Irregular Update
Sydney Time
Copyright © Ric Einstein 2008
Welcome to this weeks Irregular Update and Chapter One of the 2007 South Australian Tour Diaries. Last month, Red Bigot, The Pie King and I spent nine terrific days touring McLaren Vale and the Barossa. The quality of the wines we tried have never been better thanks to three great vintages, 2004, 2005 and 2006, as well as improvements to winemaking processes and styles. The glut may be over, but there is still an abundance of terrific wines at great value prices. If you are after exceptional value, everyday wines at under $15, or special occasion Excellent quality wines that cost less than $50, they will be listed in the Tour Diary, as will everything in between, plus loads more. As usual the concentration was on smaller wineries rather than the large corporates, but we still managed to fit a couple of those in too. At lunchtime, I did my best to avoid The Pie Kings (and his Apprentice's) insistence on frequenting establishments that specialised in meat pies, and luckily at night we managed to have good meals. All this, as well as my travelling companions antics are provided for your reading pleasure. Chapter One covers the introduction, getting there, and our first full day. Wineries visited include Sylvan Springs, Pirramimma, Longwood, Cascabel, Red Heads Studio, and Oliver's Taranga. We tasted loads of small production, artisan wines that are bound to interest wine lovers looking for something a bit different.
The feedback feature will be enabled in every Chapter, so please submit your feedback, thoughts and questions.
If you missed the introduction and lead in to the Tour Diary last week, Vintage Perspective 2007 and Tour Diary Observations can be found here. The introduction will set the scene by providing the latest vintage comparison information, as well as my overall impressions, and the latest trends.
Last weeks Snippet The Mollydooker/Parker Debate has been received with a lot of interest and some fascinating comments. One was from a small SA winemaker (who is well known to me but wishes to remain anonymous) and another equally interesting perspective was provided by Gerald Weisl, a respected US wine retailer. Even if you have read the Snippet, the feedback is absolutely worth reading, and Gerald's comments are bound to make you laugh. They can be found here.
The News section has been dead quiet over the past week. Some of the stories of possible interest include:
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Growers toast rising wine prices
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Palandri wine brand for Russian market
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Foster's May Be Due for a Happy Hour
Those stories can be found here.
This weeks quote. "Wine experts can’t resist making predictions. In 1990, wine lover Richard Nixon prophesied that the Chinese would someday match the French in the quality of their wines; this despite a Chinese carte des vins that featured sweet red wine and a grape called Cow’s Nipple. In the mid-1980s, a well-known New York wine merchant asserted that an $8 Cabernet from Chile was as good as Lafite, and auction prices would eventually reflect this little-known fact. Wine coolers too, as I recall, were expected to expose a vast new market to the pleasures of wine drinking. The coolers bombed, [a nice bottle of Lafite will set you back $250 or more], and Chilean cabernet is still mostly eight bucks." --- Stephen Tanzer, Forbes, May 6, 1996
Until next week .... Cheers!
Ric
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Copyright © Ric Einstein 2007 |