GRAPEVINE Inspired by history
While technical factors have played their role, the background of Australian wine families has no doubt played its role too as previous and existing...
GRAPEVINE BROUGHT TO YOU BY CORKS CREW
Italian white grape varieties continue to grow in popularity as wine drinkers begin to explore the diversity on offer. There are plenty of factors that have helped this...
GRAPEVINE Good times with old vines
Old vine, Vielles Vignes, Viñas Viejas. These terms are displayed on bottles of wine as an indicator of the higher quality wine that is...
Finding a greatPinot Noir priced below the threshold
Pinot Noir is difficult, expensive to grow. They say you can’t possibly buy a decent Pinot under $20 or $30. Once that was certainly true....
GRAPEVINE – Explore the diversitythat Champagne has to offer
The big Houses of Champagne have long dominated the minds of consumers, in many instances they have substantial marketing budgets to generate the feeling...
Any Port in a Christmas storm
IT’S the time of the year when fortified wine sales see one of their biggest spikes, Father’s Day being the other big one each...
Nothing cheesy about this grape variety
Pecorino. No not the cheese, although the reference to sheep is apt (Pecora means sheep), we are talking about the grape variety, which finds...
GRAPEVINE: Feel suave, DRINK SOAVE
Veneto, in the north-east of Italy, is the home of some of your favourite wines whether you know it or not. The benchmark examples of...
Vegan-friendly WINES
Vegan-friendly wines may come as a surprise to some people, after all wine is just fermented grape juice right? Sure, the odd spider or bee...
Grapevine: Rose on the rise as seasons change
As warmer weather approaches, rosé will increasingly be the wine of choice for its versatility with food and equal appeal to white and red...
Grapevine: Don’t trip over the acid, it’s crucial to wine structure
Acid is a wine term that often makes people shriek and run away. Unfortunately, to say you don’t like acidic wines in the most literal...
A site on the world map for premium Cabernet
Barossa Valley. Coonawarra. Margaret River. These are all household names in Australian wine, you will likely have an image in your head of the...
The deliciousness is in the detail
Understanding the terms used on wine labels can be pretty challenging, particularly when they are in a foreign language. Is that the grape variety? The...
Sankt Laurent will leave the glass and seduce with intensity
The rise and rise of styles of wine like rose or varieties like Pinot Noir has coincided with many wine drinkers tiring of big,...
Going the full Montepulciano
To say that the second most planted grape variety in the second largest wine producing country is an “alternative” variety seems a little odd,...
Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc flood tide begins to ebb
The tide of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc continues to drift out and as the producers who came in to take advantage of the easy money...
The other Pinot
Pinot Gris and Grigio (the same grape) have arguably been the biggest beneficiaries of the decline of Sauvignon Blanc’s popularity over the past decade...
What do the points mean?
A question I am receiving more and more is “what do the points mean?”, the question refers to a number, usually between 90 and...
A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH
How does a winery select the grape varieties to plant on their chosen piece of dirt? For the most part it comes down to what is...
CHILLING WITH WINTER FORTIFIEDS
I spoke to Chad Elson, who runs the marketing department at Seppeltsfield in South Australia’s beautiful Barossa Valley. I couldn’t think of a better place...
The basics of BORDEAUX
Australia is awash with more wine importers and distributors than ever, scouring every country and region for the undiscovered rising stars as well as...
The land of Henty
Following on from our article last week which covered the cool climate of Orange. This week we cover another cool climate region from a...
A delicate drop from a new South Wales locality
Orange wine... no not the one you’re thinking of or seeing pop up on wine list and shelves around the country. I’m talking about wine...
GSM – A CLASSIC BLEND
We have written on a number of occasions about wine blends and the virtues of combining different grape varieties in a single wine to...