From: Pie Queen

11/10/2006 05:24:57 Well well...the Pie King and I only kept quiet on the trip home on day one because we so much wanted to be able to listen more purely to yourself and Red Bigot (did I get that right??)

The dogs are on diets and we now have psycho rabbit - a black dwarf lop I rescued from certain rabbit pie at the recent Binney Road auction at Willunga. On second thought, meat pie...rabbit pie... I am not entirely sure she is safer here at Pie King Bridge after all!!

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From: pie queen

12/06/2006 03:55:19 Miniature border collies Charlee and Biggles (AKA long haired chihuahuas but the Pie King refuses to acknowledge this) are doing well on their doggy diets! In my defense, the pile of match boxes was all for a good cause. Creativity struck and i needed the boxes but not all the matches. Fortunately my brother in law, a self confessed pyromaniac at the barbecue accountant will be delighted with his Christmas gift this year - the contents of 25 extra large matchboxes. Frighteningly close to collecting bar codes i fear.

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From: DJ

12/12/2006 19:13:26 Re: Chapter 4 - Annie's Lane
Sorry Ric - Annies Lane is in the Fosters group.

Winepros says Annies Lane has been part since 1996. But dates its start in line with Quelltaler.

I do not think it has ever had anything to do with Hardys unless they owned Quelltaler at some stage pre 1990 (I have to look up references at home to check that but I do not think they ever did).

Cheers, David

Hi David,

Thanks; you are 100% correct. I have fixed the text. The over-paid editor should have picked that one up; I will have to reduce his stipend.

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From: Mike

12/28/2006 15:15:56 Hi Ric

Glad to hear that someone else thinks well of the Turkey Flat Cab. Enjoyed the 2002 and the 1999 there in December 2004, when they had no Shiraz for tasting!

Mike

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From: Mike

12/28/2006 15:39:46 Hi Ric

Sorry for the double posting, didn't realize that posts were not specific for each chapter.

Regarding the 2004 Massena Eleventh Hour. I had a very different opinion of the wine (http://shirazshiraz.blogspot.com/2006/08/make-me-ripe-and-dont-forget-acid.html), and when first tasted it created quite a bit of discussion with a lot of agreement about it being a portish (over-ripe) style. I was also concerned about the level of (added) acidity in the wine.

Mike

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From: Michael Horstmann

01/03/2007 21:30:00 Hello Ric

I absolutely enjoyed every single part of your diaries so far and
chapter 5 is no exeption.
May I dare to point put that "Campe della Spinetta 2001 Barolo Vigneto " is something like saying "Reserve Morris Tokay door cellar"??!!!
The winery is called " La Spinetta" .
The wine is a "Barolo 2001."
"Vigneto" means: single vineyard and that one is called:
" Le Campe della Spinetta".
I am looking forward to the next chapter
Michael

TORB's Reply:

Hi Michael, Thanks for straightening that one out. I have made the suggested corrections; I have enough trouble with English, let alone Italian.

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From: Stuart Barton

01/24/2007 00:22:14 Rick:

A few disparate comments on your trip.

I visited the Barossa in October (staying with the only winemaker who knows every vine by name if you know who I mean) and one day we tried the Grant Burge range. My overall impression is that Grants mum must have been frightened by the OAK FAIRY during gestation (of Grant - not the wine). As one advanced through the range in supposed quality each wine was progressively dominated by oak. Oh - and brett! There was Brett coming out your ears bigtime, especially from Shadrach. What a disappointing line-up. I call his cellar style "Sweet Oakey Shiraz Cocktail" these days. The best red he has is the Barossa ranges Shiraz, and even that is not the wine it used to be.

Another interesting visit was to Jacobs Ck, where we tried --------- nothing! We went in, had a glass put in front of each of us, and waited - and waited - and waited. After 1/2 hour we pulled up stumps and went up to Turkey Flat for some really good wine.

The best we visited in the Barossa was Yalumba, where Drew took us through the whole range, including a few specials. They are doing some really good things these days and are really worthy of attention.

Winter Ck are their usual idiosyncratic selves - magnificent fruit driven wines, nothing like most Barossas and highly rated. These days Cross has partially gone to the Dark Side and has a chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc in the lineup - both Adelaide Hills fruit. Pretty good for white wine, though.

Finally, your experience with Beer reminds me of a visit SWMBO and I had to Pipers Brook in Tassie 12 months ago, where we tried the chardonnays, again ably assisted by the host telling us exactly what we would find in the glass. They were awful; the worst was the Reserve 2003. This was badly oxidised and so I asked for a fresh bottle. I was told they were all like this and if I could get past the stinky nose there was some nice fruit underneath. And this wine sells for $48 a bottle! Serves us right for trying a white wine.

TORB Responds
Hi Stuart, Thanks for the comments. By coincidence David Cross of Winter Creek rang me today and told me about his c-throughs.

I am normally pretty sensitive to Brett and didn't notice any at Grant Burge, but then Brett does vary from bottle to bottle. As far as the oak is concerned, I didn't think it was over the top, but then we all have differing sensitivities to oak and I have a fair tollerance to it.

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From: pie queen

02/23/2007 04:40:28 The souffle looks brilliant!! The Tour Diary photos are unfortunately the Pie Kings undoing - now I KNOW you didnt have pizza for dinner. Incidentally the iced coffee in the espresso is a long standing Pie King Bridge tradition, soon however to be replaced by the mighty Pie King affogato - now there is a discovery the Pie King will never regret.

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