October 13, 2011 · 5:26 am
Interesting wine fact; California produces about 30% more wine than all of Australia. The Napa Valley is without doubt the most famous region in California. However, less than 5% of California’s production comes from the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. And yet the Napa Valley is the second most visited place in California, after Disneyland, which shows how important wine tourism is here. As previously mentioned I began contacting wineries in California before I left Australia, and those I contacted in Napa were by the far the most responsive. It was nice to have a few more appointments to fall back on, but as I was relatively unfamiliar with most wine from the Napa I didn’t know what to expect. Driving up the 29 Highway towards my first appointment you realise how important the wine business is here, with extensive and dense plantings constantly and a winery every 100m or so. No wonder they call this the Vegas of wine!
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| Opus One winery, one winery for one wine |
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October 9, 2011 · 3:13 am
Santa Cruz is clearly a very laid back hippy town, so most of the tasting rooms don’t open until noon. This gave me the opportunity to catch up on a few things and have a late brunch at Saturn Cafe; banana and walnut pancakes with a cup of fruit, good coffee too. As I’ve been travelling up the coast I’ve been reading a signed copy of Rex Pickett’s sequel to “Sideways” that I picked up at Foxen Winery. I didn’t read the first book, and I’m kind of glad I didn’t. Rex Pickett isn’t exactly a great writer, and in spite of all the erudite phrases and multi-syllabic words that Miles utters, he can’t seem to maintain correct grammar or punctuation. It is nice to see what happens next in the story though.
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| Bonny Doon Tasting Room |
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October 7, 2011 · 5:36 pm
I felt a sense of regret leaving the Central Coast this morning, a feeling I’m sure I’ll have many times during my travels. The past few days have been fairly gloomy and rainy in the area which according to the locals has been fairly common this vintage, which will be a much later one. Some of the hosts I’ve had at wineries have been almost apologetic about the rain, considering California is the sunshine state, but coming from Melbourne means you get used to odd weather patterns.
The view from the Calera winery
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October 6, 2011 · 4:27 pm
Driving up from San Luis Obispo into the hills of Paso Robles is awesome. It’s a little further back from the coast than regions further south, and seems a little bit drier and warmer, but you also feel the difference in elevation. Great winding roads took me out to my first of two visits, where I passed deer and squirrels.
Tablas Creek tasting room
October 6, 2011 · 4:07 pm
Several weeks before I left for my trip I began sending emails to wineries in California to introduce myself and explain the nature of my trip. Many responded enthusiastically, particularly from the Napa Valley, some a little reluctantly and some not at all. The former reason because they are more setup for tourism in their particular area and have staff who are employed for this reason. The other two reasons because they are smaller operations and are too busy with vintage at this time of year, and understandably so.
Bien Nacido
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October 4, 2011 · 5:31 pm
After spending the weekend in LA it was nice to get into a car and head north towards wine country. The 2.5 hour drive along the coast is gorgeous and quite spectacular. It does take a while to get out of Los Angeles, but the traffic wasn’t too bad. I’m also glad to have had experience of driving on the right-hand side of the road in France last year. As I started to approach Santa Barbara I started to get tingles, as I am a huge fan of the film “Sideways”, as I’m sure many of you are.
Los Olivos cafe
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September 22, 2011 · 10:22 pm
Although I have now finished at King & Godfree and am frantically making final preparations for my trip, I am still making time to head out to some trade activity around Melbourne. It’s good to get out and try some wines before I go as it will be awhile before I drink Australian wines again. It’s kind of why I’m spending time in South Australia around my graduation ceremony in Adelaide next week. Not having visited the Barossa or the Clare I thought it pertinent considering I am about to travel around the world! Posts will follow about the jaunt next week (assuming I have time before I go).
Decant, decant, decant
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September 7, 2011 · 11:04 am
Late August and September generally means budburst out in the vineyards of Australia, but in the wine trade it generally means one thing; Portfolio Days! The converging factors of slow periods in the winery allowing winemakers to head out on the road, and the beginning of the four-month period leading into Christmas means this is the perfect time to invite trade supporters into one location to exhibit one’s wares, whilst inviting principles along to spruik. With countless distributors showing hundreds of wines each, it is with great enthusiasm and trepidation that I headed into this period, particularly given I am about to head off on the grand tour in about three weeks. Here are the tastings I’ve been to in the last two weeks.
Awesome Augusti Torello Mata bottle
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Filed under Wine Events
Tagged as Ata Rangi, Bibendum, Bindi, Dry River, Egon Muller, Fromm, Greywacke, Kooyong, Negociants, Oakridge, Pingus, Seppeltsfield, Spanish Acquisition, Tarrawarra, Telmo Rodriguez, Valli, Vinoptima, Vissoux
August 22, 2011 · 11:26 am
I think it is only fitting that my first official wine post be about a producer in my spiritual wine home – the Yarra Valley – as I started my wine career working in the cellar door at Chandon before moving into the marketing department. Having worked in the region for over three years and driven over most of it, this was pretty interesting… On the 15th of this month I was lucky enough to be invited to a day exploring the Mac Forbes stomping ground, including a harrowing micro-flight over the region to see each of the many vineyards he sources from. It’s been awhile since I suffered motion sickness – as a child I couldn’t be in a car for more than 4 hours without throwing up – but this flight certainly brought something back up (pun intended, though not literally thank god!) Whilst it was extremely interesting to see the extent and diversity of this misunderstood region from such a height, I struggled with the turbulence and was pretty quiet for the second half of the flight, glad to be back on solid ground once we landed. The helicopter flight above the McLaren Vale a few months ago was slightly more relaxing.
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| Quite a view from high above the valley |
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August 14, 2011 · 10:46 am
Well, after three-and-a-half years of (mostly) hard slog, I have officially completed my Masters of Wine Business. I can’t say it hasn’t been a challenge undertaking this degree as an external student, even though it was by coursework. It took me back to when I was in Japan as an exchange student (way back in 1999) and I was taking Year 11 subjects by distance education. It was hard to get feedback or bounce ideas off other students, and naturally there was an element of parochialism as I was expected to ignore any wine, winery or region that wasn’t South Australian. Writing a five-year comprehensive business plan for a Barossa Valley winery was both eye-opening and difficult.
Me and my Masters
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The Intrepid Wino 