There aren't a lot of vineyards in Ballarat, so it's always a treat to taste one I haven't tried before. Nintingbool Vineyard is about 10km south-west of Ballarat, on the way to the little town of Smythesdale, where I grew up. Their 2017 Pinot Noir is a beautiful example of Victorian Pinot Noir. Quite savoury
Is this not a heavenly combination? A stage full of music and fine food and drinks. The Kingston Food & Wine Festival had all the right ingredients today, including sunshine, and I got to do two of my favourite things - play music and talk about great produce.
I did a wine course earlier this year. There were a lot of wines to taste and an enormous amount of information to learn about wine all over the world. The good news is I passed! I now have my little green badge and certificate from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust in London. Cheers!
It feels quintessentially Brunswick to be sitting in a bar on Sydney Road, listening to afternoon ultra-groove and surrounded by 1970s decor. Trams are running past the window with their familiar metallic swoosh, jostling with the peak hour traffic. Brunswick Green
It somehow feels luxurious to open a bottle of bubbles by yourself on a Friday night. No-one else home, nothing to celebrate, but the bubbles in the glass give the evening an air of lightness and seem a portent of a good weekend to come.
There's something about Friday that just feels better with a glass of wine in a nice little bistrot. Woods Yard in Albert Park is doing it perfectly. A beautifully balanced Albariño from Margan in Orange is in my glass next to a tasty bowl of olives.
I'm sipping on a delicious aged white from Best's Great Western. It's one of the oldest wineries in Victoria and the Concongella Blanc is a field blend from the nursery block that includes 39 varieties, 8 still unidentified. There's a good portion of Riesling in the mix and as the result the wine has all
Barrels are quite amazing feats of craftsmanship and are stamped with the cooperage and place they are made. Sitting down in the autumn sunshine and placing my glass on the barrel table next to me, I was delighted to find that it comes from a place I have lived several times - the Médoc. Up
The beauty of having a cellar (as in 'a collection of wine' rather than 'underground room') is that you end up with aged wine. Cabernet Sauvignon blends are particularly good for ageing - their tannins soften and they develop a velvety smoothness and savoury fruit character. I found this 1999 on the rack last night
In the sea of wine, beer and spirits at today's Drink Victorian trade tasting, one of the standouts was the Soma Vermouth from Stappa Wines. Fabulously aromatic, with a wheelbarrow load of Australian native botanicals on a base of mediterranean grape varieties, this is a beautifully crafted vermouth that I am very much looking forward
