Greedy Buggers, serve them right.
GK - You predicted I would sound off - So here goes then:-
Quality Penfolds Bin407 and Bin389 have been going in the wrong direction for a long time, since Fosters took over. I would not buy Rosemount Show Reserve anymore, not since 97 or so, because that stuff is also over extracted, furry, and unlovely.
The very new vineyards on marginal land that is irrigated all the time with deep bores, at the expense of the local people, who want to grow food to feed themselves and water their livestock, Duh !
Nah - Those big firms had whats coming to them, as the drought it seems, did not stop them either. They will have to do distress marketing all over the world to get shot of the surplus - which is unlovely anyway.
As for Hardy's - Pour it back on the land, plough in their vines as green manure on marginal land, and reduce dramatically volume per hectare in better parcels.
Most people who talk about wine in the media, are too young to know what boutique Coonawarra Cab was like in the 70's and 80's. I bought my 1st ones about 1975. Majestic had bought a Heron filling station on the outskirts of Oxford city, and Wizard Wine (now gone) had an operation in an old tyre fitting building in Wandsworth, South London. Oddbins were just starting out in Putney and in other small ex charity shops in the old high streets of South London.
Dump the rubbish, I wish shopping customers would dump the rubbish brands, yet, you can get drunk on it and it is inoffensive.
There is an opportunity in China to clear this stuff - I would have thought
I was talking to one of my wife's old school friends who emigrated to Melbourne years ago, and married an Australian. He does not buy this stuff, and scoffed in amusement, when I was talking about the mid ranking UK stuff, Bin128 or Presidents Selection etcetera.
It's their own fault.
Cleanskin was the most satisfying this year. I have some '98 Penfolds 407 cab, it's not bad, BUT, much too much Eucalyptus as the fruit dies away. If more cleanskin comes up, and is fermented in French oak barrels, I may cellar that, and see.
Latest Flyer - Yaldara Shiraz 2008, Barossa Valley £4.99 at Majestic - cheap for Barossa ! More Student wines are on the way.
Looking to the future:
If more income is spent on making good wine and less income on marketing brand world domination - This could benefit wine lovers in the end. Who knows ?
Sorry folks, I'll climb off my soap box now
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