Another day, another shitty grape celebration. Hot on the back of World Marselan Day (seriously) and Tannat Day, today is International Viognier Day 2022. Now close followers of this site will …
Ahhh, the perpetual love-hate relationship. I love textural white wines so much, with the intoxicating sensuality of a mouthfilling Gewurz or the absorbing contrasts of a classic Bordeaux blend something bloody …
Not all wines can be great. Plenty are just ok drinks. And some are just bad. Here is a selection of wines that almost made it in September 2021. Thanks, also, to …
New labels, and this latest crop of wines from Tim Smith have been uniformly excellent. Just make the Halliday scores look even more ridiculous (although Tim is not alone). Anyway, this …
Ahhh, the Viognier paradox. How can such a fabled grape be such a hard sell? Jess Hill Smith was exasperated about Viognier's challenges at the Yalumba The Caley vertical a few months back, …
Not all wines can be great. Plenty are just ok drinks. And some are just bad. Here is a selection of wines that almost made it in March 2021. You can …
Balgownie’s best work is in reds, but Tony Winspear has proven his hand with some white outliers. This Balgownie Estate Viognier 2019is the first straight estate Viognier bottling since 2010 with …
Not all wines can be great. Plenty are just ok drinks. And some are just bad. Here’s a selection of wines that almost made it in October 2019. I like plenty …
I love textured white wines. Alsace field blends? Gimme. Barrel fermented Margaret River Sauv? Yes please. But every year, the 'textural white' segment disappoints. I get that it's a balancing act to …
Not all wines can be great. Plenty are just ok drinks. And some are just bad… Here’s a selection of wines that almost made it in July 2019. I like plenty …
Tim Smith Eden Valley Viognier 2018 Easily one of the best Viognier in the country, although it's a shallow pool as so many producers get the V-weed so wrong. What I …
The premise with this collection is very very simple - I've been hitting the sample pile hard over the past week or two, and these 30 wines were not only …
I love great Viognier. Textural, viscous, rich, barrel matured Viognier is absolutely delicious. But so much V weed is underwhelming, ordinary, and either under or overripe. Too much. Too often. But this …
This edition of the Almost Club is a few days late as I was busily not doing much in Noosa (photo attached. We love Noosa). Here than are 20 wines that …
At 18, I started working in a small suburban bottleshop, largely to buy cheap beer. It was my first year of university, slogging through physics and chemistry, so a liquor shop seemed like fun. But then, I fell in love with wine and craft beer, and it took over my life.
Twenty three years later and I spend my days wearing many beverage hats and judge at wine shows around the world...Read more