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Just letting you know that The Oz Wine Show IS still active - hello Jason =). There’s a lot going on at the moment behind the scenes and it all seems to be morphing together.

First of all, for those of you who entered the Torbreck competition, the draw was run and won and the lucky winner is Prentice from the USA. Congrats to Prentice, the 2004 vintage of The Steading is on it’s way.

An update on Project Vino. At the moment we’re (that is me and the developers) are squashing bugs and making sure things show up where they’re meant to. That will be completed over the next week and then Project Vino will be officially open and fit for use. There’s lots to come in the next few months but so far you can browse, rate and review Australian and New Zealand wines, wineries and regions and then get targeted recommendations about wine you might like to try based on your previous ratings. It’s all about giving everyone a voice. Check out this review of the Clonakilla Viognier 2006 by Glenn as an example of what you can do so far on Project Vino.

Remember, there’s no pressure when rating wines because you should be rating based on how much you like the wine and who can argue with that. Check out the guide to tasting wine here though if you’re a little unsure.

Also, i’d love feedback on the wine tasting guide i whipped up. You can print of your own sheets, cut them up and clip them together to create your very own pocket wine tasting notebook. Let me know what you think.

Watch out for our fist video episode shortly.

Cheers, Hugo

This episode’s a pretty big one. The topic for a start is a belter - Torbreck is one winery everyone should be familiar with (even if it’s just with their entry level wines). This relatively young Barossa label is certainly a defining force for Australian Shiraz on the world stage. The audio for this show was recorded at North Sydney Cellars a few months ago when Dave Powell (winemaker) from Torbreck went through most of his line-up in some detail. I’ve got some time markers outlined below for later review when you are drinking the wines or to skip ahead to now if you can’t wait.

Also, there’s a giveaway for this show! Up for grabs is one bottle of The Steading 2004 which has been SIGNED BY DAVE POWELL. All you have to do to be eligible is email me (hugo@ozwineshow.com) with “Torbreck Giveaway” as the email title and put in the body of the email your name, country and city by midnight 6th December 2007 (2 weeks away). I’ll be selecting a winner at random from anywhere in the world. Tell your friends too.

Dave Powell and I (Hugo Sharp) with the signed giveaway bottle.

Show Notes:

• 1:17 = Torbreck Giveaway announcement.
• 2:20 = Invitation to Project Vino launch party in Sydney.
• 5:00 = Introduction to Torbreck by Dave Powell
• 6.30 = Woodcutters Semillon
• 9:05 = A note on acid in wine.
• 9:40 = Roussanne/Marsanne
• 13:14 = Cuvee Juveniles
• 19:34 = Viognier (untasted)
• 20:58 = Woodcutters Shiraz
• 24:45 = The Steading 2004
• 27:52 = The Struie 2005
• 31:30 = The Gask
• 36:45 = The Descendant
• 42:12 = Runrig 2004
• 46:02 = A quick note on when to drink your Runrig.

Finally, as per the audio intro in this episode, there’s going to be a launch party for Project Vino (www.projectvino.com.au) which is a new Australian and New Zealand wine website that will help you track your wine adventures and experiences and then recommend new ones. It’s a free event, details below;

• What: Three winemakers from the Hunter presenting 4 wines each, an introduction to Project Vino and a presentation of donations from attendees at the door and Project Vino to the MND Association
• When: 6pm - 9pm Thursday 6th December, 2007.
• Where: “The East Village” 234 Palmer St, East Sydney, NSW 2010
• Email me (hugo@ozwineshow.com) to attend.

That’s all for now,

Hugo

There’s going to be a launch party (wine tasting event) for a new Australian wine website i’ve been working on this year. Details below. All Oz Wine Show listeners are invited but I need to get an idea of numbers so if you’re interested please email me via hugo[at]ozwineshow.com and use the heading “Launch Tasting”. It’s a free event with optional donations at the door going to the Motor-Neuron Foundation (the disease my Mother passed away from earlier in the year).

It’d be great to have any Sydneysiders along and the wineries on board so far are some of my favourites (but more on that later this week when everything’s nailed down).

Here’s a link to the official invite.

Details;

• What: Hunter Valley themed tasting.
• Cost: Optional donation at the door.
• When: 6-12pm Thursday 6th of December, 2007.
• Where: East Village, Darlinghurst.
• Who: You and your friends.

Cheers

Hugo

Episode 14 is an interview i did this week with Tim Kirk from Clonakilla (www.clonakilla.com.au). Tim is the person responsible for sparking the cult that is Shiraz-Viognier in Australia. He not only created the market for Australian made SV both here and internationally, he set the benchmark against which it must be measured. I know if i think of Australian SV, I immediately think of quality and wouldn’t hesitate spending over $30-40 a bottle on. Hopefully that lasts (it will if Tim has anything to do with it).

The interview is short so we can all ease back into it but let me know what you think of it in the comments and post any additional questions you may have for Tim and i’ll try to get him to respond.

Do grab a bottle of their Shiraz Viognier, Hilltops Shiraz, Riesling or straight Viognier to see what the fuss is about. Check here for outlets.

(Tim Kirk on the Right, his father John on the left - photo: clonakilla.com.au)

Next show is a run-down of the Torbreck range and The Oz Wine Show’s first giveaway so be sure to subscribe to the feed to get all the updates (or check back soon).

Cheers,

Hugo

While i’m here, Sydney-siders should make a note of getting along to the Sydney Royal Wine Show coming up in a two weeks on the 17th of Feb. Mick and I had a blast at it last year. Listen to OWS#8 and OWS#9 if you missed them.

Here’s a blurb about this year’s show;

Sydney Showground is set to become the Mecca of wine tasting on Saturday 17 February 2007 when the cellar doors of the Macquarie Bank Sydney Royal Wine Show open to the public for the first time at the Sydney Royal Wine Show Cellar Tastings event.

Hugo

"Ernst Loosen doesn’t mince words. Passionate, irrepressibly irreverent, ironic and outraged - all within the same sentence - he is a fascinating conversationalist and an erudite lecturer. He has been called Germany’s winemaker rock star and its best wine ambassador. Sandra Shoji, The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo), April 12, 2003"

The interview was done at the Frankland Estate International Riesling Tasting by Dave Brookes - Sydney wine blogger and all-round good guy. Dave contributes to WineFront and has his own blog at www.vinosense.com. The interview is a bit hardcore but is a great insight into many topics surrounding Riesling, Germany, Australia, Washington State and matching grapes to production methods and food pairing.

For more info, here's two documents from the drloosen.com site;

• Guide to German Wine which may help with all the quality levels mentioned in the show,
• Guide to pairing Loosen wines with food . (the rights of both pdf's remain with drloosen.com)

If the interview sparked an interest in Ernst, try his entry level "Dr Loosen" Riesling 2004 or 2005. Cam Wheeler from Appellation Australia has a review of it here . There's a review of the more pricey "J L Wolf Jesuitengarten Riesling 2004" at winorama .

If you're having trouble with your local wine stores, click here to try the Oz Wine Show wine search feature , type in "loosen" and click "go".

Don't forget to comment on this, or any other post, by clicking the "comments" button next to the date on the left. Feel free to respond to other comments as well.

Also, get automatic updates to the show and the blog via the RSS feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/ozwineshow ). More info on using RSS here .

All the best, Hugo 

I, like many, only knew of Len by his larger than life reputation. He was known globally for his passion, enthusiasm and knowledge and was Australian wine's greatest exponent;

“We can become the third-biggest wine producer in the world and even in time the greatest, but every hatchet has to be buried. We have to pull together.”

Well known UK wine journo Matthew Jukes revealed at the Sydney Royal Wine Show earlier this year that sitting next to Len at a function was 'a mind blowing moment" in his career. Campbell Mattinson has some insightful and heartfelt words at WineFront here. For a list of reasons why Len was, and always will be, the doyen of Australian wine - click here.

Our heartfelt condolences to Len's family and friends.

Addon:

The Len Evans Principle, better known as his Theory of Capacity, paraphrased and abridged (source: freerangegourmet.com): 

Hugo

Elevating myself before nine in the morning on a weekend day is, at best, challenging. Performing same on four hours’ sleep, when Friday night ended at three am after the following: 1997 Billecart Salmon Elisabeth Rosé, 1983 Roederer Blanc de Blancs, 2000 Pierre Usseglio Châteauneuf du Pape, and a cracking 2002 Gunderloch spætlese? Such a feat is nothing short of a miracle.

However, when nine am Saturday presents you with a strong flat white and a glass of Gosset Grande Reserve in quick succession, you do what you must. Winemaker Alois ‘Luis’ Kracher was presenting the Kracher beerenauslese, trockenbeerenauslese and icewines over a degustation breakfast tasting, and the notion of meeting an Austrian dessert wine specialist was more than enough to battle through the fact that I felt like the bluntest pencil in the case.

This is the first time I have heard of a breakfast wine tasting, but the format actually could not have worked more perfectly for the styles of wine being presented. Can you imagine looking through a glaze of late harvest sweetness and botrytis over an afternoon? You’d need a pillow and a blanket and a nap halfway through. Put it at the other end of the day, however, when your metabolism is still primed and it works brilliantly. By eleven o’clock I felt fantastic. Not the least of the reasons being that the wines Luis makes are superb. (more…)

I probably should have split it into three smaller chunks and released them more regularly. What do people think?

1:30 First up is James Halliday, a prolific Australian wine writer and nice chap to boot.
11:20 Secondly was an interview with Matthew Jukes who seems to have a toe in most forms of wine media in the UK. Check out his site at www.matthewjukes.com.
14:30 The last interview is with Lindsay McCall of Paringa Estate Wines situated on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. Very nice guy who, along with his wife Margaret, produces some great wines. Check out their website at www.paringaestate.com.au.
22:30 Tastings include the Thorn-Clarke 2004 Shotfire Ridge Shiraz and Houghton’s 2001 Pemberton Chardonnay Pinot Noir.

Cheers

Hugo and Mick

This podcast includes two speeches given on the presentation day by Matthew Jukes and James Halliday about the show’s results and Australian wine in general.

2:45 - Guest international judge Matthew Jukes gives his views on the state of Australian wine in 2006.
9:00 - Tyrrells Vat 1 Semillon 1994 won the trophy for “best white table wine”. A legendary bottle well worth familiarising yourself with as a benchmark Hunter Semillon.
11:30 - McWilliams’ 1998 Mount Pleasant Lovedale Semillon won “best white table wine (in previous vintages)”.

13:35 - Head judge of the show, and well respected critic, James Halliday gives a short speech regarding his conclusions on the winners.
16:50 - Leasingham’s Classic Clare Riesling 2005 won “best young white wine”. The link only gives notes to the 1995 release for some reason.

Hope you enjoy the podcast.

This podcast includes three separate interviews Mick and Hugo conducted on the second night of proceedings. They are as follows;

5:30 - George Mihaly of Paradigm Hill Wines shares some insights into the role of tannins in structure and the need for good structure when pairing wine and food. Paradigm Hill is a family run vineyard and winery located in the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. Their website details all the facts and figures anyone would ever need to know about the wines they produce and the grapes they grow. Fantastic reading over tea and biscuits. Click here for the Paradigm Hill website.
14:55 - David Dungan, Marketing Manager of Punt Road Wines shares some of the history of Punt Road and describes some of the logistical problems a boutique winery may face when exporting to the US. Click here for the Punt Road website.
26:55 - Lastly, I spoke to Stephen Thompson of The Wine Society about the benefits you might find from joining a wine club. Click here for their website.

Hope you enjoy the podcast.

More info can be found here if anyone wants to join us.

The interviews this episode include Roy Moorfield, who founded the event 27 years ago and Keppell Smith, owner and winemaker at Savaterre. These guys were most accommodating with being interviewed on the spur of the moment and both are clearly very passionate about what they do. Keppell produces some fantastic wine and I highly recommend adding yourself to his mailing list. Savaterre’s production and distribution are limited but the mailing list is a direct way to access the coming releases.

Murray from Winetastic has more detailed notes of the event on his blog, so check them out.

That’s it for this episode. To ask us a question, or leave feedback, use the comments button bellow.

Hugo

I’ll be there again tonight recording some interviews so if anyone can make it, come say hi (I’ll be the one with the big mic). It’s at the Menzies Hotel, opposite Wynyard Station, and will set you back $25 at the door.

Hugo

With over 150 different wine glasses in their range, you might be surprised to hear Mark say that you can cover most variety bases with just 3 or 4 glasses. This was very comforting to me (as well as my bank balance) but it’s still nice to know that you can go the extra mile if so desired.

We used three glasses from Riedel’s Vinum Series which would cover most varietal needs on a day to day basis, they were the Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon (Bordeaux) and Burgundy glasses.

The wines are both from Kim Crawford Wines of New Zealand;

That’s it for this episode.

All the best

Hugo & Mick

We thought Peter Lehmann’s 2003 Merlot ($18) would be a good starting point. A great label and a decent price, so if you’d like to join us in a tasting, pick one up before you play the next show.

Also, why not pin a photo on The Oz Wine Show Frappr map. Click here.

Hugo

We crack a bottle of Matt’s superb 2003 Faith Shiraz and found out some philosophies behind it.

All the best

Hugo & Mick