Archive for May, 2009
Huge Premium Wine Theft
Glengarry Wines was robbed last night. There is video over at this link to TVNZ. It is estimated that fine wines to the value of $250,000 was stolen in the robbery. Wines stolen include Chateau D’Yquem and an extremely rare Dom Perignon three litre wrapped in white gold. A reward has been offered for information.
Duval Leroy to Bottle Champagne Without Cork!
I just saw this, but I think it may be a bit old news. Never mind it’s still interesting that Duval Leroy are going to bottle a single vineyard wine in a non cork closure. The new closure is called Maestro and is produced by Alcan. It appears to me to be essentially a plastic [...]
Brown Wine
No one likes brown wine, it looks….. bad! So the one thing you should never do is bottle rose in antique green bottles. The result is brown looking wine. Brown hmmmmmmm. Rose should be bottle in clear bottles simply to highlight the colour. Unbelievably I saw two different roses bottled in antique green bottles yesterday. [...]
First Experimental Wine Underway
Yesterday I got the first of my experimental wines underway that I talked about a while ago. This particular one is a bottle fermented Pinot Gris. You may well ask “why the hell would you do that?” Firstly because it’s fun, but mostly to push the boundaries of the wine styles. I’m fairly critical of [...]
2 degrees Vineyard Builds Moblie Phone Network?
I know it’s tough selling wine at present but isn’t building a mobile phone network a bit extreme when you just want to flog a bit of Pinot? 2 Degrees from central Otago certainly knows how to promote themselves!
$12 Million Spent to Discover Smell of Sauvignon
According to the NZ Herald, researchers have have spent 6 years and $12 million to discover the distinctive aromas of Sauvignon Blanc. On the face of this it’s pretty laughable as everyone know the key descriptors of Saugvignon. I’m sure you know them; cat’s pee, asparagus, goosebury, cut grass, passion fruit, etc. Of course to [...]
Crown Capper
I just picked up a crown cap applicator today. The experimental wines I’m producing will be bottle fermented. The capper above will apply the crowns which will seal the bottles during this fermentation stage. It all gets under way tomorrow! Excellent.
19 Tons per Hectare
From the Marlborough Express. Hat tip. Sandihurst
Sertoli Salis Sponsor Giro
About a year ago I was in the Valtelina in Northern Italia. I visted the winey of Sertoli Salis in the town or Tirano. This morning I received an email from them letting me know that they are sponsoring the Giro d’Italia, the famouse Italian cycling race that runs for 21 days across the country. [...]
Interesting Post on Liquor
A couple of interesting posts on NZ liquor laws and their economic impacts TVHE Brad Taylor
Crowns and Bidules
Picked up the bidules today for wines I’m working on. We will be starting the secondary ferments next Tuesday on all three trial batches. The bidules seen below (the plastic cylinders with the crown cap) are inserted into the bottles to catch the yeast deposit once the fermentation is complete.They are held in by the [...]
All Eye’s on the label
I’m all for inovative labels but I don’t know about these over on Jules winewanker blog.
April What’s Hot – belated edition
Bit tardy with the hot and not list this month. At least May will get two editions, I hope. What’s heating up? Bordeaux Futures 2008 pricing, Robert Parkers Marks for 2008 Bordeaux, I’m sensing a boil over here. Alsace Rieslings, insanely cheap Pinotage, It’s a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault making it the varietal [...]
Penfolds Grange 04 and 707 06
Just tried the Penfolds Grange 2004 and the 707 Cabernet 2006. Really liked the 707 which I normally do. It was under a twist top this year interestingly but the Grange was not.It’s just a great example of Cabernet Sauvignon. The Grange (Shiraz) was not as big as it usually is and probably needed some [...]