Global Warming

‘In the Italian Alps, ski stations have had to resort to artificial snow,’ reports phys.org, ‘ cherry blossoms have been spotted in Dresden in Germany, and daffodils are flowering in England.’ Last week, the Royal Dornoch golf range in Scotland reported that the mowers were back out to cut greens in mid December. It was a mild Christmas from Helsinki to Moscow.

London, Christmas 2015

The 2015 harvest in Rioja was one of the hottest ever, reports Huon Hooke.  Excess heat produced wines high in alcohol and low in acidity with high pHs. Some wineries will not produce a 2015 Reserva as a result.

Down Under, the Australian Grape and Wine Authority (AGWA) is contemplating making it legal to us the ‘black snake’ (the water hose) more liberally to keep alcohol levels on the right side of sanity. Philip White writes that the pre-Christmas heatwave in South Australia saw some wineries start the 2016 harvest before the end of 2015. As I write this, the Hunter Valley has been hit with flooding rain for days. Who’d want to own a winery down under?

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The retail scene is distorted by Woolworths and Coles controlling three quarters of it, and the wine review scene is just as unbalanced. I was surprised when veteran wine writers Huon Hooke and Bob Campbell came out a few weeks ago with their #RealReviews Alliance, in protest of inflated scores from reviewers, kickbacks and Cash for Comment in the wine review business.

By comparison, there isn’t a lot we can criticize Woolworths for. Its Dan Murphy operation is well-run, despite the steady drain of staff who know about their wines. Woolworths knows its customers, I suspect, and most of them just want to buy cheap grog. I mean cheap, and they know what they like as well: $7 bottles of Kiwi savvy and $6 bottles of McGuigan Black Label Merlot.

Why we support the independents

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Inflated Scores, Kickbacks and Cash for Comment are Rife in the Wine industry

‘We have formed an alliance to promote and differentiate our approach to wine reviews,’ the two well-known wine reviewers & judges say. ‘We are making a stand for even-handed, transparent, ethical and independent reviewing.’ More Here: #realreviews initiative

They say: ‘Independent opinion in wine has come under pressure from several fronts:

• Excessively high scores by some critics, which undermine the credibility of wine ratings for the consumer
• Wine writers being paid directly by retailers, or entering into revenue share arrangements, for reviewing wines
• Advertorials masquerading as independent opinion
• ‘Cash for comment’, i.e. wineries being asked to pay to get featured.

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Global Warming doesn’t make Fine Wine

My favourite wine is Australian Riesling, from the Clare and Eden Valleys. Half my cellar is full of them, going back many years.

I’ve said before that I found the 2014s almost universally short on the finish, and the 2015s rich, ripe, round and forward reflecting the hot year. Classic Rieslings from these two areas have long lines of fine acid that keeps the intense, ripe limes in check and ensure a long, clean, dry finish. This backbone also ensures a long life, as green-tinged, zippy, vibrant youth mellows into a more golden tune that rewards you with notes of honey and buttered toast.

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Woolworths, Coles and the Fake Wine Label game

Wines of Western Australia chief executive Larry Jorgensen has accused the big supermarket chains of distorting the market, Julie-Anne Sprague writes in The Financial Review. ‘The distortion is that an entire industry is decimated,’ says Jorgensen. ‘Many small businesses are precluded from a reasonable opportunity to trade, the public are [sic] misled as to the true source and nature of the products offered and legitimate traditional businesses and skills are lost.’

Cow Bombie is a famous surfing break near Gracetown in WA’s South West. Picture: Jamie Scott

In another article – Woolworths, Coles private label plonk angers wine industry – Sprague draws a picture of ‘a team of market researchers and brand developers designing dozens of bottles of wine.’ It’s not just designer labels they come up with – for wines called Cow Bombie or Bailey & Baily or Two Churches – they also use sales data from their many stores work out which wine styles are the most popular with punters, and lay down the specs for their suppliers.

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I’m always on the lookout for quality wines that don’t cost an arm and a leg, so I look for new ideas in these kinds of lists. There’s the usual sprinkling of wines that aren’t released yet, such as Houghton Crofters Cabernet 2014 and Sandalford Margaret River Cabernet Merlot 2014. Others are too obscure even for the Wine Sleuth to find, in this case Chateau Francois Semillon 2012, Madfish Shiraz Pinot Noir Rose 2014 and art by EVOI Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2015.

This is an issue we have with most wine reviewers who simply can’t be bothered to find out if their keen readers can actually get their hands on the wines they recommend. It’s like reading reviews of books you can’t buy or movies you can’t go and see – useless and annoying.

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Chardonnay isn’t what it used to be, and here’s why

Subscribers often ask me where they can get rich full-flavoured Chardonnay, and I struggle to come up with decent answers. How come, given that we once produced the biggest, richest Chardonnays on the planet?

In the eighties Australians discovered Chardonnay. The variety was new to Australia, and both winemakers and wine lovers went gaga over the exciting new addition to our then tiny selection of varieties. It was a mouth-filling style that could stand up to rich foods – you could describe it as a red wine drinker’s white.

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Find out why, and the best merchants to buy from

The worst way to buy wine is to grab a bottle on the way to a restaurant or a friend’s place, or on the way out of the supermarket in the attached bottle shop. Why? Because you’ll always pay top price, even on the ‘specials’. Why? Because you’re captive audience, and they know it.

Buying online – the obvious benefits

1. Choice: access exactly the same wines as everyone else, regardless of where you live
2. Convenience: no need to travel; order from anywhere and have it delivered to your front door
3. Independence: purchase online from major and independent retailers, and directly from wineries
4. Savings: buy wine at the special prices we find, no matter where you live.

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Whose Competition is this, and who can explain the Results?

This is a curious affair that slipped quietly by me until I saw a wine website make reference to it. There’s been very little publicity, even on the Wine Companion website. In fact the event has its own website where the winners are posted. More questions are raised by this statement: ‘This is a wine show whose [sic] only agenda is to track down, appreciate and reward the best that Australian chardonnay can offer, a philosophy we share in common with our patron, James Halliday.

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The real Challenge is making sense of the Results

Let’s begin with the Great Australian Shiraz Challenge 2015, which was won by the humble Taylor’s Shiraz 2014 from the Clare Valley – $13 at Bayfields. The wine didn’t just win the best Shiraz under $25 category but also the outright trophy, scoring an almost perfect 19.5 points out of 20.

Does it sound too good to be true? YES it does, and YES it is. I have a glass of the Taylor’s 2014 in front of me as I write this, and it’s a ripe, aromatic, forward Shiraz with sweet vanilla oak and a soft finish. Typical Taylor’s, easy on the gums but nothing special. I’d give it about 90 points unless it improves dramatically over the next day or two. (It didn’t). It beats me how the judges could give the top trophy for the best Shiraz in all of Oz to a mass-produced wine of no special merit.

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