Wine Essentials

Wine EssentialsAustralian Vintage Report 2011
What a difference a year makes: from the justified optimism of 2010 to the recurrent use of ‘challenging’ and ‘difficult’ to describe the abnormally wet and cool 2011 in eastern Australia. Just to demonstrate the size of the country, the west had a hot, dry and early vintage, more of which anon.

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Video The great cork vs screwcap debate

Australian wine essentialsDiscover James' seasonal wine and food pairings

A great wine is only accentuated by the addition of a perfect food pairing. James offers his suggestions for the perfect seasonal wine and food pairings. With spring almost upon us, consider pairing a young Riesling with a cold salad or sashimi or a young Pinot Noir with grilled quail.

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International wine essentialsImported tasting notes from around the globe

Let James Halliday and Ben Edwards be your guides as Wine Companion takes you from France to New Zealand via a few places in between. We will be adding new content to this section regularly so keep checking back.

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Australian wine essentialsGrape variety plantings

The following charts show the grape variety plantings by tonne and hectares from 1996 to the present day.

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Australian wine essentials20 years of Australian vintage

The charts in the following pages show James Halliday's ratings for every Australian vintage over the last 20 years.

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