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Aussie INs / wine lovers...come in please
Alcohol is expensive here--very expensive--and this is coming from someone who lived in Switzerland.
I bought three bottles of my favorite French reds the other day. If I had bought them in France like I used to do while living in Geneva they'd have been about 20 Euro total. Here they were about 100 Euro.* Yikes. My love of wine might just put us in the poor house.
Australian wines here are much cheaper than any of the others. Please school me on Australian wines. I confess that I know nothing about Australian wines. Is there a particularly good area of the country fro growing? What do they specialize in? What do I have to try? As luck would have it, I'm a pretty equal-opportunity wine drinker who likes drinking a wide array of wines from a variety of grapes.
*edited because I suck at math
Re: Aussie INs / wine lovers...come in please
Established areas are ones like Barossa Valley (South Australia) Hunter Valley (NSW) and Yarra Valley (Victoria). Last time I went home (a couple of months ago) I found so many more vineyards popping up, so you really can get wines from a lot of places.
The good ones that are exported are McGuigan (Hunter Valley) Wolf Blass, Penfolds to name a few. I guess it depends on what you really like to drink. I prefer a dry and very young sauv blanc so I actually go for NZ wines, especially from the Marlborough region - it's somewhat cooler in NZ due to its more southerly position and this will affect the kind of grape and flavour. Australian conditions favour chardonnay which I'm not a massive fan of, but there are a few SBs that I enjoy.
All the Australian wines I have had are German-type wines -- Rhine and Riesling, mostly. I prefer white to red, and sweet to dry, and love to indulge in ice wine, or Australia's version Select Late Harvest wine -- excellent sweet dessert wines. I have been to the Barossa Valley twice on a wine tasting tour and really like the wines from smaller vineyards, that mostly do not export, and some do not market outside South Australia.
I would say to go with a wine you know you like and try various vineyards offerings. For day to day drinking, I like Brown Brothers Cruchen Riesling and Jacob's Creek Semillon Sauvignon Blanc. I have not tried the Moscatos, which are all the rage these days. My brother (the bartender/wine expert) says they are a bit sweeter, but fuller bodied than a riesling. I can't really speak about reds, as I don't care for them, so I try to avoid them except for cooking, and then I let DH pick one out.
I've seen a lot of SBs from Marlborough, so this is good to know. I shall have to give them a try.
Wedding stuff.
If you were buying local wine in South Australia then this makes sense - there is a massive German population in the hills surrounding Adelaide - I seem to recall a town called Hahndorf or something. Anyway, they brought the Rhine and Reisling methods with them.
Sorry OP, I know nothing about reds.
I'm not a wine savant by any means, but I love LOVE red wine. Its my preferred wine. I like Shiraz. Though, I think Shiraz is starting to become overplayed like Merlots. Tonight I'm enjoying a Shiraz from the Barossa Valley done by Jacobs Creek Reserve (its a 2008). To me the Barossa Valley turns out a good red.
What type of reds do you enjoy?
I'm an equal opportunity lush and tend to give all wines a chance within a certain price point.
I have enjoyed whites & reds from Penfolds, Jacob's Creek, Brown Brothers (a very light red you can drink chilled springs to mind, great for bbqs) and other that I can't think of now, all (at least here) costing around 7? a bottle.
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In addition to the typical Australian Shiraz, I like the Cabernet Sauvignon and Cab blends from Margaret River in Western Australia.
(ETA - Margaret River has some decent cool-climate wines as well. Some of their Chardonnays are stunning)
And a Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc from NZ was one of the bottles I had during my weekend of dating with excessive wine. It was excellent and came highly recommended by both date and waiter.