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?

Penfolds RWT Barossa Valley Shiraz 2002. About $AUD150. The RWT is black cherry in colour and near opaque. Nose of pepper and spices, cherry liqueur, aniseed and lightly charred French oak. The palate (this is way too young to drink now) is solid, dry and chewy with ‘cop this!’ tannins. The fruit as you might expect is enormous but is subdued at the moment by the untamed chewiness. The long finish has hints of raspberries and high-grade, slightly bitter, dark chocolate. This’ll all come together in a couple of years into a memorable blend that promises to cellar well for 20 and more years.

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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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Recently tasted
Prices in Australian dollars

Merum Semillon 2004. Around $26. Pemberton, Western Australia. Pale gold. Aromatic with lemon, dried pears and faint smoky oak. Fuller-bodied white with flavours of citrus and nuts, softly textured in the mouth it closes with a zingy finish.

Terra Felix Marsanne Roussanne 2004. Around $15. Central Victoria. Transparent lemon. Nose is a fruity, perfumed mix of stone fruits and floral notes. Velvety mouthfeel showing full flavours reminds me of chewing a just quite ripe peach. Delicious style at a nice price.

Haselgrove Adelaide Hills Reserve Viognier 2004. $25. Pale, hint of green. Nose reminded me of lemon butter – with an edge of spicy oak. Think of a fresh baked apricot Danish and you’ll get the picture. Crisp and vigorous to finish.

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EU: Chewing gum is food

Australia applauds WTO food-names ruling

Could DNA help the fight to keep bottle labels honest?

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‘What is it with cask wines? Are they any good?’ The question arose, yet again, at a recent wine course.

I replied that casks (foil or plastic bags of wine in a cardboard box) have their place – in the home – if not in the restaurant. I argued that cask wine is a useful standby in the kitchen, in the same sense as instant coffee, tea bags, and dried milk, and not only is cask wine handy as a cooking ingredient but also for a quick snort when you don’t have an open bottle handy.

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by Walter Gilpin, Domaine de la Vivonne, 2000

- Plant a cork oak tree.

- Wait 30 years.

- Remove the bark and discard it. This is the first-growth bark.

- Wait 15 years.

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Notes from a tasting of Duckhorn wines presented by Margaret Duckhorn. They have obviously put a real whack of money into their operation and are sincere about quality. The use of various ‘duck’ names and logos is of an extent that even had me, an unrepentant punster, ‘quailing at some of the material she presented.

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Cape blends – Pinotage or not to Pinotage?

The wine industry in South Africa is absolutely free to make wine from whatever and wherever they want – that may be unique in the world, with all of the AOC, DOC and such regulation.

There is an ongoing discussion about something they call ‘Cape blends’, but rather typically, the South Africans can’t agree on just what a Cape blend is. Half of them insist that it must include Pinotage as a principal component and the other half say they will put in anything they please. These notes are from a seminar aimed at surveying this issue, tasting both sorts of wines.

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