Wanting to pick up a nice fresh white wine on a warm Sunday evening, I stopped in at my locol independant wine store, Rathdowne Cellars. I spotted the Thick as Thieves Sylvaner 2014 in the fridge, and was intrigues as I didn’t know the variety was in Australia. I had encountered it on my travels in Europe, particularly in Germany. After a chat with Jeffrey I brought it home and opened it up! Let me know what your thoughts are on this wine in the comments!
Thick as Thieves Sylvaner 2014
If you are a wine lover with a sense of humour, and you haven’t heard of the digital series Plonk, then I have to ask, have you been living under a rock? You have even less excuses to make considering that the series creator and one of the stars, Nathan Earl, was a guest on my podcast The Vincast! Go on, have a listen to the episode here. Nathan has an incredible background in television and was one of the most important people behind the scenes on the iconic ABC Chaser shows. He was so thrilled to be able to incorporate his Hunter Valley roots and love of wine onto this irreverent look at wine and lifestyle shows.
The exciting news is that the second season of this hilarious program, after a successful first-run on Stan, is now available on the Plonk YouTube channel. They’ve broken up the six episodes into ten minute chunks, making them easier to digest. One of the biggest highlights for me was seeing so many awesome wine industry people make some cameos, and in some cases really show off their acting chops! So many moments take a good-natured piss-take on some of the ridiculous things that we do in the business which have the potential of putting people off as being a bit pretentious. So give it a watch now!
You may have heard my recent interview of Alister Purbrick, CEO and owner of Tahbilk Winery, on Episode 069 of The Vincast podcast. It was preceded by an incredible vertical tasting of the 1860 Vines Shiraz and a lunch at Vue de Monde. If you didn’t I highly recommend heading to intrepidwino.com to hear the interview and check out my tasting notes on the wines.
The wonderful team at Fireworks PR sent me bottles of the Tahbilk new releases, and I decided to open them and share my impressions. Have you had a chance to taste them yet? What were your impressions?
Tahbilk Marsanne 2015 and Tahbilk Eric Stevens Purbrick Shiraz & Cabernet Sauvignon 2010
I bought a bottle of the Sang de Lune Shiraz 2014 (RRP $22.00) from my good friend Alex at Blackhearts & Sparrows, who was actually one of the winemakers of this wine! Here are my impressions, I hope you enjoy. Let me know in the comments if you would like to share your impressions of this wine, or you have a wine you’d like me to taste!
Sang de Lune Shiraz 2014
The guys from Deviation Road sent me two of their Sparkling Wines to taste, no doubt in the lead up to the Festive Season. They are experts in methode traditionelle sparkling wines, and these two perfectly exhibit that. The wines are the Loftia Vintage Brut 2013 (RRP $45.00) and the Altair Brut Rosé NV (RRP $32.00). Here are my impressions!
Deviation Road Loftia Vintage Brut 2013 & Altair Brut Rosé NV
Filed under Tasting Notes, Videos
The guys from the Wingara Wine Group sent me a few bottles of bubbles in the lead up to the Spring Racing Carnival to see what I thought of them. Unfortunately I couldn’t taste them until I got back from Italy, which happened to be DURING the Spring Racing Carnival. The wines were the Azahara Sparkling Chardonnay Pinot Noir NV (RRP $15.00) and the Katnook Estate Founder’s Block Sparkling Shiraz 2013 (RRP $25.00). Check out my impressions!
Filed under Tasting Notes, Videos
A little while ago, Vanessa Altmann from Switch Wine was in Melbourne, and I had the opportunity to sit down with her, taste some of the new release wines, and also record a chat about her background. These are my impressions.
Let’s Taste Switch Wine
Another bottle from the Intrepid Cellar, this time a bottle I bought from cellar door in the Adelaide Hills in late 2011.
Ashton Hills Reserve Pinot Noir 2009
For something a bit different I opened a bottle of the Bress Cider 2015 instead of a wine for this episode of Let’s Taste. What style of cider do you like? What do you think of Australian cider?
The Intrepid Wino tastes a bottle of Yering Station Reserve Shiraz Viognier 2003 from the cellar, originally purchased from an online Langtons auction.
The Intrepid Wino 