Nectar

I’ve been tasting an eclectic mix of wines since I’ve been back in Australia, though I’ll save some of the impressive ones for my posts on our mini-Mudgee tour and visits in Orange.In a mom...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2009/06/great-australian-rose-cassegrain-wines.html

The Vitigno Italia event starts on Sunday in Naples, in a wine exhibition that showcases what we can describe as Italy’s “native wines”. Vitigno Italia is specifically dedicated to grape va...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2009/05/italys-native-wines-vitigno-italia.html

We recently had a meal at the Antica Bottega dei Vini in Verona, set up as a restaurant, and wine and food shop in Verona’s centre. You can also find a Bottega del Vino in New York, remarkably ...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2009/05/restaurants-in-verona-antica-bottega.html

The Valtellina wine making region of Italy seems to be slowly splitting down two wine making styles: one is the traditional capturing of the nebbiolo character, and the other is making fatter, hi...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2009/05/wine-making-in-valtellina-traditional.html

Or should I say as young as me...? Thanks to a former colleague, yesterday I had the great privilege of drinking a bottle of 1982 Trotanoy in La Brisa restaurant in Milan.We did a little BYO in A...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2009/04/pomerol-trotanoy-1982-wine-as-old-as-me.html

In a recent post on his blog Vino al vino, Franco Ziliani writes about Australian prosecco and Italian products being 'copied' overseas. At 26 comments and counting, a furore has ensued over what...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2009/04/australian-prosecco-brown-brothers.html

The owner of Pulec wines happens to be a very nice man, and while his stand of wines from Slovenia at Vinitaly is nothing remarkable, it is worth a detour both for the welcome from the owner and ...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2009/04/wines-from-slovenia-finding-pulec-wines.html

On a recent holiday home to Australia with my boyfriend, we spent a couple of days in the Hunter Valley to introduce him to Australian countryside and get out of the city for a while.I haven't be...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2009/03/hunter-valley-wine-tourism-good-and-bad.html

I’m currently undergoing my first attempt to post wine to Australia from Italy which could prove to be a hilarious exercise in showing that the Italians, unfortunately, are really a disorganise...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2008/12/travelling-with-wine-sending-wine-to.html

While this shouldn’t be a blog about “what I did on my weekend”, when that has been wine tasting or cellar visits, then I figure I can include it. Two events I’ve been to recently have be...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2008/12/wine-tasting-in-italy-conti-sertoli.html

An interesting discussion came up on our Ozwine group mailing list on the grape variety, Vermentino. I have just recently had the opportunity to try some vermentino, traditionally a variety from ...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2008/11/vermentino-from-australia.html

While it’s often an overused comparison to describe the city of Melbourne, it really is Australia’s version of a European city. If you’ve ever lived in a European city (not necessarily in t...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2008/10/wine-bars-in-sydney.html

One thing I have been particularly impressed with in our sommeliers’ course is the calibre of the teachers, or lecturers. Most of them have been introduced to wine through sheer passion for the...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2008/10/sommelier-qualifications-touch-of-class.html

I expect it’s probably heresy to say that you don’t like Chianti, or sangiovese or Tuscan wine in general. So I’ll start this post with a couple of caveats: I haven’t tried much of this s...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2008/10/chianti-tastings-whats-wrong-with-me.html

I mentioned in a recent post that Italy's nebbiolo grape variety is...well, pure bliss. I love nebbiolo, and I'm not afraid to say it. If it's nebbiolo aged in barrique, better again. I like to c...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2008/10/i-mentioned-in-recent-post-that-italys.html

The advice from our first lecturer in our sommeliers course is numerous and varied but one thing she said was that you can never identify a perfume if you can’t recognise it. She gave the examp...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2008/10/perfumes-in-wine-how-to-learn-wines.html

Our sommeliers course is coming along like a house on fire after only two lessons, but then given the second level is all about Italian wine and Italian wine making regions, the material is so ri...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2008/10/italian-wine-and-grape-varieties.html

Autumn is going to be a very busy season for me, full of wine tasting events, not to mention the second level of my sommelier course.I completed the first level of the Italian Sommeliers’ Assoc...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2008/10/wine-courses-in-italy-becoming.html

In Decanter’s September issue, Margaret Rand takes a look at the kind of exchanges that take place between the new world and old world of the wine industry.I had a discussion with someone today...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2008/10/wine-industry-innovation-international.html

One of the best publications I’ve seen in a while is Fast Thinking, which appears to have emerged recently in the wake of the Rudd Government’s innovation review this year.I read the Autumn 2...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2008/10/wine-industry-innovation-how-does.html

De Vinis, the official publication of the Italian Sommeliers Association (Associazione italiana di sommelier – AIS), recently featured an interview with Luca Zaia, Italy’s new agricultural mi...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2008/09/innovation-in-wine-industry-italy-after.html

After discovering this new Italian wine variety, “Gavi”, I thought I’d track it down in the supermarket to have a second tasting and perhaps record my tasting notes.While there were a coupl...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2008/09/wine-list-pricing-and-byo-what-can.html

I have unfortunately discovered that my conundrum of how to find a good distributor Australian wine in Italy, with a respectable range is an ongoing one.To give you an example, I’ll refer to so...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2008/09/international-distributors-of.html

I had a couple of friends stay with me over the last few days who, not only having bought me a nice bottle of merlot, introduced me to a new Italian wine that I never knew existed. And all this f...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2008/09/italian-wine-varieties-gavi-from.html

Don’t you just hate it when you have a know-it-all colleague who’s stubbornness means you’ll never ‘win’…?I was having a nice conversation today with our VIP work experience student (...

http://oznectar.blogspot.com/2008/09/burning-taste-buds-of-bragging.html