The Auswine Forum

Some good wines there and I couldn't go.
Anyone go and find anything of interest?

Hi rocknoise, yes I went last week in Perth. The thing I found interesting unfortunately was the conclusive fact that no matter what, I will never prefer Pinot or white wine (with exception of chardonnay) over our great rich aussie reds. To clarify though, I can and do still enjoy a well made wine of any variety but just so plainly prefer fuller bodied red wines. I have been quite lucky in attending many great tastings of late and although it was an enjoyable event I didn’t really leave with anything that gave me too much interest. There were a few that I found good sold wines though (but not a great amount) and I will try and find my event booklet and report back.

Sorry, the other thing was finding out how surprisingly youthful the NZ wine industry was. Couldn’t believe that out of the 10 or so wineries I asked, the oldest was established in about the mid to late 90’s but most were in this decade. This is a tribute to the industry for getting their wines out there in the market in a big way so quickly. In fact I managed to speak with James Halliday at a degustation dinner last week and he tells me there are more bottles of NZ sav blanc sold in Aus then any other wine. A shame Te Mata wasn’t there, it’s a wine I can’t wait to eventually try by most reports. Had the Craggy Range Sophia and think it is a very good wine, but didn’t blow me away this time around.

Will try and get back with a more helpful report.

I'm a fan of NZ wines and I was planning to go (having attended previous years), but discovered that the list of wineries was almost completely dominated by Marlborough wines. Hardly any representation from Martinborough or Otago, not to mention Hawkes Bay, etc - especially given the high profile and hype that these areas have. And many of the really interesting Marlborough wines weren't there anyway. Even the most average Aussie shoe tends to come up with a more interesting line-up. This is a real shame, since there really are a number of interesting NZ wines that I'd like to try. The show organisers are going to have to try a bit harder.

Tristram Shandy