Leaping Lizard Cabernet Merlot 2007, Western Australia (£7.99-£8.50 Seckford Agencies) Vibrant, crunchy blackcurrant nose, then slightly pippy blackberry flavours, with a tar-like streak, easy fleshy wine, quite powerful and ripe but finishes dry. B Ferngrove ‘Symbols’ Cabernet Merlot 2008, Frankland River, Australia (£8.99-£9.50 Seckford Agencies) Fresher and tangier than the […]
South Australia
Houghton The Bandit Shiraz/Tempranillo 2008, Western Australia (£8.99 – available from Spring 2010) Young but not disturbingly so, with bright strawberry, blackcurrant and jammy dodger fruit, a touch of reduction and hints of mint and milk chocolate. B(+) D’Arenberg “d’Arry’s Original” Shiraz Grenache 2006, McLaren Vale, South Australia (£9.95-£12.99 The […]
Australian Shiraz – with variations
If you are surrounded by cake, what do you do? Open three sweet wines… Mont Tauch Muscat de Rivesaltes NV, France (£5.99 per half Morrisons) Plump juicy grape and barley sugar, a hint of rose petal, maybe a touch of heat from the fortification, but overall this is very friendly, […]
Muscat de Rivesaltes, Botrytis Riesling and Tokaj – sticky, stickier, ...
Mixed emotions chez Woods this evening. At approximately 6pm, our hamster Smudge trotted off to the great trundle wheel in the sky. She seems to have gone out on a high after having had an energetic work out in her plastic orb in the company of five rather rowdy children. […]
Good cork, bad cork, bye-bye hamster
Cast your mind back, dear reader, to the year 2000. Pulp fans were actually able to discover what that girl in the song was doing on Sunday Baby (not much in reality, but the cafe at IKEA was open), Bordeaux produced a spectacular vintage, certainly a candidate for vintage of […]
Mount Horrocks Rocks
a a About ten years ago, I went to South Australia as a guest international judge at the McLaren Vale wine show. There are those who criticise the Australian show system, but as anyone who’s been involved in it will tell you, a) it’s great fun, b) it’s hard work, […]