Test your wine knowledge today, with a few wine myths shattered by Master of Wine Peter-Scudamore-Smith. See if you can guess what’s fact and fiction! Read more →
When it comes to good wine glasses, what do you look for? Stemless tumblers for stability? Oversized glasses that eliminate the need to get up to the fridge at all? The most expensive crystal you can find? Or just anything that has a bowl that you can swirl your wine around in, really!
We asked Master of Wine Peter Scudamore-Smith what difference can the right glass make for wine?
“Well, it allows you to nose the aroma. And subtly, slowly, inhale the bouquet of the wine. If you swirl the wine, you encourage that to happen faster. If you swirl vigorously, you can create a cyclone effect, so that the aromas of the wine go up your nose, and you receive its characteristics, its personality if you like.
In these days of screw top bottles and stainless steel tanks, many of us wonder if decanting is the province of wine-pomps only. Serving wine should be simple: just open and pour!
Here I’m using a French-designed Peugeot Grand Bouquet decanter. It’s a great shape for wines needing much air; and for prepping a Gianni Brunelli Brunello di Montalcino 2005.
While there is a difference of opinion among wine experts, most agree it can be beneficial to decant your wine. Rumour has it that decanting can make a tough red reasonable and a great wine outstanding. In fact top reds need to be treated with the respect they deserve and routinely decanted. Not a difficult process either! Decanting lets the wines breathe, improving their aroma and taste. Young wine that hasn’t been aerated can taste bitter and have a strong taste of alcohol. Allowing air to get across the surface area breaks up tannins and frees up the flavour of the wine. Fresh young things respond well as it is their flavour vibrancy which imparts the obvious difference (poured from bottle or from decanter).
So which wines need it? When to do it? And how? Read more →
The appeal of Italian-origin varietal wines continues to create enormous volumes from Australian vineyards.
And my Italian travel experience of these makes the taste transition some much easier-drink it in Maremma then try the same vermentino varietal in Australia.
Vermentino Frenzy
So I went investigating some production houses recently in an area where the country’s largest brands are domiciled – in the tiny town of Yenda fifteen kilometres east of Griffith.
Here is a call to action to think in millions of cases of Oz wine-think Casella (Yellowtail), De Bortoli, Beelgara and Berton, all on the one stretch of vine highway leading into this speck on the map.
And either side of the road are vineyards and citrus orchards, supported by water channels which cause the survival of this entire region. Once a desert in the 30s, now an oasis.
Berton majority owner, Bob Berton who is of northern Italian descent, calls his vineyard a farm, more a South African term than Aussie.
In Bob’s farm is an extensive plantings of pinot grigio, the grape with brown skins (few drinkers realise that) though many must wonder why their glass when poured in a local bistro is often a brassy colour.
You see our Italian cousins often do not employ the same level of technical control on the harvesting and juice expression-some wines will turn out orange from the old-fashioned wine school. It is also the same outcome from natural wines made without sulphur addition.
Australian makers like Berton’s James Ceccato wish your pinot grigio to be pale, fresh and enlivening. Here is how he does it: “grapes are night harvested here in southern NSW to avoid the summer heat, no sulphur is used at harvest then the grapes are oxidatively handled to oxidise out any red colour collected during harvest and transport”.
Once a desert in the 30s, now an oasis
Head over Heels Pinot Grigio 2013
Try Head over Heels Pinot Grigio 2013 (AUD 8) 12% to set the pace for value. Pale, yes, floral yes, nashi pear-yes, is the staple aroma, then mingling acidity and a nice crunchy mouthfeel to complete the wine. Just add a seafood salad.
I tried the same wine in the 2012 vintage-very little change there either, just a little steelier now. Pinot grigio is really the new riesling of the area.
The next Italian grape to grab on the visit is vermentino; has big bunches, grows well in Sardinia, in south western Tuscany (Grosseto) and now in Yenda.
High end Berton Coonawarra & Eden Valley Cabernets
The Vermentino 2013 (AUD 12) 12% is enticing stuff, lots of obvious crunchy grape notes of an unwooded white ready to drink, lemon tastes, lots of creativity by Berton. Fuller wine than the pinot grigio, but that’s the genetics between the two. Add bbq snapper.
Berton has a vineyard in Eden Valley. The high end cabernet sauvignons featured (AUD 17-25), 2008, 2009, 2010 are drawn from these vines and grapes purchased in Coonawarra.
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