The great wines of Burgundy, Alsace, Loire, Northern Rhone, Barolo, Mosel, Austria, Hungary and Slovenia use only one grape variety, while those of Bordeaux, Southern Rhone, Languedoc, Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Portugal are blended from many grape varieties. One can easily draw a line separating the blenders from the purists… but the line is not straight: neither geographic latitude nor Winkler index (GDD) correlate to this distinction. What if it all came down to how hazy the sky is?

Looking at a map of the great European wine areas – those with a not too recent history of superb winemaking – one could easily draw a curved line separating the generally more northern areas, emphasizing the purity and completeness of single varietal wines, from the southern areas, whose wines achieve comparable complexity by blending several grape varieties. The line is curved, because climate is influenced not only by latitude but also by winds, seas, microclimates, etc.. This paper results from a speculative but reasoned inquiry to see if I could identify a climate parameter that correlated well with the distinction between blending areas and single varietal areas.

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Recently I bought a delightful little book by Oscar Wilde’s son, Vyvyan Holland. Drink And Be Merry is the title and Holland was vice president of the Circle of Wine Writers at the time. Accordingly, his book is a very readable guide to wines of the world, peppered with anecdotes and other useful and entertaining wine lore.

Very Merry

What caught my eye was his suggestion for wines to be used at Christmas. For a Christmas dinner for eight people he suggests:

• 2 bottles of champagne
• 1 bottle of Fino sherry
• 1 bottle of Sercial Madeira
• 3 bottles of claret
• 2 bottles of port
• 1 bottle of brandy, which will be needed anyway, for the mince pies, the plum pudding and the brandy butter

This equates to one and a quarter bottles of beverage for each guest, noting that five of the bottles are table wine, four are fortified and one a spirit.

If we assume that the guests also enjoy a glass or two at other times of the day and that all or most of the dinner list is consumed, we can imagine they would sleep very soundly and need a drop of the hair of the dog on Boxing Day.

Published by Victor Gollancz Ltd. London, 1967.

In 1978 I thought I’d write a wine column. So I rang the editor of a Melbourne weekly paper and to my surprise he went for it.

Recently I found a yellowing clipping of that column – here it is - from the The Melbourne Times of 19 July 1978

Local red gets Double Gold

At the ninth International Wine and Spirit Competition held this year, the Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon of 1972 won the Double Gold award as the best Cabernet exhibited. There were only thirteen Double Golds awarded in a competition comprising 428 entries from 19 countries.

Old news, views

The award will be presented to Wynn Winegrowers at the opening ceremony of the World Wine Fair in Bristol U.K. this month, and will make Wynns the recipients of the highest prize granted to an Australian wine in recent years, if not this century.

I tasted this wine soon after it was released and vaguely remembered it as being a pleasant but unremarkable Coonawarra of a great year.

Acknowledging however that wines of this particular region — Redmans especially — can develop tremendously with a few years bottle age, 1 felt that in light of this accolade another tasting was in order.

Accordingly, I invited a few friends around and last week we tasted the ’72 and ’73 vintage Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon.

The ’72 had an immediately promising light bouquet, an agreeable blend of good berry fruit with slight oak overtones. It was of fine colour, a delicate transparent red with just a tinge of Cabernet purple, and one looked forward to rolling it around the tongue.

As is too often the case when tasting wine, the palate did not match the colour and bouquet. There was little acid or astringency considering its relative lack of age, and it seemed to be all middle palate with a trace of sugar sweetness detracting from any subtlety. The finish was smooth but did not linger and therefore disappointed.

It tends in style towards the lighter European clarets but in my opinion lacks the complexity apparent in the classier French Bordeaux. The wine is very drinkable now but I doubt its long term prospects. As it is virtually unobtainable at present, this should not worry too many wine drinkers.

In comparison, the ’73 vintage is a much bigger wine, except perhaps in bouquet. Clear to brilliant in appearance, it had more wood and tannin astringency, balanced well with plenty of fruit and a very firm finish.

Definitely a wine to cellar and enjoy in five to ten years’ time. It retails for around $5.70 and can be obtained at one of the better-known wine merchants for $3.70 on discount. I can recommend it at either price as good value for money.

…We’re gonna let it all hang out,” so goes the old J.J Cale song. I was reminded of it by recent news that licensed premises in Kings Cross will be forced by the New South Wales government to serve alcoholic drinks in plastic after midnight. The ban on glass – a response to the increasing frequency of glassing assaults – will also apply to glass bottles and jugs.

In addition, it’s not only beer, presumably bar and restaurant owners will now have to decant wine from bottles into plastic decanters before serving in plastic goblets. Hardly a gourmet’s delight. That is if any gourmets frequent the Cross after midnight.

You can just imagine a wine lover poring over a plastic mug of, say, Penfolds Bin 389. “Mmm, do I detect a delightful nuance of Bisphenol-A among the savoury berry fruit? No, wait, Antimony? No, most definitely Pthalate.”

One wonders if Riedel are already designing a neutral tasting Plasdonnay stem in anticipation.

But why stop there? Logically, the authorities should also follow the airlines’ example and use only paper plates and plastic cutlery after the witching hour.

The intent of the change is clearly an attempt to reduce the occurrence of glassing and if that is the consequence who could argue? However, legislators are apparently unaware that not all assaults occur at the Cross, or after midnight. Nor is glassware the usual and preferred weapon of choice.

Everybody has wine and food matching favourites but I have not come across a whisky and food matching dinner before. Until that is, Hobart-based writer, Greg Stanton reported on one he hosted.

We’re all doing well down here in Hobart although the cooler weather has hit with a vengeance. One of the things we decided to do to keep us warm was have a whisky-inspired dinner at home.

A few months back I bought a recipe book from the Laphroaig distillery online shop – The Whisky Kitchen: 100 Ways with Whisky and Food by Sheila McConachie and Graham Harvey.

I was hard-pressed to whittle down the diverse choice of recipes to a manageable three-course dinner.

The original idea was to match the dishes with the whiskies that were used in the cooking, but then there were some other fantastic choices in the cabinet that were difficult to leave out. It’s like choosing a favourite child, but then again an Edradour 10 year old doesn’t cry out in the middle of the night like a four month old.

There were eight of us and I pulled out 22 bottles of single malt, hoping that people would help me deplete stocks but also to taste ones they’ve never tried. Read the rest of this entry

Wolf Blass Yellow Label Brut 2010 – $18 – 88/100. Pinot noir and chardonnay blend. Bright gold in the glass with a medium leisurely bead. Its nose shows floral notes and a hint of lemon. Flavours on the lively palate reminded me of strawberry shortcake, the fruitiness offset by clean acidity. A medium dry finish suggests entrée accompaniment.

Waipara Hills Riesling 2011 – $21 – 88/100. Waipara Valley, New Zealand. Greeny gold hues in the glass. Aromatic, with a hint of lime marmalade on the nose, which reminded me of “Noble” styles. The lime theme continues on the palate along with aspects of dried apples. A smooth version of the varietal that sits somewhere between medium dry and not quite sweet. Try with a cheese platter.

Tyrrell’s Moon Mountain Chardonnay 2011 – $18 – 91/100. Hunter Valley, New South Wales. This wine has an immediately attractive bouquet of new season apricots over a background of toasty French oak. The palate is full and flavoursome with suggestions of nectarine and Granny Smith apple. Careful oak influence supports rather than dominates the wine. A style for lighter main courses. Read the rest of this entry

About 10 years ago I brought winemaker and blogger Iris Rutz of Domaine Lisson from the wild hills of the Languedoc to the Slow Food fair in Turin, where I presented a workshop on what I then called “wild wines” from France. It sounds better in French: vins sauvages. I wanted to convey that these were indeed natural wines, while avoiding the pitfalls of the “natural wine movement”: the sectarian connotations of this fractured movement, the frequent correlation of “natural” with “drink young”, and the strange tastes of many natural wines.

The vines of Domaine Lisson, Languedoc

Iris Rutz makes impeccably clean long aging complex wines using traditional methods in the vineyard, with sulfur and, in very difficult years, some copper. In the cellar she uses minimum sulfite levels (these are marked exactly on the labels), with no filtering or fining and 18 months of barrel aging. Another winery that works its wines with a light hand, and yet the wines age beautifully, is Dupéré Barrera in the hills of coastal Provence. They also participated in the Turin workshop.

Iris Rutz adds two other aspects to her winemaking that, in my judgment, truly qualify her for the “wild” label.

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I came across this charming picture in a book I bought for two dollars at an opshop. The book, Australia, was published in 1964, so I assume that the pics date from the previous year.

A feast in 1963

Note the guests swanky clothes. And awaiting them on the table is a fondue pot, bread and cheese and a crayfish. To accompany, two bottles of Penfolds sherry, and one each of Penfolds Dalwood Claret, Dalwood “Burgundy” and Dalwood Riesling. Needless to say the glasses are crystal.

The fondue evening and the dinner party are both on the endangered species list nowadays but they were great fun in their heyday.

Australia, published 1964, by Oswald Ziegler Publications, Pty. Ltd. Sydney Australia.

This article is by occasional contributor Geoff Parker – Geoff looks at the history of a well-known Australian wine and seeks the origin of the name on the label.

A value for money, commemorative release

Some years ago, the local bottle shop in Blackburn had on sale a magnum of Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet 2004, for the good price of $21. It was called Koonunga Hill (Special Reserve) Claret. The entire bottle was covered in red, and the distinctive appearance commemorated the passing of thirty years of the line. The first release was the 1976 vintage which was released in 1978. I bought the magnum and reflected, “Where have the thirty years gone?”

There was a bottle of the ‘76 in my cellar at this time, but somehow it got included in a parcel for auction at Langton’s and ultimately realized $25. I should have kept it. With the magnum in my hand and thinking back to the label of the ‘76, it struck me that I’d purchased every vintage in between, and for good reason.

Penfolds Koonunga Cabernet 2010

Koonunga Hill was always a reliable, very affordable, quality red that you could freely splash about after a game of golf, or when neighbours dropped in, or when a pizza at the local Italian was a good idea. But treating it in this way was probably a little too casual, particularly during the early years, for as Len Evans said of the first release in the Wine and Spirit Buying Guide of June 1978:

“Koonunga Hill is “…very big on the palate (with) an underlying complexity which I find most appealing…reminiscent of the big Penfolds reds of the 1960s.”

He also said in this publication that the first Koonunga Hill was crafted from fruit from the Koonunga Hill vineyard in the Barossa Valley, and from fruit sourced from Coonawarra and Magill. Read the rest of this entry

Campbells Classic Rutherglen Muscat – 500ml $44 – 92/100. Shows clear golden syrup hues – a quick swirl in the glass leaves lovely ‘legs’. Bouquet of aged alcohol, raisins and ‘roll your own’ tobacco. Goluptious palate of dark fruitcake, leather, and aged wood. A superb after dinner treat.

d’Arenberg Dadd Sparkling – $28 – 87/100. Adelaide Hills, South Australia. Chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier blend. Pale lemon colour, small slow bead. Light bouquet of warm bread rolls and lemon peel. Dry in the mouth, medium bodied with toasty aspects, dried pears and a crisp citric finish.

Juniper Crossing Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc 2011 – $20 – 86/100. Margaret River, Western Australia. Nose of lemon grass and tomato leaf. Fresh vigorous palate, with a lychee character that reminds me more of sauvignon than semillon fruit.

The Lane Gathering Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon 2009 – $35 – 89/100. Adelaide Hills, South Australia. Herbal nose of lime and a hint of green apple. Smooth, mouth-filling palate with some more of the Granny Smith apple, supported by firm, lemon acidity.

Penfolds Bin 51 Riesling 2011 – $33 – 91/100. Eden Valley, South Australia. Mineral nose with delicate citrus blossoms. Classic varietal palate somehow reminds me of Rose’s Lime Marmalade – without the sugar. This white has a long aftertaste with beautifully balanced, lip-smacking acidity.

Shaw + Smith Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir 2010 – $48 – 90/100. Pale crimson. Heady rose water and strawberry conserve nose. The light colour belies a solid palate stacked with red berry flavours, subdued oak and subtle tannins. Illusions of sweetness from the fruit taper off into a satisfying firm and dry finish.

Angove McClaren Vale Shiraz 2010 – $18 – 87/100. Deep red hues. Warm (14.5% alcohol) and ripe blackberries on the nose. Generous palate of plums, summer berries and mild vanilla oak. Main course style for sure.

Blackjack Major’s Line Shiraz 2009 – $25 – 90/100. Bendigo, Victoria. Peppery fruity nose with a hint of anise. Pleasing intensity of flavours on the palate with sub-strata of liquorice and a hint of dark chocolate.

Zema Estate Cluny Cabernet Merlot 2008 – $26 – 89/100. Coonawarra, South Australia. Dark ruby colour. Lifted nose of mulberries and blueberries. Chewy, dry palate shows more concentrated blueberry character, along with an olive savouriness, the whole ably supported by balanced oak.

Sierra Nevada Stout 355ml stubbie – 6-pack $24 plus – 90/100. California, USA. Delicious roast coffee hints on the nose. Silky smooth and thick in the mouth, showing earthy mocha character and mild bitterness towards the finish. Though a little sweeter, this is right up there with my favourite, Coopers Stout.

Ratings

95+ – Trophy

90+ – Outstanding

85+ – Fine drinking

80+ – Good stuff

75+ – Commercial drop

Prices in Australian dollars.