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All Posts by Matt
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Matt | The hot vintages of the 2008 and 2009 growing season definitely put South Aussie vineyards through their paces, especially in the hotter regions. For many vignerons these record heat conditions punished vines, stalling flavour development while sugar levels raced ahead.
While there have been plenty of good and even exceptional wines made, many of these wines carry the double albatross of excessive alcohol and dead fruit even after rever ... CONTINUE READING » |
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Matt | We Wine Directies have done a bit of wine judging in our time. And writing, for wine mags and others. We love it. The downside - we reckon it's high volume, high pressure and usually conducted in a sterile environment. The emphasis is often on concentration and notation than relaxing and regaling. Because of this, big, oaky, tannic wines tend to dominate subtler (and sometimes better) wines. You can end up ignoring the stunner while eyeing of ... CONTINUE READING » |
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Matt | It’s rare for this wine fiend to be in the company of a bloke and feel an upsurge of emotion akin to deep love. My last Friday arvo in the company of Ben Tolstoshev from The Lane Vineyard provided one such instance. Tasting a particularly delicious Shiraz matched with equally delicious raw meat, I very nearly shrugged off the cosseting coverings of polite society. Insight into the glorious freedom of nudism displayed itself plainly. The wel ... CONTINUE READING » |
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Matt | There’s a decent argument that anyone planting significant quantities of touriga nacional has rocks in their head. It is a challenging beast to grow and market and in the vineyard it is both vigorous and difficult to ripen. It has a high skin to juice ratio, so the harvest seems to shrink as it passes through the crusher. Also, Australia is already blessed with grenache and shiraz, each of which can each produce exceptional examples of rose, ... CONTINUE READING » |
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Matt | A Sunday drive visiting wineries, an interstate football road trip broken up with winery pit stops (using the spittoon of course) and making random selections at your local are great ways of broadening your taste and bypassing wine boredom.
There can be comfort in the familia ... CONTINUE READING » |
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Matt | I have been on the Albariño bandwagon ever since I tasted Gemtree’s first non commercial bottling of the variety a couple of years ago. Frighteningly trendy on the global scene and much loved by sommeliers, Albariño saw many producers, notably Gemtree, Tscharke, Irvine and Chapel Hill, with commercial quantities in the marketplace by the time Jean-Michel Boursiquot, an ampelographer or vine detective from the University of Montpellier visi ... CONTINUE READING » |
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