Full Ripe Inviting Well Priced
Barossa Masterpiece Very High Rating
All God's Goodness Compressed
Brilliant Wine Great Vintage
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2013-05-16 17:20:42
- David
2013-05-11 13:07:48
- David
2013-05-08 10:23:35
- David
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The Search for Everyday Value Wines
Tuesday, 14th May, 2013 - David Farmer
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"While most of those who receive this newsletter would not normally (or ever?) buy a wine with a price of less than $10, there are occasions when knowledge of some of the best can be useful. Gifts to relatives (if they don’t know better), beach barbecues, fishing trips and the like are obvious purchase circumstances". James Halliday, The Australian Wine Companion, 13th March, 2013. more...
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You Win Some You Lose Some
Friday, 10th May, 2013 - David Farmer
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It is true that faced with a wall of bottles I have a better chance than most at making the right pick though I still curse all and sundry at my regular misfortunes. French Champagne was once my great specialty but these days I'm just another punter. Avoid the cheapies as that is what you will get. Avoid the non vintage bottlings of the big name brands as after the joy of watching the bubbles burst in the glass there is not much else.
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MORE DRINKS FROM OTHER NIGHTS
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Bordeaux En Primeur and 6000 Tasters
Thursday, 2nd May, 2013 - David Farmer
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Glug Australia Day Wine Award |
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Once a year in Bordeaux, around about April, they hold the grand final of wine. It was reported in Bloomberg (Elin Mc Coy, 22nd April) that 6000 wine buyers, opinion makers and those learning the ropes gathered to taste what the wine makers made from the difficult 2012 vintage. This depresses me no end as I doubt Australia has been visited by 6000 wine buyers and opinion makers in the last 10 years. more...
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Writing Tasting Notes about Great Wine
Wednesday, 2nd May, 2013 - David Farmer
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I have little interest in golf though as a young man read the golf column of Henry Longhurst in the Sunday Times UK as he was a writer. There are not many wine writers but there are hundreds of wine journalists and bloggers and I wonder how they do not die of boredom writing article after article about what they found when they visited winery ABC and always ending with half a dozen tasting notes.
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Is a Tasting Note Helpful when Shopping?
Wednesday, 24th April, 2013 - David Farmer
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The meaning and thus the worth of a tasting note is at best problematical and thus they are not much help when buying wine. Yet they are widely used, appear in many wine articles and are the main prop of specialist wine magazines. Because of this, tasting notes are seen as displaying expertise and perhaps sophistication and at the very least suggest a higher quality wine as consumers do not expect tasting notes of run-of-the-mill wines.
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Personal Experiences with Mataro in Australia
Friday, 22nd March, 2013 - David Farmer
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'March Mataro Madness' is underway at Glug and we will do our best to get you to try this wonderful variety. We will win on this score as with every order this month you will receive a FREE bottle of really good Mataro'.
It is the business of wine and food magazines and their stable of wine writers to explain the qualities of new grape varieties. Australians are reluctant to try new styles, but bit by bit the wine fraternity chips away and overtime they expand the range of varieties that move from novel to familiar. Currently they are encouraging the adventurous to try varieties such as pinot gris and prosecco (sparkling wine) and reds like sangiovese, nebbiolo and tempranillo. more...
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It's Mataro - Not Mourvèdre
Friday, 15th March, 2013 - David Farmer
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Decades ago I owned a large bottle shop in the Sydney suburb of Waterloo. It's expensive real estate now but back then the hoods propped up bars in the local pubs, we often drank at The George opposite the shop, while down the side lane, Beaumont Street, the hookers relaxed between jobs.
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The Founder of the German Retail Colossus Metro Dies, Age 89
Friday, 15th March, 2013 - David Farmer
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Otto Beisheim |
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It is said that England was a nation of shop keepers but really this simple thought applies to all countries at some stage. Success in business comes from many directions but a particularly fruitful area has been to revolutionise how the simple, daily needs of the population are bought and sold. With some exceptions all of the success stories in basic retailing have involved lowering prices and this has killed the shop keepers. more...
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The Cascade Brewery is the oldest operating brewery in Australia dating back to 1832. It will forever hold my affection as I grew up on Cascade Road, and used to play with the head brewers son. Depicted is the brewery estate C1890 and it was the land in the foreground, originally the Cascade Gardens, which was subdivided. Next is a Xmas card dating to about 1905 with Mount Wellington in the background.
WINE QUOTES
A Rhapsody of Wine with Food
Attributed to: Waugh, Alec
Source: In Praise of Wine, (Cassel)
Contributed by: Anon
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This quote has a distinctive pre-war flavour although the dinner was held in London in 1958. The Burgundy referred to is the Chateau Gris Nuit St Georges 1928.
"The soufflé that accompanied the Burgundy was firm but feathery, hot and succulent, playing a subsidiary role with grace and elegance-a bandillero to a matador. And never have I tasted a Burgundy to match the Chateau Gris. It was supreme, full and soft and rich and heavy... As long as I remember anything, I shall remember those two bottles of Chateay Gris. They will be an amulet against the raucous self-assertive voices of modernity. …and I see those sacred slopes softened by the amber radiance of a Burgundian sunset, I shall remember those two bottles which could have been produced at no other time, and in no other place, and I shall see the whole process of living enriched by the miracle that is in wine." |
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A regular update of wines we've found interesting and a few we'd rather forget more... |
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The Search for Everyday Value Wines
Tuesday, 14th May, 2013 |
Writing Tasting Notes about Great Wine
Wednesday, 2nd May, 2013 |
Bordeaux En Primeur and 6000 Tasters
Thursday, 2nd May, 2013 |
Great Rieslings from the 2012 Vintage
Wednesday, 24th April, 2013 |
Is a Tasting Note Helpful when Shopping?
Wednesday, 24th April, 2013 |
Great Rieslings from the 2012 Vintage
Wednesday, 24th April, 2013 |
The Epitaph for Eliza Lindeman reads Became Skinny Girl
Wednesday, 10th April, 2013 |
Do Great Wines Exist for Less Than $10?
Friday, 10th April, 2013 |
Personal Experiences with Mataro in Australia
Friday, 22nd March, 2013 |
Places You Live, Wines You Try
Friday, 22nd March, 2013 |
Do Tasting Notes Have any Value?
Friday, 22nd March, 2013 |
It's Mataro - Not Mourvèdre
Friday, 15th March, 2013 |
The Founder of the German Retail Colossus Metro Dies, Age 89
Friday, 15th March, 2013 |
A Brief History of Mataro in Australia
Friday, 8th March, 2013 |
New Moves Selling Wine Online
Friday, 8th March, 2013 |
Mataro Girls Make a Debut
Friday, 1st March, 2013 |
Cheez Doodles, Cheetos, Fast Foods and Wine
Wednesday, 27th February, 2013 |
An Afternoon in the Shade of a Ginkgo Tree
Wednesday, 21st February, 2013 |
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