Young Winemaker of the Year Awards

Last Friday I had the fun task of attending the Wine Society's Young Winemaker of the Year Awards again, so I thought I'd share the lowdown on who won what and what we drank.

Young Winemaker of the Year went to Anna Pooley from Heemskerk, TAS. Well deserved as Anna has been a finalist before but never quite taken the prize. She won for her amazing Chardonnay which we tucked into with great delight at the table, as well as her Tempest Pinot Noir and Tempest Traminer.

The Sommeliers' Choice winner (chosen by some of Sydney and Melbourne's top sommeliers)was Steve Baraglia from Naked Run Wines, SA and Member's Choice winner (picked by Wine Society members) was Donna Hartwig from Kingston Estate Wines, SA.

A personal fave point of the night was Matt Skinner presenting the Sommeliers' Choice award with a rather fetching mo, which we can only hope he is growing for the charitable benefits of Movember! Hope you enjoy the pics :)

As it was the 10th anniversary, some of the past winners came back to tell us what they'd been up to which was a nice touch.

The food was great and the disco at the end was particularly fun thanks to the band Femme de Funk. All in all, a good night was had all round.

Helen

Wine apps

Hi folks,

Sorry it's been a while since we last posted, but we have been snowed under here and just drinking wine to get through the pressure!

Anyway, one thing I have been doing since I last posted is playing with iPhone apps. There are a lot out there now, many of which are free thankfully, ranging from cellar door locators to little wine logs where you can record your favourite tipples and even store a picture of their labels to help you out next time you visit a bottle shop.

I came across the useful article recently from the Guardian newspaper in the UK and thought I would share it with you to give you some idea of where to start in the sea of app-mania!

Will we post again soon......promise :)

Enjoy

Helen

Wine Tap blog

Well Christmas is well and truly behind us now and work is as busy as ever....but there is some good news.

A friend and former colleague of ours, Gus Lander, has just started his own wine blog - Wine Tap - which will track his travels and more importantly wine consumption as he drinks his way through vintages in South America, North America and Europe.

Check it out.

Helen

Happy New Year to you all and hope you had a fun filled festive season!

This Christmas I was lucky enough to have my mum and partner over from the UK, so as part of my role as official tour guide, I took them up to the Hunter Valley for the day.

As the dutiful daughter I offered to drive (don't worry, I spat out most of the wine) so they could take in the scenery and copious amounts of vino!




I've been to the Hunter a couple of times now, but still try to go to a new winery each time to discover something new. Here are some highlights from my recent trip:

• Tintilla - I hadn't been to this winery for a while and was delighted to find it again (I had visited it on a wine tour years ago but had forgotten what it was called!). It's such a beautiful spot and the couple who assisted us with the wine tasting were very helpful. They struck a good balance between being attentive and smothering you whilst wine tasting and had a very cute bulldog that I took a bit of a shine to. Our personal fave was the 2004 Shiraz - absolutely beautiful wine that didn't last long in my house! They also do a great range of olives, but watch out for the chilli ones!
  

• Tulloch - now I am a little biased here as I know the Tulloch family, but I am always pleased with the tastings here. It's a bigger cellar door then some other wineries, which is nice as you can stay as long as you like and not feel like someone's hovering waiting for you to buy something. The wine list for tastings is very extensive with lots of varieties that you can only purchase at cellar door, which makes you feel like you're getting something a bit special. My purchase here was the 2008 Late Picked Verdehlo - currently in my wine rack so tasting notes coming later.

• De Bortoli - this was my first visit to this cellar door and lucky for us there was no-one else in there (apparently we'd just missed 'the rush'). The young man doing the tastings was very friendly and took a real shine to us (being an ex-pat himself). I took home the sparkling Emeri Pinot Grigio, which I thought was an interesting twist on the usual varieties of sparkling.
  

• Petersons Champagne House - to my mum's delight, there were bubbles to be had in the Hunter so of course our first stop was Petersons House. What hit me here was the wave of pink and bubbles (literally, blowing out of a bubble machine). What they've done well here is hang their hat on targeting women as the cellar door featured a wide array of pink sparklings, rose wines, bottle bags, T-shirts and everything else you could think of. It was a bit much for me, but I have to give them credit for doing something a bit different and it obviously works as the place was packed!

So there we have it. Another trip complete and my wine rack is now nicely restocked!

Helen