Wine News Review

Tag: Australian wines

  • New and notable wine headlines, including tales of ‘juiced’ wine tourists

    Handpicked wine stories from across the Web…

    Getting juiced at wine tastings
    “California vintners aim to cork the problem of limos and tour buses bringing partyers to their venues.”

    Australian wines sell for $130,000
    Barossa Valley Ares Shiraz, Aphrodite Cabernet Sauvignon and Aerope Grenache — that’s right, just three bottles — from Australia’s Two Hands Wines.

    Two-Buck Chuck ain’t that bad
    Another wine reviewer discovers an age-old truth, and serves up a little backgrounder on the Charles Shaw legend.

    More on the Befuddlement of Liquor Laws
    In case you didn’t get the message from the earlier, aptly named ‘Befuddlement of Liquor Laws’ story.

    Drink No Wine Before IT’S Time
    Reflections on encountering old friends, late-night rituals and selecting the right wine at the right time.

    Sure, Screw Caps Are Fine—But on My Wines?
    “Am I a dinosaur? Should I be on the lookout for tar pits? Anyone? Anyone?”

    Why Do Wines Go On Sale?
    Finally, somebody asks. And somebody answers.

    Thirsty for more news? Follow up by digging into continuously updated feeds from national and international news outlets:

    • Reds (from Beaujolais to Zinfandel)
    • Whites (from Chablis to Sauvignon Blanc)
    • Organic (red, white, in between)

    To hit closer to home, try WNR’s Smarter Wine Search tool and see what columnists and wine experts may be writing about in your area. Once there, just type in your city and state (within quotation marks, as in, "Napa, California"), to get results ranked by relevance.

  • Experts’ weekend wine bargains: From ‘fantastic’ Chilean to ‘expressive’ Aussie

    Comparing the picks: A survey of recent selections from popular wine experts, spotlighting bargains and best values among other choices at their websites.

    2005 Viu Manent Reserva Chardonnay Casablanca Valley, Chile:
    Natalie MacLean — Winner of the Gold Medal at the 2006 Concours Catad’Or Grand Hyatt Wine Awards, it’s a “fantastic value” from Chile’s cool Casablanca Valley region … “with ample oak and aromas of ripe apples and pears.” Her best value white. $12.95

    Château Les Tuileries 2005 Bordeaux Rouge:
    Beverage Testing Institute — Sports a garnet violet color with “spicy plum pie, sandalwood, and floral talc aromas.” A best-buy selection. $10.99

    Cape Mentelle, Margaret River (Western Australia, Australia) Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot “Trinders” 2003:
    Michael Franz — You will not have expected to have paid $18 for this “very concentrated and intense” Australian. “Extremely expressive aromatics start with a big shot of eucalyptus up front.” $18

    2006 McWilliam’s Hanwood Estate Shiraz, South Eastern Australia:
    Jerry Shriver — Another Australian, this one is a “pleasant, no-brainer burger wine that delivers spicy blackberry flavors and an earthy finish.” Though you might quibble with the body. About $12

    Göttelmann, Münsterer Pittersberg Riesling Kabinett trocken 2007 Nahe:
    Jancis Robinson — The low-price winner among three (non-Burgundian) 2006 Pinots. “… promises well for the crystalline qualities of the latest vintage.” £9.69

    López de Heredia’s Viña Gravonia (white):
    Edward Deitch — “Beautifully complex with aromas of cut flowers and butterscotch that are joined in the mouth by pear and lime, vanilla, honey and minerals.” $19

    Tip: Print out this list and bring it to your local wine shop — even if a specific favorite isn’t available, ask the salesperson to recommend something similar. Or try browsing the latest wine reports from this custom collection of hundreds of news websites — filtered for bargains, continuously updated, and quick and easy to scan:

    • Reds (from Beaujolais to Zinfandel)
    • Whites (from Chablis to Sauvignon Blanc)
    • Organic (red, white, in between)

    To hit closer to home, try WNR’s Smarter Wine Search tool and see what wine finds local columnists and wine experts may be writing about in your area. Once there, just type in your city and state (within quotation marks, as in, "Napa, California"), to get results ranked by relevance.

    Or scroll down to the bottom of this page and dig into top wine lists from a variety of sources. You’ll also find links to everything from a food-pairing database to websites for comparative wine ratings.

    The Web is about community. So take a moment to comment about your experience with a particular wine — to help steer others to or away from it. And of course, have a great weekend!

  • The Web’s latest wine buzz, 10/21/07

    Tune in to what top wine bloggers and experts are decanting into cyberspace with handpicked highlights of their latest and greatest.

    Proving once again that the selection of fine but affordable wines may be never-ending, Food & Wine serves up the ‘zine’s American Wine Awards ’07. And it comes with menu pairings.

    You’ll find seven wines of popular varieties for $20 and under. If you’re feeling a little extravagant, that’s complemented by a list of best wines running over $20. There’s also a winery-of-the-year award going to Washington State’s Long Shadows, which, ahem, is “devoted to producing luxury wines from Washington vineyards in partnership with international winemaking superstars (i.e., people who cast long shadows).”

    This year marks the 10th anniversary of the American Wine Awards and features lots of surprises (among them a top Chardonnay from Oregon) and all kinds of labels we bet you haven’t heard of before — plus several you may know very well, including a few repeat award winners.

    Think you know the basic ground rules of wine? Maybe not, according to Wine Enthusiast’s fable-busting piece entitled 5 Wine Myths Debunked. Hint: has to do with things like smelling the cork and letting the wine “breathe” a little after uncorking.

    To novices, the culture of wine can seem a rarified, untouchable realm best left to sniffing, postulating experts. But delve a little and you’ll find that basic wine appreciation is not only fun, but not all that complicated. The first step? Debunking these popular myths …

    A whiff of eucalyptus adds an unexpected aromatic dimension to certain Australian wines, something the vines pick up from the leaves that fall and decay on the vineyard soil. One of the delights highlighted by the 30 Second Wine Advisor in this review of seven down-under winners.

    I hadn’t anticipated turning this into an all-Australian week on the 30 Second Wine Advisor ranch, but when the hits just keep coming, it makes sense to go with the flow.

    And so it was for me this week, when the tasty Australians that I picked off the shelf for Monday’s and Wednesday’s editions were followed coincidentally by an unexpected visit from an Australian-wine importer who came to town bearing a stellar cluster of beauties from the Antipodes.

    At Business Week, Robert Parker focuses attention on what he calls one of white-wine’s best values (the dwindling value of the dollar notwithstanding) — Muscadet from France’s Loire Valley. “Bone-dry” and at their peak, these wines are well within Wine News Review’s fairly frugal affordability index.

    The following wines, reviewed by my colleague David Schildknecht, are ‘naked’: unoaked, low in alcohol, and with no residual sugar. They’re from the Muscadet Sèvre et Maine appellation and are sur lie, meaning the wine has been bottled directly from the tank, where the lees (dead yeast cells and remnants of grape skins) remain. That gives the wine freshness and complexity. Muscadets are best during their first three to four years, so these reviews are for the 2005 vintage.

    Need more reason to try out a Muscadet? Mary Ewing-Mulligan at Wine Review Online, decrying the “misunderstanding” about Muscadets, recounts her recent encounter with a couple terrific examples over a dinner of raw clams and bouillabaisse at a French bistro.

    Muscadet, it seems, has been relegated to a remote fringe of the wine world populated by wines for special needs rather than the more desirable neighborhood of good quality, great-tasting wines. Two things are wrong with this situation: one, it is unfair to the fine Muscadets that exist; and two, it deprives many wine lovers of experiencing the tremendous pleasure they might get from a bottle of Muscadet.