The Wine Blokes

You are browsing the archives of 2008 May.

Have you ever read the back label of a wine and noticed the disclaimer, “traces of egg may remain” or “Preservative 220 added”?
By law in most countries, wine producers are obliged to adhere by these regulations and note them on the label. But what exactly does it mean? Many people have asked me why a […]

Last night was another where a couple of friends turned up unexpected with a few bottles of wine to taste, along with some great bread and cheese. One of the wines they had was a label I had been wanting to try for a while. I ordered it the other night when out for […]

As a tribute to the life of the legendary Californian Wine identity Robert Mondavi, Gary V over at WineLibraryTV has produced a tribute episode as part of his regular Wine Library TV series. Well done Gary and the Wine Library TV crew.
You can view the Episode here.

If you don’t know how grape juice is turned into wine, you’re probably in the wrong place. On the off chance you made it to this site accidently, grape juice is converted into wine by a little critter called yeast. Yeast of course is used in many food and beverage processes, including cheese, breadmaking & […]

Today I was going to whinge about the “band-aid” approach the Australian governement is adopting to control binge drinking. They’ve decided to raise the tax on AlcoPops or RTD (Ready To Drink) beverages such as pre-mixed bundy and coke and and UDL’s.
However, I’ve found something much more interesting, for me anyway. Over at the […]

Last Sunday I was finishing up my Sunday chores when I recieved a phone call from Paul at Maximilians Restaurant in the Adelaide Hills.  He told me to get around to the restaurant quick smart as they had spontanesouly decided to have a tasting of the some of the wines that had just come in.  […]

Robert Mondavi of Napa Valley, the founder of the modern US fine wine industry and a global symbol of American wine and food, passed away the morning of May 16, 2008. He was 94. The Mondavi family stated that the legendary vintner died peacefully at his home in Napa Valley. In tribute to this colossus […]

I recently saw some wine which was contained in a 1 litre cardboard juice carton similar to those used for cranberry juice. I was therefore not surprised to learn that Cordier Mestrezat would be unveiling lunch-box sized cartons of wine designed for consumption during lunch-breaks at the desk.
“Instead of buying a soda to go with […]

When we first undertook the task of developing a wine blog from “inside the wine industry” earlier this year, our aim was to create a blog with high quality content for consumers, wine industry professionals and anyone just interested in wine in general.
Things have developed rather quickly though. While there are plenty of online wine […]

I was having a discussion today with a well known former winemaker of a very well known Australian Wine Company, and we both agreed to disagree on the advantages and disadvantages of screw cap closures versus traditional cork. The wine media and consequently the wine consumer in general have overwhelmingly accepted screw cap as the […]