Appellation Australia

Just a quick post to plug what I consider to be a fantastic (and free!) service.

Cellartracker is an extensive online cellar management system, with the main differentiator between this and other products being that you share alot of information with other users of the system. So if someone else writes a tasting note on a wine that you own, you are able to see their opinion and rating on your cellar listing.

The list of other features is too long to go into, but it’s well worth a try, considering the site is free for use (but does ask for donations if you find it useful, which is fair enough).

Here is a link to my own very humble cellar listing Cam’s Cellartracker Cellar Listing

If you have a CellarTracker cellar of your own, I’d love for you to post a link so I could have a look.

Fast Facts: Country: Australia Region: Drumborg, Victoria Winemaker: Arthur O’Connor Variety: Pinot Gris Closure: Screwcap Bought For: $20 AU

Wine Blogging Wednesday #10 is being hosted by Alice of My Adventures in the Breadbox and the theme that she selected was white wines that are made from Pinot grapes such as Pinot Gris or Pinot Blanc.

My selection for this event was made easy by this being the only bottle of Pinot Gris I had sitting in my cellar, and me running out of time to go out and find something else!

Tasting Note: A pale straw colour with a tinge of green. Strong aromas of fresh apples and pears comprised the bouquet. The palate was well structured and had excellent length from start to finish.

Drinking Window: Drinking well now, but may improve in complexity with another year in the bottle.

Verdict: It has got a fair amount of class and I deem it worthy of 91 points, with a value rating of Excellent.

See “How to interpret my scores” for an explanation of how the above scores were reached.

I’m looking forward to the roundup being posted by Alice for this event in the next couple of days.

The annual “Good Food and Wine Show” is getting closer.

Tickets are $19.50 and include all food and wine tastings. There are some additional food demonstrations which cost $5 and feature some well-known celebrity chefs.

The wineries that I like the look of, that will be at the Sydney show include; Brookland Valley, Devil’s Lair, Ferngrove, Majella, Mount Pleasant, Picardy, Pierro, Plantagenet and Scarborough. The complete list for each city is linked to after the dates below.

Melbourne - 17-19 June - Melbourne Wine Exhibitors

Sydney - 1-3 July - Sydney Wine Exhibitors

Brisbane - 4-6 July - Brisbane Wine Exhibitors

Over fifty Australian Merlots divided into three price groups and the identities of the wines on offer not disclosed. That was the setup for “Merlot Mayhem”, an event that was organised by Divine Magazine to try to decide if the anti-Merlot movement that seems to be occurring among the media and general public has any merit.

If you are in Melbourne or Canberra and are going to attend the event in those cities, I would suggest stopping here, to maintain the blind nature of the tasting. Otherwise, read on for tasting notes and the conclusions reached from the tasting!

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