Last chance for variety table at give away price

I have been selling the wine grape variety table and wine and grape indexes at a very low price, just $50.00 posted to an Australian address. Now I've done my sums I realise I just have to put the price up.

From Thursday 1 March 2007 it will be $60.00, still a bargain compared to the close to $90 you would pay to get one sent from the US... but why wait to pay more.

Put in your order now while it is still available at the old price!


Order your copy Now

Sydney Royal Show

The Sydney Royal Show wine judging results were announced recently. No Gold Medals were awarded in in the Other Varietals - Red class, Siver Medals were given to Brown Brothers and to Morris for Durif, Trentham Estate for Petit Verdot and Cassela wines for Tempranillo.

In the Other Varietals - White class Yalumba snagged a Gold for their Viognier, and De Bortoli Wines won Silver for Viognier.

Looking down the list of entries it seems that the show is dominated by larger wineries and classic varieties, underlining the need for more innovative formats such as that provided by the Alternative Varieties Wine Show.

See the results of the Royal Sydney Show

Wine Spectator reports: Argentina Likely in for Tough Year after Hail Hits Vineyards

Argentina is suffering from el Nino too.

Wine Spectator on line reports that unseasonal weather is hitting the wine industry in Argentina. Australian wine producers are not alone in facing probems fro the 2007 vinatge.


Wine Spectator | Articles | Argentina Likely in for Tough Year after Hail Hits Vineyards-full report

De Long's Wine Grape Varietal Table

I now have supplies of this table for mailing to Australian addresses. The cost, including GST and Postage is just $50.00; but I can only hold this price until 28 Feb. After that I will have to put the price up to $60.00, still a bargain, but why wait to pay more!

I display this chart each month at the Victorian Regional Wine Showcases and it attracts lots of attention among those keen to learn more about varietal wines.

De Long's Wine Grape Varietal Table

Bendigo Winemakers festival

This event is held on Easter Sunday each year at the beautiful Castlemaine Gardens. This year it falls on April 8. Over 30 wineries will be offering tastings, there are always some good food choices available, a variety of entertainment and a very friendly atmosphere.

Bendigo Winemakers Festival

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival - March 16-30

The Melbourne Food and wine Festival is now into it's 15th year, and it gets bigger and better every year.

There's the long lunches, now held all over the state, from Mildura to Noojee and Moonambel to Wodonga as well as in Telstra Dome where a luck 1500 people will be fed. The Cellar door at Southgate features 70 Wineries, and there are loads of wine and food seminars, masterclasses and even the International Flour Festival.

In fact, there are so many events that The Age has a 56 page supplement to let you know how and where you can be tempted

Hint: Book your travel and accommodation via Expedia.com and you will get a substantial saving on the already discounted prices if you build a package of two or more of flights, car hire and accommodation.

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival - Home Page

Crush Festival in the Adelaide Hills 11 March 2007

The Crush wine festival in the Adelaide Hills is the annual vintage and harvest festival for this innovative and varied region.

Download a program

More Australian wine events at this Squidoo

2007 horror vintage for Victoria

The 2007 vintage in Victoria looks like being a disaster for may of the state's wineries. The bad news started in the spring of 2006 when severe frosts hit many vineyards just as the new buds were appearing. Now severe water shortages have vineyard managers struggling to keep vines alive, let alone producing a decent crop. In between time many vineyards in NE Victoria were damaged or threatened by bushfires.

The bright spot is that some wines which are produced could be of excellent quality, which is what happened in the last severe drought affected vintage of 2002

This article by Jeni Port looks at the effects of the season on prospects for the 2007 Vintage in Victoria.

Heathcote Wine and Food Festival

Heathcote's annual wine and food festival is dubbed "Class in a Glass"

The organisers are on the ball. They have the program up on their website already. Take a lead from them and put the weekend of 6 and 7 of October in your diary.

For those not familiar with the region Heathcote is a Shirazophile's heaven. But there are plenty of wineries doing wonderful things with other varieties, including the some of the Rhones.

Class in a Glass : Heathcote Wine and Food Festival

Grampians Grape escape

The Grampians provide one of the most dramatic backdrops to a wine region in Australia. From the east the escarpments appear to suddenly rear up out of the Earth. The wine tradition here is unbroken since the gold era with the two icons of Best's and Seppelts Great Western both holding immense fascination for the serious historian of Australian wine.

The first weekend in May is time for this region to have some fun with the annual Grape Escape Wine and Food Festival. This festival aways takes it's food seriously; this year's celebrity chef is Tobie Puttock.

While you are visiting the region make some time to see how the bush in the National Park is recovering from the devastating fires of 2006.

More details

Some special wine at a special price

This offer can't last!

Our wine distributor snapped up the last of the wine at Broken Earth. The winery went bust due to over enthusiasm before the wine glut... bad timing, but that's business.

The Petit Verdot and the Verdelho are both very good wines for the price. I am on my third box of the PV. It shows exactly why the variety is so successful in warmer inland regions. Not to much body, but good structure and flavour...ideal summer wine. RRP for this wine was $37.00. Maybe a bit ambitious, but you can get it now, delivery included, for a quarter of that price.

But Hurry! Once it's sold out, its sold out!

Order some now!

OTBN : An American idea that makes sense

I don't really know, but I suspect that many (if not most) of the readers of this blog are Baby Boomers. So we are entering the contemplative phase of our lives. Some of us have made wills and we are all busy planning for our retirement.

Many of us have accumulated a few bottles of wine that we regard as special, either for the wine itself, or the memories attached to it. (I have two bottles of a James Joyce Bloomsday Centenary wine, and 1974 Vintage red called "A Certain Grandeur" for example).

But what is going to happen to this glorious plonk when we shuffle off? Is it going to be wasted on the Bacardi Breezer generation? Not a pleasant thought.

The only sensible thing to do with wine is to drink it.

The Americans have come up with the idea of Open That Bottle Night, held on the last Saturday of February, this year it's the 24th.

The idea is to set up an occasion and open a special bottle, or two, that would otherwise be left in the shelf for too long. Some BYO restaurants in the US even waive corkage for OTBN. I'd like to see that done here.

At one level it's a marketing ploy, just like St Valentines Day, but it can help us to take stock of what is in the cellar and when we think we are actually going to drink the stuff.

So there you have it, what are YOU planning? Remember you can't take it with you.

Use the comments link to share your thoughts.

By the way the cartoon above is from my good friend Lord Sedgewick of Strathmore