A visit to Penfolds Magill Estate

Passed by Penfolds today and decided to pop in to try out their current cellar door selections.

Wines Tasted:

2009 Autumn Riesling
2009 Bin 311 Tumbarumba Chardonnay
2008 'Seventy-Six' Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet
2003 Bin 128 Shiraz
2003 Bin 28 Shiraz
2004 Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon
2009 Cellar Release Viognier (375ml)

A Week In The Life...

So what do we do here at Winehelp.com.au? Here are a few of the things we’ve been up to over the last week.

Winehelp.com.au was sommelier to a 50th birthday party, where the house wine was 1998Penfolds Bin 389 Shiraz Cabernet “Baby Grange”. 42 bottles were double decanted back into the original (cleaned) bottle, each bottle sampled and three removed due to cork taint.

Interesting variation across bottles, albeit slight, with aromas of blackcurrant and menthol more prominent in some and cedar wood in others. Either way, a stunning wine with great intensity of flavour, ample ripe tannin (still) and a very long finish. It has at least another 5 years left in it.

FROM THE CELLAR - Ashton Hills Obliqua 1999

1999 Ashton Hills Obliqua - Adelaide Hills
Cabernet sauvignon / merlot / cabernet franc
14% abv - Cork.

Appearance: Brilliant deep red – hint of flame to the hue. 3/3

Nose: Very “Bordeaux-like”, aromas of pencil sharpenings and tobacco nestle in with sweet blackcurrant/redcurrant fruit and a hint of menthol. Reasonably intense, elegant nose. 5.5/7

Winter's coming! A beer for the off-season.

SOUTHWARK OLD STOUT
375ml 7.4%abv Woolworth's Liquor $3.90

Grabbed this when it was on special offer at the local bottle shop. Then I saw that it housed 7.4% alcohol so I decided to take a punt on two bottles!

Southwark sits in the shadow of both Coopers and West End breweries in South Australia, and I wasn’t expecting anything too spectacular from this beer.

I WAS WRONG!

Steak wines

We’ve all seen it written a thousand times as part of a tasting note to a ball-tearing, chest-beating 15+% alcohol shiraz from Barossa / McLaren Vale / Heathcote etc. “Best drunk with a rare-cooked fillet / rib of beef / brontosaurus steak" etc.

Is it true to assume that the bigger and bolder the wine, the better it will go with a steak? Or has it just become a throw-away line?

Here are the thoughts of David Lawler, Head Sommelier at the famous Rockpool Bar & Grill in Melbourne, famed for its focus on fine meat.

After my opening rant, I thought it was time for a beer - it's not all about wine here!

Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen – 500ml 5.0%abv Dan Murphy’s $5.00

Where does the Australian wine industry stand right now?

A few current climatic conditions: the dollar is as high as a kite, Foster’s Group and Constellation Brands are in tears over the rate of tax on imported wine in the UK, the threat looms of a volumetric tax replacing the current system based on value, making cask wine economically unviable, thus introducing another 200 million litres of modest wine to the stockpile.

In addition it now seems there will be a push by our two beloved supermarket bullies, Coles and Woolworths, to move into wine production.