Overview of Australia's Wine Regions - Part 1

Part 1 - Australia as a Prominent Wine Producing Country

An American friend of mine who follows my blog and has a real appreciation for wine wanted to develop a better understanding of Australian wines.  I have been thinking about how to help him and have come up with several ideas such as sending him some books or links on the Australian wine industry and specific wines, sending him a mixed dozen wines to sample (but I always get concerned about US wine distribution laws), or recommend some top-notch liquor and wine stores in the US that specialize in better Australian wines.  I decided, the first and easiest thing I can do, is to write a blog overviewing (is there such a word?) the Australian wine regions and describe some of their unique characteristics.  At least that way, he will be able to target getting some Australian wines from the regions that are best known for being suitable to different types of grapes and styles of wine.  I think an introduction to some of the great Australian wine families and history would also provide useful information.  Therefore, I have decided to create a short series of blog entries on the Australian wine industry.

Over the last 40 years, Australia had developed into one of the most prominent wine regions in the world and arguably could be the most prominent "new world" wine region.  (I am certain my American friends might protest!)  The "old world" wine regions (basically Europe - most notably France, Italy, Germany and Spain) still produce some magnificent wines.  More recently, "new world" wine regions have evolved, including Napa Valley and surrounding regions in California,  along with some other great wine growing regions in the US such as Oregon (especially for Pinot Noir), Chile and Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.  In addition, China is now starting to come up fast and is producing some fine wines.

(BTW, it really surprised me to find out that all 50 US states now have at least one winery!)

The distinction between "old world" and "new world" has real meaning and influence on wine making in terms of culture, style of wine making, terroir, and the age of vines.  The age of the vines can play a large part in the flavor of the wine produced.  Most vines do not start to produce enough usable grapes until they are about three years old.  Some vines are over 100 years old with some going on 130 - 140 years of age!  For my general purposes of specifying "old vines," I use the figure of 40 years or more as being necessary to call a vine an old vine.

Why is vine age so important?  Vines develop character over time, continuing to pick up that character from the soil and surrounding elements, and the manner in which they are cared for.  And look at the thickness of the vines to the left!  With this type of size and strength, the vines are more likely to produce a consistency of wine from vintage to vintage, far more consistent than the annual changes imputed on younger vines.  Additionally, after a number of vintages, a particular style becomes known and expected and influences our belief in what defines a particular style for which the wine is known.  You may asked the question, "When does a vine become too old that it stops producing good wine?"  I have never seen a good answer to that, but will be researching the question and get back to you in a later blog.

Unfortunately, many of the oldest vines in Europe were destroyed by a disease called "phylloxera,"  a plant lice which kills the root of the vine.  Australia vines were first planted with some scale and success around 1840 (and has never suffered from phylloxera), so Australia now has some of the oldest vines in the world.

The other things that Australia has going for it with respect to wine production is a wide variety of climates, weather patterns, elevation levels and soils.  All of this makes for a wide variety of truly outstanding wines.  Except for the most northern part of Australia, being Queensland and the Northern Territories, all other Australian states and territories produce some magnificent wines.  An overview of those regions will be presented in "Australia's Wine Regions (Part2)."

But for now, I hope you agree that Australia, among all countries, is a special place for growing wine.  There are a few good reasons why - as an American - I have decided to call Australia home, none more important than the quality of its wine.  While I am opening my eyes (really my lips!) to many other global wine regions, I still find the best and best-valued wines are Australian wines.

Four-Part Series on Australia's Wine Regions

An American friend with a love of wine wanted to know more about Australian wines.  I decided a quick introduction to the Australian wine regions would be a good overview.  Therefore, I created a very short four-part series on Australian wine regions which will be released over the two weeks, along with some other postings on wine / food matching and other topics.

The four-part review comprises:

• Part 1 - Australia as a Prominent Wine Producing Country
• Part 2 - Australia's Prominent Wine Regions
• Part 3 - Characteristics and Grapes of Australia's Larger Wine Regions
• Part 4 - Characteristics and Grapes of Australia's Smaller Wine Regions

Please understand that this is not a deeply researched review, but a more generalized review based on my slim knowledge of Australian wines and their history.  However, it should provide a overview for the uninitiated on Australian wines and their regions.

Once this series is complete, I will provide some more in-depth reviews of the various regions with recommendations on some great and great-valued wines from each region.

Worse than Penfolds or not?

Yesterday, I wrote with some angst against Penfolds for having on offer a dozen bottles of wine for $168,000 per bottle.  But his may be even more insane.  A vacuum cleaning company trying to sell 100 gold vacuum cleaners for $1 million dollars each!   What is happening in the world today?  I was under the impression things were a bit tough, but I guess not for everyone.

It is sure nice to know that if I am at the right people's home and I spill some crumbs from my Ritz crackers while swilling their $168,000 bottle of Penfolds, they can quickly get out their $1 million dollar vacuum cleaner and get rid of the crumbs.  Seriously, if I could afford a $1 million vacuum cleaner, I would probably have a maid or cleaner, and in neither case, want to tempt them with stealing my $1 million vacuum (or my $168,000 bottle of wine)!

Penfolds, you disgust me!

A friend posted this Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) article and I went ballistic.  This really upset me, far more than selling Grange or their other select wines to the Chinese at $1,000 per bottle (and as I understand it, 90% of the total allocation was snapped up by the Chinese, making it close to impossible for long-term lovers of Penfolds premium wines to get any).  Who the hell would pay $168,000 for a bottle of any wine, except some dumb rich Chinese guy recently into buying up good wine to impress his friends?

Please be certain that I am not ridiculing the Chinese here, as I think their appreciation for fine wine, and their ability to grow fine wine has greatly improved in recent years, and I am excited about their growing presence in the ownership of wineries in the Hunter Valley.  The first Chinese female also recently received her International Masters of Wine (MW) certification.

But who other than a newly rich Chinese would actually buy this and for what purpose?

Penfolds is targeting a few 'dupes' here who want to look good with their very rich friends in return for $2 million more in revenue.  I am pissed at Penfolds for even releasing this, and am going to dump all of my Penfolds wine.  If you want an inventory of my Pendfolds wine and what I was currently selling it for anyway, let me know and I will knock and 25% off the price if you buy a half dozen or more.  Or if that is not enough, make me an offer as I am ready yo unload.

You can email me at 'shipleyaust@yahoo.com.au'. 

Penfolds, you disgust me!

James Halliday blogs on Corks and Screwtops

I wrote about this earlier, but now you can read what an expert interviewing other experts have to say on the topic.

To read more, check out Halliday's blog on Corks and Screwtops.

BTW, I will have an upcoming blog entitled "Why James Halliday sometimes pisses me off!" coming out in the next week or so, so watch for it!

White wine with beef? You bet!

"Never" you say!  White wine with fish and red wine with beef is the convention.  Let's turn the table!

Recently, I wrote a blog on how well a good Pinot Noir goes with a dense gamy fish life swordfish.  This is a perfect example of a red wine matching well with fish.  Another great example is matching a big, buttery Chardonnay with beef stroganoff.  For a great recipe for beef stroganoff, see DAZ in the Kitchen, a wonderful blog on food written by my wife, Deanna Lang.

My wife's beef stroganoff is very rich and creamy.  The mushrooms are cooked in butter and the gravy is very rich.  The richness and creaminess of the gravy, mushrooms and fettuccine noodles almost demand a similar style white wine like a big, buttery Chardonnay.  There are several choices for this including a decent aged Montrachet, an aged big, rich Hunter Valley Chardonnay such as the Alexander Munro Chardonnay from Meerea Park, or the aged Chardonnay from Waverly Estate, or a Chardonnay from Margaret River such as the Leeuwin Estate Art Series or one from Pierro.

But one of the classics is the Penfolds Yattarna, otherwise known as "White Grange."  We had the 2006 vintage with the beef stroganoff.  This is such an easy drinking wine, we often wonder where it went.  Sometimes we think it must have evaporated!  My wife claims that the sign of a good wine is that it goes down so easy that she can not believe having drunk all of it when it is gone!

The point is "rich and creamy" gravy and "rich and creamy" white wine go very well together.  The gravy and noodles contributed more to the overall taste of the meal than the beef (mildly seasoned) did.

Therefore, while it is generally a good and safe rule to match "white wine with fish" and "red wine with beef", you are missing out on a great combination if you are not willing to try to match the more subtle flavors and textures involved.  Next time you have a heavy, rich, creamy gravy made from mushrooms cooked in butter, try a big, rich Chardonnay.


BTW, never drink a Montrachet before its time - it is absolutely sinful - but then again, don't wait too long or you will be pouring good money down the drain - literally!  But then if you are buying Montrachet, I expect you are careful about this and know what time frame in which to drink the wine.

What an affogado!

Last night we made pizza and had the Gabbiano Classico Riserva to go with it.  What I failed to mention was that we made affogados for desert.  They were magnificent!  Using a scoop of vanilla ice cream and shot of espresso plus a shot of liqueur made for a most pleasant way to finish the meal.  Two of us had it with Frangelico, a hazelnut liqueur, while two of us had the affogado with the RL Buller & Son Rare Liqueur Tokay.  While Frangelico is the standard liqueur to make a very fine affogado, the Buller Tokay was something special.

I had a sip of the Buller Tokay about six months ago, thought it was special, and bought three bottles to have on hand with the intent of making an affogado with it some day, and yesterday was that day.  It was incredible.  Previously, I have never found a Tokay I enjoyed as much as a very good Port or good Rutherglen Muscat.  But the Buller Tokay is something else.  Unfortunately, since Robert Parker reviewed it and scored it 100, the price has doubled.  I was able to get a decent deal on it from Nick's Direct, who are my favorite online wine agent.  If you want to call them, ask for Alex - he has been serving us for over a decade now and provides great service.

 

I doubt I will ever have an affogado again with anything other than the Buller Tokay!  Which means I will probably only do so when eating at home.  And that's not a bad thing - an affogado in a typcial Italian restaurant costs about $10 - $12 to have with the Frangelico.  But since I can make or buy a great vanilla gelato or ice cream, make a great shot of espresso and have a bottle of the Buller Tokay sitting around, I am set!  To do that for four of us, I will be saving $30 or so that I would otherwise be giving some restaurant.

If you want to step outside the normal boundaries to establish a truly sensual eating and drinking experience, make an affogado with the RL Buller & Son Rare Liqueur Tokay!

Chianti perfect with pizza

The Chianti, a 2006 Gabbiano Classico Riserva was a perfect match for the pizza.  It was soft, but with enough complexity to mix beautifully with the various pizza flavors.

We were thinking of also trying a 2001 Rosemount Traditional, but after tasting the Chianti, realized that the Chianti was perfect and decided to save the Rosemount to go with corn beef.  (A separate blog on that will follow.)

As with all Italian Chiantis, the Gabbiano was made from the Sangiovese grape.  While Sangiovese is considered a secondary grape, it has real stature in Italy and is popular globally. There are a number of Australian makers of Sangiovese now and one of the very best is Tintilla, in the Hunter Valley.  The do a great Sangiovese and a Sangiovese / Merlot blend and some of the older vintages are nicely smoky and a bit rustic in tasting.

If you really want to have a good time, check out the Tintilla website and write them about their annual Sangiovese tasting.  I believe it just passed for this year, but there is always next year.

The Gabbiano comes in a Classico and a Classico Riserva, which is a better wine, using a more select collection of premium grapes.  The Riserva has a DOCG appellation in the Tuscany region which means it is 'top of the line' Sangiovese. If you like Chianti, but you are not aware of the different brands and which one is best, you can usually be safe in picking up a very good quality Chianti by choosing one with the "Rooster" label (picture to right) which ensures it is of DOCG quality (unless of course, it is a counterfeit.)

I was originally debating between a Shiraz and the Chianti, but decided the Chianti was a better choice and I was right.  Pizza crust goes better with Chianti than a Shiraz for starters.  Additionally, we had a pizza with salami, green capsicum, Spanish onion, mushrooms, garlic, chili and cheese.  The salami on its own would have fought a bit with the Shiraz, whereas it worked beautifully with the Chianti.  And it worked great with our guests, Ric and Cris, as Ric is Italian (Cris is Venezuelan) and the maker of the fine salami we used on the pizza.  Since having started to use Ric's salami as a topping, it has been impossible to use other salamis or pepperoni.  Ric's family made another 140 kilograms of salami today and we will be joining them in two weeks to help with the next batch.

My friend Jeff, who lives in California, suggested that a Red Zinfandel would also be a great match for pizza and he is correct.  I tend to forget about what a great wine Zinfandel is for many occasions, and pizza would be one of them.  We do not see much Zinfandel in Australia, but Cape Mentelle makes a great one.  I had a  2008 Cape Mentelle Zinfandel at Bistro Molines in the Hunter Valley several months ago and it was the first Zinfandel I had had in 15 years (since moving to Australia).  I also had a 2009 Cape Mentelle Zinfandel at The Cut Bar & Grill a little while ago with their slow cooked prime rib.  Cape Mentelle is in the Margaret River region which makes truly outstanding wines.  And if you are looking for the finest steak house in Sydney, you need look no further than The Cut Bar & Grill.  And the sommelier at the Cut, Gustavo Kroneis, is the finest around and has been outstanding at recommending great wines to go with our steaks.

It is easy to just break open a few beers when you are having pizza, but if you want to wine to go with pizza, try a Chianti or Red Zindfandel.

And BTW, here is a picture of one of the pizzas we made tonight.  Deanna will be posting a blog entry in DAZ in the Kitchen with the recipe if you want to try it.

What wine with Pizza?

This is always a tough question since there are so many different ingredients that can go into pizza.  We have gone from buying pizza to making our own, which is quite easy and allows us to create exactly the taste we want.  It also means we have a healthier pizza.  Some times we make the base and other times we buy it, but that choice has no effect on our choice of wine.

We alway use a tomato sauce / paste to cover the base, and almost always a spicier sausage such as pepperoni or the spicy home-made Italian sausage our great friend, Ric and his family make annually (so glad to have a private stash of that sausage - it is magnificent for a pizza topping!).  We also tend to put a lot of garlic and chili on our pizza.  Therefore, a Hunter Valley (spicy, pepper flavored) Shiraz is always a good choice.  However, something a little lighter such as a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Italian Chianti (made from the Sangiovese grape) is always a safe choice to bring out the flavors of the pizza.

Interestingly enough, some white wines will also go well with pizza, since a number of white wines match well with the various cheeses used.  And if you are using chicken, pineapple, or something similar for toppings, a white becomes even a better choice.  I would recommend a crisp (2 or 3 years in the bottle, before it smooths in taste and texture) Semillon to match up well with cheese, but overall believe a Gewürztraminer, or Riesling would be best.  If it is plainer tasting pizza, a Pinot Grigio would be good.  A Gewürztraminer works well with a lot of different spices such as with Indian food or Thai food, so it will work well with a well seasoned pizza also!

It is rare that I would recommend seven different types of grapes as being a good match for a food, but that says a lot about the diversity of pizza!  Then there is always Merlot, but I rarely drink Merlot if given almost any other choice.

And if this is all too difficult, then grab a beer or two!  But overall, it is usually a Shiraz or a Chianti for me.  The only question is - "which one"?

BTW, I am making the pizza tonight and Deanna, who writes the blog, DAZ in the Kitchen, will be creating a post soon with the pizza recipe we use.

Educating your wine palate and taste buds using potato chips

I have a number of friends who will drink any wine with any food and the combination does not seem to matter to them, but then many of them are drinking for the alcohol effect, not the taste.  Any many other friends know and can appreciate the basic and simple rule of 'white wine with fish, red wine with meat'.  However, there are a number of nuances the make a food eating and wine drinking experience even more pleasurable.  There are certainly wide variances between the taste of different white grapes such as Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and so on.  The same goes for various red grapes.

Wine tasters believe that the Sauvignon Blanc grape is the easiest to determine in a blind tasting and stands out as being the most different and distinguishable from other grapes.  And it is a classic to go with fish, making it a safe bet for most fish.  However, for a gamy, more solid fish such as swordfish, I find a good Pinot Noir is a perfect match, especially if the swordfish has a bit of light salsa or tomato sauce with it.  Therefore, people may look at what you are eating and drinking and believe you have made the ultimate wine / food matching mistake in pairing a red wine with fish, but I can assure you that this is a most pleasant pairing!

The sauce (and amount) and the method of cooking (broiled, roasted, BBQ, steamed, etc.) also has a big impact on what wine goes best with a particular food.  Even the difference between different styled wines from the same grape can make a huge difference.  And the aging of the wine changes the wine greatly over time, so it is important to select the wine close to the optimal time for drinking it.  You may find a white wine more acidic when young and more buttery and smooth when older.

While this may seem like a lot of effort to understand and rightly match food and wine, it really does make a great difference.  Even if you do not understand it, you will usually recognize it and notice the difference in how good the food and wine tasted (even if you cannot describe it).

However, what I really want to focus on today is much easier to appreciate.  A good first step to educating your palate is to just try different foods and taste them with your eyes closed and focus on what the flavor is telling you.  Try to pick out how dry or sweet the food is, is it acidic?, or bitter and so on.  This makes you more aware of the common taste characteristics of food.

Tonight I was a bit hungry, but it was a while until dinner, and my wife had an open bag of sour cream and chive potato chips.  I had just poured a glass of a Cabernet Sauvignon.  I grabbed a handful of the sour cream and chive potato chips, ate them and then took a sip of wine.  I thought the flavours would be competing against each other and it would be a horrible match, but it worked far better than I thought.

Then I poured a glass of a Sauvignon Blanc / Semillon blend (I had both bottles open from a day or two before) and tried it with the sour cream and chives potato chips also.  I would have expected this to be a better combination, but found out that was not the case as the Sauvignon Blanc / Semillon blend was a bit acidic, and did not work well with the sour cream taste.  Then I opened a few more bags of different potato chips and tried them with both wines.

Why do I suggest potato chips for this?  Because it is a lot cheaper to open a few bags of potato chips than it is to used real honey-glazed ham, chicken, etc.  Of course, you could always go the sliced meat route for another lesson.

By trying several different wines with several different flavors of potato chips, you can quickly educate your palate and zone in on grape and food flavor combinations you like and don't like  I will not tell you my findings of the various combinations of grapes to potato chip flavors to let you focus better and really learn more by tasting than reading.  I would also suggest you do this in the company of friends and discuss your findings.  You will be amazed at how quickly you will learn to identify tastes and combinations that work or not.  And talking about it while doing the tasting is a great way to learn (and socialize!).

When doing this, I would suggest using Kettle or Red Rock brand potato chips as they tend to have more intense flavors than other brands, and also have a wide variety of flavors including sweet chili, peri peri chicken, caramelized onion, honey coated, etc.  These wide contrasts can help you quickly zone in on categories of combinations that work - or don't!

Let me know what combinations of flavors and wine grapes work for you!  I am anxious to hear your feedback.

My first wine at HUX @ Nortons

We once again had a fabulous meal at HUX @ Nortons.  Jay Huxley had recently returned from his trip to Las Vegas and was rearing to cook.  We had a special treat tonight of a blue-fin tuna belly starter and my wife and a friend had the Smooth Dory fish for mains while myself and the others had the Porterhouse Steak.  Usually it is just Deanna and me, and Deanna always gets a lemon, lime and bitters to drink and I always get a beer, either a Heineken or a James Boag's Premium Lite.  However, since there were 5 of us tonight, we also got a bottle of wine - our first wine ever at HUX!

I was pleased to find they had a few decent bottles to choose from in addition to a decent selection by the glass.  For those of us having the steak, we narrowed the choice down to either a bottle of the 2006 Penfolds Bin 128 Shiraz or the 2008 Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon.  Either would have been 'ok' with the Porterhouse, but Jay applies some nice seasoning and also makes a tremendous side of Potato Salad to go with the steak, so we opted for the Shiraz.  Since Jay's food is so good, it demands a very decent to great bottle of wine.

I should have brought a pocket Vinturi along to do an immediate decant.  The wine needed a few minutes to breathe, but opened up after a bit.  Pouring it through the Vinturi would have made the wine more immediately accessible, but it was certainly drinkable enough and an enjoyable drop to have with the Porterhouse.

What did surprise me though was that there were about a dozen different wines available by the glass and a few decent choices of both reds and whites.  Plus they had a few premium bottles of reds with some age on them.  This impressed me.  I had usually just bought beer while eating at HUX, but will now consider wine by the glass or a bottle if there are a few of us who want wine.

And in a future column, I will be matching a Norton's Hotel wine selection with each main on the HUX menu.  Stay tuned for that coming soon.

What wine to drink with olio spaghetti with garlic and prawns

One of my wife's famous dishes is her olio spaghetti with garlic and prawns.  The dish is relatively easy to make, and outstanding as a starter or main.  Tonight we are having her Garlic Prawns with Spaghetti as a main with a side salad.

On its own, we would have considered drinking a Riesling, but felt a better match with the food was a 2010 Pierro  LTC.  For those of you who do not know of Pierro, it is a great winery in Margaret River.  They make a wonderful Chardonnay and a wonderful Sauvignon Blanc among other great wines.

The Pierro LTC (which interestingly enough stands for 'Little Touch of Chardonnay') is a 75% Sauvignon Blanc and 25% Semillon blend.  The Semillon adds some structure and lasting power to the Sauvignon Blanc, but this is still a wine you want to drink while it is fresh and not more than a couple of years old.  It is a good wine to go with all sorts of fish and seafood.  We will only drink half the bottle tonight and I will use the rest to go with the entree for lunch I plan to have this Thursday at Fish on the Rocks before getting into the 2009 Bouchard Pere & Fils Puligny Montrachet to go with either lobster or the Moreton Bay Bugs.

The real question of what wine goes best with this dish depends on how much garlic you put into it.  With less garlic (and the prawn being more prominent), the Peirro LTC is a great match.  However, tonight we put a lot of garlic into the dish - about 10 gloves for two servings!  We love our garlic, and loved the food tonight, but it ended up being a little over-powering for the wine.  Next time we put this much garlic into it, we will use a Riesling instead as it 'compares to' or balances the wine with the food better.

With less garlic, the Pierro LTC matches the dish best, but with more garlic, you need a more powerful wine and I think a Riesling would be a better choice.

Is wine better before, during, or after sex?

As intriguing as this posting sounds from the title, I could lead you through a lot of advertisements and other more boring things before I finally brought you to the answer, but I will provide it to you immediately - wine is best before sex.  It can be used during all three phases, but for most guys, if we only had wine during sex, we wouldn't be drinking much at all, and if we were to drink during foreplay, there would not be time to get even one sip in for your typical male.  And seeing a woman drinking wine preparing for or participating in sex, is a very sexy thing indeed!

Why do I believe wine is best before sex?  First of all, I am passionate about wine and sipping a little bit of a nice wine, like lighting candles, makes me more interested and passionate about having sex.  And after sex, I am usually flushed with contentment (BTW, I am talking about sex with my wife - a loved one, not random sex, paid sex, group sex or anything like that.) and wine would be an overload.  Therefore, I never drink wine immediately after sex.  (Today I had an intervening nap and two hours before I got back to drinking wine!)

Wine can play an interesting role and use during sex.  First of all, lips soaked in wine from a recent sip can act as a perfume or another special taste co-mingled with your lovers other scents.  Additionally, sprinkling a bit of wine over your lover's various body parts and lapping it up can be quite sensual.

One warning though about drinking wine before sex - have only a little to help the mood.  Too much and you may not be able to perform!  A little alcohol can act as a stimulant, but too much becomes a depressive.  And for you older guys, it is not a good idea to combine Viagra and wine as too much of either can give you heartburn.

And now the other key question - what wine goes best with sex?

Without question, that would have to be a bubbly, like Champagne.  And make sure to be generous and share some with your partner!  Otherwise, your selfish ways may turn her / him off.  Or some exotic or difficult to find wine.  The wine being special is a reflection of her / him being special.

As many of you know, I blog a lot about matching wine to food and I have also blogged about matching wine to chocolate.  And soon, I will do the same for cheese.  However, I do not have any useful ideas on matching wine to sex, except to repeat what I said above - bubbly or difficult to find wine for most sexual experiences!

What wine to drink with Shepard's Pie tonight?

First of all, my wife makes a mean Shepard's Pie, and I am providing the recipe for you here from her great food blog, DAZ in the Kitchen.  She publishes a lot of great recipes for food and article on food lifestyle.  Her meals are a joy to me because (1) they taste good and nourish me in their own right, and (2) provide me an excuse to pick out a nice bottle of wine to go with dinner!  My friends who have had her Shepard's Pie love it and fight over 'take home' if there is any leftover.

While there are a number of secondary red grapes (see my post on Malbec as an example and what constitutes a 'secondary' grape) that may match well with Shepard's Pie, I only focused on considering a Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, or Pinot Noir.  Merlot could have also been a good choice, but I never really think of Merlot, plus I like to have a glass of the wine we are having with dinner beforehand (I am drinking it as I write this!), and would rarely consider drinking a glass of Merlot on its own, when there are so many other great wines from better grapes (at least in my opinion) to choose from.

The main ingredient in Shepard's Pie is lamb mince and that means a decent Pinot Noir could match up well.  However, a good Pinot Noir is so refined and elegant, and Shepard's Pie has a lot of other ingredients in it such as bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, and a lot more.  A good Pinot Noir deserves to be matched with lamb shanks or some other lamb dish other than as mince.

The same is true of Shiraz.  It deserves to be matched with a large slab of beef, well seasoned of course, but with the structure and thickness of the beef intact.  This left a Cabernet Sauvignon as a splendid choice.  But then there was the question of 'which' Cabernet Sauvignon?

Shepard's Pie is a very pedestrian dish.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love it and drinking wine with it, but it has a lot of different good, yet cheap flavors involved in its creation.  (In fact, I always like to have some leftovers because once Shepard's Pie sits for 24 hours, the flavors co-mingle so beautifully and I love it even more the next day!)  That means an aged or too refined a Cabernet Sauvignon would overwhelm (or possibly even embarrass) the Shepard's Pie.  Therefore, I need to find a decent, yet pedestrian Cabernet Sauvignon also to compliment the Pie.

My choice was the 2002 Stonefields Vineyards from Wrattonbully, a region in South Australia, south of Adelaide and just west of the Victorian border.  Wrattonbully is known for its great Cabernet Sauvignons.  This is a $25 bottle of wine, nicely aged with a bit of complexity, but most importantly it is evenly matched with the Shepard's Pie and will not overwhelm it.

While I have had better (and much more expensive!) Cabernet Sauvignon wines, this one is very good for the money and also matchings very well with lamb mince infused with the variety of flavor the rest of the Shepard's Pie provides.

I must admit though, now as I write this that while I would not match up a 100% Merlot with Shepard's Pie, the thought of a Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot blend could be a very good match, and I think I will marry the Shepard's Pie with a Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot blend the next time to see how it goes.

I am looking forward to dinner and wine once again this evening and will let you know how the combination works in the near future.

Premium Wine by the Glass

This is my second night in Melbourne and also my second night without any wine, an unusually long time for me!  That is becasue I am alone and do not usually like drinking a full bottle by myself.  I have been working extremely hard and also networking a great deal, so thought I would take the two evenings to be by myself (missing my loved one though!), rest up, and read and write a bit.

I don't mind going out to eat alone.  When doing so though, I typically will not drink wine a I am reluctant to order a full bottle by myself and very few restaurants have a good wine list of half bottles (a few certainly do, but I am not aware of one close to where I am staying in Melbourne).  There are certainly restaurants that sell a number of wines by the glass, but usually these are not the type of wines I like to drink, especially at $14 - $17 per glass!  I have too many very good bottles of wine in my cellar for which I paid less per bottle than that!

One of the well known restaurants in Sydney proudly proclaims that they sell 60 different wines by the glass, but there was not one on the list I would pay the per glass price for.  There are a few emerging small wine bars that focus on selling premium wines by the glass, but I was not interested in going to a bar - I was interesting in eating a meal and accompanying the meal with a good glass or two.  Some of the wine bars that are selling premium wine by the glass also have good tapas and small plates of food to share, so a drink and nibble combination with friends can result in a very nice evening out.  But again, I was without friends and looking for a restaurant.

James Halliday shared sage advice when he said it was far better to drink a good beer than poor wine, and I agree with him.  Therefore, when I am not aware nor can find a restaurant with good wine by the glass when I am alone, I will usually order a beer, or just water or juice.

And the last two nights I have been quite tired, so after walking around for a while and getting a little fresh air, I decided to just once again get a take-out Subway sandwich and bring it back to my room.  Yesterday, I had a Diet Coke with it and today an Iced Tea.  Not very exciting, but also no chance of disappointment.

If anyone knows of a decent restaurant (in Melbourne, Sydney, and any other Australian CBD or US city) that has a larger and good selection of very good wines by the glass, it would be great to know.  Please comment on your recommendations or write me, and I will keep updating and sharing the list with everyone.

Why I think Chataeu D'Yquem is the best wine in the world

Many people believe that Chateau D'Yquem is the finest wine in the world and it is difficult not to agree with that assessment.  For starters, the French classify their wines according to an appellation rating of Premier Crus and Grand Crus of First, Second, etc. growths down to Village and Table wines.

In the top tier are such stars as Lafite Rothschild and Haut-Brion, and a few others.  However, only one wine in the world has ever been given a 'premier cru superior' and that is Chataeu D'Yquem.  I was first introduced to the wine by my great friend, Michael Axarlis, when four of us were out drinking one evening.  We had the 1997 vintage and it was truly magnificent.  Several months later, it was Deanna and my 9th anniversary and we celebrated by having a bottle of the 1997 and then tried the 2004 for comparison.  It was sinful to drink the 2004 that early - most Chateau D'Yquems should be laid down for 20 - 50 years or bought for the next generation.  We then found a few bottles of the 1997 and the 1998 vintages at a 'reasonable' price (it is also one of the most expensive wines in the world!) that we now have in our cellar.

Thomas Jefferson also proclaimed it as one of his most favorite wines and purchased a lot of it for himself and the White House when George Washington, and then he,were President.

In total, we have have drunk 7 bottles of Chateau D'Yquem in our life, including 4 of the 1997 vintage (a great year!), one from 1998 (which we just had for our 11th anniversary, and the 2004 vintage which was part of our 9th anniversary.  But the greatest bottle of all was the full bottle we bought and shared at Deanna's 40th birthday party.  As Deanna proclaimed, "It's like having sex in my mouth"!

Now I will be a bit more restrained and just say that it is the best wine I have ever had, and I will tell you the reason why it is different from all other wines that I drink.  When I open a great bottle of wine and pour a bit into the glass to 'nose' it and taste it to make sure it is OK, I am often taken by the great bouquet the wine has and how it seems to fill my senses.  But with EVERY bottle of Chateau D'Yquem I have ever had, my reaction to 'nosing' the wine is one of a physical reaction and pure elation.

My nostrils flair and my chest starts to pulsate.  (I could graphically compare this to another experience where this happens, but will pass for now!)  The intense pleasure of smelling a Chateau D'Yquem actually overwhelms my body which is no longer under my direct control.  It is like my body has struck a perfect harmonic motion with the universe.

While I have had some truly great wines over the years, it is only Chateau D'Yquem that does that to me and it has done it EVERY time.  These pictures (the two immediately above) have been taken from our 11th anniversary dinner (a few weeks ago) and the vintage is 1998 which was not a great year (by Chateau D'Yquem standards!).  However, it was still a remarkable wine.  At our 9th anniversary dinner when I did this with the 1997 vintage, I brought the glass to my nose about 15 times in a row and the physical reaction occurred each and every time.

Chateau D'Yquem is a unique wine in terms of the labor that goes into making it, combined with the perfect location to be able to grow the grapes.  They use a Botrytis Semillon and have 11 pickings over 21 days.  This is much more labor intensive than most makers of a Bortytis Semillon desert wine which have one picking when they think most of the grapes have enough botrytis on them.  With Chateau D'Yquem, each grape is ripened almost to perfection, and not an average of the entire batch of grapes, with some being too ripe and others not ripe enough.

We only open a bottle to celebrate very special occasions, but have great joy when we do.  I have drunk many outstanding wines in my day, but nothing makes me pulsates like Chateau D'Yquem!

A "wino's" photo album

Our leaving Qatar and returning to Australia in the middle of 2009 was a bit of a shock.  I was feeling bitter about what had happened, how unfair it was and how it cost us a fortune because of petty politics, both within the bank and within the royal family of Qatar.  We were jobless and homeless and had only enough money to pay the previous year's taxes and live for about 6 weeks before we would have gone broke.  Prospects were pretty grim, especially given the GFC was rolling downhill quickly at the time!

Fortunately within two weeks, Deanna had her old job back, and my prospects were looking good, with three job offers firming nicely.  Once we found a place to live and both secured jobs, I was starting to put the terrible experience behind us, and really wanted to treat myself to something special, and for me, that would be a most special bottle of wine, which seemed to be a good cause for celebration, especially after coming from a controlling, alcohol-restricted country!

My wine was all stored in a public cellar as I had moved it out of the cellar I built in our house (which we were leasing out at the time).  Therefore, once we purchased a car, I headed over to my cellar and pulled out my oldest and dearest bottle of a 1954 Lindemans Vintage Port.  It was a truly heavenly drink and I had it over several months, relishing every drop.  It came in a beautiful bottle (the label actually) and was a real treasure.  I wish I had a picture to show you, but I threw the bottle out when I was finished as we were living in a small apartment and space was at a premium.  This was a mistake I have regretted ever since.

As much as I missed that bottle, it taught me from then on to save my 'precious' wine bottles and to display them.  They provide great memories and for each great bottle of wine, I can remember the time and the people I shared it with and with reasonable clarity (especially difficult since most of these moments involved a lot of wine!).  I call this 'my photo album for winos'.

In fact, I almost get as much joy out of my empties and my memories as I do walking through my cellar and selecting new bottles to drink.  With the bottles in the cellar comes a great responsibility to (1) drink them at the right time (always a challenge if one takes this seriously), and (2) who to drink this particular bottle with?  I sometimes find 'friend matching to wine' even harder than food matching!  Whereas with the empties, I just have fond memories of times gone by and the great friendships we have shared.

Yes, this does take some' real estate' to store so many bottles, but as you can see, we have used the tops of cabinets and the tops of bookcase for 'display' and for very special events such as Deanna's 40th birthday party, we have turned the display into 'art work'.

Wow - what an evening that was all around and probably the very best wine tasting evening I have ever experienced (see line-up in picture above)!  9 courses of food perfectly prepared and matched to the wines I selected.  Most of the wines came from Treasury Wine Estates and we had the perfect party served up at Lindemans, organized by Michelle Tracey, with Damien Harrison, who was our personal sommelier for the evening and contributed from his own collection a bottle of 1957 Lindemans Vintage Port (it was as close as anyone could find to the 1954 Vintage - thank you so much Damien!) and the food prepared by Craig Parkinson, Lindemans Head chef, with Pip Mason also serving us that evening.  But Deanna's 40th and the wines deserve their own blog entry which will follow soon.  This one is really about why to save your empties and how to turn them into memories.

Look at the character of this old bottle of the 1957 Lindemans Vintage Port from Damien!  Water damage to the label, but the wine was exquisite.

These empty bottles really mean a lot to me and I greatly enjoy them over and over again.  Most are displayed at our place in the Hunter Valley.  I only keep one bottle of each (a separate bottle though for each vintage), except for the two best wines in the world - Chateau D'Yquem and Penfolds Grange.  We drink so little of each that we do keep each and every empty we have created!

It takes a bit of room, but after tossing the 1954 Lindemans Vintage Port bottle, I learned a lesson.  That was a bit like tossing a 1951 Willie Mays rookie baseball card!  I greatly regret it and make sure to keep all the precious great bottles I have drunk since.  And if anyone can find me a bottle of the 1954 Lindemans Vintage Port, it will be greatly appreciated - filled or empty!

Wine Snob versus Wine Enthusiast - which one are you?

I must admit that I have a true avocation for wine.  I enjoy wine on its own, with food, and to share with friends.  I also enjoy reading about wine and learning more about how it's made, where it is best made, how to buy and store it, and how to drink it.

Over time, I have developed a deeper appreciation for the exquisite and multi-dimensional nature of wine and it has become an important part of my life, but no more important than my faith, my job, my friends, my passion for reading on a wide variety of topics, and a general zest for life overall.  I have been able to achieve a deeper experience and understanding of the wines I drink, and that has enhanced some of my other experiences.  For example, we are having a chicken and mushroom risotto for dinner tonight.  My wife makes a really good risotto (you can view the chopped-up chicken and mushrooms below)!

With the chicken, Parmesan cheese and mushrooms, I knew I wanted a rich, aged chardonnay to go with it.  I selected my last bottle of the 2003 Saddler's Creek Reserve Chardonnay. (Look at the beautiful golden color of a perfectly aged white wine!)  I did so because I have had a few bottles previously and felt it would pair beautifully with a chicken and mushroom risotto, and I also knew the bottle should be drunk in the next few years and I did not want to wait too long or it might go off.  Fortunately the wine was perfect and I am drinking some as I write this posting.  We paid $10 per bottle for the wine as Saddler's was trying to clear older inventory and we bought the last 8 bottles they had.  But it drinks like a $130 bottle of Penfolds Yattarna or a decent Montrachet.  This turned out to be one of the best buys of my life!

As you can tell, I put a bit of thought into buying the wine in the first place and also when to drink it and what food to drink it with. Some people would claim "I take my wine too seriously, so I must be a wine snob", but I hardly think that is the case.  To me it is a natural passion or avocation as I mentioned, much like others have a passion for working out or art or literature.  Because I have developed a bit of knowledge over the years, it has become much easier to select a good (and good valued) wine to go with an everyday dinner.  And I put more thought into the wines that match up with dinners when we host our "Single's and Strays" dinner parties, have friends over, or a special birthday or anniversary.  (BTW, all birthdays and anniversaries are special!)  But then, most of those events become special occasions and lifetime memories.  Does that make me a wine snob?  I don't think so.

I discussed this with some other wine aficionados and we felt that a wine snob had the following characteristics:

Wine Snob

• They bragged about the excellent wines they had, but never found the opportunity to share the wine with friends or to give a bottle to a friend
• They want to have you admit to them having a superior knowledge of wine over you - they are as uninterested in sharing their knowledge as they are their wines - they just want to 'show off'.
• They talk a great deal about how much they have paid for expensive wines, and seem to only drink expensive wines

Whereas a wine enthusiast, we felt, had the following characteristics:

Wine Enthusiast

• They are happy to share wine, either by contributing a bottle, or by asking all who share to chip in for a special bottle of wine, or by setting some rules to have each person bring a bottle according to the rules established
• They listen to others and want to learn and also share their knowledge and are excited to help others develop an appreciation of wine and mature as a wine drinker and possibly collector
• They get as much and even greater pleasure out of finding a 'cheap' but great wine and would rather drink that than an expensive bottle of wine

We have two friends who are studying to become international Masters of Wine (MW).  An international MW costs about $200,000 to buy, taste and compare wines to develop an internationally acclaimed palate and ability to compare and describe wines to others.  (There are only about 475 MWs globally!)  They are also professional wine judges (in addition to their full-time jobs), but in no way are they wine snobs.  They get great excitement over finding a Canberra (ACT, Australia)  Sangiovese for $20 per bottle and a Marsanne for $15 which they have introduced us to.  A wine snob would not even try a wine from Canberra, yet alone a wine under $20.  We have had a 9-hour lunch at their house (he is French, she is Australian - what can I say?) and we bring over wines we really want to share with them and they pick out wines they really want to share and introduce to us.  These wine may be in the $10 - $20 per bottle range or they may be $40 - $60 per bottle, but it does not matter - what matters is sharing our wine, our knowledge and our friendship with each other.

I therefore, prefer to call myself a 'wine enthusiast', not a 'wine snob'.  How about you?

Wyndham Estate Wine and Chocolate Masterclass

Yesterday, Deanna and I ventured out to partake in one of the many events during the June Hunter Valley Wine and Food Festival.  We visited Wyndham Estate winery just past Branxton, NSW.  As I mentioned in my blog, 'Wine Tasting Technology Perspective', I met a 'friend' on FaceBook who shared a common interest in wine plus a particular interest in the Tyrrell's Vat 1 Semillon as he was a rep for Tyrrell's at the time.  He now works at Wyndham Estate and posted about their Wine & Chocolate matching Masterclass, so we decided to attend.  Another good example of business being conducted via Web 2.0!

The class had 4 wines (all by Wyndham Estate) which were a Bin 333 Pinot Noir, a Shiraz / Grenache blend (the Grenache really came out, especially with the Raspberry-infused chocolate), a Bin 555 Sparkling Shiraz, and a Rutherglen Muscat.  The chocolates where a Raspberry-infused dark chocolate, a Belgian chocolate, and an Orange-infused chocolate.  Not every combination worked well as you might be able to imagine, but some were really a treat!

The Pinot was fine with the Raspberry-infused chocolate and the Grenache from the Shiraz / Grenache blend really picked up the flavors from the Raspberry-infused chocolate even more.  I personally did not like the Sparkling Shiraz with any of the 'infused' chocolates as there was just too much chaos going on in my mouth, but several others in the class liked it.  The Muscat with the Orange-infused chocolate worked extremely well together also.

Both Deanna and I were really interested in what may go well with a Chile-infused chocolate and Cameron Davies, our instructor for the day, had the answer - a big, robust Shiraz!  Wyndham Estate has a great Shiraz, called Black Cluster which is made from 40 year old vines.  We had the 2007 (current vintage) and it was a great wine and good value at $60 per bottle.  And the spice and pepper of the Black Cluster really brought out the chili in the chocolate and the chili really brought out the spice in the Shiraz - it was a wonderful and full-on experience.  Deanna blurted out that "it was like having an explosion in my mouth"!  For me, I will remain a bit more refrained and repeat - 'it was a wonderful and full-on experience'!

A lot of people have learned a bit (and some a lot) about matching food and wine, and it does, in many cases, truly enhance the dining experience in my opinion.  I also like matching wine and cheese and while any good wine will go with any good cheese, there are combinations that really work much better than others.  The same is true for wine and chocolate.

When we have a 3 - 4 course dinner party, we often start with a Sparkling Shiraz on arrival for drinks until we sit down and get into the first course and the first matching wine.  However, I learned yesterday that a Sparkling Shiraz can go well with chocolate and think it would do very nicely as an alternative to a more traditional desert wine to match up with heavy (or mud) chocolate cake or chocolate truffles to finish a meal.  That is one of the lessons I learned yesterday.  Thanks Cameron for the Masterclass!

Malbec - A Secondary Grape

Shelly Medernach, one of my many favorite cousins, recently gave me the great pleasure to be able to pontificate on my favorite subject - wine.  She asked about the Malbec grape and I was ready to help as much as I could!  While not knowing much about the grape, I was surprised that over time, I had picked up some knowledge which I was glad to share.

Malbec is considered in a group of secondary (according to how much is drunk, not an appreciation for the quality of the grape) red grapes with Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Shiraz being the 4 grapes in the primary red grape category. Malbec joins Grenache, Carmenere (mostly from Chile), Barbera, Tempranillo, Cabernet Franc, and a few others in what are known as 'secondary' wine grapes. This does not necessarily mean they are secondary in taste, but just wine sales.  Some of these grapes if grown properly and by themselves or in blends can provide some truly outstanding wines and that is true of Malbec as well as the others.

Malbec grows best in Argentinian soil, followed by Chile and then some spots in Europe and Australia. It is such a heavy grape with big tannins that it is usually blended with some other grapes such as Merlot or Cabernet Franc and provides some great blend combinations. I have had a few bottles of 100% Malbec and loved it, but you need to be careful not to drink too much as it is bigger, heavier and has more tannins than most grapes. If you love big robust Shiraz wines you will probably like a bottle of 100% Malbec.

It is almost grainy because there is so much tannin in it. Tannin is what is in tea that makes you suck in your cheeks a bit and provides texture to the wine (or tea). I love big tannin wines if they have been fully integrated to the wine (which takes years) so it must be well aged to smoothen the wine out and take the grainy edge off the wine. However if aged and cellared properly for 5 - 10 - 25 years, tannin is what gives some of the great red wines their structure and complexity.

Therefore, I would not drink a newly bottled Malbec, but would once it has 4 - 5 years or more of age into it. And you may want to try a blend instead of a 100% Malbec.

I think it is a great grape, when selectively used and from the greatest regions, such as Argentina. The grape is also very sensitive to its 'terrior' (the influence of the land, soil, weather, and growing conditions around it) similar to Pinot Noir. That is why some Pinot Noir and Melbecs can be truly great from one region and not from another region, and great one year and not the next. Both grapes are very sensitive and are influenced more than Riesling or Semillon which typically are more consistent, at least within region or from year to year.

The Malbec is very fruity, but can taste leathery, a bit smoky and spicy - a bit like black pepper, but these are all flavors in small quantities that give the grape great depth and flavor. If you like a Hunter Valley Shiraz (unfortunately you have probably not have had any if you are reading this from the US), or if you like any robust Shiraz, you will probably like Malbec, or at least a Malbec blend.  Give it a try!

Wine Blogging Technology Perspective

Sorry guys - it has been almost two months since posting anything.  Both Deanna and I started new jobs and they have taken some effort to get up to speed.  We also moved apartments and were without Internet for about 6 weeks in total at home.  Additionally, the move occurred much more suddenly than we expected,  so became exhausted moving everything in a two week time period - usually we take 4 - 6 weeks to move with some overlap between the old and new place to make it easier to move.  I was really drained and at one point actually went three weeks without drinking wine - so you know how tired and out of it I must have been!

Anyway, I am back now and looking forward to writing a few blogs over the next few weeks.  We have taken a 4-day weekend to our place in the Hunter Valley, but emergency requests from work are cutting into our 'free' time a bit, but since I love my new job, it is not that much of a drama.  I plan on writing a few immediate blogs to catch up on the topics I wanted to blog about over the last few months. A list of these was presented in my blog on 'Why I don't write for GT (Gourmet Traveler) Wine magazine'.

I am also using a new blogging interface, so that may take some getting used to.  I will experiment a bit with it, and hopefully will quickly become comfortable with it..  One thing I am excited about is that I have finally installed Instagram on my iPhone and now able to send immediately pictures related to and enhancing the blogging experience.  Say what you will about Social Media, FaceBook, Instagram, and other Web 2.0 social media sites, but I find they whole concept has deepen my relationship experience and ability to share with others.  The positive or negative experience people have is really determined by how you use the apps and if you were a good relationship person to start with or not.

I learned first of my Dad's massive stroke over a year ago on FaceBook.  I also have developed some really good friends on FaceBook with a common avocation for wine and writing / reading, some of who I have now met personally and become good friends with.  We have exchanged knowledge, ideas, and even bottles of wine.  Plus when we first met in person, it was already a comfortable relationship.  And recently, my Uncle Pete died a few weeks ago, but I felt much more connected and sharing in the grief with relatives in US through our FaceBook cousins group.  All of these things have kept me closer to family, old friends from High School or previous employers, and I have met some great new friends with common passions.  I will keep growing in the use of Web 2.0 and its associated technologies.

Enough about the technology (except to say I will soon be establishing a Twitter account and using that to spread my interest and small knowledge of wine), and now we will get back to the the topic of wine!  Next post coming soon and will be on 'Malbec - a secondary grape'.