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.