I have written about how good the wines being made at Pondalowie are, so I won't harp on about that.  This wine is a blend of  Cabernet, Shiraz and 20% Tempranillo and sees some time in american and french oak.  The addition of tempranillo to the classic aussie blend really works well if this wine is anything to go by. A nice nose of mulberry, a bit of cherry and toasty oak.  Medium bodied...

I had a look at the crianza style La Montesa a couple of months ago, this is its big brother.  A similar blend of the 4 Rioja grapes: Garnacha (40%), Tempranillo (35%), Mazuelo (15%) and Graciano (10%).  This time the oak is all french and the wine is more of a Reserva style.  I have said this before, but watch out for the 04, it looked great as a barrel sample in February. The wine started...

It's cup weekend here in Melbourne and you probably should be drinking something with bubbles in it, even if its before 11am on Monday morning. (for our international guests, there is a big horse race in Melbourne on Tuesday called the Melbourne Cup.  Its a good excuse to drink a ...

I had to get at least one cava in during cava week, and this is my favorite at the moment.  Brut Nature is a no dosage style that is typically very crisp and fresh.   This wine is a blend of 60% Macabeo and 20% each of Xarel-lo and parellada.  The wine is aged on lees for 12 months, and for those bubbly freaks there is a disgorgement date on the back label. A pale gold in colour...

As promised, I have a few more cavas to taste.  Sure cava week is over, but it isn't the only time to drink cava. Any time is cava time, especially Wednesday afternoon. Anyway on to the wine.  The 2003 Vintage Reserva is a blend of 45% Macabeo, 35% Parellada and 20 % Xarel.lo. and sees 24 months on lees. Brilliant pale gold in colour with a fine nose of lemon, yeasty bread and a hint of melon...

I had a look at the Brut Nature version of this wine last week and from what I can work out the only real difference between these two wines is dosage, the Brut has 8.8 grams per litre of residual sugar where as the Brut nature has less than 3.  Again the blend is mostly Macabeo (60%) with the remainder Xarel-lo and Parellada (20% each).  I bought this bottle back from a tasting and shared...

Torres make a number wines under their 'Gran' label, basically these are Reserva versions of their younger brothers. So, here we have Gran Coronas (I had a look at the 03 Coronas here ), a blend of 85% Canbernet and 15% Tempranillo that sees 12 months in french an eastern European oak, 30% of which is new. I also notice that the Gran Coronas is labeled as D.O. Penedes, while the Coronas...

Segura Viudas is one of the many brands of the massive Fleixenet cava house.  They seem to focus on Macabeo and Parellada for their traditional house style, with a range of newer wines that feature  Xarel·lo.  They also have a range of still wines, that I don't think are out here as yet. The Brut Vintage is a blend of 67% Macabeo and  33% Parellada that has been aged on lees for 3 years...

Its been at least a couple year since you've been able to buy this wine in Australia, its great to see it back.  Muga is one of the classic Rioja bodegas and this is one of their classic wines.  Mostly Tempranillo with 20% Garnarcha and 10% Mazuelo and Graciano, the ...

Aldo Grasso, critico televisivo del Corriere della sera, piemontese di nascita e di weekend, ha fatto una marchetta piemontese nel Corriere di mercoledì 25 ottobre a pagina 59 nell'articolo di apertura dello speciale dedicato a Slow Food. Per dare forza al suo ragionamento ha detto che ... persona per bene, ha fatto la sua marchetta piemontese per favorire l'educazione alimentare...