Blogspam / Posting Drought / Wineblogs

I feel all dirty, nasty and just a bit violated...I'm getting Blogspam. Just because I'm not posting dosnt mean spammers can take up residence...it feels a bit like having a parasite move in! I'll combat this by turning on moderation for a bit.

Summer is the silly season for me and the fire season is here in Victoria so my spare time is going to spent working in the bush for the foreseeable future. In the mean time why not pop over to regular reader Salil's new wine site and see his notes on the plonk he's drinking while not watching the cricket.

Campbells Classic Rutherglen Tokay - Liquid Gold

Fortified wine and I have a checkered history that runs way back to my young (stupid) days. See, we discovered pretty early that you get get more bang for buck buying fortifieds than by buying beer. Understand that this was drinking for one reason only, to get drunk, there was certainly no taste involved and certainly no decorum! And it was cheap too; 3 litre casks of port for about $5, bottles of muscat for about $3, this was powerful drink at dirt cheap prices. I suppose you can guess the outcome, almost everyone has a similar story in their history, as I got over this stage of my life I found that I could no longer enjoy fortifieds and as such avoided them for many (many, many,) years. Fast forward from stupid young drunk to mature wine appreciator (like I said, many years) and I found myself cycling around Rutherglen stopping at various wineries and having a great old time and FINALLY got to taste a GOOD fortified. I was sold on the spot and cursing the (many) wasted years in between I have since developed a deep love for good Tokay.

Not knowing much at all about Tokay, or fortifieds in general, I have found the Rutherglen classification system a usefull guide to determining where a certain type of Tokay fits into the hierarchy. Basically this grading slots a Tokay (or Muscat) into one of four levels:

• Rutherglen - Average age 2-5 years, inexpensive, fresh (dare I say consumer level) wine


• Classic - Aged in barrel (5-10 years), richer and beinning to show some complexity


• Grand - Aged 10-15 years, more intense & more concentrated


• Rare - 20+ years, fully developed "these are wines of breathtaking complexity, texture and depth of flavour" .

"Liquid Gold" is graded as a 'Classic', so the second level of the scale; I've also tried 'Grand' rated Tokays (never had a 'Rare') but across the Tokays and all the levels of the scale that I've tried, I rate Campbells Classic Rutherglen Tokay ("Liquid Gold") as my personal favorite. This Tokay maintains a deep golden brown color and has a lovely viscous feel in the glass. Strong aromas of toffee and honey with citrus and tea leaf. To taste this wine is a delight, it is thick, rich and sweet, wonderfully intense. Powerful mouth filling flavours of toffee and malt leaving a clean, slightly acidic, mouth smacking finish. Does this sound like a good rap; it should be as I just love this wine.

In other tasting notes for this wine I have seen the term 'rancio' and I must admit that I had no idea what it meant so in prep for writing this entry I had a quick look for some of the descriptors. Along the way I found a really good description of the process used in making some of these fortifieds on Wikipedia. Without regurgitating Wikipedia I suggest that you have a quick read (I found it interesting). Understanding the process makes it easier to understand the claim from Campbells that "the wine that provides the basis of this blend dates back to the 1950's", part of this blend dates back to the 50's, this just blows my mind. Dip into history and do your taste buds a favour over your next desert, grab a great Tokay from Rutherglen.

Technorati tags - Wine, Wine Tasting, Wine Reviews, Australian Wine, Tokay, Rutherglen,

Red Duck Amber Ale

Just a very quick update tonight with a few notes on the Red Duck Amber Ale. The Red Duck line of beers comes from the Purrumbete Brewing Company in western Victoria smack in the middle of some terrific lake fly fishing country. Pours cloudy copper brown in the glass with a reasonable head that faded quickly leaving only minimal lace. Lots of toasty malt, caramel and yeast scents dominate the nose. Surprisingly sweet with low carbonation the flavors are all about the malts and fades to a bitter hoppy aftertaste. Overall a bit on the light side but still a very nice beer, I would certainly buy it again.

Tags - Beer, Beer Tasting, Beer Reviews, Australian Beer, Red Duck

Moo Brew Wheat Beer

Some time back I tasted and reviewed the Moo Brew Pale Ale and I was ultimately a little disappointed in the result. At the same time that I bought the Pale I also grabbed some of the Moo Brew Wheat beer and recently sat down to try a couple. I'm very pleased to say that the result for the Wheat is a very different story from the Pale.

The Moo Brew Wheat pours cloudy pale yellow in the glass, no head to speak of but maintains a fine lace and is very lightly (finely) carbonated. It is a very sweet smelling beer with pleasant bannana and citrus notes showing through. The Wheat exhibits typical wheat beer characteristics (wheat malt, yeast) and is a very light and summery beer. There is no significant aftertaste to speak of. The thing that struck me about this beer was the very fine texture and it has a very soft and light mouth feel that I quite liked.

I really liked the Moo Brew wheat beer but I'm not sure of the market segment, recall that this is a winery beer, gloriously packaged and priced accordingly. The Wheat as a standalone beer though is a bit of a summer evening quaffer and I'm not convinced that Joe Average is going to be prepared to lash out the extra shekels to buy the Moo Brew for a session. I guess the market for this beer is the outdoor fresco café style environment and I'm not convinced that this a big enough segment to support the continued production. In any case, if you stumble on the Moo Brew range go for the Wheat over the Pale, it's a much better beer.


Tags - Beer, Beer Tasting, Beer Reviews, Australian Beer, Moo Brew

2004 Cockatoo Ridge Shiraz

Recently I was having a long Sunday arvo session in the kitchen preparing a long overdue meal for my better half. As I recall it was slow roasted Lamb Shanks with peppers in honey & chilli. The recipe called for a bottle of shiraz (for marinade and sauce) and I only had a couple of bottles of good shiraz in the cupboard, certainly nothing that I wanted to consign to a recipe, especially considering the way that I cook. I raced down the local bottle shop to see what I could find and came away with the cheap Cockatoo Ridge Shiraz at all of $9. Ever watchful for post fodder I thought perhaps a review of a cheap wine might just be the order of the day.

Initially pouring the Cockatoo Ridge Shiraz it was a deep purple tending to red but was disappointingly hazy. On the nose the wine shows masses of pepper and spice smells with a plum/redcurrant undertone. The wine was surprisingly soft for such a cheap wine, big fruity plum and cherry flavours dominate and there is a long peppery aftertaste. All in all this wine rated 'as expected' for a sub $10 shiraz, it wasn't mind blowing but I was certainly not disappointed in it esspecially considering the price. For drinking, I will be sticking to the wines in the higher price brackets but if I had to recommend a cheap and cheerful, good quality quaffing shiraz (is that a contradiction in terms) you could do a lot worse than this Cockatoo Ridge cheapy.

PS. The shanks were fabulous and the Shiraz made a perfect marinade/sauce for this dish.

Technorati tags - Wine, Wine Tasting, Wine Reviews, Australian Wine, Shiraz, Cheap Wine