News, Views and Meusing
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News from the World of Wine and other stuff.
Terroir
The holistic combination of soil, topography, macroclimate and microclimate is perhaps as close as we can get as a description.
To explain
Two adjacent vineyards planted with the same grape variety one towards the top of the hill (A) and the other towards the bottom (B).
As water runs down hill the vines lower down get the use of more water than the ones at the top. The ones at the top have to burrow down in the soil to get their share of moisture and in doing so their deep roots pick up flavours from the minerals in the soil. Warmer air at the base of the hill promotes earlier ripening than those of slightly cooler areas further up the hill. It is always windier towards the top of a hill than at the base of one. The circulation of air around vines helps keep fungus diseases at bay and prevents frost. This explanation might seem a little simplistic but it does help explain how a number of small differences can incrementally cause quite different wines from two apparently very similar blocks.
Chris Pointer
Alco Pops; Excise Grab or Chick Tax?
A half-baked, ill thought out, shoot from the hip approach or an exercise in social responsibility.
Alco-Pops, or also as they are known: RTDs (Ready To Drink), have been around for thirty or so years. Their alcoholic strength is about the same as beer; 4.8% alcohol by volume. There are some that are stronger, but there is also stronger beer. One of the first was made by the United Distillers Company and was/is called UDL. Then, gin and tonic and brandy and dry were the gun drinks. I have fond memories of calling into the United Distillers Pavilion at the RAS Easter Show; children in strollers, on a boiling hot Easter Weekend day, for something to bring the temperature down. Now the younger of the stroller babes is 30.
Today; blokes mainly buy the Whiskey and Dark Rum based drinks for the trip home and the girls buy White Spirit Based drinks to go out. They are in convenient and hassle free cans or bottles and most are between 275 and 375 mlls in volume.
Hassle free? The girls know what they are drinking, the strength of their drink, (it’s printed on the side of the bottle) and are aware that it is harder for some rat bag to spike their drink with more spirit or something worse.
Conclusion
While the Governments intentions were probably good the only obvious beneficiary of the tax hike is the government; the obvious loser the girl whose glass of drink is spiked while she is on the dance floor.
Chris Pointer
Wine - Feast or Famine?
For some time we have all been enjoying the fruits of over production. Newly planted vineyards coming on stream, out of sync with international demand, contributed to our own wine lake. We are now having the hiccup we had to have. South Australia is having a tough time with drought; the Hunter Valley had nearly all its 08 reds wiped out owing to rain and last year some S.A. vineyards had problems with frost and hail (and drought), with its by-product, salinity. I know of one small to medium quality producer who has put in a de-salination plant. Who would be a farmer?
A beacon shining through the gloom is Canberra. There are some marvellous 08 Rieslings to look forward too.
Chris Pointer
Global Warming and You and Me
This year Barossa Vineyards picked a month to six weeks early. Peach trees have blossom a month before they should on Mangrove Mountain. Sutton Forrest and around Colo Vale once considered quite marginal grape growing areas are producing some very palatable wines. Orange, Bathurst and the Canberra Region are now mainstream wine producing areas. Possibly the Countries best Shiraz Viognier comes from Canberra. Things are a changing.
. What do we do: throw our hands in the air and say there is nothing we alone can do about global warming, or collectively knuckle down and do something about it?
Chris
