Congratulations to the lovely David Williams. Not to be confused with David Walliams of Little Britain (I’m a la-dy), this young gentleman is the new wine writer at The Observer.
The former editor of the now-defunct Wine & Spirit, deputy editor of World of Fine Wine magazine, and general all-round nice guy, has been handed the column following Tim Atkin MW’s move to The Times.
You’ll remember the Save the Wine Column campaign we set up to get Tim’s full column reinstated in The Observer, after having it slashed to a shopping list. Sadly, David’s column is only a list of tasting notes, which seems a shame as he’s such an eloquent writer. Nevertheless, you wouldn’t turn down a national column, would you? (I wouldn’t!)
Perhaps, the Observer editor will finally realise that David – like Tim – is worthy of a full, entertaining and informative wine column. Until then, David, well done on your first national column. Click here to read David’s first column. Some nice wines in there: I particularly like the M&S Manzanilla and the Wine Soc’s Moscato d’Asti. Quinta de Azevedo’s Vinho Verde is also a cheeky wine.
Finally, happy 59th birthday to my dad, John, and happy Norwegian national day!
Matt Dicey, winemaker at Mt Difficulty, introduces this episode of Unfiltered. He wriggles out of telling us his birth year and loves the Matrix…Keanu, you still have your fans!
It was a man’s man’s man’s world, according to James Brown back in 1966, but the sentiment still holds today. Thankfully, things have changed a lot in the past 40 years and there are many successful women in the wine industry including Margaux’s Corinne Mentzelopoulos (good luck pronouncing that one after a few glasses of claret), Gina Gallo, and Jancis Robinson MW.
Yet the board rooms and wineries are still dominated with men. So, it was nice to ditch the boys for the first women-only Lovewine Professional dinner last night. More than 20 women from the Kiwi wine industry, from a small all-female winery team to representatives from a multinational drinks giant, got together to do a bit of networking, have dinner and enjoy ourselves.
We talked wine (naturally), the recent harvest, social media, setting up a scholarship for women – and, of course, discussed the aesthetic merits of some male winemakers! Ok, that wasn’t so highbrow (rest assured, there was certainly no dancing around handbags) but I’m sure the fellas would end up talking rugby and cars at a Men in Wine dinner. Let’s face it, there’s only so long you can discuss tannins and oak management before you fall asleep in your soup!
It’s a daunting prospect tasting more than 50 Kiwi Sauvignon Blancs before 10am. Then, just when you’ve recovered from the Savalanche haze, you’re assaulted by a blur of 50 super-ripe Aussie Shirazes before lunchtime. And we volunteer to do this!
Before tasting the Sauvignons at Liquorland’s wine show, all 20 judges discussed what we should be looking for: elegance, balance, freshness. It’s an unusual time of year to be looking at Sauvignon Blanc. It’s usually judged in October as it falls off the bottling line or at Easter. Yet, it’s probably one of the most useful times to see how those wines are holding up a year after they were harvested. Moreover, these wines are going to be the ones the export market drinks for another six months.
The class we judged was pretty solid (which, was a lot more than we could say for the Chardonnay and Merlot category) although there were more wines than I expected with reduced characters: think burnt match, cabbage, garlic. Not something you’d want in your glass.
I’m astounded why people enter faulty or tired wines past their best in a competition. They’re not going to win anything. Yes, it’s less prevalent than it used to be but it still exists today. So, I asked some winemaker judges why so many people entered their wines to a rigorous judging process. One response was winemakers become too close to their wines and believe they are worthy of a medal; another claimed more wineries are entering competitions because they are desperate to help sales; if they can sneak a silver, it’s going to give them a boost.
If you’ve ever been to Marlborough, you’ll know it has its own château. It’s not quite Margaux but Château Marlborough is swish enough, although the exterior faux turrets leave a little to be desired.
Yes, I’m back in Marlborough – again – judging at the Liquorland International Wine Competition. And after just one day, my teeth are killing me. I’m writing this with tooth mousse smothered over my gnashers in a futile attempt to ease the pain. And we haven’t even started on the Sauvignon Blanc category. That’s tomorrow. Aaaggghh.
It’s been off-dry Rieslings, Pinot Gris, other whites (Chardonnay/Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer/Semillon blends: why, oh why?), rosés and Aussie Cabernet Sauvignon for my panel today. Inevitably, there have been some shockers, a few stunners and a lot in between. The Aussie Cabernet line up was pretty consistent and threw up lots of good wines while there were sadly a lot of disappointments in the off-dry Riesling department.
We all get to wear fetching Liquorland aprons although I’ve have to pin mine as the front droops to my belly button thus defeating the purpose of wearing it. If only I had bigger boobs, it would prop the apron up.
There’s also the threat of wearing a crazy Indian/parrot headdress if your phone rings during judging so please don’t call me in the next two days between 9 and 5! The drooping apron is enough to cope with.
