Posts for 'Wine Types' Category

Foster's plan to split its struggling wine business from its well performing beer unit, likely to be completed in the first half of 2011, would yield about A$100 million in annual savings from 2011 and give it much needed flexibility, the firm said.

The wine business, facing oversupply and weak demand, has weighed on Foster's and the company will take a non-cash after-tax impairment charge of A$1.05-1.2 billion in fiscal 2010 on wine assets, possibly forcing a delay in dividends. "Foster's has been touted as takeover target for a while but wasn't touched so far because of its wine business. Now the separation clears that," Chris Weston an institutional dealer at IG Markets said.

Read the complete story

Winter and red wine go together like Italian restaurants and pasta, but finding good wine among the mountains of supermarket mediocrity can be harder than persuading a Sicilian not to pay their "taxes" to the Mafia. Inadequate knowledge can land you in more sour grapes than you bargained for. The global wine glut means there are bargains to be had, but it can be tricky knowing which ones to take a punt on and which ones not to touch with a barge pole. Steering clear of bottles with animals on the label is one rule of thumb, but then how do you choose?

This guide will help you find top-tasting bottles without the price tag to match. I sniffed, swirled, drooled longingly over and, in the worst cases, happily spat out each of 47 wines, in a quest to find the best 10. All had their identities concealed.

Of the 47 wines, 34 came from New Zealand; seven from Australia; five from Italy and one from Spain. All of the wines sampled cost between $15 and $20 a bottle.

Enjoy this top 10 - but when venturing over to the low-priced stands at your local supermarket, remember two things: cheap doesn't always mean cheerful and knowledge means more pleasure for the palate.If its striking packaging doesn't get you, the dark chocolate taste and full body of this Spanish red will. Expect mocha flavours because this is made from one of the world's most chocolatey grapes, monastrell (aka mourvedre). It is blended into this silky-smooth red with Spain's great red grape, tempranillo, the backbone of great rioja. Winemaker Joaquin Galvez Bauza included smaller amounts of syrah, cabernet sauvignon and merlot to give upfront fruity appeal. Available at specialist vintners nationwide, at Bonita Tapas Bar in Ponsonby, Auckland and Tabou restaurant in Kingsland, Auckland.

Read the complete story

Nobody likes change. Generally we're much more suited to routine and knowing what's coming next. This applies equally to the constant of the daily commute for city dwellers to the rhythms of rural life. Even animals get in on the act – with routine-obsessed bovines literally lining up at the gate waiting to start the trip to the milking shed.

Even when we think we are adding variation and spice to our lives by taking up a hobby or joining a club, change can drive a stake through the heart of our ambitions. Just try introducing the latest Mills and Boon bodice-ripper to your erudite, cosy and well-ordered book club and see what happens.

It's the same with wine, where we find that most wine drinkers are terrified of trying something new. There are no excuses for this when you consider that there are literally thousands of grape varieties from around the world from which wine is made.

Read the complete story

A bottle of golden dessert wine makes a truly welcome Mother’s Day present. Yes, yes, we all want the piping-hot coffee, freshly squeezed juice etc for breakfast (in bed, mind).

But then we should simply look to teatime or dinner as a further moment to be pampered, I feel. A glass of cool, sweet wine, handed out to accompany one of Diana Henry’s elegant apple pies, is sure to be treasured.

Some wines have inherently sweet, appley flavours. Try the crisp, light, delicate dessert wines of Germany, or the baked-apple-and-walnut nuances of sweet chenin blanc, which usually hails from the Loire in France. Slightly lighter demi-sec vouvray – also a Loire Valley chenin – can be a delight.

Read the complete story

2009 Chilean Sauvignon Blanc Taste the Difference, Casablanca Valley (£5.99, 13.5 per cent, Sainsbury’s) Sourced from.

A coastal area that makes some of the country’s best white wines, this should scare Sancerre producers.Tangy and ocean-crisp with grapefruit and gooseberry flavours.

Read the complete story

Woolworths Chief Executive Michael Luscombe says home-brand wine is the biggest growth area in the liquor industry and will increasingly dominate sales in Australia.

Private label brands currently make up about 20 per cent of the supermarket chain's annual sales. The Federation's Steven Strachan says home-brand products will undermine the industry's ability to grow the local wine sector.

"We know there's a lot of scope to grow the category, particularly for premium wine, but what the comments by the Woolworths Chief Executive seem to indicate is that they're going to treat wine like any other commodity" "What it does do is help remove the glut and no one denies that for a second." "It basically shows that they're going to take advantage of the fact that their industry is in oversupply."

Read the complete story

The news of E&J Gallo, the world's biggest single wine producer, being hoodwinked by a group of errant French vignerons is funny and depressing at the same time.

It isn't, however, surprising. The comedy comes from Gallo's clumsy attempt to ride the post-Sideways pinot noir craze by peddling Red Bicyclette as an authentic French pinot when it turned out to be anything but.

It doesn't say much for Gallo's professionalism that its buyers couldn't tell the different between pinot, merlot and shiraz.

Read the complete story

Telling Mike Januik that his merlot reminds you of cabernet sauvignon won't exactly break the Washington winemaker's heart.

For Januik, who produces wine under his eponymous label and for Novelty Hill, believes what sets the merlots of the Columbia Valley region apart from others is their sense of place; these wines have a point of view.

"I think (consumers) think of merlots that are totally fruit forward, soft, without much mid-palate or finish," said Januik, who has been named one of the world's "masters of merlot" by Wine Enthusiast magazine. "Our wines have a lot of structure to them."

Back in the 1980s when the huge Columbia Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA) was created, some Washington winemakers thought merlot would be their trump card in the wine game. It has been to a degree, but Columbia Valley is home to a number of well-known grape varieties.

Gary Werner, communications director for the Washington Wine Commission, said merlot, riesling, chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon run "neck to neck" in the Columbia Valley.

"Given the size of the region and its various microclimates, we can grow just about anything," he said. "We're not ones to hang our hat on just one (variety)."

Read the complete story

For your enjoyment, here are 10 of my favourites wines from the last year -- not the best, cheapest or most expensive, but simply those that have tickled the palate.

1. J.L. Chave Mon Coeur Cotes-du-Rhone 2007, $29. Chave produces his flagship Hermitage wines in the northern Rhone, but ventures to the region's southern half to source.

The Syrah and Grenache grapes blended into this superb red wine. It offers notes of black fruits, leather, fresh cut hay and black licorice. It has a fair bit of grip and will continue to improve for another five years, if not a little longer.

Read the complete story

Let’s get something straight about the authenticity of food and wine matching tips in this column. Do I actually try each dish with a wide array of wines? Every time? Yes, yes and yes again. Diana’s and other recipes are not always made to perfection in my kitchen (I’m no great cook), but an approximation of the dish is put together, and many bottles are opened in the quest to find the best for the job. Heroic, I know.

The dish that I have strived to pair off most often is, for sure, the classic Christmas roast turkey et al. No easy task, this, as there’s so much else going on. Peppery sausages, bacon, rich gravy, onion stuffing, cranberry sauce (for gawd’s sake) and so on. The relatively mild turkey meat is the least of your worries, wine-wise. This is an obstacle course, and a wine needs to be pretty ripe and full-flavoured to make it through.

So I’d dismiss anything insubstantial, and head straight for either a creamy, generously fleshy white, subtly oaked, or a plump, rounded red, probably from a warm vineyard site. For whites, try a fruity chablis or other white burgundy, as touched on last week, or possibly a nutty white rhône for a change. As for the reds: a full-bodied, mellow but ripe wine is needed.

Read the complete story