Why don’t you rate wines? I have been asked several times why when I’m reviewing or writing about wines, why I don’t offer them a score or a numerical rating. Aside from not being a really efficient numbers person – maths has never been my strong suit – I don’t score wines because I want [...]
Archive for the ‘Wine Knowledge’ Category
Something Fishy: Breathe Magazine Edition
Posted in Wine Knowledge, tagged albumin, alcohol, astringency, bacteria, breathe magazine, brightness, buttery, carbon dioxide, casein, cellar door, chardonnay, Cheers!, clarity, colour, creamy, eggs, fermentation, fining agent, fining agents, Fish, flavour, floaties, flocculation, gelatin, grapes, haze, hunter valley, isinglass, lactic acid, lees, malicious acid, Malo, Malolactic, milk, mouth feel, parvalbumin, phenolics, protein, protein haze, Sauvignon Blanc, science, secondary fermentation, Shiraz, sugars, tradition, wine, wine faults, wine industry, wine judge, wine production, wine show, winemaker, Yeast, yeast cells, yeast lees on October 5, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Breathe Magazine requested for me to rewrite my original “Something Fishy” article for their Hunter Valley Wine Show edition. Something fishy… What’s the Story of Fish in Wine? I often get asked why there are warnings on wine labels pertaining to fish, milk and egg products. Aren’t the basic ingredients of wine just grapes and [...]
Mud, blood, bugs, sweat and tears
Posted in Half Full or Half Empty?, Wine Knowledge, tagged beer, faults, hand picking, harvest, hunter valley, mechanical harvester, mud, Pinot Noir, Port Stephens, summer, Vintage, wine, wine industry, Wonganella on September 19, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Growing up, my mum worked weekends in cellar door and so I spent a lot of time with my grandparents who were viticulturists. My family came to NSW from South Australia in order to plant the former Saxonvale vineyard, at Broke. (This was eventually purchased and sold to the mining industry by Michael Hope, the [...]
Something Fishy
Posted in Wine Knowledge, tagged albumin, apple juice, beer, bentonite, blood, casein, chitin, clarification, clarity, clay, cloudy, Coopers beer, earth, egg white, eggs, filtered, fining agents, finings, fish and wine, floaties, flocculation, food standards, gelatin, Guinness, isinglass, kosher, milk, parvalbumin, protein haze, Red, sediment, sturgeon, White, wine on May 26, 2011 | 2 Comments »
I often get asked why there are warnings on wine labels pertaining to fish, milk and egg products? Aren’t the basic ingredients of wine just grapes and yeast? Well… Yes. However, there are treatments the wine industry use to ‘fine’ or flocculate wine. Flocculation: [verb] forced removal of sediment from a liquid through addition of [...]
Petaluma Clare Valley Hanlin Hill 2008 Riesling
Posted in Wine Knowledge, Wine Reviews, tagged 2008, acidity, chalky, Chardy, cinnamon toast, citrus, cumquats, Dave, flinty, minerally, palate, rich, Riesling, South Australia, varieties, wine on August 13, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Maybe my relationship with Riesling was just over. Its not you its me. MY palate has changed and there is no longer room in my cellar for you. Sure, we’ll meet again from time to time – with mutal friends and at work events and functions and we’ll be polite to each other. But it just won’t be the same.
Yeast+Sugar=Wine … Right? Save us Super Yeast Man!
Posted in Wine Knowledge, tagged acidity, alcohol, bottle fermentation, Brettanomyces, carbon dioxide, Cheers!, fermentation, fructose, glucose, grapes, grapevines, Methode Champenoise, photosynthesis, science, Sparkling Wines, sugar, Super Yeast, tomato, tradition, vineyard, wine, Yeast, yeast cells, Yeast Man on July 16, 2010 | 6 Comments »
Some people don’t correlate the relationship between sugar, yeast and alcohol. In Australia the only legal permissable use of cane sugar in wine is for “dosage” in Methode Champenoise or Sparkling Wines. (This is one reason Sparkling Wines have more calories ladies…). Thus, the only legal way (in Australia) to get sugar in your fruit (grapes) [...]
Petersons Wines 2005 Mudgee Region Durif
Posted in Wine Knowledge, Wine Reviews, tagged 2005, American Oak, Australia, berry, Black Cherries, Black Forest, black pepper, cellar door, chalky tannins, Cherry Ripe, coconut, dark, dark chocolate, Durif, Gary Reed, long legs, Mudgee, Mudgee Region, online wine shop, palate, Peloursin, Petite Sirah, plummy, rich, Rutherglen, Shiraz, spiciness, Vintage, wine, youth on July 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Looking at the colour, its dark and brooding. The wine sticks to the glass with these sexy long legs that look like they go on forever. Even though it is 2005 Vintage the colour still displays a hint of youth with this purple tint amongst the black. In the light, it shines luminous ruby.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Pinots?
Posted in Half Full or Half Empty?, Wine Knowledge, tagged bunches, Champagne, cold climate, complex, fermentation, genetically unstable, mutate, pain in the arse, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, red fruit, robust, Sideways, thin skin, varieties, vineyard on June 20, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Pinot Noir is a pain in the arse. Why? Small tight little bunches. Low yielding. Thin Skin = susceptible to fungal disease, bunch rot, skins splitting. Thin Skin = Sometimes leads to a crap colour. Needs a cold climate. Sentitive to light. Sensitive to everything (needy). Loves air. Loves it so much it will Over Dose [...]
What’s in a Name? Mules of the Wine World.
Posted in Half Full or Half Empty?, Wine Knowledge, tagged ancestries, Australia, bastard, blackcurrant, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, cassis, Chambourcin, chardonnay, Cheers!, cross-pollinating, dirty weekend, disease, disease resistant, DNA, Durif, Epic Fail, European Union, French, grape, herbaceous, hunter valley, hybrids, Italy, Johannes Seyve, Loire Valley, Merlot, North American, old world, pairing, parentage, Peloursin, Petite Sirah, Primitivo, raspberry, regional, romantic, Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz, Sparkling red, Syrah, terroir, tobacco, tradition, varieties, vineyard, wine, zinfandel on June 20, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Hybrids. What do we know about them? Cheap to run, fuel saving, energy efficient… Disease Resistant?! Hybrids of the wine world are those single varieties which are genetic result of two or more other grape varieties. But how prominent are hybridised varieties in the Australian Market? They might be more common than you think. Is Chambourcin the mule [...]
Chip off the Old Block?
Posted in Wine Knowledge, tagged 1800's, Australia, Back Block, Graveyard, Hill of Grace, hunter valley, lower yielding, middle-aged, mouthfeel, Old Block, old vine, people, phylloxera, Sauvignon Blanc, South Australia, special occasion, terroir, varieties, weather conditions, wine industry, winemaker on June 14, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Grape vines can live a very long lifespan – Australia does boast some of the world’s oldest grape vines. This is owing to disease including phylloxera that swept through Europe in the 1800′s. There are vines still producing in South Australia that were known to be planted in the 1860′s. Thus, with tender love and [...]
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