Yum boi Glug!

Here's some more vinous observations from my sojourn in south east China - still haven't had a bad meal... but when I hear all the recent kerfuffle about Chinese food standards I wonder why I'm still alive! more...

Kung Hei Fat Choy Dave,

I have a day off today and thought it might be time to add some more eclectic meanderings to my file of "the life of a displaced Aussie wine man in one of the world's highest taxed wine markets" more...

We received this letter from wine writer Chris Shanahan which gives another insight into the bustle of modern China. Chris and wife Jill went to China to visit their daughter who is teaching English. more...

An old wine marketing friend of ours, Richard Warland, with decades in the Australian industry, moved to a Hong Kong about a year ago to take up a very demanding job. We had hoped he would feel like contributing to Glug and tell us about the fast developing local wine scene. Plus keep us up to date with a society that seems to have lots of fun entertaining itself and often this is based around a great love of food. Richard has agreed to send the occasional piece though we found his recent email saying hello just what we are looking for so we publish it in full. more...

As usual on a cold day in El Tambo, Chile, I have been catching up on the world wine news over the internet. And it has come as a bit of shock to see that Chile is still viewed as a threat to the Australian wine industry due to favourable currency exchanges and despite Australias current problems with over supply. Prices for Chilean wines have been slowly increasing over the last two years and look like maintaining these prices due to the weak peso/greenback exchange. more...

Our Master of Wine based in Chile, after a brief visit home to Australia, ponders about the difficulties that the Chilean wine industry faces in captivating the world wine audience.

I have just returned from a 3 ˝ hour epic which saw me travelling 60 kilometres in either direction just to buy our car. We didn’t really have to buy the car again just make a transfer of ownership from our name to the company name. A fairly simple task one would think. Not so. more...

The Trip to Mendoza, the Wine Capital

Buenos Aires sits on the bank of a large river system that drains the Western Andes and the North Eastern Brazilian high plains. These rivers have created a fertile flat land that covers a huge area. The drive west from the capital to Mendoza the Argentinean wine town is an endless spectacle of corn fields, Soya bean crops, cows and horses. more...

Throughout the world, there are wines sold under various different names which may not actually be true to what they are. All wine making countries have little secrets that everyone in the know knows and everyone not in the know, doesn’t seem to really care. more...