For The Glass: Winter Warmer

By The Tipsy Farmer

As we approach the winter months my thoughts always turn to red wines.  Even in Queensland, it is cold enough at night to rug up and feel the warming embrace of red grapes.  Unfortunately, I don’t think it gets cold enough to justify preparing mulled wine (gluhwein), but if you live in an alpine zone where it snows I recommend sitting by the fire and sipping some wine warmed and flavoured with cinnamon, cloves, orange juice and sugar.  There is something appealingly decadent about gluhwein, and after a day spent in the cold, it can warm the whole body.

A Dry Drop

My Wine Club has just completed its April meeting and one of the wines presented was a 2011 Seppelts Drumborg Riesling.  The theme of the night was Victorian wineries and we had wines from nearly all the Victorian regions, but 3 out of the 11 wines were from the Grampians region which was quite surprising when you consider the lower total production from this region compared to others.

Value for Vineyards

Len Evans (RIP) told a story at one of the wine luncheons I attended about an elderly French Chateau owner who visited his Hunter Valley operations at Rothbury.  He didn’t name the man, but indicated that it was one of the Premier Cru Chateaus in Bordeaux, essentially a licence to print money.

Adding Some Sparkle

We opened up a Sparkling Shiraz the other night, because we were having Roast Pork Belly on a night when it seemed the best match.  The experts say, Pinot Noir or Alsatian Riesling are a better match, but in their absence we “made do” with a Peel Estate Sparkling Shiraz 2005 and it was excellent.  It may be an even better match than those recommended by the experts and perhaps the reason they don’t recommend Sparkling Shiraz is that it is almost exclusively an Australian creation.

Matching Quality

I read reviews of wine all the time, because I am interested in what the experts think about the new releases, and I admit that my purchasing is influenced by these eminent scribes.  However, I rarely find that I am able to smell or taste what they have described in their reviews.  Some people are blessed with a higher level and refinement of olfactory powers than others, and perhaps they have more taste buds in their mouth and each one is more sensitive.  And perhaps advanced age means that some of the powers we are born with diminish as we get older.  Whatever the explanation is I wonder if it worthwhile for a person as bereft of talent as myself worrying about the finer points, especially if it costs a lot more to purchase the better reviewed bottle.  What is the point of having the best TV if you are blind is one way of looking at the problem.

The "King of Grapes"

Shiraz is the most popular red wine grape variety in Australia.  It has the most plantings and is considered by many to be the finest example of Australian red wine.  It is helped by its ability to ripen in a wide range of different climates, soils and altitudes, because it is grown in all major wine regions.

Blind Tasting

Recently, we have been using the black glasses made by Reidel to test the palates of our friends.  Not many people are familiar with this game, so let me explain the rules and why it is so interesting.

Independent's Day

It is interesting to note that the Australian Wine Industry is becoming more diverse.  There was a time when many thought that a few large companies would end up owning all the wineries in Australia, but it hasn’t happened and doesn’t look like happening in the near future.  There are many independent wineries that have sprung up and are determinedly going about their business in their own way, and, of course, there is “The First Families of Wine Group” that includes some of the great names of wine in Australia, Brown Brothers, Tahbilk, McWilliams, Henschke, Yalumba, Tyrrells, etc.  These companies seem determined to stay independent, and long may they do so.