Category: Western Australia

This is one of three 2006 Rieslings from this producer based in Pemberton, Western Australia, the others being a Dry and an Auslese version. This sits in between the other two versions, very much in the off-dry style. A clean, perfumed nose of musk, floral notes, stonefruit and citrus. Very good balance between some slightly […]

What a great night and opportunity this was to taste wines from the two leading big name Cabernet producers in Margaret River from some generally good to great vintages. These wines were all from the same cellar and only the Mount Langi ring-in was tasted blind. Lanson Black Label NV The nose is fresh and […]

Some quick notes from an excellent evening hosted by David Lole in Canberra. All wines were tasted and scored blind except for the Curlewis, the St. Henri and the Petaluma Essence. Rockford Sparkling Black (Sept. 2005 disgorgement) – (Barossa Valley, South Australia): Bright, clean raspberry, cherry, pepper, vanilla and blackberry aromas as well as a […]

I went to a hastily arranged dinner at Sakana-Ya in Crows Nest following the Torbreck tasting at North Sydney Cellars that I wrote about here. The quality of the dishes was good and there was some interesting food that I haven’t tried previously (Fried Eel being an example). The service was attentive and polite. Take […]

A quick get together at Borelli’s Italian Restaurant in Epping. The restaurant was good for what it is, a small local place that has food with good flavour and large servings, with fairly priced meals (for us it was around $50 AUD per person for three courses and tip) and corkage at $4 a bottle. […]

To balance the night of French legends that I spoke of in the last post – it was decided that we should come together again in early April to have a dinner that would be a tribute to some great Australian wines. We gathered at Restaurant Atelier at Glebe – another restaurant with an excellent […]

Sydney experienced a 45° celsius (113° fahrenheit) New Years day this year, so we did what any sensible group of wine lovers would do – go ahead with the dinner anyway and celebrate the New Year with some great wine. This was my first visit to Elio, an Italian restaurant which is based in Leichhardt […]

Some notes taken at a dinner attended by some fellow wine lovers – Seppelt Show Sparkling Shiraz 1990 – (Grampians, Victoria): A nice way to start the proceedings. Blackberry, cherry, spice, violets and earthy characters on the nose. Nice rich mouth-feel, with a bit of sweetness on the palate. Good, long finish. 88/100 Dry River […]

I wrote recently about my first bottle of this wine here. There have been some reports of bottle variation from the case purchased at auction earlier this year by some of the other syndicate members. My first bottle was good but looked a little bit tired, this second (and final) bottle displayed better freshness and […]

Last month Australia’s largest wine company Southcorp (now part of Fosters and even bigger) put on its annual road-show to showcase its wines across major capital cities. In Sydney, this was held at the completely refurbished Hilton hotel that was reopened in July. As often happens at these public events it didn’t take long to […]