometimes I think they get it wrong, the marketers are aiming for a certain segment and just miss it. It’s either a touch too soon, too late or the final product they are aiming for just didn’t line up with what was available for the winemakers to work with. But every now and again they get it right,...
John Duval Wines
Is there life after working for the big names of wine making, after all the trophies and media about your big name wines? You bet there is, and unsurprisingly it involves making more trophy winning wines. John Duval had a stellar career at Penfolds, including a 16 year long stint as the Chief Winemaker, responsible for the crafting of Penfolds world renowned Grange. Under his guidance, Penfolds we...
Healthy Drinking? Does it exist?
Drinking healthy? The phrase sounds like an oxymoron, however every time I look at the news there seems to be some new link with health and alcohol, a glass of wine here or a gin there and suddenly we all live to a ripe old age. It’s all rather hard to believe, but I slept through most of my high school biology classes. I personally think that the key here, as with anything in life, is moderation....
Heggies Vineyard Riesling
“There’s no beer left”. It was a movie moment. You know one of those scenes when there’s an explosion or something happens and there is no sound just the actor’s hard breathing, and then slowly all the sound rushes back to them? It was like that, I heard the words but I didn’t believe them….“There’s no beer left!” Probably the most dreaded sentence a man can hear, closely followed by “I’m l...
Casella Family Wines
Growing up on his family’s farm in NSW’s Griffith, John Casella wanted more than just to run the little winery with a hand turned wine press. Over half a century later, Casella now oversees Casella Family Brands (CFB), a vinous empire that sells hundreds of bottles of wine around the world every minute of the day. In fact in the time it takes you to read this article, wine drinkers around the glob...
Peter Lehmann VSV
In 2014, the family behind one of Australia’s most successful wine brands, [yellow tail], purchased the famous Barossa winery Peter Lehmann Wines from Swiss based The Hess Group. It followed the death of Peter Lehmann in 2013, who had founded the winery in 1979. It continues the rise and rise of Casella Family Brands, who produced their first bottle of wine in 1969 at their Farm 1471 near Griffith...