"The guide asked the 10 of us whether it was a gin tasting or another wine tasting that should form part of the itinerary. Nine voted for gin. I abstained." Columnist RICHARD CALVER reports from his wine tour to Kangaroo Island.
"It was a new-style chardonnay with very little butter and the oak flavours subtle. It was a pleasant drink." Wine columnist RICHARD CALVER gets a taste for a chardonnay from Orange.
"I was back in my 1970s bell bottoms (purple!) reading about the plat de pauvre that is fondue, a way the French use up bits of hard, cracked or unattractive cheese," confesses wine columnist RICHARD CALVER.
"Arneis, a white varietal originating in Piedmont in north-west Italy, has found a home much closer to us – in Wallaroo," writes wine columnist RICHARD CALVER.
"The older wine changed a great deal over the course of lunch. It had obviously been stored well and its deep-red colour showed no hint of browning, a sign of a wine being over the hill," writes (well aged) wine columnist RICHARD CALVER.
More than 350 million bottles of wine are gathering dust in Australian storage, and industry figures have an ingenious plan to stop them heading for the bin.
"So, here we were in the warm embrace of the Brown Brothers’ matriarch; the Patricia range of wine in part celebrates the winery’s matriarchal heritage," writes wine columnist RICHARD CALVER.
"There is intense debate still about whether screw caps contribute to what is known as 'reductive' flavours in wine," writes columnist RICHARD CALVER.
"The term claret was widely used in Britain for Bordeaux wines throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and it still appears today as a marketing term, though much less commonly," writes RICHARD CALVER.
"The taste was richer than the French wine with a delicate berry flavour that was clean and dry with a longer finish than expected from this style of wine." Wine columnist RICHARD CALVER pits an Aussie rosé against a French one.
Wine writer RICHARD CALVER sits up straight and pays attention as he gets a lesson from master winemaker Ken Helm in a former schoolhouse, a tiny wooden structure, built in 1888.
"We tried a large array of table wines on the day, as well as a delightful fortified, a muscat, that was intense and went very well with coffee." Wine writer RICHARD CALVER visits Gundog Estate.
"In 2026, just as in 2024, frost and hail have completely wiped out the harvest. It’s tough," Yarrh winemaker Caleb Wearne tells wine columnist RICHARD CALVER.
'It went very well with the lamb and, in order to keep the half bottle left over, I’ve stored it in the fridge.' Wine writer RICHARD CALVER has no qualms about keeping red wine cool.
"The gap between the reality of Paris and the romantic notions that people around the world have been fed about the place leads to many people seeking medical treatment," writes wine columnist RICHARD CALVER.
RICHARD CALVER becomes imbued with a book dedicated to the French ways of drinking, "full of inventive recipes for café drinks, aperitifs, cocktails and singularly French snacks, as well as many charming stories that enliven the recipes."
"At one stage in the '70s, every third bottle of wine sold in Australia was Ben Ean Moselle," writes nostalgic wine columnist RICHARD CALVER.
"There was none of the expected crispness or fruit characteristics. Unfortunately, it had hints of wet cardboard and something that was akin to mouthwash." Wine writer RICHARD CALVER gets a taste of cork taint.
"Waiheke Island is magic, a mere 20 kilometres from Auckland by ferry, but a world away in terms of atmosphere and charm." Wine writer RICHARD CALVER shares a holiday highlight.
