This Week's TWTW

WBM’s US correspondent Kate Fuller interviews wine-loving rock star Maynard James Keenan of Tool (pictured with his winemaker Eric Glomski) in the latest edition of the magazine. Love this quote from Keenan, “The thing that interests me about Australian wine, particularly the Max Schubert story, is the struggle.” To subscribe to WBM click here. Photo courtesy David Goldman. Meanwhile look out for Keenan’s new documentary Blood Into Wine.


DOCTOR, DOCTOR, GIVE ME THE NEWS
I GOT A BAD CASE OF LOVIN’ YOU
NO PILL’S GONNA CURE MY ILL
I GOT A BAD CASE OF LOVIN’ YOU

Mr Rudd, your National Health System is crook. The healthy States are not going to want to prop up all the sick ones. Tasmania will be the biggest loser; it’s Australia’s healthiest State. Tasmanians don’t even need health care—years ago they put their heads together and covered the map of Tassie in Royal Galas because someone told them an apple a day keeps the doctor away and notwithstanding the two-head thing, it worked. (Can’t have everything.) Tassie will have to prop up all those Queensland ute-drivers named Macca and Bear who scratch their guts and drink Bundee out of stolen pint glasses nestled in buffalo-skin-covered stubby-holders and then have their guts pumped out at 4 in the morning, tying up the few hospital beds not taken up already by people who got violently ill overnight on a single can of Fourex.

And Ruddy, you needn’t think we’re going to pay the Viagra bill for all those old farts in white shoes driving around Sanctuary Cove in motorised golf-carts with grey cardigans draped over their shoulders. South Australia will be a big loser, too. Being the only State established by free settlers—not virus-infected, sesame-seed-bun-stealing, gang-plank-walking, rose-tattoo-wearing convicts—SA’s bloodlines are pure. Snowtown and Truro crooks aside, Croweaters never get sick—but they’ll be paying for all those Darwin hippies near Indonesia who drink beer straight from Darwin Stubbies and wear baby-poo-brown knee-high ugg-boots in 34°C heat and haven’t seen a GP since Dr Harry on Channel 7 and who think a cardiologist is a bloke who makes cardigans and who wouldn’t know a prostate test if it snuck up behind them in a green rubber glove and did something truly horrifying.

Victoria is angry because it will have to prop up Canberra, the porn capital of Australia where more injuries occur playing naked-twister in lounge-rooms than on any sporting ground on earth. But Victoria can’t talk, the Emergency ward at Royal Melbourne Hospital is like Burke Street on Saturday nights as the police shootings take their toll and Toorak poodle-rooters line up for tetanus injections. And Sydney’s always sniffing and sneezing because people in pink cowboy costumes with their bums exposed to the cold night air go in street parades sponsored by Cockfighter’s Ghost. As for Western Australia, well, it’s too far away to worry about it—if it wants to join a National Health System it should liaise with South Africa.    —Ed.

RUMOURS OF THE WEEK

• A well-known person (we’re not even game to say if it is a man or a woman) is suing people left, right and centre.

• One of Australia’s best-value wines which enjoys a cult following across the country is about to switch to a new label. Don’t mind the current one, actually.

• Who’s the winery that recently upgraded its website and is now signing up an extra 100 new wine club members a week? All is revealed in WBM. To subscribe click here. Wine Australia has added a picture of a nice vineyard to its homepage so expect interest in the website to go absolutely bananas. www.wineaustralia.com


TWEET OF THE DAY

“The 08 Long Road Hilltops Shiraz $18 won the Jimmy Watson Trophy last year. But the upcoming 09 is a much better wine. Retailers, get in early.” —Big Red Wine Book.


AUSTRALIAN WINE INDUSTRY TECHNICAL CONFERENCE

The AWITC (July 3-8) is getting closer. Don’t worry about the speakers, what a party! Pissed or what! Adelaide looks forward to hosting you and showing you our major attractions including the paddleboats, Wang Wang and Funi and the inflatable astronauts in Victoria Square which blew down last week but will be back up in time for the conference hopefully. We went through the Conference program this morning and picked out three must-sees: “Variation of leaf area to fruit ratio modification and its possibility to affect the velocity of berry maturation”, “Robotic machinery in agriculture” and last but by no means least, “The impact of the grapevine genome knowledge on the future of viticulture and oenology.” After that I’ll probably go straight to the Technical Poster Display and gaze at those beauties. Poor ol’ Paul Boss of CSIRO Plant Industry drew the short straw—he’s giving a presentation on “Grape composition and the link to wine volatile compounds” at 8.35am on the second day—going from past experience, when Conference-goers hit the big city they get excited and hit the turps on the first night and then wander into the conference like brown’s cows the next morning smelling of whiskey and falling asleep in their chair by 10am (but shit don’t tell the boss all this otherwise they won’t let you go again).


QUIZ

We hate to ask you to think too much on a Friday afternoon but, if Penfolds Grange is Australia’s greatest wine, and Henschke Hill of Grace is our second best, what is our third greatest wine? Any thoughts? Email info@awbm.com.au


NEWS

• Montana has started its big television campaign for Sauvignon Blanc in Australia and I’ve got to say it’s a bloody good ad. Would love to see Australian Chardonnay producers band together to give a bit back. Check out Montana’s ad—http://www.montana.co.nz/wine/TheMontanaStory.mpg
 
• We’re pleased to hear so much happening out there in terms of wineries getting their act together re their websites and social media. New improved websites are popping up everywhere and blogs are proliferating. As the quote by Gary Vaynerchuk says in the Little Black Book, “Social media = business. Period.” Australian wineries should have the best websites in the world because we are generally so far away from our main export markets, making fantastic websites compulsory.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

• Hey guys, further to your mention of the South Australian supplement last week, the Decanter April edition which hits stores this week, also features a piece on Clare in the main mag. In the coming months there is an article on McLaren Vale and more from Jefford as he finishes up his year in Australia. The next Decanter Aussie tasting is SMG (Rhône varietals) in September for the December issue, so if you are interested to submit wines contact mark_o’halleron@decanter.com. Copies of the supplement will be sent to regional associations shortly for all to access (saving on postage!), so if you’d like a copy, please see them. Thanks for your support in the UK, we have a great story to tell! —Jen Allport, business development manager —Wine, Office of the Agent General, London (any of you regional associations got a copy of Decanter? If so can you please drop one off? —Ed).

• We read The Week That Was with great interest (and fun) every week except for those occasions when it gets munched by our spam-filter. Inspired by your comments about national wine websites, we just want to bring your attention to what we are (and have been since 2001) doing on the web for Australian wine in Denmark: www.australianwine.dk Most is in Danish but have a look at the ‘B2B’ and ‘Kontakt’ sections. Or check out Google’s Danish-to-English translated version:
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&e
otf=1&u=www.australianwine.dk&sl=da&tl=en Are you aware of other non-English sites promoting Australian wine in overseas markets? —Thomas Andersen, business development manager, Australian Trade Commission, Copenhagen.

• Ed, you are on fire. What a wonderful read! —Sue Henderson.

• I think you’re being a bit harsh on the Wine Australia website. I think it looks fine. Have they sold many vacuum cleaners from it? —Bob, Lightning Ridge. 
 
• Hey, so I know you are always looking out for new websites etc. and Rob Hunter from Hunter III in Napa sent me his You Tube video that they have recently put together. This is a company that makes great wine but doesn’t take themselves too seriously! There is a series of three (one on blending, in the vineyard and on the crush pad) with a fourth on the way. This is the link to the first one. See what you think: http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=pG-U1AFZ3H4 Love reading TWTW every Thursday evening, it makes Friday go a little faster! —From the ‘harvest fairy’ in the Halloween issue of TWTW, Sophie Matthews, Hall, Napa Valley Wines.
 
• News snippet today: “Australian women are behind a surge in sales of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc across the Tasman, pushing exported sales volume up by 42%.”
Haven’t they heard Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc is guaranteed to remove crows feet and laughter lines (after sufficient quantities) and this effect is negated if any NZ Sauvignon Blanc is consumed! —H, Adelaide Hills.

• Hi guys, love TWTW. We’ve been looking out for some news about us but it seems that it didn’t get to you. My lovely hardworking husband Wayne Dutschke received the honour of being named the Barossa Valley Winemaker of the Year by the Barons of Barossa during the declaration of vintage a few weeks ago. I’ve attached a photo of Wayne at the podium with our daughter Sami (the other Dutschke winemaker as she claims to be). —Brenda Dutschke, Dutschke Wines.

MOVEMENT AT THE STATION

Giesen Wines has announced two new sales appointments in Australia. Jennifer Lynch of Negociants Australia fame has been appointed as Brand Support and Sales for NSW, while Amanda Strawbridge, formerly of Rio Coffee and FWP, will be taking up the reins in SA. Both will be starting their new roles in early April, and who knows, if the girls are really lucky perhaps they’ll be handed the keys to vehicles like this, as currently seen scooting around the Victorian traps:

JOHN KRUGER’S BEER RADAR – SPECIAL FRIDAY EDITION

We tagged along with Wine Flight 2010 in McLaren Vale. An interesting group of people who were loving a beer on Aldinga Beach after a warm day tasting Shiraz. The Vale Ale boys were there with a new batch of beer. It’s got more hop presence than before, which has improved it no end since the first time we tasted it. A lovely hint of Amarillo coming through which lifts the flavour and aroma. At the time, we couldn’t think of a better place to be, ankle deep in seawater at sunset with a beer in hand. We also stopped at the Bentley’s Hotel in Clare on the way back from the Mid-North. The Bentley’s has always been a good place to stop for a counter meal and beer, and what a beer! The Coopers Pale was as fresh as can be. Bright, hoppy, aromatic and full of life. It’s not surprising that the Pale was fresh, though; Coopers have been flat knacker than ever before. According to their PR people, Coopers are running at full capacity with a double shift in operation, even though after the Christmas break they usually go back to a single shift. The brewery is bottling 1,200 bottles a minute—60 cartons a minute. Yep, a carton a second! It’s the first time in their history that they’ll brew over 60 million litres in a financial year. Obviously the long hot summer is good for the breweries, and the fresh Coopers is certainly ringing our bells at knock-off time here in the Beer Radar office. —John Kruger. See Kruger’s monthly Beer Radar column in WBM. To subscribe click here. (Photo supplied by Coopers)

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