Natural, organic, and biodynamic winegrowers of Australia and New Zealand, unite! inGRAPESweTRUST presents…. What’s In Your Glass? was held for the third time in a row in sunny, beautiful, Newcastle, and featured over 60 artisan, natural, organic and biodynamic wines from right across these two great countries! “It can’t be done,” they said. “Small wine events … Continue reading Newcastle Knows What’s In Your Glass… 2015
“Everything we do is really to look after a very singular and unique piece of land,” says Nick Mills, from Rippon. Rippon is the name of (probably) the most beautiful piece of land in the world that grows wine. It’s located “on a bit of dead end road,” on the outskirts of the resort town … Continue reading ‘Articulating Place’ – Rippon, Wanaka, New Zealand
Flying into Auckland, New Zealand’s most populous urban area, is nowhere near as dramatic a journey as it is, say, flying into Blenheim in Marlborough, or, indeed, Queenstown in Central Otago… especially at midnight, on a Sunday. But, what this city lacks in terms of steep, textured mountain ranges, which seem to scrape the sky with … Continue reading From The Bottom Up :: Sustainable Winegrowing in New Zealand
Irrigation, to some in the world of winegrowing, is a bit of a dirty word. To others, it is seen as being absolutely essential to wine production. This is especially so in many parts of the New World, where irrigation is practiced in places that, ordinarily, wouldn’t be able to support viticulture. The grapevine is, … Continue reading Irrigation… A Sense Of Place?
1978, and a young Morgon winemaker named Marcel Lapierre is experimenting in Beaujolais with no-sulphur winemaking, from grapes grown organically. In doing so, Lapierre along with a few local cohorts, had unwittingly caused the modern genesis of vin naturel… or natural wine. Of course this didn’t happen overnight, but soon enough, with the help of some Parisian sommeliers, … Continue reading Avril Lavigne et Le Vin Naturel – Is Natural Wine a Fad?
Coming back bigger and better is a term usually reserved for rubbish sequels of big blockbuster films, and a bit of a cliché these days, but this is fact, not fiction, and Rootstock 2014 was bigger, and we were all excited to see just how much better it was going to be. Expanded over two … Continue reading The Rise of the Counter Culture – Rootstock 2014
– GO TO ROOTSTOCK! – Just about every Australian and New Zealand winegrower I’ve written about, here on The Wine Idealist, will be at this weekends festival. Taste their natural, organic and biodynamic wines and meet them all in person, along with an entire two days jam packed with international winegrowers, artisan food, beer and … Continue reading Go! to Rootstock, Sydney – 2014
May, 2012. Having quit my job at the BBC, and swapping it for a full time gig in a wine bar just down the road, I was asked by, my boss, to attend the first ever Real Wine Fair, in London. I was to attend, as a representative of the west London bar, Albertine, and report back, … Continue reading An Origin Story… Genesis – The Wine Idealist Is One Year Old
7 days to go, and it’s looking pretty bleak. The response has been less than impressive in the opening few weeks of ticket sales, but people keep telling me – “don’t worry, it’s Newcastle, the Hunter Valley, and they always buy at the last minute”. My partner in all of this, Patrick Haddock – aka, … Continue reading What Went On at What’s In Your Glass? – Newcastle’s ‘real’ Wine Fair!
The idea was simple. An informal degustation dinner to recognise four organic wineries in the Hunter Valley, and showcase their wines alongside a simple fair of food and good company. I wanted to promote the idea of wine idealism – wines that recognise their sense of time and place (terroir) in an authentic and honest … Continue reading What’s In Your Glass? – Newcastle’s First ‘Real Wine’ Event.
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