Word: australia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Grapes have been grown in Australia for nearly 200 years. Until the 1950s, most vintners concentrated on either cheap, fortified sherries and ports for export to Britain, or rough-edged red and white table wines, distinctly second in quality to the country's brawny beers. It is no coincidence that the improvement in Australian style and sophistication in the past ten years matches the progress of California wines: many Aussie winemakers have studied their craft at the University of California at Davis, America's ranking school of oenology. In fact Michael Mullins, the chairman of the viticulture department at Davis...
...part because their best growing areas are in hot climates with fertile soils, California and Australia produce what some experts call "Pacific wines." Translation: a red from the Napa Valley is more likely to resemble one from South Australia's Barossa Valley than from France's Medoc; the New World wines tend to be forward and fruity in taste, more notable for alcoholic strength than elegance...
There are more than 550 wineries in Australia, and roughly half of them are less than ten years old. Some of the Aussie brand names have an exotic charm (Koala Ridge, Wirra Wirra), but the principal varietals, such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, are familiar to U.S. buyers. Nonetheless, winemakers Down Under are carefree about tradition, and some of their practices are downright heretical by American or French standards: for example, blending Cabernet Sauvignon, a red grape from the Bordeaux area, with Shiraz, a Rhone Valley varietal known in France as the Syrah. Labels can be confusing as well...
...early enthusiast of Australian wines, has a relatively cool appraisal of recent vintages in the February issue of his bimonthly Wine Advocate. "I must confess," he writes, "to an overall sense of disappointment with what I tasted; there were too many standard-quality, bland wines." Parker is concerned that Australia may be endangering future excellence for the sake of today's potential profits. A relatively small group of medium- and large-size firms accounts for some 90% of Australia's wine output. Until this year, many of the independent growers who supply such major Down Under producers as Penfolds, Seppelt...
...raises the cost of such necessary imports as corks and aging barrels. Nonetheless, predicts Bernard Portet, the French-born winemaker at California's respected Clos du Val vineyard, "they're definitely here to stay." Portet should know: his brother Dominique was a founder of Taltarni in Victoria, one of Australia's best boutique wineries...