The give-away wine you have been waiting for!

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Steve Shipley

Last week I put up the rules to win one of two $100 bottles of wine. Today, we will take the covers off and tell you what wine it is! This wine cannot be sourced anywhere anymore as it is of premium stock and they are sold out at the cellar door. There may be one or two bottles floating around in private collections, but I believe that I hold the remaining stock of several dozen bottles. That alone makes this wine unique and somewhat special, but only if it is good wine and good wine it is! Coming from the 2005 vintage and being a Hunter Valley Shiraz, you know this wine has to potential to be excellent. Langtons’ rated this vintage an 8 out of 10 for Hunter Valley Shiraz. While not the very best year, certainly an excellent year.

The wine for the give-away is the 2005 Kelman Chairman’s Reserve Shiraz. Kelman is a cooperative vineyard in Pokolbin, at the corner of Marrowbone Road and Oakey Creek Road, just across from Saddler’s Creek in the Lower Hunter Valley. They grow their own grapes and the Shiraz vines are about 15 years old now. They have only made two vintages of the Chairman’s Reserve Shiraz, first in 2003 and then again in 2005. These two vintages reserved (hence the name!) the very best Shiraz grapes for these Reserve wines. Halliday rated the 2003 Kelman Chairman’s Reserve Shiraz as excellent and scored it 93/100. He did not rate the 2005, but I can attest that it is the better wine. I know because I have drank both the 2003 and 2005 Kelman Chairman’s Reserve Shiraz side-by-side a few years back and had a bottle of the 2005 Kelman Chairman’s Reserve Shiraz just a few days ago. This is a big wine with live, juicy fruit and plum and blackberry flavors. It is an earthy wine, with smells and texture of leather, yet beautifully balanced with moderate tannins which are well integrated. It also has a touch of oak and a very long finish. While you can tell it is a Hunter Valley Shiraz, its style is similar to a big Barossa Valley Shiraz.

After having this wine a few days ago, I wondered why I was giving such a great bottle away! But I wanted to make the give-away special and not just any good bottle you could pick up in a bottle shop or buy at auction. This is a wonderful wine, suitable for drinking today, but it will continue to improve and last into the early 2020s. If you win one of the two bottles, your most difficult choice will be to drink it right away or set it down for a while!

Remember to ‘Like’ SAZ in the Cellar on Facebook, or to ‘SUBSCRIBE TO BLOG VIA EMAIL’ for this blog to have a chance to win. We will ship a bottle for each winner anywhere in the world and that includes our cost of shipping! So easy and such a great bottle of wine which is available for you to win. If you need further explanation or want to review the rules for entering (such as being of legal age to drink wine!), you can review my previous post on the matter. Enter now and win!

Steve Shipley, author Wine Sense, out early 2014. Published by InkIT Publishing
© 2013. Steve Shipley
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Twitter: Steve Shipley @shipleyaust; InkIT Publishing @inkitpub

Rules for winning $100 bottle of wine give-away!

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Steve Shipley

First off, there will be two individual prizes of a $100 bottle of wine. That’s right, two separate bottles for give-away and you will have the right to win either one – just by following the SAZ in the Cellar website and blog or by following the Facebook SAZ in the Cellar Fan page. Not one, but two bottles of wine will be given away! In my next blog post, I will be describing this great and impossible to source wine. But for now, I wanted to tell you how to enter and the rules for being eligible to win. They are very simple to follow:

SAZ in the Cellar website:

To win the bottle of wine give-away for following the SAZ in the Cellar website, all you need to do is enter your email address in the field to the right of the website page you are currently looking at.

Your email address, of course, will be kept confidential and not shared with anyone outside of the SAZ in the Cellar administrators. By doing this, you will be entered into the draw for one of the $100 bottles of wine. (If you are already following, there is no need to follow again – you are already eligible and entered!) The obligation of doing this is that you will receive an email alerting you to my wine blog posts as they occur, usually about twice weekly. And hopefully, you will be glad to receive them if you have an interest in wine.

For the $100 bottle of wine to be given away, we need to reach 100 followers. Once we do that, I will officially open the draw and keep it open for 30 days. You will be alerted of when that time starts and finishes. Anyone who has already followed, follows to help us reach 100 Followers, or follows during the 30 days following reaching our goal of 100 Followers is entered and eligible to win! Sound easy? It is! Make sure to follow now if you have not already. And share this around as the sooner we achieve 100 Followers, the sooner we will be able to give the bottle of wine away!

SAZ in the Cellar Facebook Fan page:

To be eligible for winning the second give-away, all you need to do is to ‘Like’ the SAZ in the Cellar Facebook Fan page. By doing so, you will be automatically entered and eligible to win. Similarly to following the SAZ in the Cellar website, but once we get to 200 SAZ in the Cellar Facebook Fan page likes, we will then officially open the draw for a period of 30 days. Anyone who has already ‘Liked’ the SAZ in the Cellar Facebook Fan page, or does so on the way to achieving 200 ‘Likes,’ or ‘Likes’ SAZ in the Cellar Facebook Fan page during the 30 days following that is eligible to win. Again, “easy!” And all it obligates you to is the occasional posting of SAZ in the Cellar status updates to your wall. (If if you really don’t want to see them, you can hide them! But why would you want to do that if you are interested in the wine anyway?)

There are just a few other rules you need to follow:

You must be of legal drinking age in the country where you reside to be eligible and win. If there is any doubt, I may require you to provide proof that you are of legal drinking age.
You may reside anywhere in the world and I will mail the wine to you. However, I will not mail wine to a country that forbids the import of alcohol. But, if you win and are otherwise eligible, and you provide me an alternate address for shipping that does allow the import of alcohol, the wine will be shipped there.
Each drawing will be done by assigning a number to each entry and then using a random number generator to select each winner.
You may (and are encouraged) to follow SAZ in the Cellar both through the website and Facebook and may enter both drawings for a chance to win. However, if you are extremely lucky and are the selected winner in both draws, you will only be allowed one bottle of wine. The remaining emails in SAZ in the Cellar website will be randomly drawn again to determine the second winner.
If for some reason, you do are a follower of SAZ in the Cellar website and Facebook Fan page, and have won, but do not wish to receive the bottle of wine, you may decline and we will then draw again to select an alternate winner.
Once the winner is selected in each drawing, we will make every effort to notify you via email or Facebook and you have 72 hours to accept the prize. If you do not respond within 72 hours, you will forfeit the bottle of wine and another drawing will be held to select an alternate winner.
Once accepted, you will need to provide a mailing address for us to mail the bottle of wine to.

Why am I doing this and being so generous giving away two $100 bottles of wine? It is simply because I love drinking wine, writing and talking about wine, and I want you to also enjoy similar experiences. I also want to help build a brand and a following to make people be aware of the my upcoming book publication Wine Sense. Hopefully, if you like wine and have enjoyed my blog writing over the last two years, you will be interested in buying the book once it is published.

And by following, you will also be aware of other giveaways in the near future. I hope you enjoy SAZ in the Cellar and follow us at our website and blog and also on Facebook! And share this around so we can quickly get the drawings open and officially underway. I wish you the best of luck and hope YOU are the winner.

Win a $100 bottle of wine give-away!

Posted on September 1, 2013 by Steve Shipley

I have been growing a social media presence, but one without significant influence or success to date. I am the first to admit I am a neophyte and I do not work as hard to increase my presence as I can. I also get a bit cranky when I realize my writing and copy-writing efforts are suppose to focus on ‘gaming’ Google by targeting my content and copy-writing for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I love writing for an audience, not Google! But people tell me that is naive, so I continue to learn and continue to work at it. I now have a social media strategy, or at least a ‘to-do’ list of things to try.

I have seen a lot of other writer’s conduct virtual blog tours and provide a give-away to help drive up traffic (and ultimately to sell more books). I am providing a guest blog tour for a writer friend in a few weeks. But by just providing a beauty package give-away, my wife, Deanna’s World, drove significant new traffic to her YouTube channel. During that time, her subscription based doubled, increasing significantly, and she had a lot of people sign up for the give-away. And fortunately, her AdSense revenue also doubled because a lot more people were viewing her videos and clicking through to related ads.

I must say that I have been impressed and have learned a lesson in how to effectively attract social media. That is why I have decided to copy her idea! I will now be doing a give-away for following my wine Facebook page (SAZ in the Cellar), and for subscribing and following my wine blog and website (also called SAZ in the Cellar). Since my upcoming book Wine Sense is still several months from being published, I will be offering a special bottle of a 2005 Reserve Hunter Valley Shiraz which is no longer available to give-away to the general public. The wine is very approachable and can be drunk immediately, or it will last into the early-mid 2020s (if you have the discipline to keep it that long!).

It is a great wine, and unique in that it is not available from any other source (unless you find someone who has a bottle or two from a while back still in their cellar). I was fortunate to buy the last several dozen of this wine a few years back. The wine is worth $100 per bottle and has been cherished when received by select business colleagues and visiting Chinese diplomats among others.

I will be giving two bottles away, wherever you may be located anywhere in the world! One will be awarded if you are the lucky draw from those of who ‘Like’ my Facebook page, SAZ in the Cellar. The other will be awarded similarly if you are the lucky draw from the group who Subscribes to follow my blog and website, SAZ in the Cellar. Feel free to join both and be in for two chances to win! I will be introducing the wine and drawing up the simple rules and conditions over the next few days, but by Liking Facebook or Subscribing to my blog now, you will be notified when the rules come out and how long we have to go before announcing the winners!

And be sure to help me out as I don’t like losing to my wife, Deanna’s World, and right now I am getting crushed!

Is a red wine diet a real diet?

Posted on August 3, 2013 by Steve Shipley

There are many forms of diets available and frankly, I think most are crap. Anything that is counter to your normal lifestyle is not sustainable. I believe you need to change your lifestyle and your choices a little bit at a time, and then make sure they are sustainable. When I have tried dieting previously, I have seen quick results only to backslide after some period of time. I love drinking wine, I love eating great food and I have always loved my snacks, be they potato chips, popcorn, ice cream or chocolate.

Over the last two months, I have lost 13 pounds (6 kgs) and have been happy about the results. But I have done that before only to have backslid sometime later and put the weight back on again. But this time, I have notice something different. I am still eating the same amount of food for a main meal, but I have been able to substitute my previous poor choice of snacks with healthier ones and be content doing that. The giant Kit Kat bar with 900 calories or the bowl of microwave popcorn with 500 calories has been replaced by an apple at 45 calories. If I feel the need for a small sweet treat, I have one piece of chocolate at 70 calories, or a small piece of homemade baked banana, zucchini, or carrot cake with about 125 calories. I am not munching on the six or so biscuits I used to eat every day at work, nor am I eating multiple chocolates or having multiple treats in a single sitting after dinner. That’s it – that’s all I did and I have dropped 13 pounds.

Fortunately, I did not require eliminating wine or even cutting down on wine. I am drinking the exact same amount of wine I had before. Wine is not high in calories. 150 ml glass (about 5 ounces) is 125 calories. This means an entire bottle of wine is only 625 calories on average. I can have half a bottle wine every day and consume only about 300 – 325 calories which is about the third the caloric intake as the giant Kit Kat bar I mentioned earlier. Once I knew this trade-off, I gave up the mass consumption of unhealthy snacks and allowed myself to keep drinking wine. Wine is satisfying and it is also good for you, if you are drinking two or three glasses per day.

In my upcoming book, I recommend a lot of other books for reading, including two on wine diets. There is good science supporting a wine diet along with other healthy foods. For me or almost anyone else to lose weight, there are many other things you should give up or constrain before you need to consider limiting your wine intake. I won’t go into the details here as they are presented in the books. I have included excerpts from my upcoming boo k which describes two wine diet books. a description of them follows:

The Red Wine Diet (Roger Corder): The Red Wine Diet credibly explains the health benefits of red wine. It shows how to use appropriate amounts of red wine to provide an increase in antioxidants and lower hypertension to improve overall health. It goes further and provides healthy food recipes into an overall lifestyle plan of which wine and particularly red wine are an integrated component of that healthy lifestyle. I found this book useful, if a bit detailed in the science, but it is the explanation of the science which makes it credible. Minimally, this book reduced guilt associated with drinking a bit of wine almost every day and has encouraged me to continue to enjoy wine as part of a healthy lifestyle.

Age Gets Better With Wine: New Science for a Healthier, Better & Longer Life (Richard Baxter, MD): This text is similar to The Red Wine Diet, but an easier and more enjoyable read. It focuses less on the scientific understanding of ‘why’ to follow the diet and focuses more on ‘how’ to follow the diet and what to do. However, it is still very credible.

Either one of these wine diet books is a great read. Since it involves your health and your passion for wine, I recommend reading both as they provide somewhat different perspectives, and the combination of both provides a number of useful tips, some which may work best for your situation.

Gustatory Travel Experiences!

Posted on June 23, 2013 by Steve Shipley

I am about 90% complete in writing the initial draft of my wine book entitled Wine Sense(s), and am excited to start sharing some extracts with you. Today I am featuring how to indulge in culinary excursions to further your wine education. One reason for featuring this topic is that it provides a fun way to learn more about food and wine. Another is that the proprietor, On the Road Culinary Adventures, is offering an upcoming 10-day Mediterranean culinary cruise which looks fantastic, so if you are looking to get away for a few weeks this September, you should check this out.

This section is extracted from Chapter 20: Further Wine Education, under the section Guided Gustatory Tours. (Please note that this is draft material and may contain grammatical and other errors.)

Guided Gustatory Tours

Continued reading and research using the resources described above provides an ongoing improvement in our cognitive wine knowledge which is critical to improving wine drinking enjoyment and appreciation. But that on its own is not pleasurable unless you actually do some wine drinking along the way!

Earlier in the book, we discussed a number of different methods to gain wine drinking experience as part of our everyday existence. But there exist some other avenues for concentrated and intensive wine education which comprises eating and drinking great wines in great locations. More and more food and wine tours are being organized to provide ‘extreme’ gustatory experiences embodied as vacations. These can be in duration from several days to several weeks or longer. They usually involve traveling to a place relevant to the food and wine that will be discussed and consumed. Many occur in exotic places such as Tuscany or Provence or take place on cruise ships featuring ‘intensive’ cooking or wine tasting courses that are great fun and great education.

While you can select your own destinations and visit different wineries and partake in different tasting experiences, having an expert aware of the region, its food and wine styles, and with access to the best venues and instructors can be a real help; both in terms of what you learn and how enjoyable it is. You can query online or visit a travel agent find out more about these types of wine educational tours and vacations to start to search for and plan available options.

I am not going to provide links or names as I am more familiar with the growth of this concept for ‘extreme gustatory vacations’ than I am knowledgeable with the increasing number of providers in this space. You can easily find out more by looking online or talking with a travel agent. However, I will use one provider I am familiar with and can recommend to illustrate the services and options available. On the Road Culinary Adventures (www.ontheroadculinaryadventures.com/) combines a love of food and wine with a love of travel to provide culinary travel adventures. These include several-day events hosted in the US and longer overseas trips, including cruises.

On the Road Culinary Adventures combine a relaxing vacation experience which focuses on teaching you more about food and wine through providing a tremendous culinary experience complimented by increasing your cognitive knowledge through lectures, instruction by guest chefs, and a hands-on teaching experience where you are preparing the food and the meals under the tutelage of culinary experts. I know the owners from having worked together with them in the corporate world, and know they have exquisite taste and knowledge when it comes to food and wine and a passion to share that with others.

Gustatory vacations can provide intense and in-depth experiences in a relaxing environment. You should come back from this type of experience with deeper knowledge and increased abilities to recreate similar events at home and share with friends. A gustatory vacation also increases your visibility of what is possible and heightens your expectations of how to be involved and even host similar events in the future.

Visit the fish market with the Executive Chef of the Quest in Kusadasi, Turkey followed by a cooking demo with lunch

Wonderful wine gift of Inniskillin from in-laws

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Steve Shipley

I suppose now that I have you reading this blog post, I could tell you the wine gift my in-laws provided was their daughter, my lovely bride, DAZ in the Kitchen, who shares in good food and wine with me. And I do thank them every day for that gift, one which you can not put a price on (even though my father-in-law tried to during his speech at our wedding. Something about transferring a liability from his balance sheet to mine!).

No, I am referring to a beautiful half bottle of 2002 Inniskillin Vidal VQA Ice wine from Canada. This is a real gift. Embarrassingly, I left it sit on the counter for six weeks before even looking at it. I assumed it was just another dessert wine and I had a few already in the fridge and the Vintec, so I figured in due time I would get around to storing it. There was no ceremony or exclamation of bringing me such a nice gift. The in-laws were back from a long time overseas and we had not seen them for a while, so had them and my wife’s brother and his wife over for dinner.

The in-laws came in, we shook hands and hugged, took their coats and then my mother-in-law says, “Oh yeah, here’s a bottle of ice wine.” I said, “Thanks,” and we left it at that and proceeded to talk about things and then sat down to dinner. No explanation of why they decided to pick that bottle to give me or what a special bottle it is. (I wonder if they knew?) Therefore, I thought nothing of it and laid it down on the counter. I figured it was a current vintage and had a screw top, but fortunately, I laid it down horizontally as a matter of course. And a good thing I did, as it was neither a current vintage or under screw top: It was a 2002 vintage under cork.

This morning I decided to finally do something with the bottle and that was the first time I looked at it since they gave it to me. It was then I noticed it was a 2002 vintage and that surprised me. I then looked at the alcoholic content (10% which is nice for a dessert wine and a good way to finish off an evening) and was high in residual sugar so I know it is going to be a sweet dessert wine. I kept looking for the grape used wondering if it was Semillon or Riesling. Even though the word Vidal was prominently displayed on the bottle and box, I though that was some sort of brand name, not a grape name. However, Vidal is the name of the grape used.

Some study provided me with background on the Vidal grape. It is a hybrid grape (Trebbiano and Rayon d’Or) with a very thick skin. It was originally intended to be used for production of Eastern Canadian brandy. However, it proved worthy of being used to make great Ice wine. The grape is now grown in Eastern Canada, upper state New York around Niagara Falls, and in selected locations in the US Midwest region.

Further study showed me that this wine is difficult to source in Australia, and I can only assume my in-laws got it when in London or some other major metropolitan city around the globe. It is an expensive bottle of wine. The 1992 vintage is one of the very best. I greatly look forward to drinking this bottle in the right setting and context. This wine matches up well with several cheeses and with a pear tart or dessert with caramel sauce – I like the sound of that! I might bring it along for one of our spectacular lunches at Bistro Molines in the Hunter Valley. Robert (Molines) does great things with caramel and I could call ahead and ask him to make a special dessert for us.

I am gob-smacked that they gave me such a unique and special bottle of wine. I have no idea about where they got it and why they decided to give it to me (but will now find out), but I am thankful and greatly anticipating drinking this special bottle. I can only hope it lives up to my anticipation, but from everything I have read, it should! Thank you, in-laws!

Tasting, not Drinking – Intoxication, not Drunkenness

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Steve Shipley

Many people drink for the sheer ‘pleasure’ of getting drunk. I don’t understand that, or why becoming drunk would even be an objective for anyone, but I have seen it occur many times. I gave up hard alcohol by the time I was 30 because I could not handle it, nor did I enjoy it. I still drink the occasional beer, especially on a hot summer day, but beer bloats me if I have more than a few.

Wine is my drink of choice for many reasons, and I almost exclusively drink wine now. I have never been drunk from wine, nor would I want to be. I enjoy drinking wine for the taste and flavor and for its diversity of grapes and styles. I can drink multiple wines in an evening, and sharing time and food along with the wine with friends for a great experience.

But I ‘taste’ my wine, not indiscriminately drink it. I take the time to swirl it to open the bouquet and increase the pleasure of nosing it, fulfilling my sense of smell. I then pour it onto my palate and experience the taste as it impacts my taste buds – but I do not swallow immediately! I enjoy the wine as it warms up further in my mouth, releasing more new flavors and sensory (if not sensual!) perceptions. I let my tongue and taste buds pick up on the sweetness, bitterness, or whatever flavors it finds. I might keep the wine in my mouth for 1 – 3 minutes before actually swallowing it!

I also love to match up wine with foods, or just chocolates or cheeses, and having some food nourishment along the way helps to reduce the impact of alcohol also.

This process and experience intoxicates me, and it constrains me from getting drunk. I drink less because I get more flavor and satisfaction out of each sip of wine and I slow down the amount I drink over any period. This is similar to the advice of chewing your food 25 times before swallowing. You pick out much more flavor and nourishment from your food, become more satisfied and ultimately, eat less.

Drunkenness is not a state I enjoy during or after drinking, and I avoid it. Avoiding drunkenness comes easily for me since I taste my wine while drinking and before swallowing, combine it with food which further absorbs and disperses the alcohol content, and enjoy it and let it satiate me along the way.

I recommend you do the same. You will enjoy your wine far more and treat your body far better along the journey! Remember to taste, not drink (or guzzle) your wine to become intoxicated, not drunk!

Wine education – Lesson 1

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Steve Shipley

There are a lot of ways to learn how to appreciate wine drinking more, but there is one lesson that stands above all others, and that is to keep on tasting different wines. I could have you read books, attend courses, read wine reviews and participate in a number of other activities, but there is no better means to learning about wine than by trying a number of different wines.

I have a lot of author friends and they sometimes get distracted focusing on marketing, social media, taking classes on creative writing and participating in a number of other activities that seem like writing, but are not really writing. They have to keep reminding themselves that there is no other activity that makes you a writer than to just sit down and actually write!

Therefore, wine education Lesson 1 is to taste a variety of different wines and understand what you like and what you don’t. And Lesson 2 will be on the difference between tasting and drinking. I want you to taste wine, not just drink it. That would be an incredible waste.

Having said that and gotten Lesson 1 out of the way, there are a variety of different things that comprise a simple wine education that should increase your pleasure of drinking wine. These include:

Reading a variety of different books on wine
Attending tastings with other people and sharing your tasting experiences
Trying different wines with different foods, including different wines with cheese and chocolate
Writing down tasting notes
Participating in vertical and horizontal wine tastings
Attending some specialty sessions on glassware, decanters and other wine paraphernalia
Learning a bit about how to make wine
Experiencing and thinking about what wine does to your senses

I have written over 125 blog posts in the last year and plan to write plenty more. Many of my posts have been about reviewing specific wines, matching wine with food, and enjoying the wine lifestyle more. Some have been educational. Therefore, I am not going to label any of my future posts as ‘educational.’ many will be, but hopefully many of those already written have been also.

The key thing is that with a little more understanding of wine, you are likely to enjoy tasting and drinking wine a lot more. And it makes it easier to share the experience and talk about it with others who enjoy drinking wine also. I have certainly found that to be the case for me and many of my friends. Let’s learn a bit more together.

Puligny Montrachet versus NSW Chardonnay – too close to call

Posted on March 17, 2013 by Steve Shipley

We enjoyed one of our favorite Montrachets yesterday with lunch, that being the 2009 Bouchard Peres & Fils Puligny Montrachet. This is a beautiful rich, creamy Montrachet yet balanced with ample citrus flavors. It cost us $75 per bottle in Australia. Thinking it sinful to use 100 ml of this fine wine for the mushroom and wild rice soup (see my post on wine math!) we are making this evening, and since there was only enough for one glass left over since yesterday, we opened a 2008 Tamburlaine Reserve Chardonnay made with grapes from Orange, NSW. This fine wine is $30 per bottle and was made organically. I bought a dozen of this wine several years ago, and it is one of the best organic wines I have ever had.

While the Bouchard lost a very small touch of flavor since yesterday, it was still drinking well. The smell of the Bouchard was more evident than for the Tamburlaine, but the color identical. I had my wife do a blind tasting of each and she could not tell the difference, and with a bit of hesitation, pointed to the Tamburlaine and said it was the Bouchard. While I had the knowledge of knowing which wine was which, I also had a tough time deciding which wine I liked better. Except for the more aromatic nose of the Bouchard, I have to say, I enjoyed both of them equally! And for the money, the 2008 Tamburlaine Reserve Chardonnay from Orange wins hands down with regard to value.

The Tamburlaine tastes of orange (how coincidental being the grapes came from Orange!), mandarin and lemon. It starts strong, but does not have quite the finish that the 2009 Bouchard Peres & Fils Puligny Montrachet has. But it still packs a mouthful of flavor! I would highly recommend this wine and all the organic wines from Tamburlaine. They make good use of their Hunter vineyards and their Orange cold-weather vineyards to produce some outstanding wines, and if you are looking for organic, this is my wine maker of choice. I have sampled a lot of organic wines and frankly, have not been impressed. However, I am open to trying more and also giving a number of the organic wine makers another chance. But Tamburlaine is the only organic wine maker from which I have purchased any wine!

While the Hunter Valley is known for Shiraz and Semillon, they are also the fine producer of some great Chardonnays, and so are the colder climates in NSW of Orange and Mudgee. I am becoming a big fan of NSW Chardonnays, whereas previously, I was only drinking Australian Chardonnays from Margaret River. Now I am seeking out and enjoying NSW Chardonnays at a fraction of the cost of the better Margaret River Chardonnays.

It was spur of the moment that I decided to compare side-by-side these two Chardonnays as I thought there was no comparison, but I was wrong and glad for the comparative tasting I did. Both are worth drinking, but for those of us in Australia, being able to buy Tamburlaine organic Chardonnays at a fraction of the cost of a good Montrachet is the way to go!

Steve Shipley, author Wine Sense, out early 2014. Published by InkIT Publishing
© 2014. Steve Shipley
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Twitter: Steve Shipley @shipleyaust; InkIT Publishing @inkitpub

A wonderful week with wine

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Steve Shipley

My life does not revolve around wine, but my appreciation and enjoyment of wine is integrated into my lifestyle. I enjoy drinking it, I enjoy sharing in fellowship over a good glass of wine and I enjoy reading and understanding what makes wine so special. I sometimes refer to it as ‘living the wine lifestyle!’

As I look back over this week and forward to the weekend, I reflect on how wine has made my life better. It started last weekend by reading several books on wine and philosophy and making me think about how wine fulfills all five human senses. I have always been curious about which senses are the most important and how they effect our enjoyment of life in general and wine in particular. (Separate blog on this to follow.)

Then Monday after work, I met with a work colleague and client at deVine, one of my favorite wine bars and restaurants. They client had asked a favor and I was glad to help him out which was why I brought my other colleague along. Then after that meeting, my colleague and I caught up on his project status and a few other things. And upon leaving, I saw another contact who is a Partner at a Big Four advisory firm, waved and later that evening received an email from him asking to meet to discuss a large project we may consider doing between his firm and mine. In 90 minutes, that was quite a good amount of business to get accomplished made more enjoyable by a good glass of wine!

I did not drink wine Tuesday or Wednesday as we were going to a Riedel wine glass masterclass Thursday evening which would include tasting, and then out for a big birthday lunch on Friday at our favorite restaurant in The Hunter Valley, Bistro Molines, where we would be drinking some of my wife’s very favorites wines.

Both the Reidel masterclass and lunch were brilliant and among two of the finest events I have ever enjoyed. Georg Riedel, 10th generation glass maker took us through a brilliant dissertation and tasting on the pleasure of drinking different varieties from different types of glasses and the very noticeable difference in taste and pleasure involved. I have written on this previously (in total in about seven different posts as I am so impressed with Riedel glassware and their impact on improving the wine drinking experience) and will certainly do so again in the very near future! Georg also discussed how the shape of the glass effects our smell and taste senses and reinforced what I had been studying over the previous weekend. It was an amazing two hours spent with a master in like company and was both educational and entertaining.

Birthday wines at Bistro Molines

We then drove this morning to our place in The Hunter Valley and went to Bistro Molines for my wife’s birthday lunch. A pure delight and treasure! As usual, the food and service were impeccable and the wines we drank (too much of!) were my wife’s favorites and truly outstanding. I will be writing a review on the dessert wine, the 2006 Chateau Rieussec very soon. And while Bistro Molines certainly has fine glassware, including Riedel to serve from, I was insistent on bringing our own Shiraz and Montrachet Riedel glasses to make sure the wine was served as perfectly as it could be.

And now onto the remainder of our four-day weekend in The Hunter Valley. I will be reading on wine, writing on wine (I have about 15 ideas for posts and I want to build up an inventory for the next month as I will be otherwise quite busy and it is always good to have a number of posts in reserve), studying a wine appreciation and tasting course and of course, drinking wine.

While my life does not revolve around wine, it certainly is enhanced because of it! Wine helps me with business, friendship, and fuels my thirst for continuous learning.

SAZ in the Cellar

Wine appreciation and enjoyment

Category Archives: Lifestyle