Glug in Nuriootpa, South Australia | Wine/spirits

Glug

Locality: Nuriootpa, South Australia

Phone: +61 1300 004 584

Address: 95 Samuel Road 5355 Nuriootpa, SA, Australia

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25.01.2022 Don't say you weren't warned! Something to think about as you wander from cellar door to cellar door on your next tour of the Barossa. (Thanks to the @wineecon twitter page)

24.01.2022 The Street Drinkers Make an Appraisal. David Farmer Would you know if the violin busker in a tunnel leading to the underground station was a concert violinist or a failed student? The Adelaide Advertiser for a few years took delight in testing the quality of the newly released Penfolds Grange with passers-by on the street. The Penfolds Grange 2008 was released in May, 2013 and was given 100/100 by Robert Parkers US based Wine Advocate. Local critics also rated the wine highly.... On the streets of Adelaide they had doubts as a wine selling for $17 was rated as highly as the Grange for $785. Perhaps harsh though the wine expert Tony Love had the $17 at 7/10 and the Grange only one point higher. All a good chuckle though these tests highlight that concentration and experience are needed to appreciate the better wines. How much more you are prepared to pay for the better wines is then left to the individual.

24.01.2022 Sound Advice for Learning About Wine. David Farmer To learn about wine it helps to taste with a group that have considerable knowledge. Should you then wish a career in the wine business I direct you to this marvellous advice from an interview with Vera Wang; The Australian, 19/7/2019 by Alison Beard: ‘What advice do you give young designers? It’s wonderful to be passionate and have a dream. But start by working for somebody you respect or anybody, really and get paid to ...learn. There is a learning curve, not only in what you know, but in how you behave. And if you don’t educate yourself first, you really can’t break rules. You have to learn what came before so that you know (a) you’re not really that inventive, and (b) which rules you want to break. Then keep your head down, don’t get involved in politics, be respectful, be grateful that you have the job, do your job, and most of all, be available. I was that kind of employee. I cared about my job. I felt honoured to be there. My goal was to prove to my employers that I was the best I could be’. See more

23.01.2022 Imagining a Different Outcome. David Farmer Are we pleased with ourselves that we drink the universal diet, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay? I quickly add it is to our credit that this warm climate country has embraced Shiraz for its comfort red, particularly as it drinks well in a freezing dining hall, in the middle of winter, in Cambridge, U.K. We do not care as it’s the wine to open anywhere, anytime and to hell with the temperature. We have matched ...this with the very strange variety Sauvignon Blanc which we prefer to drink at the temperature of a cold beer. This also appeals to my contrarian nature as when it appeared in the Show System in the early 1980s it was detested by the senior show judges. The Chairman of all, Len Evans, could not believe any sensible person would drink such light weight, green flavoured rubbish. I have tracked the rise of Sauvignon Blanc from the late 1970s and it was not till the Sydney Olympics of 2000 that it collected its first drinker’s gold, as sales just took off and have barely slowed. Still let’s imagine if our table wine awakening from the 1950s had taken a different turn and we imported no new varieties, instead learning to enjoy what we had. Back then there was strength in Shiraz, Grenache, Mataro, Semillon, Chenin Blanc, Riesling and a suite of varieties used to make fortifieds, particularly white varieties. CSIRO scientists decided they could help out and created new varieties just for us; Cienna, Mystique, Rubienne, Taminga, Tyrian and Tarrango. But again, we resisted, and the weeds of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir spread and spread. I took heart with the ABC movement, ‘anything but chardonnay’ of the 1990s but alas it lost momentum. Does this matter? Likely not though I think for tourism and exports it would have been useful to identify Australia with a few varieties we had made our own. It’s never too late so perhaps customers might like to add Semillon or Mataro to their drinking mix? For myself, I think at the last supper I will ask for a Mystique and finish with a Rubienne. Depicted: Richard Farmer, Fino, Seppeltsfield, Barossa Valley, trying new wines.

23.01.2022 Getting ready...

22.01.2022 Unfortunately behind a pay wall but includes a delightful story of how Damien Mccrystal, City diarist for The Telegraph in the Nineties, when restaurant critic for the now-defunct paper Sunday Business, attempted a world-record-breaking lunch of 72 hours. Reuters agreed to sponsor the event, Marco Pierre White hosted it but the Guinness Book of Record refused to recognise the achievement as, they stated, they could not support record-breaking attempts that were life-threatening.

21.01.2022 Have a drink of Donald Or perhaps you would just like the great man's signature. An example of that on a Trump wine label is available for sale on the site of Stephen Koschal ~ Quality Autographs & Signed Books. ... It's your chance to "Make America Grape Again" for an outlay of just $US195 But, reports Forbes magazine, if you’re not lucky enough to score the signed specimen, fret not: There’s still ample opportunity to be subjected to a ‘Taste of Trump’an $80 bundle of the winery’s 2017 chardonnay, 2014 sparkling blanc de blanc, and 2017 meritage, available through its website.

21.01.2022 Thinking About Vintage and Non-Vintage Variety and No-variety Wine is a lovely drink though this simple pleasure can be taken too seriously. Gradually as our experience grows so do our entrenched views, regrettably like our other opinions, as staying nimble and daring is so hard. I’m not sure how this develops with wine but is likely the normal result of limiting exposure, seeing the same friends, reading what we want to believe, with views become part of the complex reinfor...cing cycle that hardens as we age. This build-up is gradual, so we are unaware how early opinions became strong preferences, forgetting how a taste from long ago may later have us avoid some varieties while favouring others. Alas so certain can our views on wine become that they are like commandments hindering a fresh approach. One of my beliefs is to start afresh as often as you can, certainly a small part of the reason why Glug was created, as I knew somehow it would knock off many barnacles and it has. An example is how the vintage and the variety on a label is used to decide purchase when all that should be asked is ‘will it be a good drink’. Non-vintage, non-varietal wines, simply called ‘dry red’ or ‘dry white’ should be available in all stores. They are not because these terms are thought to be shorthand for cheap and thus do not sell. Alas consumers are correct as my retail experience confirms that in shops low average plonk is all they would be. This is a pity as the flexibility they give a winery would allow it to deliver cheaper wine with a better taste. I have fond memories of the magnificent Basedow’s, corked barrel flagons sold from the Canberra shop in the late 1970s called, Dry Red. The many Glug versions are often labelled as Trial Bins and the range Chapmans Crossing explores the clues in the corked barrel flagons, non-vintage and non-varietal, the secret of South Australian cellar doors in the 1960s. Depicted: The South Australia cellar door secret of the 1960s-the corked barrel flagon.

21.01.2022 What is wine except a pleasure to drink and anyone can work that out without help I’ve never felt comfortable being at the table when a long sequence of the same classical wines, perhaps going back a century, are presented. These ‘verticals’ achieve little apart from leaving a record saying some bottles lasted longer than others. Now I view these extravagances as signposts of a time of excess, one I think cannot be repeated; and such a waste of precious stock, all gone in one...Continue reading

20.01.2022 "Ground and brewed 'tableside' by your own personal barista, the 'Ethiopian Cup of Excellence Queens Coffee' is served in a crystal wine glass and is a generous portion that might even stretch to two."

19.01.2022 So You Wish to Learn About Wine. David Farmer Perhaps you have been drinking wine for a few years and now wish to know more about how wine is made or understand some part of what experts think or even go a step further to ask what makes an expert. Reading any wine book will improve your drinking though most are not good on the big issues as the authors never stopped to question them. So, I offer here two thoughts which prevailing wisdom does not question though both should be.... A. Wine goes with food. I drink wine any time as the flavour satisfies though it is best consumed with food and glasses of water as I find this dilutes the alcoholic impact. I have a few general rules such as Barossa Shiraz does not partner with oysters though if you drink water between the wine and oysters to rinse the mouth it can work. Visually I find this pairing upsetting, but this is a different emotion. I drink special wine when the meal is special though I attempt to separate the tastes as I see no reason why they should complement each other. When I am fortunate enough to be in the company of that rarity, a profoundly great wine, the food is superfluous, and I push it aside to concentrate on what is in the glass. So I find combining two complex flavours in my mouth at the same time is not a case of the whole being greater than the two parts. If these comments get you thinking I have done my job. B. Great Wine comes from special locations often tiny. This thought has become a statement of obvious fact though I can find no evidence. This quote from the Wall St Journal, January, 2018, ‘Champagne’s current boundaries date to 1927, when French authorities passed a law that drew lines around towns growing grapes. Mailly-Champagne is one of 17 towns that can label its grapes as Grand Cru, the region’s most coveted designation. An acre of vineyard there can sell for 800,000, compared with 4,000 for an acre of run-of-the mill farmland outside the bubbly border’, expresses my concerns. Boundaries around wine regions go hand in hand with marketing and asking you to pay more. However, the evolution of landscapes, dependent as they are on geology and time, is so complex that areas of any size are different to all others. Thus, all the landscapes of the world’s wine regions are unique. I find instead that winemaking makes special wines not the site. The lands of Australia and Europe are special as are Burgundy and the Murray Basin. Over to drinkers to think about both of these issues with a glass in one hand.

19.01.2022 "The great Australian wattle Is the symbol of our land You can put it in a bottle Or hold it in your hand"... It was with high praise for the beautiful wattle that Richard Farmer composed his ditty in 1966 as he walked across the frosty, crunchy grass one Canberra morning ... with a sprig of wattle in his hand. When I asked what bottle he had in mind, Richard replied a longneck beer bottle. 'They didn't drink wine then.' And here you have it .. a wattle (Golden) in a bottle (longneck beer bottle) inspired by Richard Farmer. But how did Eric Idle, British actor and musician of the comedy group Monty Python, hear Richard's ditty? Idle’s slightly modified form became an iconic chant from the Bruces sketch first seen on the TV show Monty Python's Flying Circus in Nov. 1970. Anyone know? Post made by Suzette Searle, President Wattle Day Association Inc.

18.01.2022 A salutary warning for anyone foolish enough to venture into buying "fine wine" at auctions. Apr 13, 2021 Less than a week ago, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers escorted Rudy Kurniawan onto a commercial flight at Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport to begin the final chapter of deportation proceedings. Just over 24 hours later, and after one layover, the convicted wine counterfeiter arrived in Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, just outside Jakarta, Indonesia,... according to an ICE bulletin, ending more than two decades in the United States. "n 2006, he reached his pinnacle as a wine dealer when he sold $34 million worth of wine at two auctions at Acker Merrall & Condit. The second of those sales fetched $24.7 million. But 22 lots of Burgundies from Domaine Ponsot consigned to another Acker auction were identified as fakes by Laurent Ponsot, the winery's fourth-generation proprietor. Asked where he had acquired the wines, Kurniawan was evasive. He continued selling wines, sometimes using a straw buyer, but litigious collectors were soon crying foul. In 2012, the FBI came knocking on his door. Agents found a fake wine assembly line in Kurniawan's Los Angeles kitchen, including phony labels of some of the world's rarest wines, custom stamps and rare French wax used for sealing bottles. The evidence suggested Kurniawan wasn't just trafficking in counterfeit wines, he was making them."

18.01.2022 A Sense of Place Terroir and Soils and Rocks. David Farmer Wine should be about the expectation of a satisfying taste for a fair price and mostly delivers on this promise. Yet that is never enough for those wishing to promote their wares, so they offer up tales to entice customers to see them as worth more. They relate made up stories, family fables, or offer dreams about a taste and since they do little harm let us let them pass by. Should this change when the copy is not tr...ue or is it best to let consumers sort out fact from phantasy? My anxiety only rises when buyers turn off the waffle detector as the price paid can be high. Thus I thought tales like those linking the taste of Chablis to sea fossils in the vineyard had been nailed shut yet a recent email from United Cellars, Sydney, shows a good yarn will rise again. ‘Chapoutier's Schieferkopf Riesling collection heralds a new discovery of Alsatian and German terroirs.. Just a short distance from one of the Compostelle routes, in the village of Bernardvillé, this plot is planted in a unique sub-soil on the only strip of blue schist in Alsace which dates back to the Precambrian (over 542 million years ago). Its soils are deeper than that of the neighbouring Fels plot (over 30cm) and give the wines from the Buehl vineyard their powerful structure.’ (note this quote is from the Chapoutier sales material) Always be sceptical about these rock and soil yarns. For example, the rock on the label is not Precambrian as it depicts a fossil scallop shell which is perhaps a few million years old. I assume an honest mistake though what else has not gone through the fact checker. Oh I forgot to mention that flavours in wine do not relate to rocks and soils.

17.01.2022 The Towering Ambition of an Early Wine Merchant. David Farmer Peter Bond Burgoyne began his career as a London wine merchant in 1871-1872 after becoming an agent for the pioneer McLaren Vale vigneron, Dr Alexander Charles Kelly of Tintara. By 1900 Burgoyne had become a towering figure across the Australian wine business since his firm controlled most of the exports to the U.K. Burgoyne had grand ambitions for Australian wine which led to the purchase of the Mount Ophir estate..., a farming and vineyard property, in Rutherglen in 1903. Burgoyne’s later built a large winery and cellars at Mount Ophir which is depicted on this postcard dated to C1910. At this time, it may have been the largest winery in Australia. Burgoyne remained the largest importers of wine into the U. K. until the 1920s. The Mount Ophir winery closed in 1955 though whether it was owned by Burgoyne at this time is uncertain. P.B. Burgoyne as a wine brand was revived in the mid-1990s and the first release by Glug was a P.B. Burgoyne McLaren Vale Shiraz 2006 followed by a P.B. Burgoyne Langhorne Creek Shiraz 2008. There will be many more. Of interest the Mount Ophir property was purchased by the Brown Family in May 2016 and they have been busily refurbishing the building as centre for events with accommodation and I’m sure they can supply tasty Rutherglen wines as well.

17.01.2022 The Mid October Tasting Glug Winery. David Farmer These images from the mid-October winery tasting will give customers a feel of the workplace that makes the wines you drink. Benjamin the winemaker is in the red jacket. Customers that come to tasting such as this have moved their enjoyment to a high level as they come equipped with notepaper and pens to record their taste impressions. I am a believer that knowing wine starts with noting down your observations which can be as simple as ‘deep colour, strong aromas, heavy in the mouth.’ To receive emails from Glug sign up at https://www.glug.com.au/index_def.php?sec=join

17.01.2022 Celebrities and Buying Wine. David Farmer ‘As the average US wine consumer was a decidedly less sophisticated and less knowledgeable animal than his Australian counterpart I began to think that maybe I had been a bit on the premature side in being dismissive of Ted’s (Ted Kunkel-CEO Fosters), or more correctly, Greg’s (Greg Norman, golfer) grand plan..Greg had little idea about the dynamics or the culture of the wine industry but felt there was nothing special about the wine... business from being a success.’ Kings Run, by Ray King, (Sid Harta Publishing, 2015.) While in Sydney in 2016 I took a mother and her two daughters on my tour of the great unknown attractions of Sydney. At the Australia Museum we went to the Chapman room of mineral specimens which out-shines anything in the Smithsonian, not because of the size of the specimens but because of the rarity and perfection of the crystal shapes. The room was ours for 50 minutes without a visitor. (Note: It has been jazzed up to attract visitors since, much to its detriment) By mid afternoon it was time for a reward, so we proceeded to David Jones in the city to buy two bottles of fragrances. Perfumes are a specialty of mine so I’m very comfortable in this section of a department store. It took some effort to move the girls past the tiresome, celebrity displays till I spotted the bargains; ‘quick , quick before they all go’. As there it was, a table of Guerlain on special. Here was one of the great perfume houses moving stock to compete with the celebrity rabble. Back to Ray Kings (CEO Mildara Blass) tale of how the Greg Norman wines appeared in 1998. I have rewritten his account for brevity. So King was wary of this deal but was outranked by Kunkel. Normans mangers wanted a profit-sharing deal per bottle sold. King had an idea of what the wine should be sold for and saw quickly that the royalty would be 50% of the profits generated per bottle. So instead he proposed a retail price 70% higher than his first thought. In this way Normans take remained the same, if the wine sold it would be smiles all around, and if the wine did not sell, the project would die and Ray was rid of a distraction. Norman seeing himself as a premium bloke liked the proposed premium price and to Rays surprise the wine sold very well. My comment-I bet the proposed wine quality was not improved. This story shows what celebrity branding and other invented marketing ideas cost consumers. In my retail days I would not stock products that did not offer the customer a benefit though few retailers take this approach. This is another belief that ties back to why Glug wants to make all the wines it sells, why it owns all the brands and why it relies for its future on common-sense customers.

17.01.2022 Continuing My Stories-Learning About Wine. David Farmer In 2019 a family gathering had me travel to the outskirts of Melbourne. The nearby ‘Food Market’ general store was licensed so practising what I preach, drink widely, I loaded up with local Yarra whites and reds, mostly Pinot’s. I checked out the Barossa wines and found none indeed wines made in warm climates were largely missing. I mention this as it shows the remarkable shift in retail that has happened over the last d...ecade. Consider the year 2005 when the idea was that every shop in Australia would have a similar range of big-name brands. No matter if shopping in Cairns, Brighton, or South Perth, you could take comfort in finding your favourite. I am so thankful drinkers were way smarter than this. The cab ride from Tullamarine to the east was lengthy and had me in deep discussion with the young, immigrant driver from Pakistan who had recently discovered Shiraz and was soaking up the tit-bits I offered to move him along the wine journey. I remind you that the one essential to discovery is to taste wines masked. Learning about wine is more about discovering yourself than the wines and knowledge grows quickly when you realise that recognising the difference of Shiraz to other varieties is far from simple. Pointing wines, writing a descriptive note and taking a guess at the origin teaches you to be humble. This grows into real knowledge, allowing you to toss off the shackle, ‘I do not know much about wine, but I know what I like’ as you don’t. Press ahead as you will find the joy of wine increases with understanding. Depicted. Aerial views of the Yarra Valley and Barossa Valley

17.01.2022 Italian varieties and Carlo Corino. David Farmer Let me tell you about Carlo Corino who came to Australia in October, 1976. Carlo learnt his craft in Alba, the wine centre of Piedmont, Italy, making wines from Arneis, Nebbiollo, Barbera d’Alba and Dolcetto. These days Piedmont is Globally famous for the king of Italian reds, Barolo plus many local wines like Barbaresco. Carlo arrived to work at the Montrose winery in Mudgee owned by Transfield a construction firm built by It...alian migrants; they had planted mainstream varieties though Carlo loved the tiny acreage of Nebbiolo, Barbera and Sangiovese. Although only tiny bottlings, being unfamiliar varieties, they were hard to sell. The Montrose project folded in 1988, and the new owners Orlando, rid Montrose of Italian dreams and Carlo left our shores. Killing tiny advances is what big companies do, and this was a time of grand dreams, big brands, and global domination. You can have your views that Chateau Petrus and Chambertin are the greatest wines however I plump for the Orlando Jacobs Creek red, the first being the 1973 released in 1976. Millions of cases of beautiful wine selling for a song, which worked for a time, but consumer aspirations turned Jacobs Creek into today’s hard, thankless slog. We drink what we know though consider a huge house with many comfortable rooms and you have the house of wine, a place so large that temptations are found where-ever you wander. If you cannot travel, drinking local makes sense though if living in a wealthier country that makes and imports wines the range is endless. Making wines from the unfamiliar is one part of the difference Glug brings to the market. Over the last 10 years we have sold dozens of ‘alternative wines’ as they are called though ‘unfamiliar’ is a better term. Nowadays Italian varieties are welcome in any vineyard a sign of what 30 years brings as consumers now want what Carlo could not sell so long ago. Montrose sold the last of Carlo’s Italian varietal creations, called San Marco and Monticello, to my old firm Farmer Bros and were consumed by Canberra and Sydney customers. Pictures Carlo Corino, Montrose, the Orlando winery in the Barossa Valley and the first Jacobs Creek. See more

16.01.2022 The contrarian in me dislikes brands and the worst of all are celebrity names David Farmer writes in his latest weekly wine letter: Many of you do not have time to read about wine, so I’ll move straight to my two weekly tips; buy the last of the single barrel reds, the ‘GH23’ Winemaker’s Individual Barrel Selection Barossa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 plus I rate highly the new bottling from 2016 of the Karrawirra Barossa Valley Shiraz 2016. Why, because both represent what...Continue reading

16.01.2022 Reviewing the Australian Adventure into Table Wine. David Farmer Comparing the Australian wine and food scenes prior to 1940 and after 1960 is like viewing different worlds. A likely consequence of the anxious war years was a readiness to both want and accept change. The population was 7.4 million when peace was declared in 1945 and from then until 1960, 2 million immigrants arrived and importantly the notion that only those from the British Isles be accepted, was dropped. Th...e population was 10 million by 1965 and grew to 13 million by 1975. The European immigrants introduced an old-world wine culture and not finding what they wanted began home bottling, and introduced coffee, espresso machines and café life. Add in the wider perspective coming from the 1956 Olympics and the start of Television on the 16th September, 1956 and the pre-war days were gone. Wine makers like Max Schubert, Colin Preece, Roger warren and Maurice O’Shea were making great table wines by the 1950s, while groups like the Wine Society (1946) had begun and later publicists like Len Evans and Graham Kerr (The Galloping Gourmets 1967) further sparked interest. The many individual efforts built a move that transformed out tastes. The ABC story of 14th March 2021 which traced Antonio Di Chiera an immigrant from Naples who arrived in Perth in 1949 was a delight. Antonio and his brother Giuseppe opened a grocery store in Perth in 1953. Tom, Antonio’s son explained, ‘Dad brought in one of the very first batches of olive oil, in conjunction with a couple of other people in Perth. They brought in 100 cases of Carbonell olive oil from Spain, and it took them nearly three years to sell that consignment. They also sold the first broccoli grown by market gardeners in the Swan Valley.’ Looking back over the last 70 years is informative and just might give us clues on future directions. For example we have done little to embrace bush tucker, fungi and seaweeds and how we treat seafood is still rather primitive. As for wine we lack a global identity as to what direction we wish to take and while we have lots of individual images, I have found in marketing working with a single image makes it easier for buyers. I shall return to this interesting period, a lot of which I have observed, to see what clues can be unearthed that may act as guides. Depicted. Antonio Di Chiera 1955

15.01.2022 The Endless Sub Divisions of One Large Wine Region. David Farmer A depressing feature of the human condition is the ease with which we revert to tribalism. In the wine business this starts with nit picking over whose wines are better. Before long a group proclaims their wines are distinctive and demand a special geographical status. I suppose groups believe this gives them a commercial advantage when all it does is dilute the more important larger community effort of promotio...n and marketing. So how refreshing it is to find Tasmania has a GI or Geographical Indicator which covers all of the state from high water mark. Thus, all wines are called Made in Tasmania. How long will this last? A few years tops and I note that Wine Australia already has eight sub-districts circled. These are: Central North, East Coast, Furneaux Islands, King Island. North East, North West Coast, South East and Upper Derwent Valley. What is the point? None really except as explained wineries in Pipers Brook want a different status to the rivals down in the Coal River Valley. Which brings me to Australia’s new Master of Wine, Annette Lacey. Her dissertation was titled ‘An investigation into whether the Tasmania GI should be sub-divided’. I have not read this paper though I like to think she found it a bad idea. What plays well in Hobart or Launceston is just confusion in New York or London where the money is. Never dilute your marketing effort. For Tassie there is the apple isle, the devil and wood chopping heroes and that is enough. Graphic: Tasmania and the eight proposed Geographical indicators. The green colour shows it is a bit cooler than Victoria during the growing-ripening season but otherwise all the Tasmanian potential sub regions are a much for muchness, so expect a similar taste which is what you get.

15.01.2022 Each Wine Has a Moment for that Perfect Setting. David Farmer I retain vivid recollections of a few wines because at that instance they were perfect for the mood, the place, and the company. The same wine tasted better, and my scores were much higher. I still imagine the moment with wines at Berowra Waters Inn, an old Cabernet on a sunny but chilly day while fly fishing along the bank of the Maclaughlin River in the Snowies, and those magical picnics along the Tuross River. ...Wine does this and you learn what to open for that place at that time and perhaps a few moments become treasured recollections. There are a few settings which can only reach perfection by opening a great sparkling wine. I record here such a moment and place. I was not aware of this portrait of Lady Susan Renouf-Sangster-Peacock by the artist Nigel Thomson which appeared in The Australia this 25th August. A perfect Sydney day, and Lady Sangster (as she was then), quite rightly rejected the painting; ....’she appeared unhappy, painted with tea set rather than her ubiquitous flute of champagne’. The artist I gather was noted for playing jokes. See more

14.01.2022 Lunch at Vintners Barossa Valley. David Farmer Nicole and Claire are the Glug ‘make it happen’ and ‘fix-it’ team, and at this time are working from home, so to catch up we had lunch on Wednesday at Vintners, my first Barossa outing for the year. I move through wines pretty quickly so we tried Jansz sparkling rose, a glass of Manzanilla (Goya), the new release Flaxmans Valley Eden Valley Riesling 2020 (Colin Shepherd-winemaker) showing youthful, almost green notes, a range of... reds by the glass including Adelaide Hills Pinot noir and Barossa Grenache. I like to talk wine and food, so I try to achieve from guests a similar intense involvement. After a few hours I noted Nicole and Claire were drifting into topics far removed from Glug, wine and food. Time for a wake-up call so I asked Georgie to bring a bottle of the most difficult wine, a wine way out on left field, the type that makes diners spin. She returned with a Macon Villages 2015 (Phillipe Valette), a natural winemaker and I have since learnt of some repute. The local importer Andrew Guard noted, ‘As with all the Valette wines this is intense in the mouth, saline and tightly wound with a beautiful caressing texture and a perfect thread of acidity to maintain energy and shape. This special wine has a succulence and lovely long mouth-feel. It's very fine, very mineral and very alive’ I found lots of interesting flavours but these natural wines are so risky and this Macon had a bad dose of bacterial taint. I cannot believe the wine was bottled with this character, so I assume has grown with age. Not using sulphur makes it hard to get these wines in bottle and into your glass before disaster strikes. The idea of low intervention winemaking is a worthy one, so I’ll keep exploring these ‘new way’ wines but at this stage it is best to avoid them unless you are at the winery or they are fresh in the bottle. The observation I made years ago was that the best Burgundies, often unfiltered, were those purchased from the winery, moved to the restaurant cellar in the local town, and years later opened at your table. Georgie our apprentice sommelier has begun the Court of Master Sommeliers course having found University not what she wanted. I now understand a little that pupils have a need for a certificate of qualifications to go with a practical job, rather like those offered by technical schools of old. Instead of woodwork it is opening bottles with a flair and learning the skills to put up with diners like me.

14.01.2022 How delightful it was to read Ben Harvey in The West Australian on Monday declaring that "wine-tasting notes are an international hoax." Having looked at how the so-called experts described the recent array of releases by Penfolds he concluded that "the epitome of wordsmithing wankery is the Australian wine industry." Mr Harvey's column unfortunately is behind a pay wall but here are a couple of the tasting notes that various Penfolds labels have attracted along with his reac...Continue reading

14.01.2022 The Wine Harvest Yours for 6 Million. David Farmer Up for sale is this Flemish old master by David Teniers painted around 1640 when at his peak. The publicity says it depicts, grape harvesters, wine merchants, coopers and villagers. So I get a mention but wine makers do not so Benjamin is out. Back then the wines made themselves and the villagers rejoiced. The cult of the wine maker is a post war fad which surely soon will expire as all the wine making peacocks strutting around is tiring me out. Anyway this scene would look good hanging over the fireplace where it has hung for hundreds of years.

13.01.2022 AT ORLANDO EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN Move aside Jacobs Creek. The Orlando name is back again. When the French company Pernod Ricard bought Orlando wines in 1989 it quickly began dropping that historical name to concentrate on the biggest selling Jacobs Creek brand. Soon it was Jacobs Creek this and Jacobs Creek that. Even the Rowland Flat winery became known as the Jacobs Creek Visitors Centre.... But now the Orlando name, first trademarked in 1912, is back on the shelves. Once again there is a Steingarten Riesling, a Jacaranda Coonawarra Cabernet, a Lawson's Padthaway Shiraz and a Lyndale Adelaide Hills Chardonnay.

09.01.2022 BIG AND BOLD AND FULL OF FLAVOUR The student of the wine list in this old Punch cartoon was looking for something on the stronger side and these three Glug offerings would have satisfied that demand while being delicious rather than beastly for anyone who likes wine big and bold and full of flavour. Bagot Station 'Captain's Table' Barossa Valley Dry Red Blend 2015 - 14.9% alcohol but the aged Grenache creates a seemingly lighter palate when it is not. $10 a bottle at glug.p...ub/2ZQOAV3 Karrawirra Barossa Valley Shiraz 2016 - At 15.2% alcohol we want you to be able to inhale the aroma as it is being poured and know from the colour that a big mouthful awaits. $16 a bottle at glug.pub/2GjGLjD 'The Zazzerino' Eden Valley Montepulciano 2018 - 15.2% alcohol. Pour into a decanter, give it a shake, and enjoy the Italian country-side. $15 a bottle at glug.pub/31d6qTn See more

09.01.2022 What Grape Varieties Should be Grown Where? David Farmer It makes sense when starting a new business to copy what works elsewhere. Asking why things are done this way can come later. So I find the time has come to ask what is the logic behind the strongly held view that vineyard regions over time will begin to specialise in one variety or a few varieties. The inspiration for Australia viticulture came from Europe with the most widely planted varieties being the classical vari...eties from France. Although it must be recalled that renowned French varieties like Chardonnay and Cabernet were not widely planted till the 1980s well after the post war table wine boom was altering viticulture. Years ago the winemaker and educator Brian Croser patiently explained to me that there was a well-established correlation between grape quality and climate in a way that different varieties fit different heat summation bands and he steered me to the works of John Gladstone. This reasoning for vineyard specialisation is based on accumulated knowledge that the ultimate taste sensation for a variety will be discovered by trying the variety across the band climate width of grape growing conditions. Thus Riesling is associated with Germany. Yet consider this. In 2018 at the 19th Canberra International Riesling Challenge a Michigan Riesling, Black Star Farms 2017 (U.S.), was the Grand Champion. Compared to Germany, the spiritual home of Riesling, you might say Michigan is a bit far south at latitude 45 so relating flavours and climates is complex. In late January-early February 2019, the Northern polar vortex pushed south into the U.S. and the temperature dropped to -26 Fahrenheit (-32 C) in Lansing the capital of Michigan. Now the spiritual home of Riesling in Australia is Eden Valley and the Clare Valley and no one doubts they are as great as those of Germany though they are different and I add great Rieslings come from other parts of Australia as well. Yet even though our climate is bound to Antarctica a polar vortex has yet to reach the Eden or Clare Valleys illustrating how divergent our climate is to that of continental Northern hemisphere. I shall return to this interesting topic as I rather like warm country Pinot Noir and recall that a Tyrrells Hunter Pinot Noir 1978 once graced the cover of Time magazine as being one of the Worlds great wines. Picture: Australia and Antarctica from Apollo 17 1972.

08.01.2022 SAD BUT TRUE - MANY PEOPLE JUDGE WINE QUALITY BY THE PRICE THEY PAY Warren Buffet, the famed US investor, had an instructive view on wine quality. "'Maybe grapes from a little eight-acre vineyard in France are really the best in the whole world," he opined some years ago, "but I have had a suspicion that about 99% of it is in the telling and about 1% is in the drinking." And a major part of that "telling" is the price that's paid. The notion that if something is expensive it ...must be good comes almost naturally to many people. Yet time after time when wines are tasted without the knowledge of wine labels and price tags it is cheaper wines that are preferred. Try the experiment yourself sometime. At Glug, which sells direct from the winery without the profit margins added by distributors and retailers, we are confident that our wines will pass the price test See more

08.01.2022 If shiraz makes your favourite wine - be warned. Production has fallen and prices are rising. (See the graphs from Wine Australia below.) Which makes the release by Glug of the P.B. Burgoyne Langhorne Creek Shiraz 2017 outstanding value at $9 a bottle. Order at https://glug.pub/3aNpPxs

07.01.2022 Expertising Parker and Premium Wine. David Farmer The Global wine business has evolved rapidly from the 1950s. Back then in the U.K., fine wine was for the upper class, in the U.S. it was a hobby for just a few, while Australia was adjusting to new ways of eating and drinking. Europeans were already comfortable with wine as an everyday drink and a fraternity existed for the finer wines. The Europeans had the pricing right though as the quality of a good wine was about double ...that of the workers Co-op red. I spent the 1970s and 1980s discovering wine and began to think like everyone else. So, what I express here are the doubts that have grown over the last decade. I understand well how grapes collect flavours and how best this is captured as wine and find I’m relaxed now with the simpler view of wine as being a necessary part of life, best explained as drinking a good bottle if offered, otherwise I enjoy what’s on hand. So here we are seventy years on, and whether a maker or a buyer we are all part of a complex international business. I carefully track the fashions and fads of wine as this is what retailers do though I wonder what the trigger is that makes us drop one thing and rush to embrace another which may replace common-sense. The disturbing aspects I see are; fine wines are collectibles which is coupled with price tracking; concerns of measuring quality with numbers; and the growth of experts that support the idea of premiumisation when offering buying suggestions. The American wine writer Robert Parker has left us with a problem. Based on the grading of students Parker devised his 100 point system for wine in 1982. Now consider this from The Times; ‘Universities have been criticised for grade inflation, which sceptics say is related to higher tuition fees and the need to fill placesLast year 27 per cent of students received a first compared with 18 per cent six years ago, before tuition fees tripled to 9,250 a year. Tom Richmond said: ‘If it becomes a case of ‘top prizes for all’ then the degree classification could, regrettably, become meaningless.’ All of the Glug wines are graded on my value for money system which alas is trapped in my head. You can safely buy these wines about which the old school would say ‘they over deliver’; or as I say premium wines priced as they were in the 1970s before expertising became a business.

07.01.2022 Oakley Adams - a great name in the history of Australian wine The Report of the Proceedings of the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria records how the wine merchant Oakley Adams won "The Champion Prize of Australia". And the fine wine tradition continues at Glug.... Try the Auld and Burton Langhorne Creek Shiraz 2014. $9.80 a bottle at https://www.glug.com.au/index.php

07.01.2022 "Pretty and pink, that's my kind of drink" A song that's made for a glass of Harem 'Rosita' Barossa Valley Rose (Grenache Mataro) 2019 $14.99 a bottle from Glug at glug.pub/33eL89f

06.01.2022 The power of sauvignon blanc! Must admit I was surprised by this graph. Since 2016, the U.S. has imported more wine from New Zealand than from Australia (by value) --and the gap is growing.

06.01.2022 Why not make up your own mixed dozen?

05.01.2022 The Truth from the World of Wine. David Farmer My job is to stay on top of the wine business while your job is to get on with the drinking part. This had me perusing the World of Wine, Summer Edition 2020-2012, a magazine from New Zealand promoted by the New Zealand, Master Sommelier, Cameron Stewart. Yes, I do recall offering New Zealand wines in Farmer Bros in 1978 to the incredulous Canberra drinkers who offered me tasting note like ‘you must be joking’. I find tales eve...rywhere and the spread of New Zealand Pinot Noirs reviewed on pages 60-61 tell an interesting tale. In the top left-hand corner is Number 8, Martinborough 2018 with 94/100 at $64.99 and in the lower right-hand corner Number 23, Toi Toi Central Otago 94/100 for $24. Obviously this Master has made a mistake as if the scores are not graded by the price the whole towering edifice of the fine wine business may topple over. As I used to say to customers querying the difference between Minchinbury and Seaview, ‘I cannot tell the difference, the great Len Evans would not know, and all gods children have no idea-so why do you tell me this one is better than that one’. Pass me a glass of Krug, please.

05.01.2022 The problem of Tasting Buying and Selling Wine. David Farmer From my first days as a retailer, I took the tasting of wine seriously and still do though I divide the art of tasting into work or pleasure. For retailers, the tasting of samples allows them to find wines which are undervalued, and these should be bought on behalf of customers. They in turn gain satisfaction by noting the price and flavour is well in their favour and return to the shop for more. For a dinner party ...Continue reading

05.01.2022 The Treasury Wines idea of a wine drinker's role model "The convicts on our wines are not fiction. They were of flesh and blood, criminals and scholars. Their punishment of transportation should have shattered their spirits. Instead, it forged a bond stronger than steel. Raise a glass to our convict past and the principles these brave men and women lived by." That's the back story Treasury Wines gives on its website in explanation of the name 19 Crimes. Perhaps a strange moti...Continue reading

05.01.2022 The News is Bad but Surely We Can All Maker It Better. David Farmer Is this what it all comes down to, we all wish to drink the same thing? The most depressing news I have read for years is this from the Adelaide Wine Economics Centre. They have updated, Which Winegrape Varieties are Grown Where? A Global Empirical Picture, which documents from 1990 to 2016, which vineyards in which countries are growing the 1700 varieties they track. Are you now ready for the shocking news..., ’the extent of varietal diversity both nationally and globally has shrunk. For example, 21 prime varieties accounted for half the world’s plantings (in 1990), whereas by 2016, that dropped to only 16 varieties’. All we want to drink, talking globally, is Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz. The problem of course is that those who put up the money to plant vineyards want to know the grapes can be sold, so they plant what the market wants. Please broaden your drinking range, your country needs you. Depicted: The appellation of Beudon, a single vineyard of a few hectares at 305 metres in Switzerland, planted to Pinot noir, Gamay, Humagne Rouge, Diolinoir, Gamaret, Peitit Arvine, Fendant and Muller Thurgau. See more

04.01.2022 98 wines open. I’m into it! Coming?

03.01.2022 Champagne and Discovering the Patsy. David Farmer The story goes that the climate around Rheims, the district we now call Champagne, was too chilly to ripen the grapes, making wines which were thin, lean and hard to sell. The great idea was to bottle them with some of the fermenting gas kept in the bottle and give the wine a new name. This caught on and you now pay a lot for the best Champagne. The profits are spread around as the growers receive very high returns for the gra...pes. So much that a similar paddock of land outside the designated region, even adjoining the boundary, sells for a fraction of the price of land within the region. The other great idea of course is to carefully manage the supply. In this case the consumer is the patsy. Yet only a year or so back sales were so strong that it was decided to increase the size of the region of Champagne. So those with adjoining parcels of land were soon to be in the inner circle where the money grows. Established growers did not like this or they could be the patsy. Squabbles over who should get in and how much land was to be reclassified slowed up any decision. Any decision was overtaken by today’s events and Champagne sales have plummeted. Now there is no need for more stocks of Champagne as holding stock is expensive so the growers will have to deliver less tonnage-set at 21% less than the 2019 vintage. Again, the patsy is the consumer as the prices and image must be held up at all costs. What a story. Both growers and producers win if supply is kept tight. This makes me conclude the only winners in the wine business are cask drinkers as they have good supplies and care little for image. Being sensible about wine means you will never be the patsy. Indeed, you hold all the aces until the idea of improving your image takes hold.

02.01.2022 Orlando-Gramps Entombed 1979-Exhumed 2021. David Farmer I knew instantly it was Colin Gramp so I said, ‘good morning Colin’. This was back in 2005 and Colin would not have known me from a lamppost. Over the next decade whenever we passed on Murray Street, Tanunda, I always nodded and said g’day. I did this out of respect for the Gramp family and their importance to the heritage of Australian wine and to acknowledge the company the family built, Orlando Gramp, a cornerstone of...Continue reading

02.01.2022 MEMORIES OF GREAT GRANDFATHER IN A HERITAGE BLEND RED FROM THE BAROSSA VALLEY By Richard Farmer Bagot Station Captains Table Barossa Valley Red Blend 2015. How could I resist it? Our Farmer family history has it that great grandfather John was brought out from England by Edward Meade (Ned) Bagot in the 1860s to look after his horse Cowra which won the Adelaide Cup in 1866 and 1867. This wine just had to be a winner. The Bagots once owned much of the far north of the Barossa V...alley and ran sheep and cattle and likely had a small winery operating in the 1860s. Maybe it was that which attracted great grandfather! Whatever. This is another of those small batch wines that Glug blends so skilfully. The alcohol is 14.9% yet the blend is medium red, not thick in colour like Shiraz. This comes from the aged Grenache which creates a seemingly lighter palate when it is not. Complex and full of interest no doubt due to additions of Shiraz and Cabernet and Mataro. Well priced at $10 a bottle for an aged Barossa and please do not be put off by the low price. This Bagot will do good service at your dining table. Order at https://glug.pub/2ZQOAV3 See more

01.01.2022 Wine Contains the Drug Ethanol. David Farmer Wine ranks with the greatest pleasures created by civilisation but this does not absolve us from our duty which is to remind each other that drinking in moderation is sensible. Indeed, this slogan was placed on Farmer Bros house wines in 1982 decades before it became the industry standard. Over the intervening years I have been incensed many times by those in the alcohol trade not taking their responsibility seriously. Whether it ...be flavoured wines in poppers with fruit imagery similar to a kids lunch treat, to moo juice based on alcoholic flavoured milk, to every other shallow dodge a marketing genius can invent, at one time or other it has been tried. Now we have celebrity actors promoting wines as fresh and green, free of harmful chemicals and then to beat all this up pops ‘clean wines’ whatever that is. I find it so sweet that the rich never have enough money and just one more scam is needed to fill the treasure chest. All the imagery of organic, bio-dynamic, a chemical free future for the world must never take away from the fundamental that wine contains 9% to 15% of the very dangerous chemical, ethanol, and it will get you before some barely detectable trace of who knows what chemical is beaten up as being dangerous. Then in my in-box came an invite from a retailer ‘Wine with a health boost - find out more!’. So being a curious type I clicked to find: ‘What is resveratrol did you just ask? It's a naturally produced antioxidant in wine. The Wine Doctor however has 20x the amount of resveratrol versus the average bottle of red wine and 100x more than a bottle of white. And as you may or may not have heard, antioxidants, like the one in this wine, slow down the aging process. So, if you're a quick study like we think you are, you've just figured out another amazing reason for having a glass of wine!! Cheers to staying young’ To this retailer I say; guys this is just not on so do behave. We are in the alcohol business and with this comes a responsibility.

01.01.2022 Wines worth talking to P.B. Burgoyne Langhorne Creek Shiraz 2017 - ripe and rich and just $9. Order at glug.pub/3aNpPxs Harem Rosita Rose 2019 - dry with complexity and range of flavours. $14.99. Order at glug.pub/33eL89f... Oakley Adams Fleurieu Peninsula Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 - somewhat like a Margaret River Cabernet as it shows the flavours I associate with a maritime influence. $8.99. Order at https://glug.pub/3jtulEb