When I came across their fancy Rosé in a survey of Rosés from down under, I had no idea who these two were. So I did some digging and found that Bambi Northwood-Blyth is a model and Dan Single is the designing force behind Ksubi jeans, which tend to sell for close to $200 a pair.

When he was staying in Paris early this year, Dan fell from a third floor balcony of the Hotel d’Amour and broke every bone in his legs between the feet and the spine. Families and friends rushed across to the Paris hospital where Dan was recovering and his bones healing slowly. Details and pictures here.

The next news I found was that Bambi had deleted her Instagram platform, ‘following Dan Single controversy.’ The fashion designer had set up a Go fund me crowdfunding campaign to raise $250,000 to pay for his medical bills and upkeep while he was incapacitated.

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Full Circle

Mount Pleasant was James Halliday’s winery of the year in the 2017 Wine Companion. How it got there is a fascinating story that started with a fellow called Maurice O’Shea who had an Irish father and a French mother. In 1932, McWilliam’s bought a half share of O’Shea’s Mount Pleasant vineyard in the lower Hunter, and the remaining share a decade later.

Maurice O’Shea at work – photo credit: Max Dupain

‘We’ve got this cascade of wonderful wines that we haven’t seen since O’Shea,’ James wrote. ‘If you turn the clock back 60 years, you might recognise some of these wines. He’s [Jim Chatto] really brought back the legacy of O’Shea big time.’

It was in the forties and early fifties that Maurice O’Shea made legendary wines for McWilliam’s. He died in 1956, long before most Australians discovered Hunter wine or table wine in general. The McWilliam family made fortified wines in Griffith, and what prompted them to buy into Hunter table wines at that time is one of life’s great mysteries. A friend in the trade tells me that Don McWilliam leant a helping hand to Murray Tyrrell in the fifties, which played a critical role in getting Tyrrells off the ground.

The Mount Pleasant Legacy

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Trophies you can’t Fathom and Wines you can’t Buy

The first thing you notice when you check the winners in this year’s comp is that they’re mostly from Saltram (Treasury Wine Estates) and a couple from Jacobs Creek (Pernod Ricard). Wine companies don’t come much bigger than these two.

The second thing you notice is that you can’t buy the trophy winning wines, with one exception. Why do they do this? What is the point of running a comp like this to find our best Cabernet Shiraz blends and coming up with wines that aren’t released? It’s only going to frustrate consumers and reviewers like me.

Wines Made to a Formula

I suspect the Saltram winemakers took a leaf out of Wolfie’s book, worked out the style the judges liked and shaped their wines accordingly. I liked the 2012 Shiraz, which you could buy for just $17 at the time. More recent vintages have been less elegant, some reaching 15% alcohol. They introduced the Shiraz Cabernet in 2013 from memory, and the price is a tick over $20. Then came a certified Pepperjack Shiraz Cabernet at a price a tick below $30.

I’m not sure what the wine is certified for, but these are rich and robust reds with plush fruit and creamy oak, obviously designed to please crowds of big red lovers. Wine show judges fall for these styles as well, that hasn’t changed since the days when Wolf Blass won 3 Jimmy Watson trophies in a row.

Jacob’s Creek took out the trophy for Best Wine over $60 and that for Best Cabernet-Dominant Blend, both for its Expedition Barossa Valley Cabernet Shiraz 2015. The wine is not released yet.

Trophies by the Truckload

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Subscribers have asked me how I taste wines.

The process is pretty straightforward:

1. I open half a dozen bottles of wine at a time
2. I pour some of each wine into a tasting glass
3. I taste the whites before they go in the fridge, and after
4. I leave the sample wines in the glass for 4 – 5 hours, tasting occasionally (and spitting)
5. I drink some of the better wines in the group with dinner
6. I repeat the exercise the next evening, and the one after that. I might keep a wine on the bench for another night or two if I’m not sure.

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How and Why do Varieties impact on the Price of Wine?

I’ve written about the unpopularity of Aussie Rieslings, and how that has kept the price of Rieslings so modest. Our top-rated Riesling is most likely Jeffrey Grosset’s Polish Hill, which sells for about $50.

By contrast, our top-rated reds sell for close to $1000 a bottle. A list of 2 dozen of our most expensive wines only shows red wines and ports. Why? Because the cheapest red on this list costs more than the most expensive white we make down under.

How Come?

Good question. Our most expensive whites are made from Chardonnay, which is no cheaper to produce than Cabernet or Shiraz. Same goes for making the wine with extended lees contact & stirring plus aging in quality new oak. Like our best reds, our best Chardonnays are held back for a few years at the winery. There’s little difference in the cost of production, so why do our best chardies top out at $100? It’s not like that in France where Montrachet is up there with La Tache.

Image Source: Decanter

How the Chardonnay Stars Line Up

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The Latest Wave: Monkeys Judging at Wine Shows   

Huon Hooke wrote a post a few weeks ago headed Wine show rivers of gold, in which he deplored the fact that mediocre wines wines win trophies and gold medals at wine shows. Huon is a wine judge of long standing and has chaired many wine shows across Australia.

He asks how wines like Jacob’s Creek Classic Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 won a gold medal and a trophy at the Langhorne Creek Wine Show, and says: ‘I don’t question the awards on the grounds that they are cheap wines, and cheap wines should know their place. I question the awards because of the way they taste. They’re no more than bronze-medal wines, in my opinion.’

My review of the same wine mentions the trophy and adds: ‘Any trophy is ridiculous for what is a cheap commercial wine of no great pretensions. It’s drinkable, it has no rough edges, it vaguely tastes like Cabernet. 86 points.’

Source: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au

It’s a numbers game

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As long as I can remember, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Pinot Noir. In the eighties, I spent a small fortune on Burgundies – which are made from Pinot Noir – that more often than not caused consternation rather than elation. I was learning, reading the rave reviews from mostly English wine writers, and buying their recommendations to train my palate. I went to tastings as well.

Burgundy was expensive even then, made more so by the discovery that 2 out of three Burgundies I bought were duds. To make sure of getting one good Burgundy, you have buy 3, and that’s still true today. As Aussie and NZ Pinots came of age, I switched to these wines but found that the same rules applied: two out of three Pinots were depressing. The upside was that they didn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Are We There Yet? 

This week, I joined a Gourmet Traveller Wine tasting of Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noirs from the great vintage 2015, set up by my old friend Peter Bourne at Mojo in Waterloo. I stopped scoring the wines halfway through the tasting because my scores pretty much agreed with those of the GTW panel. That’s a pretty rare event, but I wasn’t here to pick great deals for BWU$20 since the top wines were between $60 and $100 (The $35 Baillieu and the $40 Myrtaceae are unprocurable).

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Subscriber John S. sends me reviews from time to time, mostly of imported wines or wines made from exotic varieties. I appreciate his contributions and like his plain, succinct way with words, so I thought I’d share some of his observations with you.

First Foot Forward PN 2015 – $20 at Cloudwine. Bought a six pack. Good value for $20. Odd stalky texture. Mattinson’s implication that it would pass for a $50 job is nonsense. Probably he means $50 jobs are just overpriced $20 jobs. Or maybe he has caught Halliday’s virus: lie, divide by two, add the square root of 625 and lie again.

Others:

Wairarapa Pinot Noir 2015 ex Kemenys. Astonishing value [$14]. Enjoying it. (Kemenys still have some of this bargain Pinot).

Devil’s Ridge Sauvignon Blanc Semillon blend 2016 – $9 at Kemenys. Best value white I’ve had for years. Better than smelly jobs at twice the price. Very pristine.

Corker’s Crossing Shiraz 2014. (I think we mean Chalkers). Bought a six pack. Every time I open a fresh bottle I don’t like it. Better on the third day. Jesus wine (on the cross, he refused the first cup but drank the second?).

Yeah, ok. Also tried your Woodlands Chardonnay, your wedding wine. Hard to come by, like weddings these days. Everyone shacks up instead. Good wine of course but I had a French Chardonnay from Cloudwine a few years back that was better for the price. By that criterion I would have married a French woman from Languedoc. As it is I married a Suisse-Romande from Auvernier which does a nice PN Rose.

Dalla Mia Finestra 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Yarra Valley – Muted nose, no obvious expression of the variety. Palate was acidic, lean, mean and steely. I’ve had cheap Cabernet from Entre-Deux-Mer, Languedoc and Chile that was superior to this. Gary Welch walshed on his duty to be objective and announced that this folly reminds him of Cabernet Franc. Well, he should be dunked head First in a vat of Airlie Bank Cabernet Franc fruit bomb to teach him what that variety tastes like. We hoisted the bottle after two glasses. That’s $23.00 wasted.

Finished off the Boccaluppo Sangiovese 2015 – $22 at Cloudwine. Leather notes coming to the fore. Palate more complex than I thought. This is good wine. You should try a bottle. I liked the 2014 a lot and still have some. The 2015 is medium red with cherry, hints of maraschino flavours. The nose was mute on opening but could open up later. It’s a lovely medium to light very clean wine that’s a pleasure to drink. You can drink it now as a slightly simple fruit bomb or let it age. Only $22.00 from Cloudwine, a fair price to pay.

Moppity Reserve Tempranillo 2014 $20 at Cloudwine.

Dense red colour, muted nose, soft, plummy, rounded palate with neatly judged tannins and acidity. Rather moreish. Better on the second day when fruit qualities start to emerge. Quite good wine but not as interesting as the Spanish jobs. Won a couple of trophies. I don’t own judges’ stilts so I say a silver medal to the winemaker for being a very good boy.

La Prova Rosso 2014 from A Different Drop. A delectable blend of Lagrein, Sangiovese and Nero D’Avola. Ridiculous value at only $20. They’re selling the 2015 now, still for $20.

Hot weather is bad for shipping wine. Different Drop thoughtfully had my carton shipped overnight by Fastway to beat the coming heat wave. That’s good customer relations. The carrier to avoid is Australia Post. They take a week and think nothing of putting the carton over the engine under the floor of the van. I received wine from them at 35 degrees, hotter than the ambient temperature on the patio. Delicate PN Rose in the carton suffered.

via Kim

3 Easy Ways to Strengthen Your Heart and Add Years to Your Life

Let’s start with the first Good News: Alcohol is Good for the Heart

Dr Malcolm Kendrick is a Scottish physician who has written extensively about heart disease and its causes. In a recent post, he summed up the results of a recent British Medical Journal study this way:

Increased risk of fatal CVD vs. moderate drinking

• Non-drinker = 1.32 (32% increased risk)
• Former drinker = 1.44 (44% increased risk)

Increased risk of all-cause mortality vs. moderate drinking

• Non-drinker = 1.24 (24% increased risk)
• Former drinker = 1.38 (38% increased risk)

Kendrick’s conclusion? ‘I recommended that, from a cardiovascular health point of view, those who do not drink alcohol should start.’

More Good News: Walking Beats Drugs by a Mile

Just put this question into your browser: ‘regular exercise adds 3-5 years to your life’, and you’ll find lots of good news stories in the media. This one is from the National Cancer Institute in the USA: ‘NIH study finds leisure-time physical activity extends life expectancy as much as 4.5 years.’

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