Join the Wine.com Wine Club (Advertisement)

New members of Wine.com Club joining either the "Big Bold Reds" or "Wines of the World Club" will receive a $25 gift certificate! Valid only on month-to-month "Big Bold Reds" and "Wine's of the World" memberships. To qualify for the $25 Wine.com gift certificate, members must still be active through their third club shipment in November 2004. Certificates will be distributed shortly thereafter.

Heathcote Food and Wine Festival - Class in a Glass, October 2-3

The third Heathcote Wine and Food Festival will be held at the Heathcote showgrounds on Saturday and Sunday 2 and 3 October 2004. The region is known for its legendary Shiraz wines, but look out for some other Rhone variety specials making their mark, Viognier, Roussanne and Marsanne. There are also plantings of Zinfandel, Nebbiolo, Sangiovese and Tempranillo in this area.

The usual tasting and chatting with the winemakers will be supplemented with chef's demontrations , wine and cheese matching seminars and a pentaque competition. What better way to spend a Spring weekend.

Heathcote Food and Wine Festival Information

You are welcome to comment on this or any other entry in this blog!

Margaret River wines from alternative varieties

The Margaret River wine region is justly famous for its Vasse Felix Cabernet and the Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnays. But there is much more to this expanding and diverse region.

Margaret River wines from alternative varieties

Coming soon! Vinodiversity News

Vinodiversity News is on its way. Your last chance to sign up and be among the select few who can say they have the special gold plated first edition of this prestige addition to the wine press.
You will also get

• a monthly summary of what's happening with diverse wines
• pointers to hot new wines from hot new varieites
• news about wine on the web
• an update of progress in the building of Vinodiversity
• an easy way to tell me to buzz of if you are no longer interested

You will not get

• spam. My web host has bulletproof antispam policies and in fact is a leader of an effective grass roots anti spam campaign
• your email box stuffed with dodgy offers

So get in before 31 August and you will be the proud (virtual) owner of Issue 001 of Vinodiversity News.

Subscribe now or you will only be a chance for the silver plated second editon (due out in October)

James Halliday Wine Companion 2005 to be released in the UK

Amazon.co.uk are taking orders for the James Halliday Wine Companion 2005. It will be available from the end of August 2004. Be the first to get one!
James Halliday Wine Companion 2005

On the subject of wine books Vinodiversity has started a new page to help you choose and source the best wine references.
Check it out!

Wine Art Posters and Prints

You can brighten up your office, home or cellar with some great Art prints and posters like this.



Check them out!

Wine Art Posters and Prints

88 wine varieties

The purpose of Vinodiversity is to spread the word about alternative wine varieties. What varieties? Well there are hundreds of varieties throughout the world. So far I have identified about ninety or so that are grown commercially in Australia. Eighty eight is a good number to land on. 8 of course is a very auspicious number in the Chinese culture. So I have called my page 88 wine varieties. You can of course make comments to this Blog, and tell me I am wrong. But I'm sticking to 88 until the number gets to 888.

Some other numbers. There sixty-one wine regions in Australia, numbered by James Halliday from 1 to 56. He cleverly inserts 12a, 19a, 39a, 39b and 55a to get them all in. Vinodiversity will eventiually provide a guide to alternative varieties in all of them. The list has just started, you can watch progress at Wine regions. Better still, why not subscribe to the Vinodiversity Newsletter
Halliday lists 1865 wineries in his 2005 Wine Companion, a difficult number to pin down. But I think about 400-500 of these are making wine from alternative varieties.


88 wine varieties

Granite Belt wine region in Queensland

Many people are surprised that the 'Sunshine State' has a serious wine industry. But in the Granite Belt area in the Great Dividing range just over the NSW border there is plenty happening. See more about
Granite Belt wine region in Queensland and the alternative varieties that are grown there.

Petit verdot gets a gong

Australian Gourmet Traveller Wine magazine recently ran a readers poll for the top ten wines under $25. They have published the eleven wines in the top ten in their Spring 2004 edition. How did they get eleven? Who knows. But second out of the eleven was 2002 Sirromet Petit Verdot. What's that? Well Petit verdot is one of the hottest red wine varieties going around. And where is Sirromet? Would you believe in Queensland.

You can find ot more about Petit verdot here. Better still why not subscibe to the Vinodiversity Newsletter? Its free, 100% fat free, 100% spam free, and most importantly it will free you of your ignorance about varietal wines.

More rare varietal wines

I have added a few extra rare varietals to my rare wines page. In particular a couple of German Varieties Lemberger and Trollinger, an a couple of Aussie innovations, namely Malian and Shalistin, mutants discovered and developped by Cleggett Wines in Langhorne Creek.
Check them out.

Rare varietal wines

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival - Winter

Although it says Melbourne there are some regional events in nearby Gippsland, Yarra Valley and the Peninsula. Although the emphasis is heavy on food, if you check out the schedule you will find something interesting, particularly the wine masterclasses on blending rhone wine varieties.


Melbourne Food and Wine Festival - Winter

A Gold Medal Durif

You can get the great 2002 vintage De Bortoli Vat 1 Durif for just $10.95 per bottle. The wine has a Gold, a Silver and Four Bronze medals. For the price it is a great entry point for this increasingly popular variety.

You can get it from Winemakers Choice. While you are there check out their range of other diverse varietals.