Snooth Talk: Fullbottle

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: Fullbottle; Posted by fullbottle, Oct 30.; My first foray into this sort of discussion group, but my love of the Bucchanalian pleasures in life and the quality of this site have moved me. I am Australian (Sydney), and rate myself as an enthusiastic amateur in winetasting and experience - still learning and enjoying new discoveries after 20+ years. My experience is mostly with Oz wine, with some Old World and limited US experience (enjoyed an eye opening US zinfandel tasting about a year ago). I convene a monthly winetasting group and am a member of another. I'm also actively involved in a Sydney-based wine and food society. Lots happening with the Oz wine industry at the moment and I hope that my wine loving international colleagues out there in Snooth can experience some of the unique wine styles we produce here (sparkling shiraz, muscats to die for and aged semillon from the Hunter Valley north of Sydney. I've said enough - more to come.

1665 3027: Reply by Philip, Oct 30.; Welcome Fullbottle! Greg, Snooth's Editor, wrote a good article about South West Australia's cool climate wines recently (http://www.snooth.com/articles/wine-regions/western-australias-cool-climate-wines/) and we all had the chance to sample the wines as well.

I've not had a sparkling shiraz I've liked yet though - maybe you have a better selection than we have access to (in NYC).

2517 1738: Reply by Gregory Dal Piaz, Oct 30.; Welcome to Snooth Fullbottle.

I'm looking forward to hearing your perspective on wines, Australian and others!

0 9: Reply by fullbottle, Oct 30.; Thanks for the welcome guys. Philip, unless you have been to these fair shores, I suspect you have not seen our best sparkling shiraz, some of which command a $A70-80 price tag and would stand up for notice in any wine lineup - Seppelts Show Sparkling Reserve comes to mind. These wines are hard to beat slightly chilled with with turkey and ham in our hot Christmas weather.

I read Greg's article on SW Australia and agree with his view of its value for quality wines. Margaret R in particular can produce wonderful elegant cabernets/cabernet blends and is regarded along with Coonawarra in South Australia as premium for this variety - though other emerging areas should not be discounted. Some of the better makers were canvassed in the discussion on the SW Aust article, but in my view Leeuwin Estate, Devil's Lair, Cape Mentelle (who also own Cloudy Bay in Marlborough NZ, noted for a pretty smart New World Sauvignon Blanc), Cullen, Vasse Felix and Moss Wood. many others are up and coming.

A point for further discussion perhaps. The French have long built their reputation on focussing on the premium wine grape from each area (pinot in Burgundy, cabernets in Bordeaux, etc). While you can go too far down this road I find it disappointing in Australia the trend for winemakers to try to produce as many styles as they can to the detriment of quality of the wine from the grape types that don't necessarily suit the area. I presume this is a commercial decision to be able to present a full lineup of varieties and styles to the consumer or cellar outlet. The big guys get away with it by sourcing fruit from elsewhere, which tends to water down the regional experience when doing a cellar tasting tour of a region. The NSW wine industry (20% of Oz total production) has looked at this to some degree by having each wine region announce an "iconic" variety upon which they hang their respective hats. Is there the same trend elsewhere?

Must go. I'm off to a wine and food festival in the big city.

PS: Is there a spellcheck capability here? The aucrcacy of my tpiyng lveaes a lot to be deiresd.

103 83: Reply by MarioRobles, Nov 3.; Hi Phillip,

I was a non-believer of Sparkling Shiraz until I had the "1997 Rumball Vintage Sparkling Shiraz" it is an awesome wine, it is hard to describe but it ticks all the boxes in a weird way. It is a serious wine and when you taste it you then realise that it is not a wine to be left behind.

Check the website of the USA importer (http://www.ScottSt.com) and also these shops;

*New York City: Eber Bros Wine & Liquor - (914) 937 5007
*New York Upper State: Elmira Distributors - (607) 734 6231

PS. Fullbottle... what wine-food society are you part of? I am also from Sydney

0 9: Reply by Simon Woods, Nov 3.; Can remember 1963 and 1946 Seppelts sparkling Shirazes - the 63 was still young and fizzy, the 46 just a lovely gentle old wine. Have tried to keep hold of a few bottles, but always end up opening them for interested visitors before their 10th birhtdays (the wines, not the visitors....)

0 9: Reply by fullbottle, Nov 4.; Mario - interesting. I have not seen any Rumble vintage Sparkling Shirazes, only his non-vintage, which are good but not classic. Simon, you are a privileged man to see the wines you mentiion. I assume they were the Show Reserve, which is generally outstanding. The cheaper "Original" is one of the best value fro money around.

Phillip - the society is a small one - "The Metropolitan Wine & Food Society of Sydney". It has about 50 signed up members and 25-30 active members (mixed gender) depending on the occasion. About 8 functions per year, including one or two tastings, a formal President's dinner, luncheons, dinners, etc. The AGM is a picnic. We try to visit a winegrowing area every two years. There is variable knowledge about wine within the group and very good food knowledge. I can get more info to you if you wish.

0 9: Reply by fullbottle, Nov 4.; Can I change the name of this forum to Oz Sparkling Shiraz? It might pick up some other interested followers.

2517 1738: Reply by Gregory Dal Piaz, Nov 4.; No but we could start another thread. To be more inclusive how about Sparkling reds wines and the folks who love them (or hate them and need to tell the rest of us how wrong we are)?

I love a good Lambrusco and have had some excellent sparkling Malbec as well. Neither has the apparent staying power of Shiraz though!

0 390: Reply by GregT, Nov 4.; Fullbottle welcome. Somewhere or another there was a thread about the idea of Australians picking up "iconic" grapes for certain areas. I think it's pretty stupid frankly, but not because the people can actually produce everything well in every location. More because the cultural context under which those European regional identities were established no longer exists and never existed outside of Europe. Those are mostly legacies of feudal systems and not particularly necessary. Think about it - the US completely wiped out its wine industry in the early 1900s and basically started from scratch around the 1960s and 1970s. The Australians put together their 25 year plan in the 1970s and vastly exceeded their expectations. Both did it without artificially imposing Euro-style limitations on themselves. They let the market determine what worked.

I'm certain that the Australians are going to come out of their current problems in fine shape. The idea of big, fruity, cheap shiraz has sort of run its course as the engine of growth for Australian wine as other places have come onto the wine scene - e.g. Argentina, Chile, South Africa, and even Spain. So the Australians will re-group and figure out something else. They'll figure out what works. But I sure don't hear any clamor for DOCG-type positioning. Frankly I think the Europeans would be better off if they abandoned those all across the continent and simply treated them as trademarks. Seems to work pretty well with luggage and watches.

But start a thread on sparkling shiraz. I'll bet most people haven't had much.