March - April 2023

Winestate Magazine

A wine state of mind

Winestate Magazine14 min read
Briefs
ONE of Sydney’s most popular beachside hotels, the Manly Pacific M Gallery has unveiled a new look after two years of refurbishment. The standout hotel in one of Sydney’s favourite beachside suburbs has undergone a $30 million transformation. Behind
Winestate Magazine6 min read
Editorial
WELCOME TO WINESTATE MAGAZINE’S 45THYEAR of publishing and 318th issue! It certainly has been a wild ride! Scary how time passes (particularly after viewing the above)! It’s hard to believe that what started as such a humble outfit all those years ag
Winestate Magazine4 min read
Nzbriefs
NEW ZEALAND WINEGROWERS (NZW) kicked off 2023 by rolling out its new global brand platform. ‘Altogether Unique’ is its first brand refresh since 2006 and aims to highlight the New Zealand wine industry’s location, people and climate. NZW worked with
Winestate Magazine4 min read
Europe’s 2022 Vintage: Stable Global Production Despite Extreme Climate Events
REPORTS of Europe’s 2022 vintage, the harvest for which usually occurs between the end of August to October, have been dominated by extreme climate events: spring frosts, then excessive heat almost throughout the growing season from May to September.
Winestate Magazine4 min read
Natural Factors Are The Keys To Success In Coonawarra
LOCATED some 400km from Adelaide, Coonawarra is one of Australia’s most remote wine regions. With some notable exceptions (Great Southern and Margaret River), most regions are within easy striking distance of a major city. But Coonawarra is well wort
Winestate Magazine4 min read
Seoul Searching - A Food, Wine And Spirit Guide To South Korea’s Capital
OVER the past year, Qantas has debuted services to eight countries the airline didn't fly to pre-Covid lockdowns, including Italy and India. Last November, Jetstar launched three times weekly services from Sydney to Seoul, which were very quickly joi
Winestate Magazine4 min read
The Seventies
IT WAS May 1978 when, with an 80c cover price, the first Winestate magazine hit the news stands. It doesn’t seem all that long ago really, but maybe that’s because I’m a person of a certain age! But it was after reading an interview with Penfolds’ fa
Winestate Magazine4 min read
Back To The Future?
Now five years later I am speculating again, this time in our farewell magazine. There is complete uncertainty in the wine industry at the moment and the economy overall. It makes it hard to make sense of it all but here goes; for the first part of t
Winestate Magazine4 min read
The Eighties
We entered the eighth decade of the 20th century with inflation rife and unemployment high and predictions that if we didn’t start to move on developing wine export markets in the next three to five years it would all be too late. But our illustrious
Winestate Magazine2 min read
The Nineties
The Australian wine industry entered the ninth decade of the century on a high. By the mid-1990s we had become wine stars on the world stage. Our quality was consistently good and, more importantly, the wines were very affordable. Consumers wanted mo
Winestate Magazine2 min read
The 21st Century 2000 - 2008
As the new millennium arrived, our export markets were going through the roof. As new vines came into production each vintage got larger and larger. The 2006 vintage produced a record crush of 1.9 million tonnes. This figure didn’t take into account
Winestate Magazine3 min read
The 21st Century 2008 - 2018
The 2009 vintage was a depressing mix of drought, water scarcity and heat and although smaller than 2008’s, at 1.73 million tonnes, it was not small enough to ease the pressure on Australia’s oversupply of grapes. Yields for the next three vintages d
Winestate Magazine3 min read
The 21st Century 2018 - 2023
This is where it pays to look 50+ years ahead in the crystal ball because by then everyone who reads this will be either dead or senile and not be able to come back and tell you, “You were wrong”! However, not being short of an opinion here goes; Chi
Winestate Magazine5 min read
Passing The Torch
With the wine world mourning the passing of 95-year-old industry icon d’Arry Osborn, the inevitable question some were asking was, does this mean the brakes have now come off his colourful successor as head of d’Arenberg Winery, Chester? And the answ
Winestate Magazine6 min read
LOUISE POMMERY the Greta Garbo of Champagnes
Champagne’s history is rich with women full of character. Many of them have given names to the companies’ cuvée prestige versions. At Pommery it is the daughter of the widow Pommery; Jeanne-Alexandrine-Louise. It’s really fun to rediscover old love!
Winestate Magazine4 min read
Picture Perfect STYRIA
While the northern, Rhine-side regions of Austria with their rieslings and grüner veltliners command much of the critical attention from native, European and overseas wine lovers, exciting wines are being made at the other end of Austria’s wine count
Winestate Magazine2 min read
Meet RUSSELL & SUITOR
A lot has happened at Russell & Suitor’s Pipers River property since Alex Russell and his wife Lara Suitor took it over in 2016. At the time, it had just 2ha under vine - now it has 15ha, with varieties including pinot noir, pinot gris, chardonnay an
Winestate Magazine4 min read
Adelaide Grapevine
THE truly adventurous diners among you, those who enjoy bold Heston-style experimentation in the kitchen and are prepared to pay a fortune for it, will have mourned the closure of d’Arenberg Cube’s original restaurant – one that, admittedly, sat comf
Winestate Magazine3 min read
Perth Grapevine
SINCE adding the Cottesloe Beach Hotel to its lofty portfolio in 2008, the Prendiville Group (Sandalford Wines, Norfolk Hotel, Samphire Rottnest, Mangrove Hotel Broome along with other iconic West Aussie and national venues) has continued to evolve i
Winestate Magazine4 min read
Sydney Grapevine
I'VE been to many harbourfront restaurants where the food was significantly less spectacular than the views. There’s no fear of such a disconnect at Sala Dining. Located in the former site of Flying Fish and Chuuka restaurant at the end of Jones Bay
Winestate Magazine4 min read
MCLAREN VALE & FLEURIEU
D’ARENBERG’S famous Cube is one of the biggest tourism attractions in McLaren Vale - and it now comes with an Asian accent. Singapore Circus is the new Asian eatery at the winery - a dining venue that draws inspiration from Singapore’s Newton Circus
Winestate Magazine2 min read
How We Judge Winestate Magazine Tasting Criteria Our Star Rating System
Wines are invited from any producer, provided that they meet the criteria of the class being judged. The class may be a regional, style or new release tasting and generally the wines must be available for consumers to purchase, although we have museu
Winestate Magazine6 min read
Wines Of The West
THE Truffle Kerfuffle festival has been confirmed for June 23-25, 2023, in the heart of Australian truffle country at Manjimup. The event was cancelled in 2022 due to uncertainty surrounding public safety during the pandemic. Manjimup, in WA’s Southe
Winestate Magazine3 min read
BAROSSA VALLEY & EDEN VALLEY
THE Barossa has a new wine bar, piloted by two of the region’s surest hospitality hands. Sam Smith, the former No.2 in the kitchen at Fino Seppeltsfield, has partnered with restaurateur Grant Dickson, the creator of FermentAsian, to open Otherness in
Winestate Magazine13 min read
Michael Cooper Recent Releases
This absorbing tasting included wines full of personality, including top-flight examples of South Island syrah, barrel-fermented sauvignon blanc and classy, rich chardonnay and pinot gris from Waiheke Island, in Auckland. You can also check out New Z
Winestate Magazine5 min read
From Fad To Mainstream - The Food Trends That Have Lasted Decades
A quick inventory of predicted food trends for 2023 ranges from the banal - tinned seafood on TikTok - to the obvious - the Lazy Cooking Movement. People around the world have plainly had their fill of exotic ingredients you have to send out a posse

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