The Geoff Merrill McLaren Vale Reserve Shiraz 2004 won Australia’s most prestigious wine prize, the Jimmy Watson Trophy, at the Royal Melbourne Wine Show Awards dinner last night.

Geoff Merrill’s current reserve shiraz – selling for $40 – is the 1999 vintage, so we are unlikely to see the 2004 bottling on the shelves until 2009/2010.

The Jimmy Watson Trophy is awarded to the best 2004 vintage red from show classes 19 to 23, that is, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, pinot noir, merlot, and other blends.

Of the nearly 4,400 wines judged, a staggering 1020 wines were in the running for this one main prize, one wag at the awards dinner suggesting that the trophy is so important to winemakers and the prestige of the Royal Melbourne Wine Show that the event will eventually be renamed the Royal Jimmy Watson Wine Show.

‘Dad, what happens if I get breathalysed by the police after eating Tira Misu?’ The question came from the daughter who has a provisional driving licence – a licence that requires the driver to have zero blood alcohol content whilst driving.

I thought about it for a while and said that depending on how much booze was in the dessert she ran a small but real risk of registering an alcohol blood content on a breathalyser and could therefore jeopardise her licence.

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In a story in the Melbourne Age today (20 July 2005) Coles demands half-measure from wineries Leon Gettler reports that a major Australian liquor retailer has required its wine suppliers to package wine in six-pack cartons rather than 12-pack cartons from October 2005.

The main reason for this change is based on occupational health and safety issues – in other words, the repeated lifting of heavy 12-bottle cartons is seen a risk to the staff health – and who could argue with that?

No doubt other retailers will follow this lead and I don’t think it would be over the top to suggest that this will herald the end of the 12-bottle case of wine (and spirits for that matter) as we know it.

The obvious flow-on (no pun intended) will be the abolition of 12-bottle packs of 750ml beer bottles and even 24 and 30 pack slabs of 375ml beer cans and bottles. The costs to the beverage industry (not just small winemakers) to repackage will be massive – the profits to packaging companies sensational. Consumers, as usual, will bear the costs of this repackaging in the long run.

Nothing beats getting together with a bunch of wine lovers to taste a selection of superior reds and whites. Drinking good wine is, after all, about enjoyment, fine dining, friendship and sharing. Isn’t it? Then how do you account for what I call ‘wine misers’?

We’ve all met one or two. They’re usually blokes. They know a lot about wine and spend a fair bit of money on it. Typically, they will own an interior-designed, expensively constructed cellar, that is well-stocked with the best that money can buy: top-shelf, imported, indented, aged and selected wines.

With a proud gleam in their beady eyes they like to take you on a guided tour, to point out the rarity of certain bottles and to explain the shelving and cataloguing system and the intricacies of the air-conditioning and the constant humidification.

Trouble is, when they eventually offer their by now exhausted and thirsty guest/s a post-tour drink, they will inevitably open a cleanskin, boasting, ‘Only seven bucks the bottle! The guy who sold me this reckons it’s the equivalent of a thirty-five dollar Coonawarra cabernet!’ It is more likely to taste like it’s only a step away from vat dregs, Chateau Cardboard or the vinegar factory.

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The daughter dined out at the Napier Hotel in downtown Fitzroy a couple of weeks ago and reported that a couple of lads in her party ordered and enjoyed a Bogan Burger. What’s a Bogan Burger? Well, on a foundation of buttered Turkish bread the chef places (not necessarily in this order) a steak, a crumbed chicken schnitzel, a potato cake, bacon, a fried egg, cheese, beetroot, lettuce, tomato, onions, and a slice of pineapple.

I would be surprised if tomato sauce didn’t appear in their somewhere too. All of this is topped off with another piece of bread and decorated with a cocktail umbrella. The price for this calorific cornucopia is a mere $AUD14.50. What I want to know is what wine would be a suitable accompaniment to this gourmet delight?

Just recently I bought a dozen bottles of a wine I reviewed for an online newsletter. Since then two of the bottles I’ve opened have shown cork taint; the corks are those agglomerate ones with a disc of solid cork stuck on each end. I contacted the wine distributor about the problem – he said he’d send me two replacement bottles (still waiting) and I emailed the winemaker to alert him to the problem – no reply.

Now I’m wondering if the remainder of the dozen will be sound and whether the bottles I sold to a mate to try will be in good condition. It’s a mildly depressing prospect.

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Controversial news from the UK, the best restaurants in the world are british. Or so think the british editors of Restaurant magazine…

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