The Boutique Wine Lover's Wine Review from the Best Australian Online Wine Store for Retail Boutique Wine Shopping

Today's Wine Ratings: Pooley Wines

Wine ratings for Pooley Wines

Our congratulations go to Pooley Wines of the Southern Tasmania wine region.

Their wines were recently show-cased at the 2006 Tasmanian Wine Show held in February.

This was a prestigious wine event, with two of Australia's best qualified and most experienced wine experts - James Halliday and Huon Hooke - as senior judges on the panel.

Pooley Wines received these accolades:

Best Wine of the Show trophy,
Best Riesling trophy, and
Top Gold of the Show with 57/60 points.

You can't get much better than that! This is a fantastic result, one which I will personally vouch for. I've tasted the wines from Pooley Wines and must say their wines are superb, in particular, the Riesing was one of the best I've tasted and an absolute pleasure to drink.

So, if you are looking to enjoy a wine that you know the wine experts are rating very highly, at 57/60, go to https://www.boutiquewineries.com.au/winery/pooleywines

Wine that Tastes Good

What is a wine that tastes good?

Here's an interesting paragraph I found from Max Allen, "The Really Useful Pocket Wine Book", about the difference between a good wine and a bad wine. It's an interesting read.

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A Good Wine is:
1. Clean and clear. It should smell and taste fresh, yummy and enticing.
2. Concentrated. Whether it's light and delicate or rich and full-bodied, it should sit pleasingly on your tongue.
3. Complex. Good wine has more than one flavour, to keep you interested to the last drop.
4. Balanced. No one element - fruit, alcohol, acid, oak - should stick out. They should be in harmony.
5. Able to linger. The flavour haunts the back of your throat, urging you to have another sip.

A Bad Wine is:
1. Dirty and bland. It smells unpleasant or boring.
2. Thin and dilute. It hardly registers on your tongue.
3. Simple. Bad wine has only one rather weak flavour.
4. Unbalanced. Bad wine is overly sharp, or woody, or has alcohol burn.
5. Short-lived. The taste disappears at the back of your throat and leaves you feeling short-changed.

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After reading this though, I can't help but think that the ultimate goal of wine buying is to enjoy wines that taste good to you. Just because a wine expert, friend or writer says a wine is good doesn't mean that you will like it. And vice versa, don't be scared to try a wine that someone else doesn't like - it may just suit your taste buds.

Ultimately, the only person who can decide if a wine is good to taste is you.

And most importantly (this applies to wine and life in general) be open to the possibilities, make note of them and then take action.

One of the best places to start is online, where you can make an informed choice by selecting the varieties of wine you enjoy and immediately taking action. Online boutique wine shopping is available now!

P.S. Quote of the Day - "Life is too short to drink bad wine." Anonymous

Just what is the benefit of boutique wine? - drinking wine is about experiencing variety!

The benefits of Boutique Wine

What is the benefit of drinking boutique wine?

Drinking wine is about experiencing variety: taste, smell, colour, enjoyment.

But you can't really do this by only shopping at bottle shops. The wines you get in bottle shops comes from only 1% of Australia's wineries - how much variety are you missing out on?!!

The benefit at Online Boutique Wineries and www.gowine.com.au is the ability to taste wines from all regions of Australia - wines that are only accessible through their cellar door or online at my sites. Now, that's variety!

Today's Winery Review: Millbrook Winery

A winery review for Millbrook Winery

Today, in the first in a series of winery and wine reviews, I am focusing on Millbrook Winery. (Although, I'm here to tell you that this will be a long running series of reviews... there are just plenty of great wines to review!!)

Millbrook Winery are a very well renowned boutique winery in Perth Hills, Western Australia. When I asked Millbrook Winery to send me a collection of their wine reviews, I was pleasantly surprised (although not too surprised given the quality of their wines!) by the sheer volume of what I received...

So, here is a collection of those wine reviews for you.

To set the feel for Millbrook Winery, we'll start by having a look at what Qantas has to say about their cellar door:

QANTAS - THE AUSTRALIAN WAY, FEBRUARY 2006
Restaurant Reviews
The Millbrook experience starts with a stroll from the car park towards the tasting room and restaurant where you begin to take in the tranquil ambience of the vineyards and orchards. It's a pretty good place for a vineyard and a winery, and certainly an excellent spot for a cellar door outlet and lunchtime restaurant. Dishes are focused and flavoursome without being unduly complicated... The Millbrook wines are very impressive - especially the Viognier and the Shiraz Viognier.

QANTAS MAGAZINE, MARCH 2005
It's hard to beat the setting at Millbrook: a striking building wrought from stone and jarrah overlooking water, surrounded by lawns, gardens, vineyard, orchards and state forest (complete with kangaroos on the adjacent hillside in the late afternoon). Brad Richards's food, too, is worth the one-hour trip from central Perth. The Millbrook wines are impressive, especially the Viognier and the Shiraz.

Here is a sample of wine reviews to wet your appetite. You'll really get a feel for just how good these wines are. I had a tough time shortening the review list into a manageable size... there are just so many good reviews for these wines.

Viognier

RAY JORDAN, THE WEST MAGAZINE, OCTOBER 2005
2004 Millbrook Viognier
Summer in a glass - This wine is starting to become something of a benchmark for the variety in WA. Lovely fresh orange blossom and musky characters with some citrus and honeysuckle complexity. The lush palate unctuousness is delicious.

WINESTATE, JULY/AUGUST 2005
2004 Millbrook Viognier
A big, ripe, alcoholic wine but it is still fresh and balanced. Excellent apricot lift to the nose. Intensely flavoured - long, warm and spicy.

AUSTRALIAN WINE SELECTOR, VINTAGE 2005
2004 Millbrook Viognier
Even though it is an unwooded wine, don't mistake it for a delicate, light bodied drink. It shows all the generosity of flavour and body we have come to love from Viognier. Heady honeysuckle, apricot and peach aromas combine with good mid-palate fullness and lingering alcohol warmness.

Shiraz Viognier

PETER FORRESTAL, THE SUNDAY TIMES, NOVEMBER 2005
STM Top 100 West Australian Wines
2003 Millbrook Shiraz Viognier 18.5/20 - Gold medal at the Perth Hills Wine Show from the region's top producer; an aromatic red with dense, vibrant, brambly, briary flavours, fleshy texture and fine, ripe tannins.

RAY JORDAN, THE WEST AUSTRALIAN, SEPTEMBER 2005
2003 Millbrook Shiraz Viognier (Gold Medal)Psst... secret's out on awards - The Shiraz class came up with a surprise with the Millbrook entry just pipping the Houghton Shiraz 2001. Perhaps not really a surprise but more the fact that the Millbrook Shiraz was a classic example of the merging modern style - well for Australia anyway - of Shiraz Viognier. I like the Millbrook because it tends to understate the Viognier and not let it dominate, as so many other examples of this style have tended to do.

Chardonnay

SCOOP MAGAZINE, SPRING EDITION 2005

2003 Barking Owl Chardonnay (Bronze 15.8)
Best in the West, the Whites - Smart blend of Geographe and Perth Hills fruit. Subtle aromas of baked apple and cashew nuts. Well balanced, medium-bodied wine show-casing a melange of honeyed, nutty lees character and hints of citrus.

Sauvignon Blanc

WINESTATE, JULY/AUGUST 2005
2004 Sauvignon Blanc
A great example of a Sauvignon Blanc style. Intense, pungent varietal aromas reminiscent of freshly mown lawn. Excellent herbal flavour intensity on the long, weighty palate.

SCOOP MAGAZINE, AUTUMN EDITION 2005
2004 Millbrook Sauvignon Blanc (Awarded: Bronze 15.5)
Balanced wine delivering penetrating, classic varietal flavours that remain so long in the mouth that it could be arrested for loitering.

You can get these wines at: www.boutiquewineries.com.au/winery/millbrookwinery

Organic Wines

Australian Organic Wines

I thought I might continue on the organic wine theme again today... Please feel free to publish your comments.

Organic wines have been long labelled as inferior to traditional wines, but are now being recognised in Australia and world-wide as equal to and competing with the best of the conventional wines.

Here are some points about organic wines that you may find interesting:

Organic wines are often noted for their cleaner aftertaste compared with conventional wines.
Organic wines have significantly reduced sulphur levels (see 20th April 2006 post).
The hangover is said to be much less painful due to reduced preservatives in organic wine. Conventional wines can contain up to 300 parts per million of preservatives. Organic wines are only allowed up to 90 parts per million.
Organic wine-making is just another way that some boutique winemakers ensure their wines are true to the vineyard in which they are grown. There is nothing quite like drinking the fruits of the vineyard - the flavours really are special.

To me drinking an organic wine is just like eating organic fruit and vegetables. The first time I tried an organic carrot, I was just amazed! Not only is the colour a much more brilliant orange than carrots from the supermarket, but the flavour and texture are just something else - just beautiful. I remember thinking "Wow! Is this what a carrot really tastes like?"

So, when you drink a wine that is organic, low preservative, or simply just handmade by a boutique winery you really do get a distinctive flavour that is unmistakenly beautiful... when compared to the mass-produced wines that are blended to make a standard, generic flavour.

Here's a Funny Pinot Wine Joke For You

A joke about wine: Pinot Wine

I thought you might enjoy this wine joke...

"Californian vintners in the Napa Valley area who primarily produce Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio wines have developed a new hybrid grape that acts as an anti-diuretic. It is expected to reduce the number of trips older people have to make to the bathroom during the night.

The new wine will be marketed as Pinot More."

We at Boutique Wineries always enjoy a good wine joke! Do you have any other wine jokes to share?

Welcome to the Boutique Wine Lover's Blog

Welcome to the Boutique Wine Lover's Blog!

Hi folks,

Welcome to the Boutique Wine Lover's Blog! My name is Jodie Smith and I manage Boutique Wineries selling... yep, you guessed it... Australian boutique wine!

You can hop on over to my website at Boutique Wineries to check out what's new... and bookmark it... and check back regularly to see what's available in fabulous Australian boutique wines.

And remember to leave a comment and contribute to some wine loving chat!

Cheers!

Jodie

P.S. Quote of the Day - "One not only drinks wine, one smells it, observes it, tastes it, sips it and - one talks about it." Edward VII (1841-1910)