Irregular Update
Sydney Time
Copyright © Ric Einstein 2009
Welcome to this edition of the Irregular Update
which has loads for your reading pleasure.
Firstly if you did not read the last article 'Where To Now?',
which examines how
the industry got into it's current position and where it is heading, its worth
reading it now. It serves as an introduction to this weeks article, 'Problems
and Solutions'. It contains more background on how and why the Oz wine
industry is facing challenging times, mostly from an industry perspective, as
well as a couple of suggestions that may be useful to the industry. But the big
question is, does the industry have the leadership to get behind any concerted
campaign at this time, or indeed at any time? The article can be found
here.
Also, whilst we are continuing on the last Update's
theme, I have another Snippet made up from readers comments, emails, and other
goodies called 'More From The Mailbag.' Topics include Murray
Paterson's musings and reminiscences; a couple of insightful perspectives,
as well as hilarious comments on the recent selection of the new names for Oz
Sherry and Tokay. The Snippet can be found
here.
Over the last couple of weeks I have waded through a number of samples. Some good and some 'average. They can be found here.
In 2003, as a mass generalisation, it could
be said that a number of the SA wines had very firm tannins. Indeed, it was
almost a characteristic of the vintage. It's early days tasting the 2007's
but if I had to make a generalisation about the SA reds, it would be in relation
to green, or sappy tannins. It was a drought year in SA so unirrigated
vineyards may have suffered from the lack of water. It was also a vintage when
everything happened at once. The reds came in at the same time as the
c-throughs. The closing sequences of vintage was compressed and was over in an
incredibly short period. At the end, sugar ripeness shot up quickly, but the big
question is did the grapes have a chance to reach optimal physiological
ripeness. Long, slow ripening periods produce the best fruit and 2007
certainly did not have those conditions. If the grapes are picked when the sugar
ripeness is optimal, but the tannins are not ripe, the resulting wine can have
green, or sappy tannins. If the sappy tannins stick out, it is not a good look.
Even if they are only just noticeable, it can sometimes be a distraction to the
wine, although in some cases it can add to the wine. As I said, its early days,
but I am concerned about the possible number of SA 2007's that will have sappy
tannins. Time will tell.
The News Section has been back to normal
level this week. Stories of interest include:
-
Woolworths buys online wine business
-
Heatwave forces early grape harvest
-
Australian Wine Grape Output May Drop on Heat Wave
-
New Zealand’s Annual Wine Exports Rise 19% on Harvest, Demand
-
New Zealand’s Annual Wine Exports Rise 19% on Harvest, Demand
-
Beaujolais 'Sugar Ring' prosecutor calls for fines
-
U.S. Poised to Become World's Largest Wine-Consuming Market by 2012
-
Foster's faces $700m write-down
-
Foster's faces $700m write-down
Those stories and more can be found here.
This weeks quote. "Wine experts can’t resist making
predictions. In 1990, wine lover Richard Nixon prophesied that the Chinese would
someday match the French in the quality of their wines; this despite a Chinese
carte des vins that featured sweet red wine and a grape called Cow’s Nipple. In
the mid-1980s, a well-known New York wine merchant asserted that an $8 Cabernet
from Chile was as good as Lafite, and auction prices would eventually reflect
this little-known fact. Wine coolers too, as I recall, were expected to expose a
vast new market to the pleasures of wine drinking. The coolers bombed, [a nice
bottle of Lafite will set you back $250 or more], and Chilean cabernet is still
mostly eight bucks." --- Stephen Tanzer, Forbes Magazine 1996
Until next time .... Cheers Ric
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Copyright © Ric Einstein 2009