Making riesling even more user friendly
Written by me and originally published in The Australian Financial Review on the 15th October 2000.
PETER BARRY, OF JIM BARRY WINES, WAS SO IMPRESSED WITH THE NEW STELVIN SCREW CAPS which fourteen* (see footnote) Clare Valley riesling producers employed with the bottling of their vintage 2000 releases that he immediately declared, 'I'm going to put all my white wines under Stelvin!' He then qualified this by saying, 'You know one thing though. Because it's so bloody easy to just twist the cap off a bottle, you’ll find yourself reaching for another one all too easily.’ Read more...
A Dance to the Music of Wine
Written by me and originally published in The Australian Financial Review on the 12th August 2005.
'The job of any wine region,' Tim Kirk of Clonakilla put to me, 'is to find out which varieties sing.' This said as we drive through Canberra in heavy rain and light rush hour traffic, soothed by Allegri's Miserere (Psalm 51 apparently, that of David's repentance). Even those without Latin and who find most liturgical music just plain turgid couldn't help but be moved by this music: voices singing in perfect harmony. Read more...