When I began buying wines in the early 1980’s at Square One, I remember being interested in and intrigued by Australia. It was, to the USA, relatively new in terms of being available domestically but outside of the wines of Rosemount and Lindemans, at the time, hard to track down. When regional wines began to trickle in, the Hunter Valley, perhaps due the late and great Len Evans living there and being a relentless advocate, was a first to take a toehold in the USA. And a flood of Chardonnays, seeking to sate the thirst of an emerging appetite for Chardonnay in the USA, led. The wines were good and occasionally very good but not life changing stuff. I put them aside, in my mind’s palate, and ultimately moved on to other areas that would follow and that were, to me, more captivating- the Barossa, McLaren Vale, Margaret River, and the Yarra Valley. Continue reading »

As I enjoyed my morning coffee, I was saddened to read something that, while I basically knew was true, I didn’t want to have validated. Just as I make the effort to go to Peet’s to get my Sumatran coffee and don’t drink Folgers or Nescafe because I know that they use inferior product multi-sourced from lesser areas and as such it doesn’t taste as good, I would like to believe that people select their wines with some similar level of discernment. Well, burst my bubble… Continue reading »