The Auswine Forum

I just visited Sydney and was on the hunt to buy a peated Australian whisky for a whisky club and an Archie Rose whisky was one of only two smoky/peaty whiskies that were over 500 ml. The only reason I didn't opt for the Archie Rose was because it was timber smoked instead of peated.

Again, not wine related, but transiting through Hong Kong I bought a pair of scotches: Hunter Laing's 'Scarrabus (46% abv) - a mystery Islay single malt. Douglas Laing's 'Rock Island' (48% abv) - blended malt for travel retail (1 litre) I sneaked through customs with 4 bottles in my suitcase, the ab...

I thought I should update everyone on what I ended up buying. After a thorough search of what was available (a lot of whiskies were out of stock) I bought a cask strength whisky from Fleurieu Distillery called ' The Jabberwocky' . First off it was peated and not smoked or finished in casks that held...

Wine # 10 (Fortified) – 1982 Sevenhills Vintage Port (Clare Valley) Lighter in colour than a usual Aussie VP. Some slight browning but otherwise a dark strawberry Colour. This is a tough one as the colour looks to be Portuguese due to the clarity and light colour… however I’m not sure. Amaro bitter...

Lake Breeze! That's a name I had forgotten about. First tried their wines back in the mid 90s. Fantastic value for money. Why don't we hear any chatter about Langhorne Creek? We need some young and trendy winemaker to put it back on the map. Is it's good enough for Wolfe then it's good enough for m...

Hi gwyn,

Unfortunately I am not heading to Melbourne, just here in Sydney with the in-laws for a short while, so I do have an address in Sydney. If there is a good on-line outlet in Melbourne send me the name and I will give it a look and see if it works.

Thanks ................. Mahmoud.

Thanks for the suggestions Gwyn, any idea where I might find Black Gate or Furneaux? A Dan Murphy search show no results.

Ian S wrote: ↑Thu Mar 21, 2024 10:09 pm p.s. I believe it's CCP. CCCP is the old acronym for the now defunct Soviet Union.

Thank you, a welcome correction.

Thanks for the notes and pictures Allan. I concur with Ian regarding Serge Hochar saying that the whites age better than the reds though I have no experience with aged whites. One thing I can say regarding the reds is that they do age very well and because they need a good deal of airing there is us...

The wine sounds lovely Ian. The quality of Guigal's humbler wines are always impressive, even the Cotes-du-Rhones which are made in industrial quantities.

Cheers ............ Mahmoud.

I am in Sydney for a very short time and have been given a brief by a whisky club that I am a member of, to bring back a peated Australian single malt. Can anyone on this forum recommend a retailer (or a local distillery for that matter) who has a good selection of Australian whisky. Cheers ...........

If the storage has been good, as it seems to have been, and the price is right, I would take a chance on the St Henri. I must confess to having a bottle of the 1995 St Henri and it has been on the list to be opened but being away from home for the last year has prevented me from opening it. This thr...

Wasn't the Moondah Brook verdelho a thing a long time ago?

If I remember correctly on a UK wine forum wines from the Canary Islands gets favourable reviews.

Here in Canada there are wineries springing up on Vancouver Island, though not having had any I cannot vouch for their quality.

An oopsie, see below.

What a great lineup of wines, especially with three first growths from the heralded 1982 vintage. I love the fact that amid all the famous names a Jamieson's Run made an appearance. Was the 1986 the Jimmy Watson Tropy winner? The last time I tried one, either the '91 or '92, it was far from resolved...

Scotty vino wrote: ↑Sat Jul 15, 2023 1:53 pm any wine over a hundred bucks!

I like that!

Come to think of it, one hundred is the most I've spent on a bottle of wine. Two come to mind, a d'Yquem many years ago and somewhat recently a magnum of Cantenac Brown.

Thanks for posting Rick. Your note reminds me of the time I passed through Adelaide on the India-Pacific. Got off one train, spend a whirlwind two days in the Barossa Valley, and caught the following train to Perth. At the backpacker hostel which was a large house that had newly opened, the new owne...

I look forward to hearing about it Rick. I thought that the only sparkling Shiraz in my cellar was a 1998 Peter Lehman 'Black Queen' but a recent reorganization of the cellar unearthed a N/V sparkling Shiraz/Cabernet from Seaview. I cannot remember when I got it but it was most certainly more than a...

Andrew, don't worry about your Australian focused list. Three of the wines on my list were Australian, most importantly my WOTY. Your list included some of the most iconic wineries in Australia: Penfold's, Tyrrell's, Noon's, Tahbilk, Moss Wood, Seppeltfield's, and Wynn's. I am envious of your Grange...

I posted my 2022 wines of the year on a UK wine forum and, once again, thought it might be interesting for others on this forum to contribute their nominations. These were my nominations presented in the format proscribed by the forum moderator with my comments: Red : 1967 Seppelt ‘Moyston’ Claret, ...

Oops. out of synch post in response to VinoEd.

Never mind the boycott, it's a Youtube video of Judith Durham of the Seekers singing Turn, Turn, Turn in the Yaldara vineyards. She passed away last year. Just use your preferred search engine and enter Seekers and Turn. You'll wish you had a bottle to go with it. I certainly did. Cheers ..............

For some reason the video will not link or embed.

Still not working. Sorry.

Wait for it.

A great old bottle opened on Saturday night. I sourced a number of these earlier in the year when I turned 40. Their cellaring provenance was highly questionable but they were cheap, so I took the risk. This was the third and last and was really fantastic. Not surprisingly the fruit had faded but i...

It’s a tough discussion to have in this country. Sort of like discussing theology in Saudia Arabia. I go as far to say opinion on screw cap is fanatical. If you think its a tough discussion now you should have seen it a few years ago when it seemed more like flying a Sopwith Camel under attack by a...

A New Zealand aquaintance of mine from many years ago told me his strategy was to buy two cases of each Bordeaux chateau, then, ten or more years later, sell one case and drink the other for free.

I must say that given the fairly longstanding reputation of Margaret River Cabernet I am surprised at how poorly the older ones showed in this tasting. I had always regretted not having Margaret River wines in my cellar but perhaps I should be grateful for the oversight.