Tag: Shiraz

Hardys Tintara featured photo of two wine bottles on a table with trees in the background

Hardys Tintara: A Name That Recalls the History of Wine in McLaren Vale

The history of Hardys Wines reaches back nearly as far as the first vineyard plantings in Australia’s McLaren Vale and over the years Hardys has undergone about as many changes as the region itself. Hardys currently makes six ranges of wines under the Hardys label, most of which carry names from Hardy family history. Today we are tasting two wines […]

Eight at the Gate featured photo

Eight at the Gate: It’s All About Family and Wine

Including the word family in a winery’s name is the most direct way to indicate the enterprise is a family operation, but it’s certainly not the most creative way to do so. Eight at the Gate, however, might be the smartest way I’ve seen to include family in a winery’s name. How is that you might wonder? Well, when two […]

Danshi Rise featured photo

Danshi Rise: An Authentic McLaren Wine Tasting Experience

Danshi Rise is just the kind of winery we hope to discover when we travel — single proprietor, small volume, authentic wine tasting experience, delicious wine. We experienced all of this and a man cave to rival any at Danshi Rise in Australia’s McLaren Vale region south of Adelaide. The winery sits on a rise above the vineyard at the […]

2020 wines featured photo

2020: Wine That Helped Us Through the Year

It’s hard to remember a year more difficult than 2020. The loss of my parents marked the most sorrowful years for me personally, but collectively this is the most difficult year I can remember. The bad news has continued since February and the worst may not be behind us. Coronavirus, COVID-19, stay-at-home and social distancing became part of my everyday […]

Tyrrell's Wines featured photo

Tyrrell’s Wines: History, Semillon and Shiraz in Australia’s Hunter Valley

Before we visited Tyrrell’s Wines in October 2019, as part of the Wine Media Conference held in the Hunter Valley, I didn’t have a full appreciation for the history behind the winery. But standing beside the ironbark slab hut built by Edward Tyrrell, when he settled 320 acres along the Brokenback Range at Pokolbin in 1858, brought that history alive. […]

Sipping Wine Around Australia featured photo

Sipping Australian Wine

Most of Australia is far too hot and dry to support vineyards, but many coastal areas are well suited to viticulture and this is where most of Australia’s wine regions are located. As you might imagine in a country the size of Australia there is a big range of climates and soil types as well as grape varieties. All of […]

Vintage Longbottom featured photo

Vintage Longbottom: A Taste of Persistence

We were recently introduced to the wines of Vintage Longbottom, made by Kim and Margo Longbottom in South Australia, when we received several wines as tasting samples. We opened the two white wines and tasted them without knowing anything about the winery or how they were made. When I went looking for background on the wines and Vintage Longbottom, I […]

Kay Brothers Amery Vineyard Block 6 Shiraz

Today we are enjoying a taste of Australian wine history. It isn’t every day one has the opportunity to taste wine made from Shiraz planted in 1891 and made by the same family whose ancestors planted those vines, but that is the story of Kay Brothers Amery Vineyard Block 6 Shiraz. We received this wine as a tasting sample. Herbert […]