Archive for the ‘Interviews’ Category

OWS#14: Tim Kirk (Clonakilla)

Wednesday, October 17th, 2007

Hi all, it’s been a while. Thanks to all those enquiring about the show – Celia, Bob, Prentice, Mark, Jason C, Andrew, Steve, Chris, AlexR and anyone else i may have missed – really appreciate it. I touch briefly on the reasons for the delay in the podcast but enough of that. On with the show!

Episode 14 is an interview i did this week with Tim Kirk from Clonakilla (www.clonakilla.com.au). Tim is the person responsible for sparking the cult that is Shiraz-Viognier in Australia. He not only created the market for Australian made SV both here and internationally, he set the benchmark against which it must be measured. I know if i think of Australian SV, I immediately think of quality and wouldn’t hesitate spending over $30-40 a bottle on. Hopefully that lasts (it will if Tim has anything to do with it).

The interview is short so we can all ease back into it but let me know what you think of it in the comments and post any additional questions you may have for Tim and i’ll try to get him to respond.

Do grab a bottle of their Shiraz Viognier, Hilltops Shiraz, Riesling or straight Viognier to see what the fuss is about. Check here for outlets.

(Tim Kirk on the Right, his father John on the left – photo: clonakilla.com.au)

Next show is a run-down of the Torbreck range and The Oz Wine Show’s first giveaway so be sure to subscribe to the feed to get all the updates (or check back soon).

Cheers,

Hugo

Posted in Blog, Hugo Sharp, Interviews, Podcast | 9 Comments »

OWS#13: Ernst Loosen Interview

Thursday, October 26th, 2006

This episode is a an interview with German Riesling extraudeair Ernst Loosen [pronounced Lohzen]. Besides mentioning that he was Decanter's 2005 "Man of the Year", I think the following quote sums him up;

"Ernst Loosen doesn’t mince words. Passionate, irrepressibly irreverent, ironic and outraged – all within the same sentence – he is a fascinating conversationalist and an erudite lecturer. He has been called Germany’s winemaker rock star and its best wine ambassador. Sandra Shoji, The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo), April 12, 2003"

ernst_loosen.jpg

The interview was done at the Frankland Estate International Riesling Tasting by Dave Brookes – Sydney wine blogger and all-round good guy. Dave contributes to WineFront and has his own blog at www.vinosense.com. The interview is a bit hardcore but is a great insight into many topics surrounding Riesling, Germany, Australia, Washington State and matching grapes to production methods and food pairing.

For more info, here's two documents from the drloosen.com site;

If the interview sparked an interest in Ernst, try his entry level "Dr Loosen" Riesling 2004 or 2005. Cam Wheeler from Appellation Australia has a review of it here . There's a review of the more pricey "J L Wolf Jesuitengarten Riesling 2004" at winorama .

If you're having trouble with your local wine stores, click here to try the Oz Wine Show wine search feature , type in "loosen" and click "go".

Don't forget to comment on this, or any other post, by clicking the "comments" button next to the date on the left. Feel free to respond to other comments as well.

Also, get automatic updates to the show and the blog via the RSS feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/ozwineshow ). More info on using RSS here .

All the best, Hugo 

Posted in Blog, Dave Brookes, Germany, Hugo Sharp, Industry Insider, Interviews, Making Wine, Podcast, Riesling | 1 Comment »

OWS#11: A Divine Affair

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006
 
While enjoying a live band recently, I had the usual feeling of "why don't I get off my arse and go to more live events!". I then realised that I'd missed a few tasting events recently due to a busy schedule. In an effort to get myself (and anyone else who might be in the same boat) "in the mood", I'm posting an interview Mick and I did at a Clare Valley tasting event a little while ago.
The interview is with Andrew Wood, producer of Divine: Food & Wine, a very good, independent magazine.
If you don't get to many tastings, I highly recommend them. I'm talking about the smaller ones held more often than you might think around most capital cities. This one brought together over two dozen producers from the Clare Valley in South Australia. I think it sold out but there was plenty of room and no lines and was well worth the 40 bucks admission (we actually got in free though which was great).
Any inspired Australian listeners might want to check out the interactive Australian Wine Events Calendar I put together under the "resources" heading in the top menu. You can either browse though it from its page or add it to your own Google Calendar and have it automatically updated. Most events are click-able and some even have maps attached to them. It's just something I created for my own use and thought I'd make it public. Hope you find it useful.
Anyway, that's it for this week.
Enjoy,
Hugo


Update: The comments entry box has been fixed so feel free to leave your thoughts regarding the interview… or anything you feel like.

Posted in Clare Valley, Hugo Sharp, Interviews, Mick Barrett, Podcast, Region Reviews, South Australia, Tasting Events | 7 Comments »

OWS#9: Sydney Royal Wine Show (Part 2)

Thursday, May 18th, 2006

OWS#9 brings the final episode in the Sydney Royal Wine Show twin-pack. Probably our biggest show yet! There’s 3 interviews and 2 bottle reviews and I must apologise for the delay. It takes hours and hours to get everything together.

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I probably should have split it into three smaller chunks and released them more regularly. What do people think?

1:30 First up is James Halliday, a prolific Australian wine writer and nice chap to boot.
11:20 Secondly was an interview with Matthew Jukes who seems to have a toe in most forms of wine media in the UK. Check out his site at www.matthewjukes.com.
14:30 The last interview is with Lindsay McCall of Paringa Estate Wines situated on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. Very nice guy who, along with his wife Margaret, produces some great wines. Check out their website at www.paringaestate.com.au.
22:30 Tastings include the Thorn-Clarke 2004 Shotfire Ridge Shiraz and Houghton’s 2001 Pemberton Chardonnay Pinot Noir.

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Cheers

Hugo and Mick

Posted in Hugo Sharp, Interviews, Krinklewood, Mick Barrett, Mornington Peninsula, Noteworthy, Paringa Estate, Podcast, Sydney International, Tasting Events | 1 Comment »

OWS#8: Sydney Royal Wine Show (Part 1) – Jukes, Halliday and a Few Tastings

Saturday, March 25th, 2006

Mick and Hugo attended the 2006 Sydney Royal Wine Show last month and recorded a few speeches, interviews and trophy tastings. The event is enormous and very professional and we must thank Anita Solentic for giving us the royal treatment while we were there. Full show results are available by clicking here.

This podcast includes two speeches given on the presentation day by Matthew Jukes and James Halliday about the show’s results and Australian wine in general.

2:45 – Guest international judge Matthew Jukes gives his views on the state of Australian wine in 2006.
9:00 – Tyrrells Vat 1 Semillon 1994 won the trophy for “best white table wine”. A legendary bottle well worth familiarising yourself with as a benchmark Hunter Semillon.
11:30 – McWilliams’ 1998 Mount Pleasant Lovedale Semillon won “best white table wine (in previous vintages)”.
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13:35 – Head judge of the show, and well respected critic, James Halliday gives a short speech regarding his conclusions on the winners.
16:50 – Leasingham’s Classic Clare Riesling 2005 won “best young white wine”. The link only gives notes to the 1995 release for some reason.

Hope you enjoy the podcast.

Posted in Clare Valley, Hugo Sharp, Hunter Valley, Interviews, Krinklewood, Leasingham Estate, McWilliams, Mick Barrett, News Review, Podcast, Sydney International, Tasting Events, Tyrrells | 7 Comments »

OWS#7: Vic Winemakers (Part 2) – Paradigm Hill Wines, Punt Road Wines & The Wine Society

Tuesday, February 28th, 2006

Here’s the second and final part of our coverage of the Exhibition of Victorian Winemakers. It was a stellar event and well worth checking out next year. Cam Wheeler has put up an extensive review of some of the wines on offer at the event. Click here to access it.

This podcast includes three separate interviews Mick and Hugo conducted on the second night of proceedings. They are as follows;

5:30 – George Mihaly of Paradigm Hill Wines shares some insights into the role of tannins in structure and the need for good structure when pairing wine and food. Paradigm Hill is a family run vineyard and winery located in the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. Their website details all the facts and figures anyone would ever need to know about the wines they produce and the grapes they grow. Fantastic reading over tea and biscuits. Click here for the Paradigm Hill website.
14:55 – David Dungan, Marketing Manager of Punt Road Wines shares some of the history of Punt Road and describes some of the logistical problems a boutique winery may face when exporting to the US. Click here for the Punt Road website.
26:55 – Lastly, I spoke to Stephen Thompson of The Wine Society about the benefits you might find from joining a wine club. Click here for their website.

Hope you enjoy the podcast.

Posted in Exhibition of Victorian Winemakers, Hugo Sharp, Interviews, Mick Barrett, Mornington Peninsula, Paradigm Hill, Podcast, Punt Road, Tasting Events, The Wine Society | 5 Comments »

OWS#6: Victorian Winemakers (Part 1) – Roy Moorfield and Savaterre

Friday, February 3rd, 2006

This is part one of a two part series on the event. The second part will follow shortly.
‘Tis the season for wine shows and we’re all set to bring you as many interviews as we possibly can from upcoming shows. These include the NSW Inland Food & Wine Festival (this week), the Sydney Royal Wine Show (next week) and the Frankland Estate International Riesling Tasting (12th and 13th of Feb). It’s going to be a tough job, but we’ll give it our all.

The interviews this episode include Roy Moorfield, who founded the event 27 years ago and Keppell Smith, owner and winemaker at Savaterre. These guys were most accommodating with being interviewed on the spur of the moment and both are clearly very passionate about what they do. Keppell produces some fantastic wine and I highly recommend adding yourself to his mailing list. Savaterre’s production and distribution are limited but the mailing list is a direct way to access the coming releases.

Murray from Winetastic has more detailed notes of the event on his blog, so check them out.

That’s it for this episode. To ask us a question, or leave feedback, use the comments button bellow.

Hugo

Posted in Exhibition of Victorian Winemakers, Hugo Sharp, Interviews, Mick Barrett, Podcast, Savaterre, Tasting Events | 5 Comments »

OWS#5: Size & Shape – The Riedel Glass Interview

Tuesday, January 10th, 2006

OWS#5 features an interview with Mark Baulderstone who is Vice President of Riedel Glass for Asia Pacific and Middle East. Listen in for an in depth tasting of the same wine from three different glasses. I must say i went in hoping to get scientific answers but was so blown away by the different experience each glass presented that i ended up sitting back and going along for the ride. So sit yourself down, grab some glasses resembling those pictured below, pop a nice bot and taste along to see for yourself.

With over 150 different wine glasses in their range, you might be surprised to hear Mark say that you can cover most variety bases with just 3 or 4 glasses. This was very comforting to me (as well as my bank balance) but it’s still nice to know that you can go the extra mile if so desired.

We used three glasses from Riedel’s Vinum Series which would cover most varietal needs on a day to day basis, they were the Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon (Bordeaux) and Burgundy glasses.

Riedel Vinum Series

The wines are both from Kim Crawford Wines of New Zealand;

  • 2005 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc
  • 2002 Hawke’s Bay Merlot

    • That’s it for this episode.

    All the best

    Hugo & Mick

    Posted in Glassware Reviews, Hugo Sharp, Interviews, Krinklewood, Mick Barrett, Noteworthy, Podcast, Site News, Virtual Tasting | 8 Comments »

    OWS#3: Interview with Matt Gant of St Hallett

    Tuesday, November 1st, 2005

    OWS#3 features an interview with Matt Gant, “Australian Young Wine Maker of the Year” for 2004. Matt is part of the St Hallett team in the Barossa, South Australia and has an interesting story of how he ended up where he is today (a thousand miles from the UK).

    We crack a bottle of Matt’s superb 2003 Faith Shiraz and found out some philosophies behind it.

    Matt during the interview.

    All the best

    Hugo & Mick

    Posted in Interviews, Krinklewood, Podcast | 7 Comments »