Aussie Beauts
POSTED ON 21/09/2013The Decanter World Wine Awards is the UK's biggest wine competition, and with 14,000-plus wines entered this year, the Aussies have aced it with six international trophies compared to Spain, Chile and South Africa's four and France's three.
The Big Six trophy winners were 2010 Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet-Shiraz, 2011 Josef Chromy Chardonnay Tasmania, 2011 Credaro Family Estate Beach Head Shiraz Margaret River, 2007 McGuigan Bin 9000 Semillon Hunter Valley, 2008 Eden Springs High Eden Riesling Eden Valley and Campbells Topaque Rutherglen.
New Cape Escape
POSTED ON 14/09/2013If the word pioneering is a cliché in wine, the reality is that new wine regions in the New World often emerge as a result of a few brave souls going out on a limb. So it is with Swartland, the Cape wine region justifiably garnering attention and praise for wines based largely on Rhône styles .
Irouleguy - The Route Less Travelled
POSTED ON 07/09/2013If South-West France is as far as you can delve into La France Profonde without going astray, then Irouléguy is the wine region at the end of the rainbow. Little heard of, and even more rarely seen, this tiny little beauty spot, with only 240 hectares to its name, is tucked so far into the French Pyrenees that it almost spills into the Atlantic Ocean. Yet what it lacks in size and celebrity, it more than makes up for in the character of its people and its food and wine.
Wine Touring in Uco Valley
POSTED ON 06/09/2013Take a stroll through a Tupungato vineyard at sunrise and you may just catch a glimpse of a silvery moon descending as a dazzling golden sun rises to strike the snowcapped volcano’s peak. Accompanying the crunching of gravelly vineyard soil underfoot, the only sounds are birdsong, the occasional bark of a dog or neighing of a horse and the whispering of vine leaves in the breeze. This is the gentle, beating heart of the Uco Valley.
