I organised a tasting recently with the intent to compare two top-tier Australian cooler climate Shiraz, both from the Grampians region in Victoria (plus a few ring-ins, here and there). The Seppelt St Peters Shiraz was originally released as Seppelt Great Western Hermitage in 1964 (winning the Jimmy Watson trophy in 1965, a prestigious award, [...]
Category: Wine Reviews
An amazing night two weekends ago as we gathered at Marque restaurant in Sydney, Australia for a Burgundy themed event, organised by a friend as part of his RareWineDinners business. The attendees included some familiar local faces as well as people that had flown in from Adelaide, Tasmania and even San Francisco! I can happily [...]
I recently attended this new release tasting for Torbreck at North Sydney Cellars. I am generally a fan of David Powell’s wines, but one of the big surprises for me on the night was the quality of the two white wines on offer, as I have previously either disliked or been very underwhelmed by the [...]
Just some quick TNs on a great set of wines with a few friends over dinner. I haven’t had a Screaming Eagle before, I have to assume very few end up in Australia, so it was a privilege to try one. 2002 Bollinger Champagne La Grande Année – France, Champagne Toast, talc, apple and lemon [...]
Not much preamble to this one, this was a great tasting hosted by a friend recently. All the white burgundy were served blind and provided by our host and one guest. After that it was on to the various “backup” bottles, they were a mix of blind and not and brought along by the various [...]
Last Thursday I headed into the recently opened QT Sydney Hotel and its Gowings Bar & Grill in order to attend the annual Joh. Jos. Prüm frühstück, a breakfast tasting hosted by the Australian wine importer Bibendum. On this occasion the wines tasted were from 2011, a year in which the winery celebrates its 100th [...]
US wine is not something that we get a huge amount of exposure to in Australia, probably at least partially due to the prices for the wines ending up sky high by the time shipping and taxes (in the region of 40%) are applied, so whenever I get a chance to try some I am [...]
I was fortunate to attend this small dinner a couple of weekends ago organised by a friend in Sydney, Australia. The theme was based around one of his great passions, German Riesling and as usual he did a great job in the careful sourcing and planing for this dinner. The restaurant Fix St James did [...]
Alongside the 1944 Seppelt Sparkling Burgundy that I spoke about in the previous post, we had a number of other icon wines, including 2 bottles of the incredible Seppeltsfield 100yo Para. 2000 Bay of Fires Arras EJ Carr Late Disgorged – Australia, Tasmania Wow. Stunning nose with great depth and power, there are aromas of [...]
Another month and another wine tasting that escalated quickly in planning. The original proposal for a modest BYO event ended in an “Australian Icon” tasting including 1888 and 1908 Seppelt Para Port (to be covered in another post), plus this treasure of Australian wine history. Just prior to the dinner, a member contacted the rest [...]