Comments on The Naked Vine: Wine Advice for the Rest of Us.™: The Alphabet Soup Project -- "B" is for Blush

You have no idea, man, it's incredible, and I ...

2010-01-26T17:57:55.696-05:00

You have no idea, man, it's incredible, and I was exceedingly lucky. I talked to the right people beforehand and ended up having the most amazing experience. We had lunch and a private tasting (arranged) with Phil Lehmann at Peter Lehmann, and ended up meeting (spontaneously) the guy who makes Ballycroft (600 bottles/yr, 200 to the U.S. @ $100/bottle, Parker somehow got one and rated it 95) in Murray Street's tasting room and going to a bar with him, then to his house to have dinner with him and his family. By the way his Shiraz will blow your head clean off (he let us try his current one and went and got some of his next vintage straight from the barrel, decanting both into a coffee pot). It was the most surreal, miraculous experience you could imagine. If you ever have the chance, GO. Look on Qantas in late spring/early summer. It's still not cheap in the absolute sense, but you can get there for around $800 round trip, which is an outrageous steal by normal standards. I've been to Napa and many lesser regions (yet to do Europe) but I've never met such a concentration of people as knowledgeable, friendly, generous, and absolutely committed to the art and life of wine as those I met in the Barossa.

Indeed. Barossa cranks out a ton of wine -- about ...

2010-01-26T14:01:50.737-05:00

Indeed. Barossa cranks out a ton of wine -- about half of Australia's annual production. (If Barossa seceded from Australia, it would rank in the top 15 wine producing countries...)

I'm quite jealous of your trip, needless to say!

You know, I'm not sure we ran into an individu...

2010-01-26T13:29:20.731-05:00

You know, I'm not sure we ran into an individual one that stood out so much as the Barossa-wide approach (my wife and I toured on our honeymoon). We're taxing my memory here, but if I had to guess I would say that the ones from Cimicky, Murray Street, Peter Lehmann, Teusner, and Standish are good. Peter Lehmann is probably the most likely of those to be available here. Wish I could speak on it in more detail. I'll have to go pick up a bottle if I can find one and refresh my memory ;-)

I haven't tried a ton of Australian rosés -- l...

2010-01-26T12:48:22.598-05:00

I haven't tried a ton of Australian rosés -- largely because, other than the Yellowtail/Rosemount types -- I just don't happen to run into a lot of it. I'll certainly look for it. Are there particular ones that you can recommend?

Mike have you ever tried Australian rosé? The Bar...

2010-01-26T12:30:37.292-05:00

Mike have you ever tried Australian rosé? The Barossa kicks out some marvelous stuff. Very close to their big shiraz, but just taken down a notch to make it something easier and more refreshing when you don't want the wine to be what the evening is about... or blow away anything less than the heartiest of meats. Fantastic stuff.