Happy Holidays

Happy Christmas to all our readers and to any non Christians, just be glad that you're not celebrating the birth of Consumerism, sorry I meant Jesus and enjoy the time off work and the fact that 50% of stuff you buy doesn't end up in a landfill somewhere.

No special wines to report, So, drink lot's of whatever's going, steal some of grandmothers tranquillisers and hope the whole sorry affair will be over as quickly as possible.

A quick mention, before I go, to the Saltram No 1 Shiraz 2003. It's a big, concentrated Shiraz, weighing in at 15% abv with ripe, jammy black fruit that's almost port like. A really well made wine and a prefectly good reason not to look to the Barossa for Shiraz. The American's however, will love it.

I drank a good Pinot from Central Otago, but I can't recall what it is. Never mind.

That's it. Be seeing you.

It never got dull enough for me...

As close to Burgundy as I the Jury gets....


Every good boy deserves fudge, except I don't have any and besides, it's bad for your teeth.

Sometimes though, you get what you need, not what you want, and last weekend I needed something. Illicit drugs and call-girls were strictly off limits so I attempted a rare raid on the cellar, forgetting that I'd hidden the keys for my own safety. I quickly went to retrieve a tyre iron from the car before realising that as well as forgetting where the keys were, I'd also forgotten to lock the cellar in the first place. The Lord moves in mysterious ways. Oh yes.

My cellar is a dusty, barren old space that has seen less action recently than Michael Jackson. However, there's a couple of treats in there, one of them being the Toolangi Reserve Chardonnay 2004. This blog has long been fans of Toolangi, and their entry level chardonnay at around $22 is stunning. Expectations were high for the Reserve.

Now at this point, if I were a real wine critic, and this was a real wine review, I'd use the word 'Burgundian'. I think that we knows what that means; it means that the critic is suggesting that the wine is like those from Burgundy, which I'm lead to believe is in France. Wrong. What he/she is actually saying is 'I'm a pretentious lizard who knows only the rich and evil drink Montrachet, and you can only dream about it'

Ho ho. I'm just kidding, I love wine critics, really. Anyway, I won't say that the Toolangi is
Burgundian; instead I'll say that it's a superbly made Australian Chardonnay from the Yarra Valley, orchastrated by Rick Kinzbrugger at Giaconda. Rick is obviously a man who knows what malolactic fermentation is and, believe me, he's not afraid to use it. The Toolangi has seen 100% secondary fermentation, with rich butter and oak all evident. However, its tight with a lovely weight and mouthfeel and perfectly judged acidity. There's also lots of complex stone and citrus fruit that follows through to the finish and overall, it's delicious and one of the best Australian chardonnay's I've tasted. Big call, I know but I'm standing by this one. It may cost $70 or so, but it's worth every cent.

Burgundy, who needs it? Leave it as a colour.

That's it, be seeing you.

A No Horse Town

Yarck is somewhere here. Somewhere.


Yarck isn't a one horse town; the horse left in fear of being sexually molested. I'm not sure what the population of Yarck is, but I'm pretty sure that the horse leaving had a major impact on the census.

Yarck is a dot on a map, the sort of place you wouldn't know about unless you lived there; I've driven through it numerous times and never even noticed it. It's situated somewhere in the middle of Central Victoria and is nothing more than a couple of run down shopfronts and a gas station. I could say that the dirt doesn't even hang around very long, but you get the idea.

With this in mind it must have been either charity, insanity, or both, that made the owners of upmarket South Yarra eatery Da noi open The Tea Rooms of Yarck there. Either way, The Tea Rooms are pretty good, even if they don't serve tea. It's a place where you don't order, you just eat and try and keep up as a constant plethora of Sardinian delicacies are bought out. What I like about TRoY, apart from the name that Trading Standards might get irked over, is that although their food is proudly Italian, their wine list is distinctly local, with the majority of the list being made up of nearby Central Victorian examples. Victoria has more quality boutique wineries than it knows what to do with and produces some stunning and diverse wines, and local restaurants should be ensuring that they do their best to stock them.

Well a big cyber high-five to the TRoY, which stocks the Lost Valley Wines 2007 Cortese which is, as far as I'm aware, the only example of Australian Cortese available. To those that don't know, or are too lazy to look, Cortese is the grape behind one of Italy's renowned Cortese di Gavi from the Piedmont region. For that reason alone the Lost Valley version is worth checking out. Parker likes it a lot, and rightly so. Although the citrus and green fruit aren't overly obvious, it has a great weight and texture, and a level of acidity that make it great with food. Some nice spice on the finish and overall it's delicious and different.

That's it for now, be seeing you.

A Murmur, Darkly

Bruce Willis' responds to rumours that Planet Hollywood will soon be serving Windy Peak Pinot


When someone claims that you can buy great pinot for under ten bucks you have to ask whether they a) made the wine, or b) still believe there to be some medicinal value in snake oil. In his recent Top 100 advertising promotion for Dan Murphy's, James Halliday suggested that the De Bortoli Windy Peak Pinot Noir 2008 is well, really good, and awarded it 92 points.

I know; it's a sub $10 wine and maybe not really worth committing so many words to it, but as a recent thread regarding this wine on the Auswine forum demonstrated, nothing quite stirs wine lovers passions like Pinot, even if it is at the beggars end.

I like De Bortoli and believe that, despite their huge portfolio, they make some pretty good wines. Steve Webber rightly deserves he credit he gets and the Windy Peak Chardonnay 06 (and a lesser extent the 07) is a pretty good value chardonnay. I even like the Estate Sauvignon, and that's saying something. Even so, I had my doubts about the pinot; Australian pinot and I have always had a 'Don't call me, I'll call you' relationship and I've had more misses than hits in my unending quest to find quality examples.

Halliday got all excitable about the wine making techniques used in the Windy Peak such as whole bunch fermentation, cold maceration and some hand harvesting, but like Bruce Willis, it just doesn't sing. Yep there's varietal fruit and acidity is balanced, but it's a thin insipid drink that, ten dollars or not, just isn't very nice.

A more cultured wine critic will tell you that your view on this wine will depend on how you like your pinot, as some prefer a young, fruit forward style with little in the way of secondary characters, and others prefer the less fruit driven, meatier Burgundian style. However, I just think that if you believe Cranberry Juice & Vodka the height of sophistication, then the Windy Peak is for you.

Now go and tell me how much you love this wine, until then I'll be seeing you.

The Horror, The Horror...

No one knows the damage this can do to the socially inept.

It's easy sometimes to mock people that like computers; the lack of basic social skills, the bad dress sense and an intimate knowledge of the Batmobiles schematics are easy ammunition, but I've always tried to defend these unfortunate creatures as without them, I wouldn't be able to generate the magic of this blog. However, two days in close proximity to some of their kind has left me feeling slightly soiled, and I've shelved plans to watch any science fiction films any time soon.

For some reason I don't fully comprehend, I was sent to an Information Technology Gulag for education. Don't ask, it still stings. I've tried to block out the experience, but I can painfully recall jokes about Boolean Algebra, mobile phones strapped to arms like bandoliers, branded company polo shirts tucked into ironed jeans and people so fat they think a gymnasium was something used by the Spanish Inquisition. Someone more prepared would have armed themselves with methylated spirits or a large bore hunting rifle.

I got out of there as fast as I could, and needing a drink my choice of wine was based purely on what I could get my hands on the quickest, so the D'Arenberg Stump Jump 2007 and I were soon on first name terms. It's a simple but earthy blend of Grenache, Mourvedre and Shiraz with some soft red fruits and soft tannins. While it's at the bottom end of the D'Arenberg food chain, and a bit rough around the edges, it's a good value wine that unlike many of it's peers isn't over sweet for a budget wine. It also helped me forget computers, which can only be a good thing.

I'll talk more about D'Arenberg later as I'm a bit of a fan, until then I'll be seeing you.