Dr Vino's wine blog

Although I’d like this photo post to speak 1,000 words on its own, I’ll add a few of explanation.

In the foreground, Dean Hewitson stands in the Old Garden vineyard, which was planted in 1853 and grows today without irrigation. As you can see, the bush vines lie in unruly rows since they aren’t trellised. I tried the 2002 Old Garden Mourvedre and it had gamey aromas characteristic of the grape, as well as dark fruits and smooth sweet tannins. (find this wine; I’ll have to stick it in a blind tasting of mourvedres if I do one of those again.)

In the photo, the lights visible on the hill beyond Dean are illuminating the vast Orlando (Jacob’s Creek) wine making facility. Consider it a study in contrast.

We visited the vineyard at dusk and on the way back to the car, I heard a kookaburra laugh echo across the vineyard. For all you birders out there, you can see/hear the kookaburra here.

I’ll be in Chicago at the end of the month for a Saturday seminar at the University of Chicago Graham School. The class will explore in greater depth some of the themes related to my book Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics influence the Wines We Drink. We’ll also be tasting through some excellent wines as we have done in previous installment of this course. No previous knowledge of wine is necessary and the session is non-degree and noncredit. It’s Saturday, June 27, 2:30 – 6:30 PM just off Michigan Avenue. On another book related note, in case you are puzzling what to get for Father’s Day, I’m happy to reinstate my offer of signed gift copies. Send me via PayPal the amazon price, tax, and shipping (say, $25) of either Wine Politics or the practical guide, A Year of Wine: Perfect Pairings, Great Buys, and What to Sip for Each Season (which actually has more wine-related Father’s Day gift ideas in it), and I’ll send a copy of either book inscribed as you please to whatever domestic address you like. So much more interesting than a tie! Don’t delay since Father’s Day is rapidly approaching! There’s also a Kindle edition of A Year of Wine but I can’t sign that one for you without smudging your screen.

Eyebrows arching, James Halliday spots an opening and intercepts the ball. He dribbles to the other end of the court, pulls up for a jumper right before the three point line, shoots, and scores! Orlando over the Lakers at the buzzer!

Okay, Halliday, the 71 year old former vintner and author of some fifty wine books, wasn’t really in the NBA finals. But a tasting last week in the Barossa Valley did showcase some of Australia’s most amazing wines of all time. By showcasing talent old and new, it was kind of like one of those sports questions about who would be better head-to-head, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar vs LeBron James or Hank Aaron vs A-Rod kind of thing. While the younger wines showed some flash, for me it was the seniors that stole the show. Read more…

I recently had the excellent fish and chips at Doyle’s in Sydney. Unfortunately, I wolfed it down before snapping a pic but I found another similar one on flickr.

We haven’t done one of these “impossible” pairings for a while. What with such nontraditional calorie bombs as the bacon explosion and the oreo tower under our proverbial belts already, perhaps we should ease back into this theme with something a little, er, lighter (albeit not by much) or at least more conventional.

So have at it: which wine would you pair with fish and chips? Or is it…impossible?!?

The whole concept of Pinot under $20 is enough to make some Burghounds shudder. But it is a topic of recurring interest to everyone at the Dr. Vino World Headquarters with its high concentration of frugal pinotphiles.

I recently had the $19 Nicolas Potel 2006 Bourgogne rouge and found it a great value, lean, old world pinot. In previous vintages, I’ve enjoyed value Pinots from Austria (e.g. Stadlmann) and Italy’s alto Alto Adige region (e.g. Hofstatter) as well. And I’ve had some good new world Pinot under $20, such as the “H” Pinot Noir from Hamacher in Oregon. (search for these wines)

What about you? Have your say in our latest poll!

[poll id=”5″]

I’m back from the fantastic Landmark Australia Tutorial. Above is a picture of (some of) the wines opened during the tremendous five days. Yes, it’s 249 bottles of wine on the wall!

Over the next few days and weeks, I’ll be posting on and off some of highlights of the conference/event, sharing my new found knowledge. Really, I could post about each and every session since they were all so interesting and informative. But I’m not turning this into an Australian wine blog (though I do wonder why there isn’t one of those focusing on the lesser-known wines; it could even be called “beyond the fruit bomb”). If you’d like to have a similar experience applications are apparently now open for the Tutorial in 2010.

After the jump, check out the above lineup in motion as I walked down the line with the video rolling. Also, check out a complete list of wines, broken down by session. Read more…

SIPPED and SPIT: rosé! Controversy continues to swirl around the proposed changes in the EU to allow blending rather than bleeding. We’re talking rosé, of course, which has traditionally been bled off red grapes but may soon be allowed to have the lower cost method of red being blended with white. Francois Millo, head of the Provence vintners’ association, brings this intra-European fight to the pages of the NYT with an op-ed arguing that their local “achievement should not be drowned in a flood of cheap imitations.” AFP previously reported that France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland are opposed to the practice. But Decanter reported that José Bové, in full EU electoral mode, has called the French agricultural minister a liar, saying that he failed to vote against the reform as a part of a broader package in January.
UPDATE: The European Agricultural Commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, has withdrawn the rose reform. [Guardian]

SWIRLED: wine tax increase
The Senate finance committee considers raising the federal excise tax on wine (and beer)–and introducing a tax on other beverages, such as soda–in the name of funding health reform. The last increase in the federal excise tax on wine was 1991, when it was increased to $1.07 a gallon for still wine under 14% alcohol. Prior to that, the rate had been stable since 1951 at $0.17 a gallon.

SPIT and SIPPED: New Vine Logistics
New Vine Logistics, a Napa-based company that provides order fulfillment to 200 wineries and may have been involved in the back end of Amazon wine, startlingly ceased operations a week ago. But faster than you could say “Chrysler,” it found an apparent savior in Inertia Beverage Group. Follow the action over at wineindustryinsight.com.

SPIT: signs as a threat to the environment
The steep hillside vineyards of Hermitage may be preserved under an environmental heritage act. Such an action could jeopardize the signs of Chapoutier and Jaboulet on those hillsides (“one of the region’s most beloved landmarks” according to the Chapoutier web site), which may have to be removed as a result.

The cover story of Time Out New York this week is about cool free stuff happening around NYC. I’m briefly mentioned as a way of highlighting the fantastic free wine tastings that happen in New York.

They can be really a fun and informative aspect of wine life in the city. They’re free because stores can’t (easily) charge for tastings on their premises with the off-premises retail license. Many stores have regular free tastings, check out my NYC wine shop map for my favorite stores. Here’s what’s happening at a few of them:

Chambers Street Wines: Italian white wines, Friday, 5-7; Summer favorites from local distributor, Polaner, Saturday, 4-7.
Crush Wine & Spirits: Free tastings Thursday, 5-7; annual “War of the Rosés” June 11, (session one 5–6pm, session two 6:30–7:30pm; R.S.V.P. to events@crushwineco.com)
Moore Brothers: there’s always something open in the back.

Hit the comments with some other worthwhile ones you know about!