22 November 2021 We just heard from Nua, our bike builders. The original specified Gates stainless steel sprocket is holding up the job. We have opted for an aluminium replacement. Lighter, but not as long-lasting. I am not bothered. I would rather be in the saddle with a Gates aluminium sprocket than waiting for the…
Prologue
21st November 2021 After a single failure, the MSR Whisperlight works. The unleaded fuel in the bottle burned black and dirty but eventually a clean blue flame. Five years in Malaysia is drawing to a close. Crawling to the end. Pandemic, two years. What can you say, we all went through it, probably not Australia,…
Pressing Pause on Natural Wine at Puro Wine Bar – Part 2 of 4
Orange is the darling of the Natural set. When it comes to Natural Wine, the orange or amber wines hold the most street credibility. Orange wine is the Hipster’s beard. Indigenous yeasts during fermentation play a fundamental role in the Natural Wine process. Where traditional winemaking uses manufactured yeasts that allow for consistency in both…
Pressing Pause on Natural Wine at Puro Wine Bar – Part 1 of 4
A return of sorts. It has been some time since my last post. Work and so on is just an excuse. I really just lost interest. Messing about with photo’s and checking on Social Media, lost all of its appeal if it ever had any. Last Sunday Shell and I met up with some local…
Quality Where it Counts
Time to embrace the uncool. Some brands just market well. Perhaps they hire brand professionals, use social media well, who knows. Labels count, branding is important. If a wine label hits a niche, finds a groove of popularity, it snowballs. Wine consumers seem less impressed by vineyard age, barrel selection, and winemaker skill than they…
2015 Bodegas Muga Rioja Reserva
Wanted: Rioja sifu. We have been drinking mostly Italian recently. Time to change things up a little. I have a bottle of Château La Nerthe Châteauneuf-du-Pape sitting in the fridge that I have been meaning to open. A region we have not explored often, I had heard good things about this bottle. I was just…
Gevrey Tuesday: 2005 Domaine Bruno Clair Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos-St-Jacques
My old friend Bruno. Part 3. I don’t recall where we tried our first Bruno Clair, what commune it was from, or who shared it with us. The bottle left a lasting impression. We have ended up drinking more Bruno Clair than any other Domaine. Burgundy can be difficult to procure in Australia. There is…
2005 Domaine Hudelot-Baillet Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Cras
Kings and Queens. Of all the wines from Burgundy, Gevrey-Chambertin is the commune we seek out most often. Certainly Shell’s favourite, the wines are masculine, yet elegant. The region deserves the title ‘King of Burgundy’. The Gran Crus and Premier Cru’s are consistently some of the great Burgundy’s of the world. The is reason Tuesday’s…
Chasing Vintages in the Hunter Valley
The other vintage of the century. In Australia, particularly the Hunter Valley, even the most resilient consumer gets vintage fatigue. As winemakers wrap up picking, the grapes are pressed, fermented, barrelled or bottled, the media rolls out some old winemaker from a famous Hunter Valley family and he declares ‘this was the best vintage in…