A very important wine: 1999 AWRI Trial Semillon
Really pleased to get a chance to try this wine, because it's an important one.
Labels: Australia, clare valley, closures
mainly wine...
Really pleased to get a chance to try this wine, because it's an important one.
Labels: Australia, clare valley, closures
A few years back Andrew and Jane Mitchell kindly let me stay for a couple of nights at their home, when I visited the Clare Valley (see report here). I missed Andrew on a recent trip he made to the UK, but he left a couple of wines for me to try. These are pretty impressive: a pair of high-end, late-release wines under the McNicol label.
Labels: Australia, clare valley, Riesling, Shiraz
I'm on the Riesling trail at the moment. Here's a brilliant Australian Riesling from the Clare Valley that's utterly delicious, with a nice elegance coupled with limey intensity.
Labels: Australia, clare valley, Riesling
A new wine this - and it looks set to become an Aussie Classic. A really serious, intense, yet well balanced Cabernet Sauvignon from the Clare Valley. I really like the Clare Valley. You have to take your hat off to a region that makes great Cabernet Sauvignon and great Riesling.
Labels: Australia, clare valley
I hate colds. They're a severe problem when you are supposed to be assessing wines profesionally, because they mess with your sense of smell. They don't eliminate it altogether, but you end up grasping at smells that would otherwise come more easily. A bit like looking through a dirty window.
Labels: Australia, Cabernet Sauvignon, clare valley
It has been an odd sort of day. Left home this morning in driving rain; returned this evening under blue skies.
Labels: Australia, clare valley, Tasmania, viticulture
Stayed last night in Cheltenham at the Hotel du Vin, where I'm blogging live from. Verdict? A little mixed. The hotel has only been open since July, and it is sort of part travelodge, part luxury hotel in feel - some bits of the decor really work, some bits (most notably the carpets and coridoors and public areas) feel low budget. All the rooms are named after wines (ours is Hush Heath, the makers of the UK's finest pink sparkling wines), but the maze of coridoors and lack of numbering system makes it impossible to navigate. We kept running into guests who were hopelessly lost, as we were.
Labels: Cabernet Sauvignon, clare valley, coonawarra, hotels
Read about it here first! One of the bargains of the year! OK, I'm slightly overstating my case, but there's a wine that I highly recommend at a very affordable price that has just come into Majestic (http://www.majestic.co.uk/). I've bought 8 bottles (12 of anything seems a bit much, especially given the fact that there is never a shortage of wine at home).
Labels: Cabernet Sauvignon, clare valley
It's been an easy family day here chez Goode. And we don't have all that many of those. On this blog, I'm probably guilty of painting a picture of domestic bliss. But, like many families, I suspect, we have lots of struggles. [Indeed, one of the reasons why we probably have so many, and also one of the reasons why I don't post pictures of my children here, or name them, is because they are both adopted.] It's probably because of all the struggles that the times where we function as a normal family are all the sweeter. You've no idea how much pleasure a day out without serious conflict can bring us...
Labels: Australia, Chardonnay, clare valley, Shiraz