Global Wine Consultants

Another Review

Paul Sharp — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 08:56:09 +0000

Somehow I have managed to missed the June review of Boom by Jules AKA the Wine Wanker who is embarrassingly for me on my blog roll. Poor form really.

Amongst other things he says

much more savoury and akin to a sparkling Vouvray

Check out the full review at the wine wankers blog.

Need a Name?

Paul Sharp — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:21:54 +0000

It’s a tough job coming up with a new name for a winery, vineyard or wine brand. You could call it just about anything but generally people seem to go with something that either links it to themselves or the geography of the region they are in. Over the last twenty years there has also been a trend towards integrating animal names in as well (like Monkey Bay). This often has a geographic element to it as well as it may derive from common animals in that region.

This doesn’t make it’s easy. Though it just might give you some ideas that allow you to fit in with other producers. It can still take months possibly years to choose the right name for you wine.

Fortunately help is at hand, with the all new Global Wine Consultants Wine Brand Name Generator .

So here is your new winery name

Ocelot Island

If you like it, just drop a cheque in the mail and consult with your lawyer.

If you don’t like it just reload the page.

Please note, if this script randomly generates the name of a winery or wine brand or any brand for that matter that currently exists it is unintentional and accidental.

Boom Featured on National Radio

Paul Sharp — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 03:19:37 +0000

We received a small feature on National Radio today from John Hawkesby, during the Nine to Noon show. Theres a link here to the MP3 audio the mention comes at 7.50.

Sparkling Red

Paul Sharp — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:02:35 +0000

Doing a little work on the red version of Boom today. Things are going well for a change. This project has been rather complicated from the beginning but at least I know what varieties to work with now.

New Batch Bottled

Paul Sharp — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 03:29:12 +0000

The second Batch of Boom Sparkling Pinot Gris has been bottled today. It’s still 2008 Marlborough fruit and the wine is almost exactly the same but there are a couple of differentiating features. Firstly The six bottle boxes, although at present the the wine is sitting in large bins while the wine warms up to room (or should that be winery temperature).

Because the wine gets bottled at about zero degrees Celsius the bottles automatically condensate. This makes it impossible to apply a label. So now we wait for the wine to warm up a little. Hopefully it will be all finished early next week.

As you can see from the picture above we are now using blue museletes (The wire cages that hold the corks in). I wanted to try using a different colour here for a couple of reasons. Firstly I just liked them. Secondly I’d like not to use the metallic hood that usually goes over the top. The reason I’d like to not use the traditional hood (that you have to tear off), is because it does not have any real purpose other than presentation these days. I feel it’s redundant and unnecessary. However, product testing tells me that the sparkling wine buying public, don’t share my feelings. So the hoods stay. The blue museletes will allow me to do some further testing on that subject though. And they look a bit different.

Bottling

Paul Sharp — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 08:10:43 +0000

Having sold almost all of the first batch of Boom we are bottling a second batch tomorrow. This necessitated a visit to to the winery in West Auckland today, mainly to apologize in the form of coffee and cake for a mix up I had inadvertently caused on Friday. Still no damage done only a little time wasted. Updates from bottling tomorrow.

New Outlet’s, SO2 and Tastings

Paul Sharp — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:25:36 +0000

Having just returned from a tasting at the Kingsland liquor centre I thought I should update everyone on the new outlets.

All of these fantastic wine outlets will be stocking Boom. I will be doing some tastings in the north as well soon.

Super Liquor Onerahi (in Whangarei)
Super Liquor Whangarei
Cactus Liquor Kensington, Whanarei
Waipu Off License
Marsden Cove Off Licence
Maungatoroto Off License
Grand Liquor Orewa
Blend, Herne Bay, Auckland
The Falls Restaurant, Henderson

Now, SO2 or sulphites, or preservative 220. I’ve been getting a lot of emails on this lately this lately. The use of SO2 in the production of wine is is a very old practice and not just on the part of the winemaker as some yeasts are also responsible for the production of it during fermentation. Interestingly, a product I discussed a year or so ago “SO2GO” which basically removes SO2 from wine is now available in NZ. Have a look at www.so2go.com.au for details. I’m hoping to test this out in the next few months but given how busy my days have been of late it might be later than that.

The New Six Bottle Case

Paul Sharp — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:11:13 +0000

Just collected the new boxes we will use for the next bottling of Boom. This time we are going to use an easier to carry six bottle box.

Boom Tastings

Paul Sharp — Wed, 26 May 2010 20:43:11 +0000

You can come and try Boom Sparkling Pinot Gris at Liquorland Mt Eden tomorrow the 28th of May. The address is 346 Dominion Road.

The following Friday we will doing a tasting at Liquorland Orewa.

Potential Excise Tax Effect

Paul Sharp — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:20:43 +0000

I’ve been doing some calculations as to the likely effect of excise tax hikes that are to be proposed by the law commission.

Using Boom Sparkling Pinot Gris as an example, which retails at $21.95 I have made some simple calculations that point to a price rise of $3.00 per bottle. The excise tax increase is smaller but the effect of retail and wholesale margins and GST is to further that increase.

From what I have read the proposal is to lift excise by 50%. The current level on wine is $2.5476 per litre (this does not include the ALAC levy).That gives you a rate of $1.9107 per 750ml bottle of wine. A 50% hike would cost you $2.87 per bottle. Producers can’t absorb such a large reduction in profit margin and keep their businesses viable and will be forced to pass it on as will wine shops. Due to this I could see wine currently priced around $21.95 ending up retailing for around $24.95.

Even at prices under $15.00 per bottle I can see a $2.00 per bottle price hike.