Winetastic

Dan Murphy’s have Mount Pleasant Philip Shiraz (some stores 2006, others 2007) and Elizabeth Semillon (2004) for $7.85 per bottle if you buy 6 or more. This is a ridiculously cheap price for a wine that is good value at $15. Stop reading my drivel and go buy a case or two.

A bunch of people involved with the wine trade have banded together to organise a fundraising raffle for victims of the Victorian bushfires. Tickets are $25 each and proceeds to go to the Australian Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal 2009. You can purchase tickets up until Tuesday March 11th, with the raffle to be drawn on Friday March 13th.

Full details of the prizes can be found on the Winestar Forums, first prize is worth over $25,000.

Tickets are available online from Winestar, Boccaccio and Auswine amongst others.

The lads at Meerea Park and the Boutique Wine Center are running a fundraiser to assist those affected by the Victorian bushfires, if you have not already made a donation directly to the Red Cross or other worthy charity, it might be worthwhile considering helping out your fellow aussies in need and buying some great wine at the same time:

Dear Mailing list,

Like everyone in Australian at present we have been monitoring the news about the devestation in Victoria and have come up with a way to help the fire victims and the couragous CFA.

Whilst we have not been affected personally with this disaster, we feel that as part of the Australian community whatever we can do to assist, we must.

We are offering a $100 per case donation of the $180 per case sale price from wine sold on the attached order form.

We propose to share this equally between the Red Cross Appeal and the CFA. The CFA came to the rescue of the Hunter Valley during the 1994 bushfires and were instrumental in saving many of our neighbour’s homes at the time.

The balance of the money will cover some of the cost of making the wine, freight and GST. If we could afford to donate the entire amount, we would.

You can take advantage of this offer by mailing or faxing back the attached order form, or by calling The Boutique Wine Centre on (02) 49987474.
Please allow up to a week for delivery for most areas.

Details on the wines offered can be found at www.meereapark.com.au and please feel free to pass this email onto friends or family that may be interested. The more wine sold, the bigger the donation!

regards

Garth Eather
MEEREA PARK WINES

Last week Gemma and I opened a bottle of Peter Lehmann “Eight Songs” Shiraz 2002, sadly the wine was corked so I emailed the winery the following morning, here was the prompt reply:

I am sorry to hear you have received a bottle of our 2002 Eight Songs Shiraz that was corked. Unfortunately we still get the odd one now and again so I will gladly send you some replacement wine.

If you could please forward me you address details I will organize it for you straight away.

Today I received not only a replacement of the same label, it was even from the 2002 vintage, bravo Peter Lehmann!

Please enjoy this somewhat wine related comic: http://www.explosm.net/comics/1467/

Recently I opened a bottle of Rosemount Estate Show Reserve Shiraz 2002 which was sadly corked. The next day I followed this up with the producer via their website, which led me up submit my request about replacement of corked wine via their online email form.

Flash forward a couple of weeks and I realised I had not received a response and the offending bottle had long since vanished, presumably down the sink. I called up the customer service line explaining the situation, and to cut a short story shorter, a replacement bottle from the current vintage is on its way - bravo Rosemount.

I was glancing at the Winetastic archives the other day and realised that the blog will have existed for three years as of today. Happy birthday to us? The real question of course is which wine to open in celebration…

Yesterday afternoon I felt a large disturbance in the wine blogging force, as if millions of keyboards were clacking away, then were silenced. Fortunately all is not doom and gloom since I was soon notified by Gary Walsh of Winorama fame that he had teamed up with Campbell Mattison of The Wine Front to form what is likely to be the most frequently updated wine review site in Australia.

While it is sad to see what was a brilliant free resource in Winorama being placed on the back burner, no doubt the $40 per annum subscription fee to The Wine Front is now even better value.

Good luck GW as you join the dark side of professional reviewers!

I just stumbled across an aussie video blog called Wineweek, they have been up and running for a few months now, producing a short show in a somewhat weekly format that review three wines per episode in a clear and straightforward manner, good stuff Brad & Danny.

For the wine geeks among us:

Laser Wine Thermometer
The lazy man’s thermometer, this is a nifty little gadget. You simply sit back, point the thermometer at the bottle of wine, and with the press of a button the thermometer registers the internal temperature of the wine.

Delong’s Wine Variety Table
This looks the business and would be a great talking point. Its an interesting poster that gives a visual way to look at wine grape varietals in a spectrum. It covers descriptions from the common wines right through to the very obscure.

The Cork Fish
There have been a couple of occasions where a cork has broken when cracking a bottle, and the only recourse is to push it into the bottle. Problem with that - cork chunks in the wine the rest of dinner. At last a gadget that proposes to solve this problem.

The Wine Clip
This is an interesting one… Allegedly, this clip puts “high intensity” magnets around the neck of your wine bottle and as the wine passes through the magnets, the change in magnetic field produces a chemical reaction that “reconfigures the wine’s natural tannins and certain impurities, creating a silkier flavor and finish.”

The “Unbreakable” Wine Glass
Big time quotes around “Unbreakable” here because it’s clearly marketing, but Schott-Zwiesel has a wine glass that is apparently break resistent and dishwasher safe whilst being as clear and delicate as a high-end Riedel glass.