Saturday, February 21, 2009
Cuddly Koalas and Amazing Wines, Discover Victoria Now
The recent fires in Victoria, Australia have sat heavy on my heart. First and foremost, because I lived in Melbourne, Australia for many years and it will always be the city that got away for me.
Victoria, Australia is a place full of wide golden sand beaches, forests of majestic eucalyptus trees and green undulating hills covered in grapevines.
Aussies describe Sydney as a tart and Melbourne as a lady. I just say Sydney is like LA and San Fran rolled in one, while Melbourne is like a groovy mashup of NY and Vancouver.
It was while living in Melbourne in the mid nineties that I caught the serious wine bug. As a result, I drank quite a bit of Victorian wines.
Victoria is greener and cooler than any other part of Oz, except Tasmania of course.
As a result, the wines from Vic tend to be lower in alcohol and more refined than their South Australian counterparts.
When I buy Australian wines, they are inevitably from Tasmania or Victoria. Gorgeous sparkling wines, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to name a few.
I urge you to seek these wines out soon. All of us in the wine business have witnessed the financial nosedive that Austalian wines have taken over the past 2 years.
The Aussies are down but definitely not out.
Trust me, they are some strong and determined battlers.
Great time to discover these guys from Wineweek.com.au too! Their videos are always spot on and give you a glimpse into the Oz wine scene.
My few of my favorite wines from Victoria, Australia:
T'Gallant
Ten Minutes By Tractor
Coldstream Hills
Domaine Chandon
Yarra Yering
Dalwhinnie
Taltarni
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3 comments:
Thanks for the list of Aussie recommendations.
I shouldn't write off Australia as much as I do, and would love to find some stuff that I can dig.
Even I got Aussie wine fatigue for awhile. Especially when the only wines offered were overblown, high alcohol Shiraz from South Australia.
Tasmania and Victoria will please the finicky wino, I promise!
Thanks for the link and comments Amy - your list of good Victorian wineries is spot on! They're some of our favourites too. Thankfully many of the wineries were spared the complete devastation of the bushfires, but times are still pretty tough in the Yarra Valley - mainly with the tourism dropping off. So if anyone is heading to Victoria make sure they stop by the Yarra Valley or any of the other affected areas and support the locals!
cheers
Brad
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