Irregular Update

                 Sydney Time

           Copyright © Ric Einstein 2008

Welcome to this weeks Irregular Update. As promised it contains Chapter Five of the 2008 Victorian Tour Diary. This Chapter covers a lot of distance. Literally! It starts off in Heathcote and finishes in Beechworth. First stop was Nagambie where we visited the historical Tahbilk Winery. We got lucky! They were having a museum tasting so we were able to cherry pick through a huge range of back vintages, as well as tasting the current releases. Mitchelton was next and then we moved onto Plunkett Fowles. These last two seemed a bit patchy. Baileys of Glenrowan made up for the last two; at long last its right back at its best. From there we moved to Beechworth. Tinkers Hill was interesting! Dinner that night was with Keppell Smith of Savaterre who actually brought a Shar-Donay  and a PiNot to dinner knowing that the two red bigots were there. Sheeesssh, what ever was he thinking. Or not! Wait till you see the report on that escapade. Russell and Meeghan Bourne of battely wines were also at the dinner. What a night. Read all about it here.
 

Those scamming Nigerian conmen are going flat out in the US now judging by the emails I have been receiving. One of the guys fronting the original Dom Perignon Scam is now in the employment business.  Ben McMean is trying to scam people into payroll consultant jobs. This time he is "playing the cripple in a wheel chair" card and has an aunt dying of cancer. The story goes, "poor little me but don't feel sorry for me because I have got lots of money and want you to have some of it." The rotten so and so seems to be targeting mothers with young children, many of them single mums who are the ones that can least afford to be scammed. At least posting those wine cons on TORBWine has saved some people from being burnt by these bast***s. 

The tax on RTD's went up in NSW this week. The reason behind the move is to try and reduce binge drinking amongst the young. Good idea but it will be as effective as trying to jump start a Jumbo Jet with a AA torch battery. Don't these politicians understand anything about human nature. If these youngsters (**** that makes me sound old) are intend on going out and getting blind rotten drunk, if the alco-pops are too expensive they will switch to sweet Port or some other substitute. A few people with half a brain worked that out and rang some of the  local radio shock jocks. Their suggestion was to raise the tax on wine and beer to the same level as spirits. Great! Very smart stuff. That will penalise the entire drinking population, the vast majority who are responsible, because of a small percentage of young hoons who are intent on getting off their faces. And if alcohol is too expensive, I am sure the drug pushers will have a field day selling hi-octane THC pot, crystal meth, x, and other assorted drugs. The politicians don't have what it takes to address the underlying causes; much easier to address the symptoms and then kid themselves they are doing something constructive.

Sometimes tasting samples can be a chore. Many of the wines sent for reviewers are shall we say "pedestrian." Yippee. This week I had five bottles that were all good. Even a Pinot! The tasting notes are here.

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

• WA battle over smoke taint in wine

• Bordeaux must fight anti-alcohol lobby

• Allegations of glass price fixing spark EU enquiry

• New appointments to boost wine industry

• Rosemount gets back in vogue with fashion push

Those stories can be found here.

This weeks useless trivia. Until 1989, Academy Award presenters said, "And the winner is..." Some people complained that the word "winner" implied that the four other nominees who did not get the gong were losers. So the wording was changed to "And the Oscar goes to...." Strange, but a true reflection of the ridiculous.  Its enough to drive one to drink. I will go back to those open samples now.
 

Until next time ....  Cheers!

Ric

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