This was a wonderful tasting of a selection of Wynns Black Label and John Riddoch Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon wines from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, with some quite interesting conclusions. Those conclusions were that the Black Label, for most vintages, served blind and side-by-side with the John Riddoch, provided the more compelling currentContinue reading “Wynns Coonawarra tasting”
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Institute of Masters of Wine Bordeaux 2014 in bottle Sydney tasting
Last weekend, the annual Institute of Masters of Wine Bordeaux tasting in bottle of the 2014 vintage took place in Sydney. I expected this to be a much more popular event than the previous year’s tasting of the 2013s (you can read my reviews of that tasting here) which was a poor vintage. But inContinue reading “Institute of Masters of Wine Bordeaux 2014 in bottle Sydney tasting”
Rutherglen muscat and topaque
Here’s the second of my promised posts on the Rutherglen wine region. The first post was on Rutherglen’s renaissance and can be found here. This post is all about what Rutherglen is famous for: fortified muscat (grape: muscat à petits grains) and fortified topaque (grape: muscadelle). Viticulture and winemaking Rather than recite facts from theContinue reading “Rutherglen muscat and topaque”
Paris to Chablis
Jetlag recovered, the first stop on the wine itinerary was Chablis. I suspect due to pre-conceptions of cold winters and frost, I had always thought of Chablis as being a little north of Paris, notwithstanding I know France reasonably well. In fact, it is a roughly 2 hour drive south-east of Paris, which made meContinue reading “Paris to Chablis”
Merlot in Australia
Introduction Given the quality ambitions of many Australian producers, the relative underperformance of merlot in Australia has always struck me as something of an anomaly that is worthy of further thought and attention. So what is wrong then with Australian merlot? Like all good stories, we have an alleged culprit. Locally the finger generallyContinue reading “Merlot in Australia”