Global warming is a clear and present danger that looms upon the world’s horizon, threatening to dissolve away not only our ice caps and shorelines, but life as we know it. The accelerated and continual rise in average temperatures in our oceans and in the air around us, year on year since the industrial revolution, has made … Continue reading ‘Gift Giving’ – d’meure wines – Tasmania
The idea of letting mother nature take care of things in the vineyard to make for healthier vines, and better tasting wines might seem a little crazy than conventional wisdom would suggest, but the zeitgeist is starting to change. Consumers are becoming more aware of the food and drink choices they make, which is reflected … Continue reading ‘The Rising Tide of Organic Wine in Australia’ – The Wine Idealist
The biodynamic agriculture method uses a number of tools to provide sustainable soil fertility and management practice of a particular property – for example, a vineyard – whilst recognising the link between plant growth and the rhythms of the Earth and cosmos above us. Using various natural fertilisers, compost teas and preparations, such as 500, … Continue reading Observe and Report – The Antipodean Biodynamic Calendar
“I came from a winemaking background where I’d make one hundred, to one million litre tanks of chardonnay at a time,” says Taras Ochota from Ochota Barrels, in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. A student of oenology at Adelaide University, Taras and his partner Amber travelled the surf breaks of California, Mexico, Portugal and France, and … Continue reading ‘Turning the Screws’ – Ochota Barrels, Adelaide Hills
“Just as any fad becomes a fashion, a fashion becomes a trend, a trend becomes a change; so then, when enough changes unite, it becomes a paradigm shift…” The Wine Idealist has taken a small step into the realms of self-publishing by releasing, ‘Wine Idealism’, A Brief Introduction into the Changing State of Australian Wine. A … Continue reading Wine Idealism – The Changing State of Australian Wine
“What’s your name?” “Yow mah.” “Sorry, I didn’t understand what you just said… can you repeat that?” “Yow mah! It’s your fucking name in Catalan!” When James Erskine was travelling through Spain, he met a winemaker called Jauma (‘yow mah’), who was making wine with grenache, or rather garnacha. Unlike the beastly boozers from his … Continue reading What’s Your Name? – Jauma, Adelaide Hills, S.A.
Two years ago I attended the first Real Wine Fair as a nervous wine novice. I went to taste some wine to, perhaps, include on the list of a West London wine bar I worked in. That experience changed my perception of Australian wine forever. Two years later, I’ve been given the opportunity to go to the Real Wine Fair again, … Continue reading Advance Australia and New Zealand Real Wine Fair – 2014
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?
“There’s a romantic narrative in winemaking that should be told more often than what it is,” says Jarad Curwood of Chapter Wine in Victoria, “and that story should be told through the vineyard, not through the skills of the winemaker.” Jarad is a painter who gravitated toward wine’s black hole, while studying a fine arts … Continue reading Liquid Literature – Chapter Wine, Victoria
“In the new world, everyone talks about winemakers, like they’re heros,” says Hans Herzog, owner and vigneron at Hans Herzog Estate in Marlborough, New Zealand, “but we should be talking about the vineyard, and winegrowing, because that’s where wine really comes from.” Hans thinks of himself as a vigneron, a French term for someone who … Continue reading A Whole New World – Hans Herzog Estate, Marlborough N.Z.
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