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World’s Best Riesling Challenge

Chris — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:39:37 +0000

As reported by WineBiz, the 10th Canberra Riesling Challenge is taking place from 12-17 October in Canberra.

This event started off ten years ago as a small Canberra event to find the World’s best Riesling and is now a world class wine event. This year, the competition has broken previous records for the number of entries and the number of countries that are represented. In all there are Rieslings from 10 countries for this year’s challenge.

The chairman of the event, Ken Helm, says that the growing popularity of the event reflects the resurgence in popularity of Riesling as a great table wine.

More details are on the Riesling Challenge website.

This is our pick of riesling wine to buy online. There are some good buys at the moment so check out the selection.

Australia’s First Families of Wine

Chris — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:25:04 +0000

A new marketing initiative will soon be launched in Australia to promote Australian wine. The venture is named AFFW which stands for Australia’s First Families of Wine and it comprises a collective of 12 famous names in the Australian wine industry.

The purpose of AFFW is to educate consumers and industry professionals on the characteristics of Australia’s best regional wines. Australian wine is the largest import in the UK and yet the price of Australian wine is declining. The need is there to compete on quality rather than price and raise the understanding and appreciation of Australian winemaking.

The twelve names that form AFFW are:

Brown Brothers (Victoria)
Campbells (Victoria)
d’Arenberg (South Australia)
De Bortoli (NSW)
Henschke (South Australia)
Howard Park (Western Australia)
Jim Barry (South Australia)
McWilliam’s (NSW)
Tahbilk (Victoria)
Taylors (South Australia)
Tyrrell’s (NSW)
Yalumba (South Australia)

Between them they have 1200 years of winemaking experience. The chairman is Alister Purbrick from Tahbilk who is a fourth generation winemaker.

The launch of AFFW is on 31 August at the Sydney Opera House. More details on Winebiz.

Top 100 Wines, James Halliday 2008 list

admin — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:17:44 +0000

James Halliday has published his top 100 wine list for 2008. It’s an interesting read and we’ve selected a handful of the wines from the list that you can buy online at fantastic prices.

He also gives an overview of trends in the Australian wine industry. These are some of the points he highlights:

There is a marked trend towards chardonnays with lower alcohol content – 12.5% to 13.5% rather than 13.5% to 14.5%.
2008 red wines especially those from the Barossa and Clare Valleys and McLaren Vale are better than their 07 counterparts.
The percentage of Western Australia wines is higher, partly because of the popularity of sauvignon blanc and sauvignon semillon blends. Also there are large scale plantings in the state gaining in maturity and quality.
The trend towards screwcaps over corks continues.