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

Organic Wines, Low Preservative Wines and Preservative Free Wines

Low Preservative Wines and Preservative Free Wines

The word preservative refers to protecting the wine from microbial contamination or spoilage by unwanted bacteria, moulds and yeast. These unwanted bacteria, moulds and yeast either naturally occur on the grapes (and therefore naturally in the grape juice) or enter the juice during harvesting or winemaking. Microbial spoilage will make the wine smell and taste unpleasant.

Most winemakers use preservatives, e.g. sulfur dioxide, to prevent and/or delay microbial spoilage.

Now, grape juice contains natural preservatives. Wine naturally contains a small amount of sulfur dioxide (10 - 50 mg/L), as it is produced by the yeast during the fermentation stage of winemaking. This means there is really no such thing as a "preservative free wine".

But, you still often hear the terms "Preservative Free Wines" or "Low Preservative Wines" used. Both terms are referring to wines that have had no preservatives added during the winemaking process, i.e. the preservative content in the wine is only the naturally occurring sulfur dioxide.

Preservatives in Organic Wines

My understanding of organic wine is that essentially no chemicals are used in the vineyard to grow the grapes and minimal chemicals are used in the winemaking process.

However to be certified organic, a wine can still have sulfur dioxide added as a preservative. And, most organic wine producers actually do add preservatives to their wines. But having said that though, organic winemakers tend to add about 50% less preservative than non-organic producers.

So in summary, organic wines and preservative free wines are not necessarily related. This is because to be classed as organic, a wine must come from an organic vineyard but will most likely have preservatives added during winemaking. On the other hand, a preservative free wine may be made from grapes that are not classed as organic.

At Preservative Free and Low Preservative Wines you'll find a selection of preservative free and low preservative wines by searching the "Browse" drop down box.

P.S. Quote of the Day - "It takes just as much time to prepare a good meal as it does to prepare a tasteless meal."
Elizabeth Mackenzie

Western Australian Online Wines

Western Australian Online Wines

One of Australia's most well-renowned wine regions is in Western Australia, is Margaret River, a superb collection of wineries producing outstanding wines. (Oh, and the scenery in Margaret River is something else again - just beautiful!)

It is here, I remember that I first found a real liking for white wine varieties like Chardonnay, Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Verdelho.

There are also some lesser-known, yet just as highly commendable, Western Australian wine regions like Perth Hills, Swan Valley and Blackwood Valley.

I spent a few weeks in Perth a few years ago and stayed with a few different sets of friends. The catch cry of things to do seemed to be "You've got to go to the wineries". And so I spent days travelling from winery to winery - and there are just so many of them! Even as a Western Australian, it would take a long, long time to visit them all. But, I have to tell you, these wine regions would have to be some of my favourite places.

Most of us don't get the chance to visit Western Australia very often - I certainly haven't visited as often as I would like. The extra long distance from the east coast of Australia to Perth just seems to be such a distance that keeps us away.

But, by staying away we really are missing out on some of the most beautiful wines that Australia has to offer.

So, if you're like me and don't get to Western Australia as often as you would like, if at all, then this is where Western Australian online wines can make a tremendous difference to our wine-drinking experience. We can do the Margaret River winery tour online.

Go to https://www.boutiquewineries.com.au/content/wineSearch.cfm?mode=advanced and search for wines from Margaret River or other Western Australian wine regions to see the selection of Western Australian online wines.

If you haven't enjoyed Western Australian wines, then in my opinion, you are missing out.

Have you been to Margaret River or any other Western Australian wine region? Let me know what you thought of the wines and wineries in these regions by posting a comment.

Australian Wine mixes in liquor outlets

Australian wine mixes - what are they?

There is an interesting article in "The Age" newspaper of 28/3/06 that really describes well how if we shop at bottle shops and liquor outlets, we are starved for choice. There are so many "brands" to choose from, BUT over 90% of these wines are owned by the top 5 wine conglomerates, giving us the illusion of choice.

Here is an excerpt...

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.... Maybe being part of a big company like Foster's means these brands are no longer wines, but rather products.....

..... Rell Hannah is the corporate affairs director for the Foster's Wine Group. She says:
"In aggregate, for total wine (off-premise), our volume share is just over one-quarter, so our retail shelf space share for each customer tends to be in that order."....

.... I like drinking distinctive, subtle wines, but can they only be made by small family-run wineries? Well, yes, mostly. Or is that just another form of wine snobbery?

For a list of the brands owned by Foster's, visit www.fosters.com.au (BTW note: Foster's owns about 42 Australian brands).

Industry's big brothers

FOSTER'S is not the only big brother watching - or selling us - wine. With Beringer and Southcorp merging to form Foster's we now have the big three: Foster's, the Hardy Wine Group and Orlando Wyndham.

Â· Hardy's joined forces recently with Constellation in the US. Locally, it runs the following brands: Hardys, Banrock Station, Houghton, Stonehaven, Leasingham, Yarra Burn, Tintara, Nobilo, Omni, Barossa Valley Estate, Starvedog Lane, Chateau Reynella, Kamberra, Moondah Brook, Reynell, Bay of Fires, Brookland Valley, Redman, Savy, Berri, Four Emus, Stanley, Kellys Revenge, Knife and Fork, Emu Wine. A spokeswoman for Hardy's reckons its market share - for wine sales within Australia - is about 26 per cent.

Â· Orlando is run by the French powerhouse Pernod Ricard, and is responsible, among other brands, for the following wines: Jacob's Creek, Wyndham Estate, Poet's Corner, Richmond Grove. At least it still uses possessive apostrophes. That being said, it has a dimmer view of media relations, with no information forthcoming at the time of this article's preparation.

Factor in the bigger family-owned companies such as McWilliams and Casella, and market retail shelf share in Australia among the big players starts to stagger more hedonistically towards 90 per cent or more.

There's nothing like choice and a free market.

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So much for variety! We miss out on such a wide-range of distinctive, subtle wines that we just don't get to know about, unless we can spend our lives travelling on winery tours... or to have the winery tour experience without travelling anywhere we can shop online at Boutique Wine Variety Online .

Matching Food and Fine Wine - The Six New Rules

Food and Wine Matching

Here is a great set of rules for matching food and wine provided by Killerby Vineyards, one of the wineries in our community of boutique wineries.

Pairing Food and Wine - The Six New Rules

Pairing food and wine is about synergy - neither one should overpower the other. Trust your palate when pairing food and wine to find similarities or contrasts in flavours. This is done with the food and wine's flavours, weight, intensity and basic taste. Let your palate guide you.

Wine and food pairing's "old rules" don't suitably address the wine and cuisine diversity (New World and Old World) available today. Food and wine's recent innovations calls for "new rules". Although some may say there aren't rules, my research indicates a general consensus on some guidelines. According to Goldstein (16-17), there are 6 steps in his guidelines:

Balance: Use the dominate flavour of a dish, often the sauce, as your guide in pairing. For example, use the wine used in the sauce as the compliment drink with the dish.
Contrast: Opposites attract, therefore sweet wine goes with sour or acidic food. Subdued, complex older wines deserve simple foods not heavy sauces.
Highly seasoned foods: Spicy, salty, and smoky flavours are best paired with fruity, low tannin, lower alcohol-content wines.
Rich foods: Rich and fatty foods often work well with full-bodied chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, merlot or shiraz.
Sweet foods: The sweetness of the dish should be less than the sweetness of the wine. This is easily accomplished by adding citrus juice or vinegar to the dish.
High acid: Highly acidic foods such as tomatoes, citrus fruits and goat cheese usually go best with acidic wines such as a sauvignon blanc.

A seventh example can be added to this list- the condiment style. Think of the wine as a condiment. If veal picatta or chilled shellfish would go well with fresh lemon juice, try a crispy acidic wine like a sauvignon blanc. If you savor butter on shellfish, such as lobster, team it with a buttery chardonnay (Schowe 1).

At present, there are some general rules to follow with multiple wine courses: dry before sweet; white before red; young before old; simple before complex; and light before heavy. There is one notable exception to this and that is a sauterne with a foie gras. A palate cleanser (intermezzo), or a glass of water may help if there is a conflict in the wine sequence of a meal.

The wines of Killerby Vineyards can be found at https://www.boutiquewineries.com.au/winery/killerbyvineyards