Irregular Update
This site is now closed
and has been left here
for historical reference
only.
Sydney Time
Copyright © Ric Einstein 2009
Welcome to this Irregular Update which is living up it its name. When I started TORBWine all those years ago, I knew a time would come when the newsletters would stop being regular as clockwork, so that was why I named it the Irregular Update. That and the fact that the content is not your usual, regular wine newsletter content. Speaking of content, there is a lot to cover in this edition.
First off, I may have not been all that busy writing since you last heard from me, but I have been tasting lots of wine. Most of it worthy of serious consideration. The list of wines tasted cover all price points from $10 to $90+, and the range of regions is diverse, so there is something for everyone. To make it more enticing, there are a heap of **** for vale wines, and even some, rare as hens teeth, ***** offerings.
Earlier this year, I wrote a Snippet called
Corporate Bastardy Lives
On. It dealt with the completely unscrupulous behaviour of McGuigan
Wines antics when they sold a Chardonnay from the Adelaide Hills called
Schubert Estate. That name is actually owned by a winery in the
Barossa and has no relationship to McGuigan. It looks like my original Snippet
had some effect as this new Snippet,
It Ain’t Over Till The
Fat Lady Sings illustrates. I can't tell you exactly what will happen,
but I can let you know that things are probably about to get ugly for McGuigan.
They will probably cop a heap of bad publicity over it. And that could just be
the start of their troubles. About time I say!
Penfolds Grange has enjoyed an unsurpassed
reputation and is the flagship of the Fosters wine portfolio. When you
fork out $500, or more, for a bottle of wine, you expect the company to stand
behind its product. Under Australian law, if any product has a manufacturing
defect, and cork taint falls into that category, or the product is not fit the
purpose it was intended, the purchaser is entitled to a replacement. So, if you
open a bottle of 86 Grange that should be in the prime of its life and a
great wine, and its not, what happens? As this article shows, the situation is
not always cut and dried for either party. More importantly, it exposes the
absolute farcical process the wineries go through to determine if the wine is
defective or sound. Not an easy problem to solve, and one without clear answers,
never-the-less it needs to be exposed. "Grange – Keeping the Bastards Honest"
can be found
here.
There is also a new Readers Write article
this week, Murrumbateman Cool Climate Wine Show 2008. Long time,
part-time wine journalist and full time fang quack, Gilbert Labour was
the Chief Stewart at this years Cool Climate Wine Show and once again, provides
not only the results, but his own personal thoughts. The good oil can be found
here.
Now I know this is not wine related, but
many readers may find it interesting. Most of us have become addicted to mobile
(cell) phones and can not imagine life without one. From my perspective, I have
copies of over over 4,000 tasting notes on mine, price lists, shop records,
staff rosters and loads more. A smart phone is a wonderful tool, but they can
also be nightmare if they go wrong. Given the products importance, when it came
to buy a new one, I did my research and then purchased the new unit from the
local Telstra franchise. I figured if I had any problems, it would be no problem
as I was dealing with a reputable mob. Wrong! As
the story
"Thinking about Buying a Shoe Phone from Telstra – Don’t!" shows.
The readership of TORBWine has always been diverse. The majority of readers are are from Oz and North America, followed by the POME bas*ards (tautology), and a fair smattering from Asia. Western Europe subscribers are also represented, although five eights of sweet Fanny Adams of them are Frogs. So why am I telling you this? Well, I have noticed over the past few months some Russian subscriptions to the Irregular Update, and in the last few weeks, a number of reader from Poland have registered. So welcome to our East European readers and I hope you enjoy the site, and our Oz wine.
The News section has been constipated over the past week, but prior to that there were some interesting articles. Just some of the stories of possible interest include...
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Foster's rethinks $4.5 billion wine sale
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Fine wine prices hit new low
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Aussie thirst for Kiwi wine continues with older families tucking in
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Consumers win wine war
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Future of Australian wine cask in doubt
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Researchers question health benefits after metal found in wines
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Bottled wine exports on the rise
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Wine industry fearful of 'smoke taint'
Those stories and more can be found here.
This weeks wine 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 1996
Until next time .... Cheers Ric
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Copyright © Ric Einstein 2008