If I was producing wine in the Mudgee region of Australia, I don’t know that I would be that impressed with the chief executive of the local wine growers group if this article in the Mudgee Guardian is to be beleived . The wines aren’t that bad. Talking up bio-ethanol produced from wine is one [...]
We are doing a bit of work on the site over the next few weeks. It may look a little odd at times due to this work.
An unusual “wine making” accident seems to have occurred in the south of France. A winemaker narrowly escaped with his life after explosives he was making in his winery detonated in an untimely manner. French Police are investigating to see if there is a link to the CRAV, a militant winemakers group- (they do more [...]
A friend e-mailed me a story from pimpwiz.com about a special bottling of Dom Perignon. The bottling is a 100 bottle run of 1995 vintage jeroboams wrapped in a stylish White Gold outer. Following on from Perrier Jouet’s DIY bottling effort and Krug’s crazy single vineyard credit card shredder it looks like the stakes have [...]
One thing that I got really used to in Italy was being able to get really good pasta and pasta sauce at great prices. One brand I really liked was Barilla who are massive in Italy. I didn’t think I could get it in New Zealand and I could not recall seeing it here at [...]
I’m after a little information and hope someone knows this already and I don’t have to research. What or where is the western most Hawkes Bay Chardonnay vineyard? I think it might be one of Sacred Hill’s Dartmoor blocks but there may be one I’m not aware of.
I’ve been meaning to write about the effect of barrel aging on Nebbiolo for a while but just have not had the time. Whist in the Langhe district I had a number of opportunities to taste through multiple barrel samples of Nebbiolo wine in the form of Barbaresco and Barolo. For a brief definition of [...]
After Big Cock I thought I had seen it all when it came to wine labels. Then I saw this the other day. Mother Cluckers. What’s next, “Dirty Pin-Ho”? The disturbing thing about this is that all of these labels seem to be originating out of the Rodney district, north of Auckland . Is there [...]
Reports have surfaced in the NBR of difficulty for the company Landco. Their land holdings include a large chunk of Marlborough vineyard in the Waihope Valley, containing some 2685 hectares. This will be a very interesting story to watch closely.
OK the wine was $1.99 a bottle but thats still impressive.
Fitzgerald Auctions have a new wine auction website for New Zealand users called drinktrade. There aren’t too many wines for sale on the site at present, I would expect that number will grow. I haven’t had a go but the site looks fairly easy to use.
Sauvignon Blanc makes up the vast majority of New Zealand’s exports, around 75% and the wines deservedly have a good reputation overseas and at home. Mostly the wine is produced in what could be described as a nouveau style. From harvest to bottling is not a long time and most labels of the Marlborough variety [...]
I’ve been putting together some notes from my recent trip to Italy and one of the things that keeps cropping up is winery hygiene. Now, sometimes we in the new world presume that old world wine producing countries like Italy are using old technology in dank, musty old cellars. What I found in Piedmont, Valtellina, [...]
Over the last ten years (and probably longer) I have noticed there seems to be a growing obsession with opaque wines that are more black than red. There is little doubt these wines appear impressive. However is it necessary to extend this to varieties that are not naturally deep in colour like Pinot Noir and [...]
The rate of Excise tax on table wine (defined as under 14% for this purpose) in New Zealand rises today from $2.3936 per litre to $2.4765 per litre. This is an increase of $0.829 per litre or $0.062 per bottle. Another way to look at this is the total excise cost per bottle of $1.86. [...]