Readers will be pleased to know that I was able to make my way into the Victoria Barracks Officers' Mess Wine Cellar this morning and take a few piccies and also talk to the Wine Member about the collection. I just have to write it up and have what I write approved and I can post the pictures and everything here :)

The wine member tells me today that the wine cellar is OWNED by the members....cool in that case I have an AWESOME collection...

I really enjoyed this however I did note of one of my previous comments and left it out of the fridge for a bit before I sipped!

The winery tasting notes are here.....but this is what I thought!

The wine was pretty pale gold in colour, certainly not the lime green as stated on the label, and initally the aroma was of passionfruit, but there was quite a bit of citrus and perhaps pineapple there too (pineapple??? what the??)

Remember that fruit salad that used to come in a tin and your grandma used to serve it with ice cream for dessert after Sunday roast....that was the taste, sweet, fruit salad!

All in all it's a wine I'd keep in the fridge in summer and just drink it down underneath the pergola on a balmy evening!

Price is $14.95 direct from the winery.

On Friday night I went to see a mate's band at the TownHotel in South Melbourne (Bank St). You can read about my night here.....while I was there enjoying my rib eye I shared a bottle of Mr Riggs "the Gaffer" shiraz with friends.

It took me quite a while to choose as the Town Hall Hotel has a huge blackboard with quite a grand selecton of wines both by the glass and bottle! My friends were no help at all.....

Now considering I went on to drink a bit more than just this one particular bottle, I'm not able to tell you much but what I do recall at the time of supping, was, it was pretty bloody good.

Lovely lush deep colour, and big red taste! I can't tell you what the nose gave away other than "pub", I could only smell my rib eye on the grill :)

$36 over the bar.....I would pay that again (as long as there was nothing else on the winelist I wanted to try!!!)

Tonight I opened a bottle of 2005 Bremerton - Willson Family Verdelho Sauvignon Blanc. (Please excuse my crappy photo....)

The Bremerton Winery was established in 1998 and is situated in the Langhorne Creek area of South Aus. This is the first of their wines I have received. (I think this is another Australian Wine Selectors wine from the summer selection.)

The wine is clean and refreshing, lots of citrus and possibly a hint of pineapple (a little too tart for my liking at first) but I noted as the wine 'warmed', the tartness softened a little bit, which I preferred somewhat. The fruit lingers nicely.

Would I buy this wine again...yes, possibly, a nice change from the usual straight Sauvignon Blanc variety. The alcohol is stated as 13% on the label and it contins sulphites so if you're sensitive to those little devils then you'll need to be aware of that.

I must admit I'm quite a fan of Verdelho and have not been exposed to many white blends and I generally only drink whites in summer - how strange that I chose a white this evening.

I am becoming quite fond of these cool climate wines. More research is required by me however in what that actually means for the wine growing and manufacturing processes and of course the end result !

At the Officers' Mess after work yesterday I kindly asked to be surprised with a glass of something red to relax after what was arguably the morst horrible week at work I've had in a while! Blah! AND to top it off my course notes for Data Analysis and Statistics arrived - all looks like heiroglyphics - there's no hope for me at all!

Back to the wine.....on asking, "What is it?" I was told that my glass contained a wine style I hadn't heard of before....'turif' (I can't tell you what winemaker, etc at the moment but I promise I will wander back down on Monday and find out) but I did ask her to spell it for me so I could be sure.

I did a bit of a "google" search and I could only find one Australian winery that mentions 'turif'...and being a Mess wine it was 'most likely but not 100% certain' to be Aussie. Please help me out if you can.

A little more research (and a bit of luck rally because I never would have thought to alter the spelling...) Vinodiversity lists "durif" as a grape variety and you can read an article on that here. A case of you say tomAto - I say tomahto I think??? I'm kicking myself for not asking to see the bottle while I was there!

Anyway, I liked it. For me, it was a wine that was smooth and almost creamy, quite full flavoured, and in the half-light of the Melbourne evening (in the Mess beer garden) it looked to be almost dark purple/red in colour. However after only one glass, and a whole heap of socialising, I didn't really concentrate on the wine more than to know I enjoyed it greatly...I will toddle off down and grab a bottle of whatever it was this week and 'taste' it properly.

Any excuse really....

My wine club selection arrived yesterday - a Victorian Red Dozen...I've not heard of some of these wines ...but I am looking forward to giving some of them a whirl!

The dozen are from "Port Phillip" Region wineries,

The Wine Club website has this to say:

Wine Regions - Port Phillip & Gippsland, VIC

The Port Phillip Zone produces some of the finest, cool climate wines from the regions around Melbourne. Winemakers in these regions pride themselves on their unique ability to produce very different wine styles. The main varieties making these regions famous are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as Pinot Grigio, which was pioneered by T’Gallant in the Mornington Peninsula.

If we had to find descriptives for cool climate styles, they may be: elegant, (T: another term I just can't relate to wine....) light to medium bodied, fresh, austere and/or savoury with terrific acidity to ensure longevity in the cellar. Generally speaking, these are lighter styles, with many of the whites being unwooded, so as not to mask the delicacy of the fruit. In saying this, they are also amazingly complex with layers of freshness, rather than the full bodied, ripe characters of their warm climate cousins. According to James Halliday, they “achieve a European elegance and finesse".

These characters make them ideal food wines to complement a wide range of recipes. We are now able to look at enjoying a red wine with fish without overpowering the food.

This is what makes cool climate wines different – they’re food friendly!

Here's a list of the offerings for this quarter!

2004 Darling Park Shiraz
2001 Debortoli Shiraz
2002 Glenhope Cabernet Sauvignon
2004 Mornington Estate Pinot Noir
2004 Red Hill Shiraz
2004 T'Gallant Pinot Noir
2005 Fergusson 'Ned's Red' Cabernet Merlot
2004 Rochford V Merlot
2004 Roundstone Cabernet Merlot
2005 Scotchman's Hill ""Hill' Cabernet Shiraz
2005 Seville Estate "the Barber' Shiraz
2004 Sticks Merlot

I know some people think wine clubs are a waste of time, but I must admit I quite like that a dozen wines arrive on my doorstep every few months (with no effort at all) that I probably wouldn't buy myself on a whim. And it's pretty good value for me on a limited budget.

The extras that come with them are great too, I get a great magazine (just for the articles of course) and the tasting notes are good for a learner like me to have as a basis for my own tasting. Sometimes you can taste 'something' but you're not really sure what it is - a prompt is sometimes useful.

I'm not sure I will keep this up forever, because I am sure that once I become more confident, I will be able to choose my own wine!! OK that's probably a liitle ambitious! Wine reatilers are a lot like bookshops to me, I spend hours trying to find "just the right book/bottle".

BUT having a dozen sent to me means that I am building a collection of wines that I wouldnt' otherwise buy if I had to choose them.

NOW...all I need is to start checking out some of the international offerings...

Ok so I am not afraid to ask the dumb questions. I consider it my place in this world to ask those questions that others may be too scared to pose!

I've read that the glass from which you drink your wine matters...but honestly, is it really an issue if you drink your shiraz from a cabernet glass?

I've been looking at Reidel glasses because I hear from those 'supposedly in the know' that they are the best, directing the wine to the correct place on the tongue, yadda, yadda, yadda...

One website says of Reidel

Riedel Vinum - Elegant Entertaining

For everyday enjoyment as well as the sophisticated dinner party or seasonal gathering, Riedel's award-winning Vinum collection ensures a perfectly balanced tasting experience. This pioneering series of glasses is based on the concept that, in order to truly appreciate a fine wine, it is essential to use a glass that has been technically designed for the particular type of wine. It is the first machine-made series of glasses tailored for grape varietal characteristics. The shape of the bowl determines the flow of wine and where it touches the tongues various taste zones.

Use these lead-crystal glasses everyday and for special occasions for the optimal appreciation of your wines."

If I'm going to get 'seriously' into wine and writing about it here on my little piece of the internet, do I make the investment of purchasing the correctly shaped glass for each variety of grape, or, do I continue to drink my wine from the same glasses that my few readers will be using every day (you know - the usual - I got these as a wedding present glasses)?

Tricky I think.

If the shape and quality of the stemware matters, then whatever I write about what I tasted, surely I will need to add a disclaimer concerning which glass I used.

Somehow I think 1985 Grange (which I tasted last year) tastes as good from the 'right' glass as it does in an old vegemite jar - however the decadence (for me) of the occasion would be lost I suspect.

I am a label reader...a box browser…a packaging peruser…I scan my eye over every word on every product I buy. (pity I can't pay that much attention to the men I met…I might find something of higher quality…Hmmmm, but I digress…)

My reasons for this attention to packaging is simple are simple.

I want to know stuff...and...I'm too busy (substitute lazy here if you wish) to research myself and I want the 'experts' to tell me stuff about the product they are so very keen for me to buy.

Now I figure this is the same with wine - YOU (the winemaker) produced something you think is special and you hope that I (the consumer) might want to give it a whirl.

It makes sense to me then, that you will tell me why you made it and what makes it special/different from any other bottle I can pick up from my local suburban bottle-o. You will also tell me how best to use it and what benefits this product has for me.

Sure, add some info on the label for the more informed among us, but also try to remember, the suburban housewife drinks wine too. While we are TRYING our best to become more "vino-cultural" (new word - do you like it?), "lifted leafy fruits' doesn't mean jack to Ms Josephine Average-wine-drinker-who-wants-to-learn-more-but-can't-afford-the-time-money-or liver-damage to conduct her own research!

No matter how much I let the wine breathe, decant it, swish it, swirl it, close my eyes, rinse my palate, etc I will never ever taste...."lifted leafy fruits". Fruits are just not leafy...leaves are leafy...fruits....are....well FRUITY! I can relate to blackcurrants or plums, strawberries and gooseberries, herb, pepper, citrus, but 'lifted leafy fruits'.....nope...nothing doing.

If you're going to sell your wine at my suburban wine seller, then better you describe it in terms that me and the rest of suburbia can relate to. How about these....

...freshly mown backyard, with a hint of ULP...

...wet dog chasing fallen plums...

...airing laundry with an aftertaste of ironing aid...

...toast and vegemite...with mandarin yoghurt...

Forgive me for my common-ness, but I'm never going to buy a wine that promises a nose of 'sweaty saddle'...although I am sure there are some that will.

Seems to me that the wine marketers are doing themselves a disservice by making it all a bit too 'elitist' for the average drinker. The person who just likes wine and want something that tastes good with their lamb shanks and garlic mash.

Wine is scary.

Turning up to dinner with friends when you KNOW they're really 'into' wine is positively horrendous for the average person. You go to your local retailer, pick a bottle you 'think' is ok, or that "costs more so it must be better…right?" just because you want to impress. I know I've been stuck with swill you wouldn't pour on your pot plants from time to time....

However, I have at least foundered a solution to the last problem...

I'll cook - YOU Bring the wine...OK?

I was fortunate (or unfortunate as the case may be - I can't tell just by looking at the bottle) to obtain the following three bottles yesterday......I include for your reading pleasure - the back labels.....stay tuned for a review...when I finally open them.

2003 Brokenwood Cricket Pitch (Blend)

The colour is deep red, with lifted leafy fruits and sweet oak aromas. It has a rich, complex palate and is a suitable accompaniement to full flavoured foods.

Can someone please tell me what lifted leafy fruits are...?
(EDITED: I"ve emailed the wine maker to ask - nothing like the horse's mouth!)

2003 Debortoli Yarra Valley Shiraz

Low-cropping mature vine Shiraz grown in in the Yarra Valley produces a distinctly richly textured wine style. 2001 vintage was a cool dry season resulting in Shiraz that displays ripe berry fruit and spicy white pepper characters. The wine has high fruit concentration and will continue to develop both complexity and character with medium term cellaring.

This one I think I've got covered.....ripe berry fruit and white pepper....a cinch!

2003 Two Churches Yarra Valley Shiraz

A sweet-fruited Barossa Shiraz in the solid, traditional mould.

Is that mould....like fungi...or mould like the one they threw away when they made me?

If you have tried any of these then feel free to leave a comment and let me know what your opinions were :)

This week I am going to make it my mission to get some piccies of inside the Victoria Barracks Officer's Mess Wine cellar!

Perhaps while I am there I might get the Wine Member to let me in on a few highlights that reside on the shelves there.

Security is tight... the mission fraught with danger... I will need to keep my wits about me if I am to succeed...

Stay tuned.

Here is a little program for your Palm Pilot (unsure if it comes for other PDA platforms) which will instantly give you the information you need while browsing the bottle shop (although I love to just close my eyes and pick something on a whim.

The Landware website lists the features as:

Key Features

• - Buying Guide now includes over three times the numberof wines included in previous years
• - Import/Export wine cellar lists to/from computer
• - New data formats require 20% less space, support fastersearching and fully support memory cards
• - Full support for High resolution widescreen displays
• - Completely revised user interface with full support forone handed D-pad navigation
• - Improved searching and sorting
• - Vintage and harvest quality data expanded to 113regions/styles spanning 15 years
• - Quickly select wines by cost, rating, style, grape varietyand region
• - Authoritative up-to-date reviews, ratings and details forover 34,000 wines worldwide
• - Complete wine cellar and buying list management
• - Comprehensive wine glossary with over 1,400 terms and definitions
• - Interactive vintage chart with wine maturity and harvestquality ratings
• - Gain further wine knowledge with an in-depth Wine 101 course
• - Maintain personal tasting records and notes
• - Beam wine details to another handheld
• - Supports removable Palm OS memory cards
• - Sophisticated compression minimizes memory usage

Unsure whether I could use this any differently than I currently use my PDA, I'm still in tasting mode and trying something new every week...although I guess KNOWING what I've tasted already might be useful, so I don't waste precious time on a second bottle of something I've had already.......*hic*

I like wine, but so I dont become boring and predictable here, I thought I might post my favourite beers occasionally too! I don't drink beer often, mainly when it's really hot, and I'm really thirsty, or otherwise anywhere I can't get a glass of wine or a good bourbon!!

I read an article in The Age this week about the "World Cup of Beer" and was not really surprised to find out that MY beer...Coopers Sparkling Ale... was named the winner...I knew I had good taste.

Australia wins 'World Cup' of Beer

A World Cup-style competition to find the best beer has named an Australian made sparkling ale as the winner.

The competition, run by the UK publication Off Licence News, pitted beers from 32 countries that contested soccer's World Cup against each other. The drinks were placed in one of eight groups of four, to correspond with the World Cup, with the two top scoring beverages moving to the second round and knock out tastings.

Marks were awarded for taste, appearance, balance and drinkability, with a sparkling ale produced by South Australian brewer Coopers named the eventual winner.

Coopers marketing director and chairman Glenn Cooper said despite Australia's controversial elimination from the World Cup, he took comfort in the knowledge Australia had snared "the more important World Cup".

Pintculture also has a great website dedicated to their own World Cup of Beer so if you're a beer lover - spend a few hours cheering for your favourites and slumming it with the underdog beers! While you're there, check out the "Pub Etiquette Guide". funny, but probably truer than we care to admit.

The Coopers Website "News" has this to say and also has a couple of cool recipes to try!

Coopers Sparkling Prawns (I haven't tried this - I'm allergic to shellfish) and Burghul Bread with Sparkling Ale.

Let me know if you try them and how they turn out.

I toddled off to see the Downbeat Bigband with friends last night and was fortunate to partake of a little beauty...a bit on the young side but I reckon give it a little lie down and it will become even more tasty! Interesting story about the naming of this wine..from the d'Arenberg website...

d’Arenberg The Footbolt Shiraz (previously known as the Old Vines Shiraz)

For the story behind this wine we have to go back to d’Arry’s grandfather, Joseph Rowe Osborn. Born in 1852 he was a colourful character with a multitude of talents. Joe was a lay preacher, mining speculator, public servant, teetotaler and local politician. Although not a drinker, Joe joined the Thomas Hardy & Sons wine company in 1881, eventually becoming a partner and
director. Joe was an enthusiastic patron of the turf and became a well- respected racing identity under the nom-de-plume of Mr. J. Rowen. ‘Footbolt’ was a chestnut colt foaled in 1898 and bought for 400 guineas, a sum quickly recouped after only 6 races. These and other wins enabled Joe to purchase the already established Milton Vineyards for his son, Frank, d’Arry’s father, in 1912. This wine is still made from some of the grapes from the vines purchased by Joe almost a century ago.

As with all of our red wines, the Footbolt Shiraz undergoes crushing by the Demoisy crusher and gentle basket pressing by the 19th century ‘Coq’ and ‘Bromley & Tregoning’ presses into new but mainly older American and French oak barriques for up to 18 months maturation. The Footbolt Shiraz undergoes minimal processing and as such may throw a deposit in the bottle. This is a wine which will benefit from further bottle age, as will most of d’Arenberg’s reds.

Chester's Tasting Notes: The young Footbolt Shiraz has a deep red-purple, then the immediate hallmarks of spicy, lifted ripe peppery mulberry and blackberry fruit aromas. Richer chocolate, stewed plum mint and spicy, cedary pepper smells and often cinnamon follow the initial attack of primary fruit characters. d’Arenberg’s The Footbolt Shiraz palate is consistently well structured with terrific fruit and totally integrated oak tannin providing great texture to support plum, blackcurrant and rolling blackberry flavours especially on the mid-palate. Often dark chocolate characters are quite evident too. This is followed by a traditional, long, velvety, fine grained tannin finish.

The Footbolt Shiraz will gain complexity with age, as with all d’Arenberg red wines. The aromas slowly incorporate developed cedar, coffee and developed dark chocolate smells with leather, tobacco and earthy aromas while always maintaining great fruit characters from spicy through to very ripe, depending on the vintage... More often than not distinctive peppery-spicy characters come to the fore after a little time in bottle.On the tongue, the Footbolt Shiraz maintains a wonderfully textured palate with significant bottle age. Gentle, grainy black olive flavours balance the sweeter coffee, chocolate and occasional mint characters.

The hallmarks of McLaren Vale, d'Arenberg, and The Footbolt Shiraz; a soft, rich middle palate, terrific texture and a long rolling finish, can reside with this wine for a number of years, even decades, as more than four decades of previous vintages have shown.

Serving and Cellaring Suggestions: Serve at room temperature 16 – 24 ºC. now or cellar for the next 2- 20 years with many types of food, especially hearty stews, rich pasta dishes, roasted and grilled meats including poultry and other white meats. Also goes well with slightly hot or spicy dishes and with hard- pressed cheeses. Serve after decanting as an older wine.

2004 around $15-17 at good wine sellers. Good value drinking if you ask me!

This is another favourite of mine...although earlier vintages are a little difficult to find other than from the winery itself. My first taste was of the 2002 vintage and the two bottles I was lucky enough to be gifted didn't last long...I've been lauding it's drinkability ever since.

Gapsted Winery incidentally has some terriffic events during the summer months too. You can pack a picnic and see a movie outdoors in the winery grounds (and enjoy some of the wine of course) and while it's a long way to go for a movie and I suspect a dedicated driver would be necessary - I think it would make a great weekend to stay over somewhere local and enjoy the surrounds while you're there!

Tasting notes from the Gapsted website:

Winemaking: Seven individual vineyard wines were selected for the final wine, and were fermented separately in stainless vats using isolate Bordeaux yeasts. After draining, the skins were pressed without pumping, retaining full fruit character and providing firm tannins. The final wine was aged in American oak barriques for two and a half years prior to bottling in March 2006.

Tasting Note: An explosion of ripe plummy/raspberry and cassis fruit aromas, with a good dose of spicy liquorice, nutmeg and secondary oak to finish the nose. The palate is at first fresh, astringent and powerful, but has a ripe fleshy mid palate weight that persists. This clearly indicates the wine is full bodied enough for aging, but is also ripe and fruit driven to accompany good food straight away.

Food Suggestion: Fresh pappadelle with a slow braised tomato, beef, and mushroom ragu.

Awards:

• Silver Medal Rutherglen Wine Show 2003
• Bronze Medal Royal Melbourne Wine Show 2003

Wine Makers: Michael Cope-Williams & Shayne Cunningham

Technical:

• pH 3.44
  TA g/l 6.18
  %Alc/Vol 14%
  Total SO2 ppm 123

$23 direct from the winery.

There are some really good software packages out there (apparently) for keeping track of your wine...that's if you can keep it long enough to actually warrant keeping track...

Uncorked Cellar is one of them. You can download a free trial version, it has a numbered wine tag system for each bottle, a virtual wine rack so you can visually see where all your bottles are, and a built in guide for over 90,000 Australian and Overseas wines which also tells you the optmum drinking ages. It includes a 'getting started' section, a glossary of wine terms and personal help if you need it...

I have downloaded the trial version and will enter my meagre collection into it and see how I like it.

Let me know if you find any others worth a mention!

This is my current favourite...so much so I bought a dozen and at about $40-$50 a bottle at the bottle shop (if you can find it) it's what I consider "special occasion" drinking. Mind you a special occasion for me is the fact I got all my laundy dry over the weekend!

What can I say...life is too short to drink bad wine.

Peter Lehmann's fabulous website has this to say:

Tasting Notes - 2001
‘Eight Songs’ was inspired by an operatic work about the madness of King George visually expressed by Rod Schubert. The eight paintings comprise part of the Peter and Margaret Lehmann collection of Australian fine art and were specially selected to represent this exceptional Shiraz.

The Barossa is home to some of the world’s greatest Shiraz vineyards, some as old as 150 years. 2000 was a low yielding year with the resulting Eight Songs showing colour of a stunning deep reddish purple with a dense black centre. The bouquet is overwhelmingly rich with a soft, dark berry fruit and well integrated French oak. On the palate, dark berries and chocolate are enveloped in fine grained oak and subtle tannins. The 2000 vintage is a superb wine of incredible softness and opulence.

The Barossa Valley was settled in the 1840’s by German speaking Lutherans and English migrants, many of whom planted vines. These vineyards have been tended over many generations and today, the Barossa is the custodian of some of the world’s oldest and greatest Shiraz vineyards. Peter Lehmann Wines has an intimate knowledge of these vineyards, still nurtured by the descendants of the early pioneers. With an understanding of the qualities of specific low yielding vineyards and the flavour subtleties of Barossa Shiraz, Peter Lehmann Wines has crafted an individual wine that is both regal and stylish.

• Colour: Deep black red. Bouquet: Dark brooding chocolate characters, underlying ripe fruits and smoky overtones.
• Palate: An unmistakable Barossa shiraz with delicious mouth-filling black berry fruits, a good structure and superb integration of French oak. It is a very soft and rich wine of breeding and distinction and is drinking superbly now.
  Vineyards: Selected high quality, low yielding shiraz vineyards of the north western districts of the Barossa Valley.
• Oak: Fermented and thence matured for 18 months in new French oak hogsheads.
• Cellaring: Very approachable now, and will continue to develop in the bottle over the next 4-5 years.
• Alc/Vol: 14%
• Serving suggestions: Excellent with braised lamb shanks, rare beef, and richly flavoured casseroles. Naturally it is excellent with aged cheddar cheeses.

I think it tastes of creaming soda.....not the red one...the other one...and perhaps vanilla...but what would I know.

Tuesday night I took mum and dad out to dinner at a little local-ish pub that has a fabulous swing band that plays each Tuesday night.

Mum and dad selected the fish, while I tucked into a nice porterhouse accompanied by a Grant Burge Filsell Shiraz, probably a bit wasted on the pub grub, but very enjoyable as a wine on its own.

You can read a bit about the wine, winemaking and some reviews from people who are supposed to know what they're talking about when it comes to wine....here. All I know is...I liked it but it needed something richer in flavour to go with it foodwise. I'm thinking slow-cooked lamb shanks or one of those rich beef casseroles that seem to be missing from menus these days...something about cholesterol...bah!

This week I was lucky to wander into Gold Class and see X-Men3....great movie and I must admit Gold Class is a VERY civilised way to watch...recliner chairs, something to nibble on and of course a glass of wine or two!

I started off with a nice glass of Chandon Brut (as you do) while my date enjoyed a James Boags beer. During the movie, we enjoyed a very nice Heathcote Shiraz from the Cooralook Winery in Victoria...

From the winery website:

"This full bodied wine is dominated by black currant and earthy aromas with hints of dark berries and spice. On the palate the flavours are black currant and earthiness. This wine should age for up to 7 years under ideal storage conditions."

Exactly what I would have said.... :) A very drinkable shiraz, would be fabulous with something spicy!

$22.00 or thereabouts direct from the winery!