World.Wine.Web
Martin Field
After resisting the temptation for years I finally hooked up to the internet
and in a very short while I've become a great fan, not least of all due to
the considerable wealth of wine-related resources available. Wine web sites
abound, included among them are inter/national and regional pages,
encyclopedias, libraries, tasting notes, wine sales, wine e-zines and chat
groups. The list is endless and access is generally free.
The avid wine surfer can spend hours staring cross-eyed as megabytes of
diverse information scroll across the screen. Much of this information is
accurate, some is slightly flawed; a fraction is from the fifth astral
plane. Consequently the wine surfer needs to be discerning, to separate the
cask product from the top shelf that is. So, open a bottle, fire up the
booze browser and I'll take you on a brief tour of tested wine sites.
First stop is the University of Pennsylvania, at
www.upenn.edu/museum/wine/wineintro.html , for the history of
wines of the
Neolithic period, Egypt and Mesopotamia. Next, the internationalist can
visit the Port Wine Institute at www.ivp.pt/uk/default.htm ; the Spanish Wine
Page at www.jrnet.com/vino/review.html ; Californian wine at
www.winetoday.com , and Bordeaux wine at
www.vins-bordeaux.fr/civb/english/accueil.html . Two Australian
sites worth a
look are Tasmanian Wineries and Vineyards at www.42south.com/taswines , and
Western Australia Wine at www.wawine.com.au .
For thousands of wine links try Wines Beers and Spirits of the Net at
~www.ryerson.ca/~dtudor/wine.htm ; TBM's Wine Links at
www.bboxbbs.ch/home/tbm/review.htm , or Vine2wine at www.vine2wine.com . Take
part in fairly serious wine discussion at the newsgroup, alt.food.wine or,
to purchase web wine, have your credit card ready for the somewhat pricey
real-time, on-line wine auction at www.ebay.com . And for books try the
highly recommended BookFinder at www.bookfinder.com , in my opinion the only
tool for seekers after hard to find wine books.
The Internet Guide to Wine and Frequently Asked Questions, at
sbwines.silcom.com/usenet_winefaq, will solve your wine trivia problems,
while Strat's Place offers general wine quotes and tasting notes at
www.stratsplace.com/home.html . And lastly, for a good read of wine writing
with attitude visit Wine X Magazine, at www.winexwired.com . For mainstream,
well-written articles on wines of the world the Wine Spectator at
www.winespectator.com/wine/spectator , is hard to beat.
Masterclass riesling
Highlight of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in March was the
masterclass, "Riesling Renaissance", presented by German winemaker Dr Ernst
Loosen. Dr Loosen presented for tasting a series of rieslings from his
200-year-old estate, a property which comprises a tiny 11.5 hectares of
vineyards scattered over 15 kilometres along the river Mosel. His hand-made
wines originate from ungrafted vines grown on steeply sloped, slaty soil, a
difficult landscape which in Australia would hardly be considered worth
planting.
Due to the region's very cool climate the ripening of grapes is a long and
torturous affair. Consequently the finished wines, although late picked, are
quite low in alcohol, only seven to eight and a half per cent in content.
"How did you get the alcohol out?" asked a group of astonished Italian
winemakers visiting the good doctor recently.
In these trying viticultural conditions some of Dr Loosen's wines are rare
indeed. One, the wonderful Urziger Wurzgarten Beerenauslese 1995, began life
as a 1000 litre cask of individually selected, shrivelled, botrytised
grapes. After the grapes were pressed they were fermented for over six
months on wild yeasts, producing in total a miserly 150 bottles. The result
is a pale gold and viscous wine redolent of honey and spiced apple - a
privilege to taste. Other wines at the Dr Loosen tasting, despite their low
alcohol and delicacy, exhibited intense varietal flavours, and acidity
skilfully balanced against high but non-intrusive levels of residual grape
sugars.
Heard it on the E-vine
Jenny, who suffers from sulphur-induced allergy, asks if preservative free
wines are available. Sulphur dioxide is a preservative used in winemaking,
consequently most commercial reds, whites and sparklers contain sulphur in
some quantity. One exception is the Hardys No Preservatives Added label
which features both a cabernet sauvignon and a chardonnay. Another source of
non-sulphured dry red and white is the Mudgee label, Botobolar, from organic
winemaker Gil Wahlquist. It should be noted that preservative free wines are
not designed for long-term cellaring and ought to be consumed within a
couple of years of vintage. For information relating to American wineries
supplying organic and sulphur free wines check out the Organic Wines site at
wine.miningco.com/msub_organic.htm.
Martin Field
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