By some legislative quirk related to an obscure religion-based regulation involving Sunday, we in Qld get a holiday on Monday. Didn't have one last year when 25/04/2009 fell on a Saturday but hey, it is Qld. Anzac Day has put me in mind of Uncle (by marriage) Ron. I was just a kid, don't remember him ever talking about his war experiences as a sniper in Nuigini. He was granted a small farm block at Millaroo near Clare in the lower Burdekin Valley. But even then tobacco was a marginal crop. He ended up working as a psych nurse at the same institution as my older bro, the latter for about 38 years - I sometimes wonder about the bro

. In the early/mid 60s I remember Uncle Ron kept a few nanny goats he used to milk to help sustain his family. He passed away some years ago but he provided well for my aunt who is now in care at a good private home for the aged after having lived for some years in a detached villa there. I also remember my maternal Nanna talking about one of her near family having been gassed in WW1, afterward never being the man he was before that conflict.
Lest we forget.
It's been a Tahbilk week. TheThe riesling 09 was just like a comfortable pair of old slippers, the viognier 09 didn't have the viscous mouthfeel of the earlier vintages I've had, a little disappointing as a varietal but perhaps the 2nd bottle will be more expressive next year. Shiraz 06 is very good and so is the cab 06, both with healthy tannins that augur well for a minimum five more years in the cooler, the cab perhaps with longer term cellaring potential. They're both still very young and primary with typical Tahbilk varietal characters, the shiraz showing nice black fruits, some licorice, the cab savoury cassis with some mintiness. Both show good quality cedary oak not often found in <$20 reds. 2006 seems to have been a good red vintage at Tahbilk.
Remembrance is undeniably a part of being human.
daz