Australian Fine Wine | Sarah Ahmed

Heads up: Aussie fine wines at a snip at Fortnum & Mason’s culinary carnival

Posted Sunday 2nd October 2011

Over the coming fortnight, Fortnum & Mason’s Gallery Restaurant plays host to a culinary carnival featuring Michelin-starred guest chefs, each of whom will produce their signature dishes focused on regional produce. Here’s the “rota.” 3rd October – Sat Bains (Notts) 4th October – Philip Britten (- formerly of the Capital Hotel and Solstice ltd) 5th, 6th October – Shaun [...]

The Roving Sommelier interviews: Wendouree and Finchs Line

Posted Sunday 10th April 2011

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I bumped into wine consultant, sommelier and fellow blogger Robert Giorgione at The Big Fortified this week whose Roving Sommelier blog is a great resource for wine and restaurant reviews, also chocolate and wine matching ideas. And speaking of fortified wines, check out his notes from a recent visit to Portugal here. Giorgione told me that he’d recently [...]

Australia’s wine revolution part 2: He who thinks Australian, drinks Australian

Posted Friday 3rd December 2010

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On Tuesday, I blogged about Australia’s rosé revolution, but one aspect of the Australian wine industry’s wider struggle to re-define itself to the world. Australian winemaker Steve Pannell’s campaign “All for One, Drink Australian Wine” calling for a national celebration of Australian wine may seem like a jokey jingoistic Foster’s beer ad tagline, but there’s [...]

Finch’s Line Hunter Valley Shiraz and Findwine: two great new discoveries

Posted Thursday 25th November 2010

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Usually, I’m oblivious about major sporting fixtures but I do know that today sees the start of The Ashes. So I fully anticipate that, as the games have commenced, my Twitter home page @sarahwine will be deluged with England/Australia cricket scores, not wine scores, as this biennial rivalry takes hold. I’m not one to participate, [...]

Wendouree: a tasting bonanza, 17 wines!

Posted Tuesday 23rd November 2010

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When I first visited Australia in 2004, it was in the company of a possé of sommeliers from Michelin starred restaurants. During our whistle stop tour across Australia we tasted many great wines. A bottle of Wendouree Cabernet Malbec was a stand out, lingering in the memory for almost as long as it seemed to last [...]

Majestic, dribbling & d’Arenberg: The Deadarm Shiraz, a vertical

Posted Thursday 18th November 2010

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On Tuesday night I presented a tasting for Majestic staff. That day, The Evening Standard was in majesterial form, announcing Wills’ and Kate’s engagement, also reporting on Majestic’s half-year profits (up 20%), in which context its staff were praised for “not dribbling while the talked about wine[!]“ Fortunately for them, it was down to me to talk and not [...]

Sacred sites & sacrilege: McLaren Vale producers fight development

Posted Tuesday 28th September 2010

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Last week at the Landmark Tutorial, Yalumba’s Director of Winemaking, Brian Walsh presented a session entitled “Single vineyards and sacred sites versus [multi-regional] blending.” Without doubt, Australia successfully adopts both philosophies when it comes to making fine wine - there are pros and cons for each. But I think it’s no mistake that Walsh used the [...]

Langtons Classification V – 22% up on entries

Posted Friday 24th September 2010

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Today should be Australian Fine Wine Day! Wine Australia’s week long Landmark Tutorial, of which I have been a priviliged participant (the week’s wines shown above), ended today with suitably august speeches from wine writer and industry doyenne, James Halliday and Paul Henry of Wine Australia. The Gourmet Traveller Wine Awards have just been announced (see my earlier blog [...]

Landmark day 3 & Langton’s latest Classification: a roll call of famous names and faces

Posted Wednesday 22nd September 2010

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Yesterday’s Landmark session culminated in a rarified line up of 21 Australian groundbreaking wines from the 1950s to the present day. Andrew Caillard MW of Langtons expertly placed them in their historical context with input from the panel’s other distinguished members, James Halliday and Dr Tony Jordan – wines and people pictured above and below. Given yesterday’s blog about the [...]

Winemaker tastings at Pont de la Tour, including Vanya Cullen

Posted Sunday 29th August 2010

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Regular readers will know that I’m a big fan of Western Australian wines, none more so than those from Cullen Wines, widely regarded as among Australia’s best (check out my report of an amazing vertical tasting here). So much so, that I spent two weeks doing vintage there in 2007 (that’s me, pictured looking happy as Larry!) So [...]

Shaw & Smith 20th Anniversary tasting

Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009

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Cousins Michael Hill-Smith MW and Martin Shaw started making wine together in the Adelaide Hills under their Shaw & Smith label in 1989. Last week they were in town to celebrate their 20th anniversary with a tasting of mini-verticals that struck right at the heart of Australia’s winemaking spirit – rigorous in approach yet open-minded [...]