Wine

Last week Penbo railed against Cancer Council advice that drinking any alcohol at all was a cancer risk. The Cancer Council responded, saying they were just relaying the science. Now, winemakers have their say.

Many of the posts in response to the article by the Cancer Council Australia’s chief lobbyist Paul Grogan picked up the basic flaw in his argument, but as winemakers are one of the targets of CCA’s latest media flurry I would like to add my two cents’ worth.

Grogan’s defensive cries that they “don’t make this stuff up”, but that is not what people are accusing them of. The Winemakers’ Federation of Australia acknowledges that a link has been found between alcohol and a level of cancer risk, just as there is a link between numerous other activities in life and cancer risk. That is not new news, despite recent headlines.

Continue reading "Debate about alcohol has turned cancerous" »

So the ACCC has allowed another acquisition that over time will be detrimental to competition and consumers.

If you were not otherwise distracted by the upcoming extended long Easter/ANZAC day weekend, you would have noticed that last Thursday the ACCC put out a media release stating that it will not be opposing the Woolworths acquisition of the Cellarmasters Liquor Group.

Now apart from sending out the release just before a long weekend where for obvious reasons less media attention would be given to the ACCC failure to act, the ACCC’s decision not to oppose the Woolworths acquisition is not surprising. In fact, the ACCC only opposes a tiny number of mergers and acquisitions under our existing competition laws.

Continue reading "Woolworths the fresh booze people" »

It being Melbourne Cup day yesterday you probably started drinking at about 10 am and missed this story, but in another shock horror study researchers have found that we as Australians are drinking more than ever.

Contrary to some studies that began to indicate a decline in our habit, the National Drug Research Institute has found we’re apparently putting it away like Brendan Fevola at Brownlow night. This increase has been attributed to the amount of wine that we’re drinking, because apparently we’ve just worked out how much alcohol the stuff has in it.

One might think that such a finding would elicit some kind of response from the Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon. Like an abusive PE teacher she frequently reminds us that we’ve been drinking too much, eating too much and we’re slob of a nation who will never make the athletics squad. It might even be an opportunity to look a bit further into something that every major health body in the nation and the Henry Review has championed: that is a volumetric tax on alcohol.

Continue reading "One tax you won’t hear the Government wine about" »

At least once a week, when I open the newspaper there seems to be some fresh new panic about the tsunami of childhood obesity that is crashing on our golden sandy beaches which a generation or two ago were filled with healthy bronzed young men and women who were either training for the next Olympic Games or about to pull on a pair of battered Dunlop Volley sandshoes, borrow a beaten up old wooden racquet and fly off to win Wimbledon.

Yep, every time a politician opens his or her mouth (usually on the way to a four course five star lunch at a taxpayer funded Parliamentary Dining Room) they sadly shake their heads, wobble their double chins and lament the rise of the TV obsessed Generation XXL.

If you ask most people who they blame for this sad decline, they would nominate a man who might be best described as Richard Nixon, Colonel Sanders and Hannibal Lector all rolled into one. I’m talking of course about Ronald McDonald. He’s there, supersizing our kids against their better judgement till their belts burst open.

Continue reading "There’s no such thing as junk food, only junk diets" »

Butter is made by the simple act of churning cream.

Margarine is a fake food that originated in a laboratory as a result of food science. It commonly contains a lengthy list of ingredients, like hydrogenated vegetable oil and artificial colours and flavours, to control its taste, texture and colour. In fact, margarine is pumped full of artificial colouring agents so it looks yellow like butter (we’re so easily fooled).

There were once laws against dying artificial foods to look like natural foods. These days our governments are rarely bothered by chemically altered concoctions posing as food. We trust science now.

Continue reading "I can’t believe it’s not splutter" »

Gaining a reputation as a successful host is about to get even easier.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States have discovered that when it comes to impressing dinner guests, it’s not the quality of wine on your table but the type of label on the bottle that has the most impact. 

“Forget bouquet, the colour and the aromas,” said Adam Sage in today’s Australian, “The American Association of Wine Economists, [suggest] smart vintners should spend more time designing labels than pressing grapes.”

And while that’s great news for anyone who harbours a secret collection of clean skins in their pantry, before you rush home with some masking tape and a pair of scissors, you might also want to consider what type of label works best.

Sage advises consumers steer clear of any bottle of wine that bears an animal on its label or describes its contents as “fruity” or “good with chicken and steak”.

While the best choices are found in bottles displaying abstract art or landscape designs that use more “highbrow terms” like “elegant”, “supple” or “intense” in their descriptions.

Cheers!

Everyone matches wine to food, but what about matching wine to other things in life? Here are 12 classic drops to go with 12 classic movies.

Silence of the Lambs with Chianti
A thrilling and scary movie about a psychotic Dr Hannibal Lecter toying with the young but intelligent FBI agent Clarice Starling. The movie won 5 Oscars and included numerous famous quotes, but none better than, “a census taker once tried to test me, I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.” So grab some pizza and your favourite Chianti Classico and bring a new dimension to your enjoyment of this thriller.

Back to the Future with Mateus Rose
Such an 80’s flick, quality usually isn’t mentioned in connection with this movie but everyone has watched it at some time. If my old’s are anything to go by Mateus Rose travels in the same boat, easily one of the biggest selling wines of all time but who admits to drinking it. Hey go back to the future and try a little rose with this classy movie.

Continue reading "A nice chianti: wines to match 12 classic movies" »

Food producers love a good study, particularly one that finds that some ingredient or trace element in their product has some miraculous property found to cure cancer in rats.

Such studies are guaranteed to make headlines around the world and lead to an aura being cast over their product. The wine industry in particular is the master of the self-serving study, with red wine being attributed all sorts of miraculous properties that should see it treated like the waters at Lourdes.

The chocolate industry has also discovered the value of good publicity and the media has recently reported chocolate manufacturing giants Mars and Barry Callebaut AG have announced a cross-industry partnership to promote the health benefits of cocoa flavanols.

Continue reading "Beer and red wine can cure everything, except cirrhosis" »

Ever been stuck without a bottle opener? Well don’t despair. Watch this bunch of crazy French revelers show off their unique and highly convenient method for opening wine.

Editors’ note: Clint Hillery is an Australian sommelier who has worked in and established some of Sydney’s leading wine bars.

Top 10 wine crimes

1. Regions
People demand wines from the premium regions of the world such as Burgundy, Central Otago & Champagne until they see the price tags. These are the “tyre kickers” of the wine world, the people that test-drive a Porsche but buy a Charade.

Continue reading "The 10 worst things Aussies do when ordering wine" »

In Adelaide we worry a lot. A mall, trams, grandstands, hospitals even roundabouts cause hours of debate. However, nothing winds us up more than someone criticising our city. We’re so defensive.

Sometimes I think we get so outraged because secretly we worry that Adelaide may actually be a backwater.

Often the “solution” that is put forward is to build an iconic building such as a tower or a fantastic or unusual museum. These are all great ideas – we should build more unusual and more controversial buildings. Interesting buildings give a city character. I like buildings that have gardens down the side and on the roof. It would be great to see some of them.

Continue reading "Is Adelaide the most insecure city in Australia?" »

Things we should consign to the non-recyclable rubbish bin of a lost Australia.

Female tennis players winning Grand Slams. Babies christened Keith or Shirley. Bank branches in small country towns. Australian wine under ten bucks a bottle.

While you’re just as likely to bump into the Beaumont children as encounter any of the first three, there’s still an ocean of palate-numbing, environment-raping, image-trashing plonk out there and everything that is great and good about the Australian wine industry is drowning in it.

Continue reading "I got my cheap wine and a pending liver transplant" »

In having a gentle dig at US beer maven, food guy and legendary brewer Garret Oliver, Paul Colgan put his finger on what is the greatest obstacle to beer becoming anything other than a weapon of mass consumption for most Australians.

While it is OK – almost expected – for the urban sophisticate to have a touch of the wine tosser these days, if you show the slightest interest in what’s in your beer glass – or even ask for one when you order a beer – you are marking yourself as a twat of the worst order.

How things have changed. As a child in middle class suburbs of Brisbane in the 70s, I recall my parents going to parties where the dads all rocked up with a half carton of XXXX tallies and the wives with a four litre cask of Coolabah Moselle or Riesling.

Continue reading "Whither the wine wanker" »

All this time we’ve been watching for leaky boats from the north while the real invasion has come from the south-east.

And not only have we gladly let it happen but we’ve paid for the privilege as well. Currently one in three bottles of white wine sold in this country comes from New Zealand.

And for Kiwi white wine read sauvignon blanc, mostly from Marlborough at the top of the South Island and the most ruinous liquid to hit these shores since the streets of Sydney Cove ran with blood and rum.

Continue reading "Our palates are under attack from New Zealand" »