This is our second review of Australian wine in only a few weeks. You may realize that Australia is a major wine exporter in particular supplying the United States and the United Kingdom. While this wine was bottled in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales in Australia’s southwest, the grapes come from the Geographical Indication of Beechworth in New South Wales neighbor, Victoria. Beechworth was once a great place to dig for gold and is now considered a fine wine region, especially for Chardonnay and fortified wines. If money is no object search out Giaconda’s wines, including their Pinot Noir.

Wine Reviewed Pinot Noir New South Wales (Brokenwood Winery) 2005 14.0% alcohol about $ 20 There were no marketing materials so I’ll quote the back label. “This Pinot Noir is sourced from Victoria’s exciting Beechworth region, in the lower region of the Alpine Valleys. A very hot, dry season giving concentrated flavors… This is a ripe style with background French Oak and sappy/cherry Pinot fruit. The palate has strawberry flavors and lingering soft tannins. Drink over the short term with duck and Asian dishes. Our wines are now sealed with screw cap to guarantee quality and consistency.” Re screw caps: I want to mention that when I used adjustable pliers the bottle opened nicely. And now for my review.

At the first sips the wine was quite powerful with good length and tobacco but no tannins. Its first pairing was with an over dry commercially barbecued chicken breast but its paprika-dusted skin was nice and moist. This Pinot Noir was very present with some chocolate. With the tastier chicken leg it was excessively acidic. On the upside, this wine was chewy and mouth filling. Once again there was tobacco and no tannins.

The next meal involved a middle-eastern specialty known as kube, ground beef in crushed bulgar jackets accompanied by Swiss Chard and a slightly sour, delicious broth. This Pinot Noir was thick. I even got a taste of tar and black licorice. There was a lot of body but, at the risk of repetition, there were no tannins. They didn’t seem to be missing. I tasted dark fruit, especially black cherries. I finished the meal with smoked almonds and tasted tobacco and some earth.

My final meal involved fatty beef ribs cooked slowly with soft wheat kernels and accompanied by a moderately spicy guacamole. The Pinot Noir was round and thick with a lot of oak and a good length. Its acidity worked well with the meat’s grease. Not only the meat was chewy and it presented black, black cherries. The wine retained some power and all of its length when paired with the guacamole.

Before starting on the traditional two cheeses I enjoyed some Matjes herring. The wine was long, balanced, and mouth filling. The herring did not get in the way. A local Provolone actually weakened this Pinot Noir at first its acidity became slightly harsh. A tastier Swiss slightly weakened the wine, which was still powerful and long, oaky with the taste of tobacco.

Final verdict. This wine is definitely worth buying again and again. Next time I won’t waste it on the cheese. And maybe someday I’ll try Giaconda’s offerings. You’ll be the first to know.

Wine is probably the most storied and legendary beverage conceived by mankind, and its history goes back literally to Biblical times. This makes for some surprisingly fun trivia hunting; wine is the beverage that always has another surprise in store!

Wine’s first purpose was as a water purifier! A long time before modern methods for sanitizing water, primitive peoples developed one foolproof method for ensuring that water was safe to drink: they’d mix in the fermented juice from fruit and found the alcohol was sufficient to kill any harmful organisms.

The fermenting of beer and wine was one of the first applications of alchemy and hence chemistry, going as far back as the year 1000 B.C.

Wine has an important place in more than half of the world’s religions. Jewish practitioners say a blessing over wine on holidays, and Passover is observed with four cups of wine. Wine makes an appearance throughout Christianity, with even one of Jesus’ miracles being to turn water into wine. It is used in the Eucharist of both Catholic and Protestant religions. The ancient Greeks had the god Dionysus, the god of wine and with it, of both madness and ecstasy. Of the major world religions today, only the Islamic ones specifically forbid wine.

While we assume that glass bottles of wine is the preferred standard, glass bottles only came into use after the 18th century. Before this time, wine was traditionally stored and transported in bulk, usually in wooden barrels or clay casks. For individual-sized serving, it would be carried in a wineskin, usually made from leather and originally lined with resin to keep them from leaking.

The use of oak barrels is frequently touted as a contributor to the taste of wine. But actually, oak was originally used simply because oak wood was plentiful and widely used in the old world, as an all-purpose storage container. Oak wood has a tight grain which makes it leak-proof. Oak barrels also favor the aging of wine because they allow very controlled exposure to oxygen.

One of the reasons that so much fuss is made over the proper serving temperature of wine is that human taste-buds function differently at different temperatures. Sweeter tastes come through better at room temperature, while more savory tastes come through better at colder temperatures.

The world’s most influential wine critic is currently Robert J. Parker, Jr. The lawyer-turned-wine-snob is responsible for creating the 100-point wine rating system widely used today. It is said that a 100-point rating from him is enough to drive up the price of a wine. This effect has even given rise to the term “Parkerization” in the wine world, which is the tendency of many establishments to base their purchasing habits on what Parker’s review says this week.

Of the top wine-producing nations in the world, France still ranks number one at 5.3 million tonnes per year. Italy (4.7 tonnes) is second, Spain (3.6 tonnes) is third, and the United States (2.2 tonnes) is fourth. Australia is in sixth place, but very nearly tied with, of all countries, China! However Australia is the fourth largest exporter of wine and has the third largest market share.

The “French paradox” has it that the French have a diet rich in fatty foods, yet have one of the lowest rates of heart disease in the world. It is the French paradox that led to the realization that wine, which the French consume in great quantities, is beneficial to the heart.

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