Win a Penfolds Premium pack

Winemakers choice is holding a competiton to give away a super prize of some great Penfolds wine. (Not from alternative varietals but we can slum it a bit when 389, 707 and St Henri are on offer)

To be eligible you need to sign up to get weekly specials email from Winemakers choice. So check it out

Beechworth Wine Region

The Beechworth wine region is small and there are only about a dozen or so producers, but there is plenty of innovation on the varietal front

More about the Beechworth Wine Region

Chambourcin, a red wine grape variety for warm areas

Chambourcin is a so called French Hybrid, a vine produced by crossing a Europena wine variety with an America vine species. It is popular in the warmer, more humid wine regions in Australia.

More about Chambourcin

Tasting with the blind man

I've been quite busy reseaching/writing my new book and have had occasion to view a few web pages in French. My literacy in French is fairly basic so I used the "translate this page" facility in Google. It turned up the following appraisal of Honest Cabernet



All in Languedoc is dared! The Honest Cabernet, father of the Sauvignon Cabernet, which thrives in the Loire Valley (Bourgueil, Chinon...), in the Of Bordeaux one and the Western South, finds a new expression on the side of Villeséquélande (between Carcassonne and Bram). Fearing nevertheless the hydrous stress, this vine is enracinée on a fresh soil in a valley with a East-West exposure. You will thus taste a wine typified Honest Cabernet but with a roundness Southerner which will be able to disorientate of them some in tasting with the blind man. A pretty wine of summer that one to even drink a little fresh.

But I was really looking for Chenanson which comes out like this:

This crossing of Grenache and Jurançon Noir creates by the INRA of Montpellier in the Sixties now became very rare because it was supplanted by Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvèdre... a wine of original summer characterized by a nose evoking prune and pepper, stops round, flexible and spiced (liquorice, clove). To enjoy this summer around a grill between friends with good the franquette.

Hallidays new listings

James Halliday's Wine Companion 2006 has 172 new wineries listed, of these about half are using varieties which can be regarded as alternetive (all bar one are also growing mainstream varieties)

The following varieties are being used by the newbies


Barbera (4 new wineries are using this variety), Carina (1), Chambourcin (5), Chenin blanc (4), Cinsaut (1), Colombard (1), Corvina (1), Dolcetto (1), Durif (2), Gamay (1), Gewurztraminer (7), Grenache (21), Lagrein (2), Malbec (7), Marsanne (3), Meunier (3), Mourvedre (9), Muller Thurgau (1), Muscadelle (1), Petit verdot (6), Pinot Grigio (16), Rondinella (1), Roussanne (1), Sangiovese (9), Taminga (2), Tarrango (1), Tempranillo (4), Verdelho (14), Vermentino (2), Viognier (16), Zinfandel (1)

These and many more varieties will all be described in my forthcoming book Emerging Wine Varieties of Australia.

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