The Auswine Forum

All is well guys, (Thanks for asking Dave) I think it was the entry I had. Even though bit eventful for me it was a great night and good to meet new people. My two favourites were dead arm & Sami Odi. Yeah it's a pity that Cab/Mlb was corked otherwise I would have been WOTN for me. Sounds like ...

The key to purchasing NZ wine in Austrtalia is often to stick to the premium producers and not the big players. For instance, most kiwi's think Kim crawford is rubbish but it seems to have a premium reputation around the world. What would you say about Cooper's Creek, another "big player"...

Thats different to my mail on 2012 and 2013 - I understood there were rain issues at harvest in many regions in 2012 but the further south the better - with Central Otago having a stellar year. 2013 perhaps the opposite - Central is likely to make a lot of more elegant, "pretty" wines, wi...

2012 was also a good NZ vintage, as is 2013.

That was a bit harsh on 2012. It was a long cool vintage and actually very good for aromatics. Some of the Rieslings and sav blancs are stunning. As was mentioned, 2010 was a great Pinot vintage almost across the board, 2012 was pretty good for pinot and I suspect 2013 could be a stunning vintage fo...

I had a particularly impressive Cabernet Merlot from a producer I know little about the other night; a Hamilton Estate 1996 from Willunga in SA.

It showed how good that vintage was. The wine is developing beautifully and was quite elegant. Very impressive indeed.

It's been an interesting discussion. I do agree totally with Milan's point that one day you do have to be prepared to drink the wine. Strange as it may seem, after collecting wines for many years it is easy to see them as trophies and not actually get around to drinking them until they are past thei...

You need to bear in mind that the price of a wine has only the slimmest correlation with its quality.

Obviously the 8.2% weren't actually sampled, the damage just looked significant enough to "potentially" cause problems. And as people have mentioned, if the cap looks damaged just don't buy that bottle. There is no way of telling if a wine is potentially corked just by looking at the bottl...

What an intelligent post qwertt. Certainly more balanced than some of the emotive ones above it. I have to admit I have certainly heard of Torbreck, but know nothing of this Powell chap. Because their top wines are priced so far outside my range I haven't bothered with them much to be honest. What a...

Yes, I would probably rate 8 wired top as across their whole range they are very consistent. Amazing that Marlborough is tops for wine and beer. There is a very good Renaissance brew called MPA but I doubt you would see that over there. I have recently discovered Liberty from the Taranaki and that i...

Where has all of the massive amounts of debt come from given the company has been so "successful" and the wines so expensive?

I'm sure there is more to come out about this. It seems strange the new owners would be willing to cause such bad publicity if there was an easier way around things.

Sierra is good, but look out for some stunning NZ examples.

8 wired, liberty, epic, emersons; probably the top four.

I've never actually had the Epic lager but their others are all stunning.

I'm pretty sure I have seen Epic in either Adelaide or Tasmania and not bad prices either.

I think he writes well and without bias. He has still scored the wines quite highly and his relative ratings of the various vintages is probably on the mark, not many of you have commented on that.

I must say I was impressed by Pooley; both the wines and the people.

I find most of the Tasmanian wines grossly over priced for what they are. Not much value to be had.

If you pick the grapes in 2012 its a 2012 wine.

Pretty straight forward I would have thought.

From memory there is a place called Melbourne Street Cellars, or something like that, that has quite a good selection of decent NZ wines in Adelaide.

Those Forrest HB reds are very impressive, esp the 2005 and 2007 if I recall correctly. Try the Syrah as well.

While both vintages should be drinking well now, there is no reason why they won't go for another five years at least.

Hi Phill I think vintage wise with NZ Pinot Noir your safest bet is 2010. It was probably the best vintage ever in Marl and very good in Central Otago as well. As to NZ whites that you might find in Adelaide, from distant memory you might be able to find Nautilus, Greywacke and Riverby. You should g...

Not a particularly good choice of NZ whites other than the Mates. Pinot Gris is probably the most improved NZ wine style over recent years, admittedly off a very low base. Your two choices though would not be really be considered contenders. The Pinot Noirs were not really a good selection either vi...

Which is NZ's best wineshop Craig?

That's a decent sort of supermarket special for Coleraine.

The Australians have no idea how good NZ supermarkets are for premium wines.

That would have to be one of the most amazing I have seen though.

I was thinking the same as Mahmoud. Lets get into the label that is currently taking all the fruit that would be used for the 20,000 odd extra cases.

You are ok bringing in half a doz bottles or so with your personal luggage, regardless of how much they are worth. Customs are quite reasonable face to face.

Its when you send some unaccompanied that you strike the really arrogant ones.

Australia is the worst country in the world to get wine into. Be prepared to be hit with exorbitant taxes.

You should be aware that Schloss Vollrads is hardly a flash label these days. Its probably to Riesling what Oyster Bay is the Sav Blanc.

Geoff Kelly once said something along the lines of "Pinot gris is for those people who really don't like wine, but feel they should make an effort"

Craig

What do you think of that Keltern Chard that keeps winning all of the trophies?

I must say, I continue to be underwhemed by it.

I don't mind Gourmet Traveller Wine, its probably the best of the ones I see and usually buy it. The one that has probably gone down hill the most in NZ is Cuisine, it used to have a decent wine section but is now very basic and poor. I think the more you know about wine the less interesting many of...

There is a very good wineshop in ChCh called Decant, which has a great selection of European wines, and there is a surprising restaurant in Blenheim called Fairweathers which has a lot of European wines on its list and at amazingly cheap prices.