Welcome to 2015, Wine Idealists! I trust you all had an excellent Christmas and New Year break, filled with the company of many family and friends and lots of deliciously drinkable and exceptionally edible food and fare! To those of you who were still greasing the gears of our sovereign economy, allowing folks to dine … Continue reading Good Intentions – Being A Friend of The New in 2015…
“We’re very uncool,” says Richard Angove, from Angove Wines, based in the McLaren Vale, South Australia. “But, our philosophy definitely starts in the vineyard, and everything else comes after that.” Angove Wines is an old family business, founded in 1886 by Richard Angove’s great, great grandfather, Dr William T. Angove. He had emigrated from Cornwall, in … Continue reading Honest Sustainability – Angove Wines, McLaren Vale, S.A.
On a north-east facing ridge, which slopes down towards the banks of the Hay River near Mount Barker, in Western Australia’s Great Southern wine region, there lies a biodynamically managed vineyard, flanked by Blue Gums and olive trees, set against a big sky, and comprised of shiraz, merlot, cabernet, semillon and sauvignon blanc wine grape varieties. … Continue reading ‘Giving Nature a Freehand’ – Freehand Wines, WA
“With the way wine seems to be going, I think you need to be a winegrower, not just a viticulturist, or winemaker,” says Jason Flowerday, winegrower, and part owner with his wife Anna, of Te Whare Ra (‘te fahree rah’ TWR), in New Zealand’s most famous wine region, Marlborough. Jason and Anna purchased TWR in 2003, … Continue reading The House in the Sun – Te Whare Ra, Marlborough NZ
4am – The alarm finally goes off. I wake up instantly because I’ve not really been sleeping. I’ve been drifting in and out of consciousness with faint coloured images of red, white, and green shuffling through my mind for the last five hours, because it doesn’t truly trust my alarm to sound at the correct hour … Continue reading Early Start Early Finish / Vintage 2014 – Hunter Valley
The rain is incessant, from Sydney all the way south, past the the New South Wales/Victorian border. After 8 hours of driving, the tedium that is the Hume Highway, coupled with the drizzly conditions outside, it’s a welcome sight when we arrive in Beechworth, as lush green hills slope and roll underneath giant granitic boulders, … Continue reading Simple Tools, Elegant Complexity – Sorrenberg Wines
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