Like fingernails on a blackboard or a knife scrapping a dinner plate, the sight and sound of ice cubes being plonked into a glass of red wine is an irritating insult to my senses. My older sister does it; frequently. It drives me nuts. And to think, my siblings have the gall to suggest that I’m…
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Dessert wines may not be a regular feature of Australian entertaining, but with the festive season upon us, there’s no better excuse for cracking the screwcap or pulling the cork off a “sticky” dessert wine after the mains are done. My mum’s pavlova or sticky date pudding never tasted so good as when it was…
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Like most consumer-facing retail industries, the wine sector is no stranger to adaption and accommodating change. Over the years, customer preferences and prejudices have resulted in savvy winemakers adjusting their style, experimenting with varietals and refreshing strategies to market their product to new and emerging markets. We’ve seen the wax and wane of biodynamic winemaking,…
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Shiraz has long been Australia’s biggest selling red wine with the vineyards of South Australia being the biggest contributor to the annual national Shiraz crop. In recent decades, the world has fallen in love with our voluptuous, ripe and jammy Shiraz that is undeniably mouth-filling, palate-pleasing and popular with wine drinkers both domestically and internationally.…
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Wineries, like restaurants, come and go with changing consumer tastes; the uncertainty of Mother Nature; poor management and fluctuating international tariffs playing a role in their demise. Sometimes wineries fail or merge. Occasionally they are forced to contract or reduce production, whilst others seemingly go from strength to strength. In Australia, we are blessed with…
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Cabernet Sauvignon is the most planted red varietal in the world – and the most popular. From the tannic styles from Rioja in Spain, to the concentrated examples from Bordeaux, to the ripe Barossa wines or the mint-laced versions from the Coonawarra, there’s a Cabernet for virtually every palate. In Australia, the floral styles from…
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For most tourists, a trip to Hobart means visits to arts galleries, tours of convict constructed architecture or even just days spent trawling through stalls at the famous Salamanca Markets, but for pinot-philes like me, the beckoning of the nearby Coal River Valley and its cool climate wineries is a temptation too alluring to resist. The Coal…
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Over the years, the blending of shiraz and cabernet has become something of an artform amongst Australian winemakers. Our producers certainly weren’t the first to recognise the beauty of the blend, but the style has become as Aussie as lathering white zinc on your nose or layering vegemite on your toast. Domestically, the varietals are…
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Since China imposed crippling tariffs on Australian wine imports in November last year, many Australian winemakers have been furiously re-strategising in order to find new markets for their wares. For many, the sudden imposition of punitive duties was as unexpected as it was destructive. The latest torpedo launched by the Chinese government in their spat…
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There are plenty of Australian wineries that excel at creating high-quality reserve level wines, and many that hit the mark with their consumer-friendly entry-level offerings, but rarely do wineries seem to be capable of hitting the proverbial bullseye across the spectrum of price points in their range. But the family-run Bird in Hand team in…
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