Irregular Update
Sydney Time
Copyright © Ric Einstein 2008
Welcome to this weeks Irregular Update.
Last weeks Snippet titled "Yanks get their Knickers in a Twist" resulted in eleven comments; most of them on one side of the fence, although there were a few differing opinions. The most enlightening comment is from Deborah Gray, and expat Australian who is importing Oz wine into the US and understands that market better than most.
The Halliday 2008 Companion story continues in two ways. Firstly, the controversy and comments over his Mollydooker review continues. There was a new thread on the Mark Squires/Parker Forum in which Robert Parker threw his two pennith worth in. As expected, the "Oz Ooze Monster" and general Oz Bashing Brigade were out in force, and Sparky Marquis stepped up to the plate and completely disarmed them with style, dignity and above all enthusiasm. It was a class act! There was more comment on other forums too. The thread on Wine Spectator was generally well behaved but took an unexpected twist when someone who should know better, basically called me a liar. Read all about it in this Snippet called "The Debate and Fallout Continues."
This weeks article continues the "Halliday 2008 Companion"story with an in-depth review of the book. The Companion outsells all other Australian wines books, and is eagerly awaited by thousands of Australian wine lovers. For this edition, Halliday tasted over 7,200 wines and the Companion contains reviews of over 5,800 of them. It also contains details on over 1,700 wineries, but enough of the statistics. In this edition, a few major changes have been made, and these changes herald a change in the direction of future editions. Read all about it here.
Some new tasting notes have been posted. I must admit, a couple of them were a surprise and one had me completely confused. Read them here.
The Tasting Note entry page has now received over 95,000 hits since TORBWine was launched and it's anyone's guess when the magic 100,000 visits will be reached. (There have been hundreds of thousands of actual tasting note searches, as many people search for more than one wine.) So, to celebrate and have a bit of fun, I am announcing a free guessing competition. The person who guesses the closest date will win a bottle of very presentable Oz wine from my cellar. Only one entry per person will be accepted. Click here to enter.
The News section has been quieter than normal this week. Some of the stories of possible interest include:
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Chile moving into our wine market
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Great wine, great value from Australia
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New World order
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Barossa growers hope to head-off any new wine glut
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New Evans & Tate deal could end saga
Those stories and more can be found here.
This week quote: "My dear girl, there are some things that are just not done, such as drinking Dom Perignon ‘53 above the temperature of 38° Fahrenheit." - James Bond in the move Goldfinger; and as all real wine lovers would know, 007 got that wrong as it would be far too cold.
Until until next week.... Cheers!
Ric
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Copyright © Ric Einstein 2007 |