North East Victoria">Victoria is one of six large wine zones in the Australian state of Victoria. The most famous style of wine to come from North East Victoria are the caramelly, Rich fortified wines from Rutherglen and Glenrowan. Full-bodied, Dry wines made from Shiraz are another specialty of North East Victoria.
The zone comprises five regions that have a diverse array of mesoclimates and terroirs.
The topography in the northeast corner of the state covers the western foothills of the Great Dividing Range, and vineyards sit among the mountains as well as on the plains. Higher altitudes in the Alpine and King Valleys lead to more Aromatic, Elegant wines – indeed King Valley is most famous for its Sparkling wines made from Glera, the traditional Prosecco grape variety. Beechworth, a small GI (Geographic Indication), is responsible for some of Australia's most prestigious red wines.
To the west, where the land flattens out toward the Goulburn Valley, the climate is warmer and drier.
Here, the land is dedicated to growing Muscat and Topaque (France's Muscadelle) alongside Shiraz, making Australia's most important style of fortified wine. Glenrowan and Rutherglen wines have a long history in the region, dating back to the Gold Rush of the mid-19th century, and are now found on wine lists across the world.
A very old grape variety grown in the Italian Piedmont. It has a great resemblance with the Freisa, which also comes from the same Italian region. Among the various massal selections made in Italy, we find lampia, michet and rosé. It can be found in Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Mexico, the United States (California), Australia, etc. In France, it is practically unknown, perhaps because it is a delicate and demanding grape variety with, among other things, a fairly long phenological cycle.
When I started my nomadic winemaking project, in 2018 at Niepoort Vinhos in Portugal’s Douro region, I had no idea how large a part Spain would go on to play – I certainly never intended to make it the locus of my project. So how did it happen? Yes, there was an element of chance and taking opportunities where they arose. But also, among the talented winemakers to whom I pitched collaborations, I sensed an openness and a readiness to collaborate which seemed particular to Spain. Held in June las ...
The largest-ever year for entries, an incredible 18,244 wines were judged at the 2022 Decanter World Wine Awards – with just 163 wines awarded a Platinum medal. ‘Winning a Platinum medal is something really exceptional’ said Decanter World Wine Awards Co-Chair Sarah Jane Evans MW. ‘Platinum is like the stratospheric level’ she commented, ‘so it’s really saying to the winemaker: this is a great wine.’ Making up just 0.87% of the total wines tasted at the 2022 c ...
Last year, there was much mirth on wine Twitter about a particularly excruciating tasting note. You’re right. The wine trade needs to get out more. But still… this one was a beauty. It began well enough – really quite beautiful, in fact. But before long the imaginative descriptions were getting more ornate and strained. It moved from poetic to meaningless before finishing with a reference to Burnt Norton – the first of TS Eliot’s Four Quartets – that put it firmly in Private Eye magazine’s ...
