Recently, I was lucky enough to score a place with 37 other like-minded wine souls on the Grands Crus Classés 1855 tour of Bordeaux. This was an experience of a lifetime. An opportunity to catch up with some old mates and to make a bunch of new connections. Here's my story.
This is not strictly wine related. There was wine. There was food. There was little to no technology. There was a lot of nature and billions upon billions of butterflies. There was even a meteor. This was the birthday 5-day escape to Turon Gates. Turon National Park, located in Central Tablelands of New South Wales …
Continue reading Escape from reality, farewell 2022 and welcome 2023
How do you make your salmon? Pan-fired? BBQ? Smoked? Do you ever poach? I tried poaching a while ago and haven't done it in a while, purely because life got in the way and I've gotten too busy to experiment in the kitchen. I struggle to follow a recipe, something always needs to change, even …
Long day of traveling, hot and somewhat humid weather plus hours of exploring around begged for something quick and simple. What's quicker and easier than a BBQ and salad? Salad mixed leaves, about 2 handfuls, torn by hand a twig or two of mint, parsley, and coriander, chopped 1 very ripe, unrefrigerated tomato (so you …
Continue reading Recipe: Simple Dinner of Pork Chops & Salad
Authors: Simon J Woolf & Ryan Opaz I've yet to go to Portugal but it has been in and out of my consciousness for years. When I was first starting in wine, and in the previous iteration of this blog, I did a series of of "Travel by Glass" and the first country I tackled …
Continue reading Foot Trodden: Portugal and the wines that time forgot
Still around the corner there may waitA new road or a secret gate;And though I oft have passed them by,A day will come at last when IShall take the hidden paths that runWest of the Moon, East of the Sun.JRR Tolkien It is September, 2021 and Sydney is starting to come out of its longest …
I recently got challenged to open a bottle of wine, taste a little every day, leave the wine resting in the bottle and do this for at least a week. Unrefrigerated. A white table wine, made from the goddess of all whites - Riesling. Now, I've done similar things before however, never really from the …
written by A.S. Barwich published by Harvard University Press Have you ever wanted to know why wine smells the way it does? How do all those aromas get into the glass from something as humble as a grape? I did and still do. This book goes a long way to summarise the situation at hand, …
The wine in my glass tonight is showing beautifully, with only a hint of it's 9 years on earth with a little orange hue on the edges. The nose is bewildering to start with, there's this exuberance of red fruits, white pepper, herbs and tar, cola and with a hint of darker fruit if I …
The other day I got an email asking me about tannins. What did I mean by different types?
Life in a glass 