Food & Beverage

If so, you’ve come to the right place. BoutiqueWineries is a group of wine lovers from “down under” who just love the romance of finding interesting and unique wines. Whether you are a veteran of many years Cab’s and Chardonnays or just starting on your journey of discovery, we’re here for you. 

We particularly love to hear from wine aficionados who’ve discovered a secret stash of delightful wine from an unheard of cellar. We would like nothing better than for you to break open a bottle, top up your glass and describe for us in mouth watering detail, your latest discovery in our WineLover’s Blog. We’re all here to learn and experience the joys of wine and wine making. 

We know it can sometimes be difficult to decide on the perfect gifts… or maybe you’ve just left it to the last minute. Either way we have the perfect solution! Send a BoutiqueWineries Gift Voucher! That’s an easy way to give Boutique Wines to your friends without knowing what type of wine they like. 

When you have discovered that perfect wine on your latest wine tour, isn’t it frustrating to find that after the last bottle has been joyfully uncorked, you can’t find it anywhere in your local stores? Happily for you, we have the answer to this frustrating scenario. BoutiqueWineries.com.au is the place we go for those hard to find wines. The range is vast, with over 135 boutique wineries marketing their wines through the site. 

Come back often as you journey through the wine country and let us know what you find. Help us enjoy the simple pleasures of fine boutique wines with your experiences and thoughts.

Vinodiversity is a website devoted to getting winelovers to try something different. There are hundreds of different wine varieties being used but most winelovers restrict themselves to just a few. Darby’s Vinodiversity site gives you plenty of information about innovative wines and winemakers from Australian wine regions.

I am indebted to Ms Pia Akerman, daughter of the redoubted Piers Akerman (former editor of the Adelaide “Advertiser” and now conservative columnist on the “Daily Telegraph” Sydney) for the information that Italian grape varieties are taking off in Australia (26/1/08). She is quite right in reporting that varieties such as Nebbiolo, Tempranillo and Viognier are climbing the popularity stakes with our grape growers. Admittedly most are increasing from a small base. For example Viognier (one of my favourite whites) has grown in plantings by 1005 per cent in the Clare Valley in five years. But that’s from just 2.2 hectares to 24.3 hectares. Varieties such as Petit Verdot and Mataro are also increasing, according to Pia and the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation. But while there’s a trend there – drinkers looking for different flavours – caution should be exercised. Viognier is a French-derived white grape, and red Mataro has been around here for well over a century.Indeed, “The Australian’s” headline “Mediterranean grapes squeeze out locals”, may be a Dead Cat pun (“squeeze out”, get it?). All of our grape varieties are Mediterranean, from, Shiraz to Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling to Chardonnay. Many Aussie winemakers have been playing around with different varieties for decades. Italian family makers are obvious, but others less so. The Brown Family are the standout here.The Browns, who have been growing at the hamlet of Milawa, in north west Victoria, since 1880 are the best example. They started planting “odd” varieties in their Nursery vineyard several decades ago. Nebbiolo and Tempranillo are among them. They also have Barbera, Sangiovese, Sienna and Roussanne among their reds and Moscato and Vermentino among their whites. The Browns make and market these wines in a very interesting way. They are initially grown in the little test vineyard and the resulting wines are sold only at their cellar door outlet at the Milawa winery. That way they get feedback on whether drinkers like them. Then if they do, larger plantings follow and they go onto the national market.The cellar door itself is a warm, charming and well designed place, adjacent to an excellent restaurant where you can eat very well and enjoy their wines. It’s worth a visit if you are going to the Victorian snowfields or travelling the Hume Highway between Melbourne and Sydney. The nearest big town is Wangaratta, which has its own attractions.

Meanwhile things are under way with the 2008 vintage. Like its predecessor, it is shaping up to be low yielding, though certainly better than 2007. The initial warm spell got the grapes ripening earlier than usual, which started the harvest in the first few weeks of January in the hot, irrigated areas. Cooler weather afterwards moderated things, which should see some good whites and more elegant reds. While it’s really too early to tell how things will wind up, it looks promising. Meanwhile grab all the decent reds you can, because of the looming shortage. Things will be better when the 2008 wines become available, starting later this year.

I celebrated my 65th birthday not long ago with my brother in Canberra, and we enjoyed a 10-year-old bottle of Penfolds RWT Shiraz from my cellar. It was fantastic, which just goes to prove the values of the Rewards of Patience.