The Palazzo Ducale, photo by Luca Risso

Terroir Vino is the brainchild of my friend, web entrepreneur Fil Ronco. Participants are invited after selection in a blind tasting by TigullioVino teams, and so you get a wide spectrum of styles and sizes of winery, from the “all natural” vigneron with less than 4 hectares, to large quality producers like Lungarotti. Half the day is reserved for wine professionals (press, restaurant owners, importers), and starting mid-afternoon the event is open to the public for a nominal fee.

The setting under the gold leaf carved ceilings of the doge’s palace, the perfect organization and the friendly atmosphere made this Terroir Vino day a big success. It was good to see lots of blogging and newsgroup friends, including Joan Gómez Pallarès, Terry Hughes, Luca Risso, Giampiero Nadali, Schigi, Filippo Cintolesi, Franco Solari, Fiorenzo Sartore, Mirco Mariotti, Gianpaolo Paglia, even Slow Food friends Enrico Sala and Maurizio Fava. All in all 1500 people attended.

Steyer (Slovenia) was sharing a table with Joannes, and was presenting 4 wines, including a “Cuvée” 2007 of Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon, Riesling and Gewurztraminer under Stelvin closure. Personally I preferred their Gewurztraminer 2007, very fresh and subtle. A 2003 “Vaneya” sweet Gewurztraminer was excellent, balanced and with good persistence.

Tour du Bon (France) was there with its great red and rosé wines from Bandol, a few miles from where I live. I know these wines well, I nevertheless tried their white; Bandol is not known for whites, but the wine my friend Agnès Henry makes is surprising, with its relatively high percentage of vermentino it stands out for aroma and fits in quite well in this Ligurian setting.

Bott Geyl (France) are an exciting producer from Alsace, we got to know this very nice couple last year when I organized a tasting of their numerous cuvees here in Provence. Les Pinots is an assembly of the four Pinot grapes, interesting, but their top wine here was the Pinot Gris, an sharp fruity wine from clay limestone soil that was begging for a food pairing with fish or even pan seared foie gras.

Verus Vinogradi (Slovenia) uses Stelvin on all their wines (I can only encourage the migration from cork), this is a new winery presenting wines in the “natural” trend, very clean, including a Sauvignon with grassy freshness and a barely perceptible CO2 fizz, a Furmint, a Pinot Gris, a Muscat with a little residual sugar and surprisingly light aromas (Muscat can get heavy at times…), a mineral Riesling and a sweet Welschriesling.

Gulfi (Sicily) was presenting 2004 Bufaleffi and Maccarj, superb Nero d’Avola from old vines matured in demi-muids.

Benanti (Sicily) presentred a 2005 Nerello from Etna with a distinct mineral feel, almost salty, and a 2003 Serra della Contessa from 100 year old ungrafted vines.

La Stoppa (Colli Piacentini) was there with its red Macchiona, the 2004 very fresh and deep, the 1999 in great shape and the 1991 perhaps past its prime. They also presented Ageno, a white that has been vinified like a red (I call these “noir de blancs”), with skin contact for over a month, and therefore tannic and amber coloured due to oxidation. In my experience this wine has proven to be a truly marvelous match for food, most memorably with roast pork, but on its own in a tasting by “conventional” tasters comparing it to “conventional” whites it tends to put many people off, which is too bad. A wine that shines in the right context.

Mariotti (Ferrara), my blogging friend Mirco was there with a true extraterrestrial wine, Surlié, bottle refermented red Fortana sparkler with lots of character, not a pretentious wine but truly lots of fun.

Cascina Corte (Piemonte) is the winery run by my good friend Sandro Barosi, his 2007 rosé made using the saignée method was a pleasant surprise, and the 2006 Barbera is well crafted, with good acidity. 2006 Nebbiolo showed promise, I found the wood flavour was not quite yet folded into the wine but the wine has good structure and should be great in a couple of years.

Erbaluna (Piemonte) presented an intriguing 2003 Barolo Vigna Rocche, a powerful wine with an animal bouquet that made me wonder if that was character or brett.

Tenuta Grillo (Piemonte) made me taste his own take of what I call noir de blancs, turns out to be highly influenced by La Stoppa, macerated Cortese grapes from Campania, interesting but not quite the character of Ageno.

Emidio Pepe (Toscana) presented a vertical of his completely “natural” wines, no SO2 present, a sharp 2005, a ready to drink 2000 and a 1985 surprising for its fruitiness despite age and no sulfites.

Poggio Argentiera (Toscana): fellow blogger Gianpaolo Paglia was presenting his magnificent Capatosta, a really remarkable wine from the Tuscan coast that matures with time into something that can give the standard supertuscans a hard time, and (in joke) one of the few that could justifiably lay claim to some kind of “Maremma grand cru” status.

Podere Erbolo (Toscana): newsgroup contributor Filippo Cintolesi made me taste his Salvino in the latest two vintages, a fine wine with lots of promise.

Maria Donata Bianchi (Liguria) is a producer I like for its Pigato, the 2007 showing well with lots of citrus notes and great acidity. They also are experimenting with blanc-de-noirs, their Antico Sfizio 2007 a vermentino macerated for “only” 8 days, which in many ways improves on most long macerated whites by keeping the oxidation in check. This winery is now converted entirely to glass closures to replace cork, the result is very nice.

Buranco (Liguria) was there with its latest Sciacchetrà, one of the two great producers of this rarest of sweet wines from the Cinque Terre. Since this domaine was sold to a well known senator in Italy, I guess much has changed. The dry white Cinque Terre of recent production was interesting in that the three local grapes, bosco albarola and vermentino, were vinified separately. This makes sense as the optimal maturity time of each grape can span over a few weeks, while traditionally all three were processed together.

Alois Lageder (Süd Tyrol or Alto Adige) was the winery of the day for me, with a wonderful sharp and persistent Pinot Blanc 2007 and an equally wonderful 2004 Pinot Noir with superb balance, persistent cherry flavours and kirsch. I was less convinced by the Müller Thurgau, but I do have a bias against this grape, and Lageder seems to manage to make better wine with it than anyone else.

Le Fraghe (Veneto) also left a lasting impression with the explosive aromas and sharpness of its Garganega, a true gem made by Matilde Poggi.

The event also includes some food and olive oil producers, and I distinctly remember the blue pecorino from La Parrina in Tuscany, a cheese that paired perfectly with Vigna della Volta by La Stoppa – the cheese producer also makes wine and proposed their Vin Santo, but the cheese overwhelmed it completely.

Long-time readers will be shocked to hear that your humble correspondent has been off the grog for a few weeks. Doctor’s orders, following a nasty but necessary ‘routine’ operation visited often enough upon ageing geezers.

Seems that up to a month’s healing is required, and alcohol, which can dilate blood vessels, may hinder this.

Not that I felt much like booze, or food for that matter for a couple of weeks. No doubt due to trauma and the ongoing aftermath of a generous intrathecal dose of dope that left me temporarily legless.

Where was I?

Not water. Precious as it is I already knew that it was no substitute for a glass of wine or beer.

I could only handle staple beverages such as coffee and regular tea to a certain extent. Peppermint, chamomile, and other herbal brews were a welcome diversion. Fruit and vegetable juices were bearable in small quantities. Hot chocolate – made with chocolate bars containing over 50% cocoa mass – was fine as an occasional after dinner treat but it was too rich as a regular snifter.

I found that very low or no alcohol beer and ‘wine’ were hideous and soon learned that soft drinks like ginger beer, dry ginger ale, lemonade, etc. were way too sweet. Same for ‘diet’ drinks, which also have all sorts of dodgy chemicals substituting for sugar.

In the end, I settled for soda or tonic water with a splash of Roses or Bickfords lime cordial, garnished with a slice of lime or lemon.

Feeling a little better a week or so back, I re-launched my drinking career with a bottle of 1989 Penfolds Bin 707 cabernet sauvignon that an in-law had left as a gift.

Picture a thirst-stricken straggler in the desert crawling over a dune and finding a limpid pool in an oasis. It was a little like that.

Cascade First Harvest Pure Green Hop Brew– up to $20 the six-pack of 330ml bottles - * * *
Made with from fresh hop flowers. Mid to dark amber. Sweet aromas of toffee like malt and savoury hops. Full-flavoured and malty on the palate with a delicious lasting hop bitterness at the finish. This limited release is worth chasing up.

Temple Bruer Verdelho 2007 – up to $18.50 - * *
Langhorne Creek, South Australia. Certified organic, no preservatives added. Spicy apricot nose. Full-bodied white with overtones of stone fruits on the palate, mild acidity and a quite dry, food suited finish.

Blind Mans Bluff Sophist Red - Cellar door price $18 - * *
Kenilworth, Queensland. I’d call this a sort of shiraz rosé. It’s light in colour – a bit darker than your typical rosé and light in alcohol at 10 per cent. The nose is juicy and plummy and the palate fresh and off-dry with enough grape tannins to offset the sweetness. Serve chilled as you would a rosé.

Deen De Bortoli Vat 1 Durif 2006 – seen for under $10 - * *$
Lovely mid-purple. Blackberries and plums and light oakiness on the nose. Youthful style with ample ripe fruit and just right tannic astringency. Top value.

Summit Estate Petit Verdot 2005 – up to $30 - * *
Granite Belt, Queensland. Dark crimson. Dry sinewy red with hints of plums, tobacco leaf, and leather on the palate. Very firm to finish.

Freeman Rondinella Corvina 2003 - up to $35 - * * *
Hilltops region, New South Wales. Dark red. Smoky summer berries and a hint of aniseed on the nose. Solid wine with thick chewy tannins supporting warm ripe fruit flavours. Good enough to eat.

Brown Brothers Shiraz, Mondeuse and Cabernet 2004 – up to $40 - * * * *
King Valley, Victoria. I’ve tried a few of these dating back to the 1960s – they last well. Purple to crimson. Aromatic vanillin oak and blackberry conserve on the nose. Solid mouth-filler with extravagant fruit, a layer of mocha and enough oak to spice it all up. To be launched at the cellar door on 9 June. Will drink well for at least 10 years.

Penfolds St Henri Shiraz 2004 – seen for $75 up to $90 - * * * * *
South Australia. St Henri is one of the country’s greatest reds and when I started drinking it as a university student it was just affordable. Now it’s in the super premium bracket but no less a wine for that. Unusually for modern Australian reds, St Henri does not depend on new oak treatment but rather is matured in large (1460 litre) old vats.

This is a complete wine. Perfumed spiciness on the nose with a suggestion of star anise, elegant on the palate with hints of fruits of the forest and a subtle chocolatiness. The overall impression is of exceptional length, structure and depth of flavour. This one will cellar well until at least 2025.

Yalumba Kingston Town Vintage ‘Port’ 1980 – I paid about $8 at auction - * * * *
Yalumba’s Thoroughbred vintage ‘port’ releases enjoyed celebrity status for a short while in the early 1980s. At one stage, bottles were selling in the after market for around $100 each. Then collectors got over it and prices plummeted. I picked up half a dozen at auction a few years back for under $8.00 the bottle.

The other night we decanted one, a Barossa Valley blend of cabernet sauvignon and shiraz. The cork was in good condition and so was the wine. Clear, red to russet-hued with an edge of onion skin colour. The nose was rich with hints of liquorice and raisins but not that spirity. Smooth as velvet on the palate it showed sweetness and flavours of Christmas fruitcake with no evidence of oxidation. If I’d been asked to taste this blind I’d have guessed it was about half its actual age.

Rating system
Five stars * * * * * - outstanding
* * * * - classy
* * * - first-rate
* * - good stuff
* - commercial
A $ denotes excellent value for money. Prices in Australian dollars.

Examples include matches such as cabernet sauvignon with Jimi Hendrix; chardonnay with Blondie; merlot with Otis Redding and music by classical composers such as Orff and Tchaikovsky.

There is of course an enormous cultural bias inherent in this kind of research.

If you are a wine drinker whose tastes run to the blues, rock 'n roll and bluegrass a glass of good red is hardly going to taste better while listening to Carmina Burana.

Similarly,if you have been acculturated to prefer western classical music or opera, a glass of chablis might taste a tad sharpish while Jimi's Voodoo Chile is blasting way at volume 11 on the stereo.

One can only imagine what wines you would match with the music of Celine Dion, Ravi Shankar, Karlheinz Stockhausen or 'J-Lo'.

Hardly a day goes by without one of these scientific horror stories. And if it's not a horror story then it's wine as a miraculous cure-all.

Now I'm no scientist but if I wanted to find links between wine and cancer I would investigate populations where wine is and has been consumed in quantity for many years, even centuries. For example, in wine growing regions.

I have visited wineries in Europe, the US and Australia over a number of decades and met hundreds of wine makers, merchants, winery workers and the like - all of whom I assume consume more wine each day than members of the general population.

To my knowledge I have never met one with mouth cancer. Personal observation is hardly scientific analysis I know. But if the reported figures are correct I'd expect to have met any number of sufferers on my travels.

The bottle was offered to me by Joan Gómez Pallarès, the man at the keyboard of De Vinis Cibisque. We had met for a lunch in Barcelona during the Mobile World Congress last February.

Perfect with young Provençal lamb, the acidity cutting well through the fat, and the tanning enveloping the meat. Lamb here has absolutely none of the gamey flavour that so many people associate with lamb (mutton more likely), in fact if anything it was the wine contributed a hint of that flavour.

I wish I had some of the Priorat's olive oil left, whereas the wines are definitely big, the oils are very delicate, much like Ligurian oil. For years I have been buying D.O. Siurana oils from Molí de la Mola, made from Arbequina olives, it would have accompanied the roast potatoe perfectly... I will be in Catalunya in ten days so I hope to find some then (it also happens to be dirt cheap, despite the superb quality).

Thanks again Joan! I will have to bring you a Châteauneuf next time…

Nuts are a favourite accompaniment to wine. They are delicious when served with bubbly and other aperitifs and a plate of nuts and dried fruit is obligatory when savouring a vintage port after dinner.

But did you ever notice that in any bowl of mixed nuts, in shell or not, certain varieties are always eaten in exactly the same order of preference?

(NB For the macadamias you need a special vice type nutcracker. We found a dusty thumbscrew in our dungeon that seems to do the job quite well.)

Anyway, scientific tests have proven that, assuming the bowl starts off with equal numbers of each nut type, the nuts will inevitably be consumed in the following order. First crackees are macadamias and walnuts, followed then by brazils and pecans (the pecans’ thinner shells are a bit fiddly), then come almonds, and, mouldering in last place, dull hazelnuts. The latter I’ve noticed, are used as a filler to bulk up bags of mixed nuts.

Bowls of unshelled nuts are slightly different. As well as the above mix, they’ll also contain cashews and peanuts. Apparently, nut packagers deem that any bag of shelled nuts shall contain three or four macadamias, six or seven cashews, a slightly greater number of brazils and walnuts and about ten times as many peanuts and hazelnuts as the rest combined.

As soon as a bowl of this mixture is put on the table there will be a flurry of grubby digits delving for the macadamias and cashews. The rest disappear in roughly the same order as the nuts in shell. The also-rans will be left with a few walnut crumbs and a detritus of rancid peanuts and hazelnuts.

A kettle of pistachios
Pistachios are another kettle of nuts, so to speak. Ever see anyone eat their first ever pistachio? There is a morbid fascination as you watch them put the whole thing in the mouth, hard shell and all, and start crunching.

A quizzical expression ensues as bits of old filling crumble and as the shell-shards hack into the tongue and gums and salt penetrates the exposed flesh. They’ll chew on bravely for a little while not wishing to be rude and then wander off quickly, dribbling, with a hanky over their mouth to arrange an urgent appointment with their orthodontist.

So I’m sculling a tasty New Zealand pinot noir at Laguna Jacks and this guy comes up to me and asks me in an American accent how I like his wine.

I learn that his name is Quintin Quider and that the pinot is from a Central Otago winery, Wild Earth that he owns with wife, Avril. He adds that he hails originally from California, came to Australia after a stint in New Zealand, and now lives in Noosa.

Central Otago, he tells me, is marginal grape growing country. Situated virtually on the 45th parallel it is the southernmost winegrowing region on the planet.

‘It’s very dry and windswept, with extremes of temperature. We can get frost in December and January and snow in March and April. One day it’s 40 (centigrade) next day it’s only six. Consequently, we get highly variable vintages. Our growing season, for example, is two to three weeks shorter than Marlborough’s.

‘We make around 12000 cases of pinot annually and 1500 of white. Most of this goes to the USA and we’ve got a growing market in the UK. Australia though is a much smaller market for us - but after only one year it’s developing well.’

Finally, I ask Quintin what style he’s aiming for with his pinot. ‘Well, full-bodied. I’d like it to be a bit Burgundian, but it’s always going to be a New Zealand wine, expressing our local terroir.’

Cascade Green – up to $18 the six-pack of 330ml bottles *
According to the label, this full-strength (4.5%) lager is 100 per cent carbon neutral, preservative free and low carbohydrate. It has pleasant hoppy spicy aromatics. The palate is medium-weighted and very smooth in texture. Flavours are malty sweet and the finish without bitterness.

Banrock Station Ecomate Colombard Chardonnay 2007 - 1 Litre Tetra Pak – up to $10 * *
Light lemony nose. Fresh easy drinking style with faint oak, off-dry finish and mild acidity.

Le Jardin Français Sauvignon Blanc 2007 – up to $25 * *
Bordeaux, France. Significant kiwi fruit characters on the nose. Fuller bodied style of sauvignon blanc showing asparagus and citric acidity on the palate. Fine aperitif.

Fox-Gordon Abby Viognier 2007 – up to $20 * * *
Adelaide Hills, South Australia. Apricots and herbs on the nose. Mellow and full flavoured palate suitable for light mains.

Penfolds Bin 311 Chardonnay 2007 – up to $43 * * * * *
Orange, New South Wales. Perfumed with white peaches and delicate toasty French oak. Mouth-filling palate of peaches, apricots and greenish apples over a firm sub-structure of steely acid. One of the best wooded chardonnays I’ve tried in a long while. Cellar to 2014.

Wild Earth Pinot Noir 2006 – high $30s * * * *
Central Otago, New Zealand. Attractive nose of strawberry tarts, forest floor and loam. Powerful on the palate with fruits of the forest and savoury, smoky characters. Dry, long finish. A pinot for red wine drinkers who don’t think they like pinot.

Domaine Saint Andrieu 2006 – up to $24 * * *
Appellation Côtes de Provence, France. Shiraz 90 per cent, grenache 10 per cent. Bouquet of plums and blackberry conserve. Excellent dining wine of generous sweet berry fruit supported by firm drying tannins and zappy acidity.

Fence Sitter Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 – up to $30 * * *
Strathbogie Ranges, Victoria. Distinctive red and black currant nose edged with a hint of eucalypt. Thick and chewy style packed with generous ripe fruits. Moreish.

Robert Oatley Shiraz Viognier 2006 – up to $25 * * *
Multi-region blend: Langhorne Creek and Barossa Valley, South Australia; Mudgee, New South Wales.
Juicy plummy nose. Palate provides flavours of raspberry and blackberry along with dark chocolate and espresso coffee.

Rating system
Five stars * * * * * - outstanding
* * * * - classy
* * * - first-rate
* * - good stuff
* - commercial
A $ denotes excellent value for money. Prices in Australian dollars.

Headlines over recent months have featured horror stories about alcohol abuse, binge drinking, and general overindulgence in our favourite legal drug.

Some stories have ludicrously blamed the size of wine glasses for excessive boozing. For example, "MP calls for smaller wine glasses" and, "Wine glasses blamed for women drinking large alcohol amounts."

I’m totally unconvinced that standardising the size of wine glasses is going to stop boozing and I don’t believe that proposals to change the official guidelines for the recommended number of standard drinks per day will have any effect whatsoever.

The idea is, I think, that you read the label, see how many standard drinks a bottle contains and then adjust your drinking in accordance with National Health and Medical Research Council daily drinking guidelines. Well that isn’t going to happen.

Standard drinks in various beverages and wine styles vary enormously. In a large group at dinner, some might start with stubbies of beer – typically up to 1.5 standard drinks. Someone will order a cocktail, maybe up to two standard drinks in one glass. A bottle of Hunter Valley semillon at ten percent alcohol might be ordered – this will contain about six standard drinks. The next bottle could be a massive South Australian red at 15.5 percent alcohol – containing just over nine standard drinks.

And in bars and restaurants there are no standard wine glass sizes – they seem to range from maybe 120mls, to the size of mini goldfish bowls. Some are marked to a measured level, some are not. Wine waiters tend to overpour wine in the hope that you’ll buy another bottle and, anyway, thirsty or thrifty diners tend to finish any bottle left on the table before paying the bill, no matter how many glasses they’ve had.

The only way to track the number of standard drinks in this situation would be to have a scorer (preferably the designated driver) with a laptop using a spreadsheet and a scientific calculator.

Most people I know track their drinking by weighing how much fun they’re having against the chances of suffering cirrhosis of the liver or how likely they are to blow more than the legal limit on a breathalyser while driving home.

You don’t have to be a doctor or a bureaucrat to know that chronic alcohol abuse is caused by physical dependence, combined with serious psychological problems, combined with the availability of cheap booze. Like, for example, four litre casks of port for under twenty bucks.

I’m quite sure though, that large wine glasses are not the cause of alcohol abuse or binge drinking. Standard drinks labelling and recommended daily drinking guidelines are clearly not the answer either.

I don’t claim to know how to prevent alcohol abuse. Maybe increasing taxes on cheap bulk wine would be a start.

Standard drink formula
Formula: size of container in litres, multiplied by .789 (specific gravity of alcohol), multiplied by the alcoholic strength of the wine. Take, for example, a 750ml bottle of wine containing 13.5% alcohol (by volume), thus, .75 x .789 x 13.5 = 8 standard drinks.

Spirit House
A group of us dined at the Spirit House in Yandina, a short drive south of Noosa. A spectacular setting, just like walking into a tropical restaurant in Bali or Thailand; complete with exotic flowers, bamboo, palms, and a central lake dotted with lotus leaves.

Standout entrée ($19.50) was the ‘Buddha’s Delight’ a trio of beautifully presented savoury dishes, described accurately on the menu as ‘Potato, pea and spinach samosa with coriander yoghurt; eggplant and banana chili salad with cassava chips; and Son-in-law Egg with sweet, salt and sour sauce.

Address: 20 Ninderry Rd, Yandina, Queensland. Phone (07) 5446 8994.

From the tapas menu we chose a trio of dips ($9), babaganoush, hummus, and extra virgin olive oil, washed down with stubbies of Coopers Sparkling Ale ($6), served in very tall chilled glasses. Next came glasses of 2006 Lengs and Cooter riesling ($6.50), and the 2006 Twin Islands Marlborough pinot noir ($7.50).

I asked owner Julian what wines were the big sellers with tourists and locals. He reckoned that out of every ten bottles he sold, eight were sauvignon blanc.

Laguna Jacks lists over 500 wines and 70 plus beers at, in my view, very reasonable prices. As well as wine by the glass, all bottled wines are available to drink on premise at retail price plus $4 corkage.

Address: 50 Hastings St, Noosa Heads, Queensland. Phone (07) 5474 9555.

Pickled eggs ‘n Scrumpy
I was telling Beery Mag about getting legless on scrumpy (a strongly alcoholic rustic cider) on the morning of a mate’s wedding many years ago.

We rode borrowed motor bikes down narrow hedgerowed lanes near Rockwell Green in Taunton, Somerset, and stopped for morning tea at a quaint little tavern that sold cider.

‘Pints of scrumpy all round!’ yelled the husband to be. The brew was cheap, rough, cloudy, sharp, and seemingly innocuous. After a few pints and a number of delicious pickled eggs, it was off to the ceremony.

A shitefaced party consisting of a scrumpy-fuelled bridegroom and friends does not present a pretty picture at a wedding. I’ve often wondered whether the newlyweds are still together.

Next morning we found that aside from the expected nauseating consequences of mega hangovers, the scrumpy and pickles had created bizarre and volatile compounds in our innards. Coincidentally, noxious fumes permeated the hotel with a strange yet unlikeable miasma; this apparently led to early departures and cancelled bookings. Enough said.

Recipe
Beery harrumphed, ‘Pickled eggs. Too easy, but!’ (The Queensland vernacular has started to rub off on her.)

‘All you do is hard boil some eggs for about ten minutes and cool them. Remove the shells and place the eggs in sterilised jars. Fill the jars with the vinegar that you have thriftily saved from commercial or homemade pickled onions and seal. After a week or two in the fridge, serve them sliced with bread, cheese and pickled onions and cider or beer or, if you can get it, scrumpy.’

Shanghai Lager - up to $16 the six-pack of 330ml bottles *
Unusual this. Brewed from rice, according to the media release. A pale looking lager style with a good foamy head. Slightly sweet and light on the palate with faint bitterness at the back of the tongue. Would suit people who generally don’t drink beer ‘Because it’s too bitter!’ Would go well (obviously) with Chinese tucker.

Tyrrell’s Old Winery Hunter Valley Semillon 2007 - $11 * * *$
Lemons and straw on the nose. Light (10.5% alcohol) fresh style with attractive ripe citrus flavours. An ideal lunch and entrée white.

Shingle Peak Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2007 - up to $26 * * *
This one exhibits the typically grassy pungency we expect from quality NZ sauvignon blanc. The palate is crisp with upfront tangy acid and stacks of lychee fruit.

10X Chardonnay 2006 – up to $30 * * *
Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. Lovely rich bouquet of peaches and French oak vanillin. Supple and flavoursome in the mouth, the softness is balanced at the finish with well-integrated citrussy acid.

Nepenthe Tryst Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé 2007 – up to $17 * *
Sweetish strawberry and Turkish Delight nose. Soft and fresh in the mouth, some sweetness in the middle leads to a just off-dry finish showing an edge of acid zest. Serve well-chilled as an aperitif.

Hewitson Miss Harry 2006 - $22 * * *
Barossa Valley, South Australia. Grenache, shiraz, mourvèdre blend. Thick luscious and rich style full of sweet berries. Imagine a summer pudding in a glass.

Plantagenet Shiraz 2005 - up to $40 * * * *
Great Southern, Western Australia. This wine looked good in the glass: dense red to black with a vibrant purple edge. The nose is warm and full of ripe blackberries with a hint of pencil shavings. On the palate, there is a well-structured mix of berries and plumminess supported by firm, drying tannins. Lip smacking.

Mildara Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 - up to $26 * * *
The nose reminded me of mulberry conserve, along with a hint of the dustiness I often associate with Coonawarra cabernet. Mulberry sweetness continues on the palate with intense, almost inky, blackcurrants. The finish is warm (15% alcohol) and firm.

Rating system
Five stars * * * * * - outstanding
* * * * - classy
* * * - first-rate
* * - good stuff
* - commercial
A $ denotes excellent value for money.

NB Prices in Australian dollars.