Vernon on 9/5/2010 at 11:49

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Of course there's good Australian wine - many of the vines in Australia are the oldest in the world (many European vines were destroyed in the nineteenth century due to Phylloxera) and when combined with the climate in places like the Hunter Valley, you get some of the most high-quality varietals on earth. Hunter Valley Semillon is just about the closest thing you could get to nectar of the gods and if you can afford Penfolds and Henschke's top-of-the-range then fuck you, you have too much money. The other thing about Australian wine is that anything that isn't good is for the most part inoffensive, which is (imho) why it has such a good reputation.

Bad French wine is fucking bad, in my experience. Picking up a five quid bottle of French plonk in Tescos is like playing the lottery. My point is that if you give a fuck about this sort of shit (which I do because I'm paying my way through university by working at one of Sydney's seven three-hat restaurants), then you'll know that there is no equivalent to some of the new-school old-world plonk that has been popping up in France over the last decade. Organics, the effects of biodynamic production techniques, tiny vineyards purchased at high cost for their terroir, and of course the incorporation of Australian innovations in canopy management and vineyard computing have created some fucking stunning wines that have no equivalent elsewhere (check out Cuvée Romanissa or Matassa Blanc as just two examples - they aren't crazy expensive either, but you'll probably have to go through specialist wine suppliers). Of course you can be up in arms about all of this but the fact is that wines out of Burgundy and Cotes du Rhone are still evolving - and places like the Romanee-Conti region simply have no equal

Just sayin'

edit: while I'm harping on, I may as well let you in on a protip - if someone offers you Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough in NZ, tell them that you don't make a habit of drinking cat's piss. Then hoof them in the balls and ask for the somellier

Chimpy Chompy on 10/5/2010 at 01:44

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I'm struggling to fit together the rugged bearded aussie manliness with all this wine drinking.

Or maybe they're just so manly they can drink a nice red while simultaneously arm-wrestling a crocodile.

(I am neither rugged nor a wine drinker and frankly wouldn't know a nice red from a godawful one :()

Scots Taffer on 10/5/2010 at 02:23

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It's worth noting Chimpy that the wine drinkers are by and large the soft cheek-fuzz expats.

gunsmoke on 10/5/2010 at 02:53

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And he has the longest thumb ever.

And...I am getting married in Vegas in Summer 2011...hmmm.

june gloom on 10/5/2010 at 17:28

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Seriously? Shit, I think I need to start saving for Vegas.