Archive Posts

There we were at a friend's dinner table talking about strange events we had been to - square dances, evenings devoted to singing sea shanties, that sort of thing - when a trip to a gay cowboy line dancing bar in San Francisco sprang to mind. There was no wine there, but, if you'll forgive the drawing of a longbow, the strangeness of the place reminded me of the wines I've been tasting this month.

It all started when my old friend, Chris Carrad, brought over a "cosmic" wine for tasting - the grapes in it were grown in soils treated with acupuncture. A few weeks later, a Kiwi winemaker blind-poured me a Marlborough pinot gris (a wine style I usually can't stand), only to find it tasted more like a French roussanne (which I like).

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Pinot noir is not the most popular red wine in the United States  even merlot outsells it almost 2-to-1, according to The Nielsen Co.

But pinot noir is arguably the most chic grape in the vineyard, which may explain why the variety has proved so troublesome.

Pinot noir vines are slow-growing, generally produce low grape yields, can be rather fussy about soils and demand cool weather conditions.

Pinot is also prone to mutation  not something one necessarily wants in a vineyard.

And pinot has more clones than any other variety, according to the Wine Institute, a California trade group.

All of this may explain why so many winemakers, from Michigan to Mendocino, Mendoza to Marlborough, want to grow pinot noir.

It's a challenge, but when done right, the resulting wine can be extraordinary. This French-born grape is indeed grown around the world, but .

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You can’t judge a book by its cover but you can judge a wine by its label it seems after the American Association of Wine Economists who advise vineries to invest more in labelling than pressing grapes.

An Association investigation discovered that novices were able to determine a wines value without even uncorking it, they simply observed the quality of the drawings and type of words used.

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Enhance the taste of your favourite drop with Littledale Fine Wines’ 4-in-1 Nuance Wine Finer, a drip stop pourer, filter, aerator and close fitting lid, $69.99. Littledale Fine Wines are rare, the classy boutique taste is so rare to find at any old regular bottle shop, most are of very limited allocations, making them even more so exclusive.

Littledale Fine Wines distribute the finest boutique wines to restaurants, bars and hotels throughout Sydney, four lucky NinetoFive readers have the chance to win this must have wine accessory and a bottle of Little Red 2005 Shiraz in Littledale’s Ultimate Wine Pack, valued at over $88. To enter, tell us in 50 words or less what flavours you want enhanced from your favourite wine.

Rose wines are taking more and more space on supermarket shelves - and now is the perfect time to enjoy them. Here are some good-value pink fizzes to drink in the open air on a warm summer's day. Bellante Rose NV (Marks & Spencer, £2 off at £6.99 from next Monday) is.

An Italian sparkler once called Prosecco Raboso but renamed due to a change in Italian law. This refreshing, delicate pink wine has raspberry and pear fruit flavours and a crisp finish. Great for a celebration with nibbles and it's a match for light fish dishes. Fine value.

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Camel Valley Wines in Cornwall knocked champagne giants off their pedestal by picking up an International Wine Challenge Trophy – beating more than 450 individual wines entered. It is the first time an English wine has ever won an IWC trophy, considered the most important of the many medals and honours awarded in the wine industry.

Each year IWC hands out many gold medals to wines it considers "best in class", and then it enters all the gold medal winners to the trophy competition. Only one trophy is handed out for each category, such as red wine, or sweet white wines. Camel Valley won in the sparkling rosé category.

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Australian Agriculture Minister Terry Redman has embarked on a trade mission to promote West Australian wine to Chinese markets. A WA wine master class, which will promote about 20 local wines to international importers, is held at the World Expo in Shanghai this week. Mr Redman will also launch a WA wine book which profiles 100 wineries from around the state. Arelwood Wines' Terry Chellappah, whose wine is being featured in Shanghai, says the Chinese market is becoming a strong focus.

"We need to demonstrate to markets, not just in China but overseas, the quality of our wines and the fact that we deliver wines to various price points not just the bottom end, but certainly more importantly, medium to top end which is where they have to be to be sustainable." "We see it as a positive thing to be doing, not just as a low cost option for the Chinese market but to promote the quality and diversity of WA wine into the medium and top end of the market."

While most wines in 750-milliliter bottles have corks in them, the number of bottles that have screw caps is significant.

A few decades ago, screw caps were reserved for the lowliest of wines, and the wine-consuming public assumed any wine that had a screw cap was pedestrian, the sort of stuff fit for a brown paper bag and a nearby gutter.

But back then most wine professionals knew that screw caps had certain advantages over traditional corks, which were susceptible to an invisible mold that had an unpleasant aroma.

Between 2 percent and 10 percent of all wines closed with traditional corks were affected by the mold, called TCA. And solutions were elusive.

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You know the feeling - you rush into the supermarket only to stand, staring blankly at the fresh vegetable section, trying to remember what on earth it was you were hurrying in to buy.

While I tried to remember, I amused myself by browsing the wine shelves. Above the eye-level shelves of pinot gris sat a lonely trio of rieslings, so high they were hard to reach.

But reach I did, up to a wine with a line of writing so small that on the label it almost disappeared into the silvery background: "Many wine lovers believe this classic variety is the one that best demonstrates the true potential of New Zealand wine. This riesling is crafted by some of those enthusiasts."

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The season's first grilled pizza emerged from my Weber this past Monday. I made a “bianca” – white pizza with no tomato sauce. It was topped with boiled fingerling-potato slices, a dusting of fresh rosemary, lots of olive oil, sea salt and parmesan cheese.

At home, barbecues are the only way to achieve the necessary heat to emulate the crisp crusts achieved in Italian wood-fired ovens, at least without breaking city fire-code bylaws. The dough cooks in no time, assuming your propane tank isn't on its last few breaths, as mine was. So the toppings must be precooked or of the type you can eat raw. The results can sometimes be magnificent (not that I'd have entered my slow-cooked bianca in a contest).

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