Irregular Update

                 Sydney Time

           Copyright © Ric Einstein 2008

Welcome to this weeks short Irregular Update. As promised it contains Chapter Four of the 2008 Victorian Tour Diary. It covers our time in the famous Heathcote Region. On my last trip to this area I was thoroughly disappointed in the attitude of wineries and the lack of places that bothered to open, so being forewarned I made a few appointments and planned the day very carefully. It was worth it as we had a productive, and enjoyable day. You can't visit Heathcote without visiting the crown jewel, so we started at Jasper Hill. We then did a quick visit to Munari, and as expected the wines were well-worthwhile.  Have you ever heard of Downing Estate?  Well you have now and they don't make bad wine; even their Merlot is serious. He may not look like Errol, by Flynn's Wines can be bloody interesting, especially their Sangiovese.  And it may sound hard to believe, but I enjoyed a pie at lunchtime too! Heathcote Winery produced a couple of very respectable wines for us to try, one of which is just about to be released. We also visited Shelmerdine and McIvor Estate. You can find those write-ups and a lot more besides, right here.

How did Fosters keep this one quiet? Rumour has it that Nigel Dolan, the winemaker at Saltram resigned some months ago. Apparently Fosters are still looking for a full-time replacement for him. His shoes will be hard to fill, and not just because he was a good winemaker. The 150 plus years of history at Saltram has been dominated by two families. The Dolan's are one of them. Nigel's father, Brian was winemaker there from 1954 to 1959. His son Nigel has been winemaker since 1992. Much of the marketing surrounding the wine and the winery has centred on the Dolan name. In some ways it's surprising that in an organisation the size of Fosters, that there is no natural successor to take over from Nigel. Given the large corporate mentality and culture of a company like Foster's, one can only wonder how many winemakers will pass through Saltram in the next 150 years.

There are no tasting notes this week, however there are quite a few samples on the table to get through. However, there is a brilliant funny that has been added.

The News section has been very quiet recently.  Stories of possible interest are:

• Jancis Robinson: critics should show more humility

• Buyer found for Palandri Wine group assets

• Adieu to the bag in a box?

• Australian Vintage 08 wine crush up

• Drunk man fails to notice knife in back

• Record $500,000 paid for 27 bottles of red wine

• Price more important than taste: Caltech study reinforced

Those stories can be found here.

This weeks trivia. It cost $3 million to build the Titanic and $100 million to shoot the movie!
 

Until next time ....  Cheers!

Ric