Video winetasting – Wakefield Chard from Oz
There seems to be a lot of debate in the twitterverse at the moment about free samples and whether or not we bloggers seem to “owe” it to the wineries (or PR flacks) positive reviews. And how objective are our reviews if they’re free? I don’t think I “owe” anyone a good review because they’ve given me wine. Although they’re probably banking on me writing a positive one.
It may be a tough balancing act but I find that I write about wines I’ve enjoyed as opposed to wines I’ve disliked. Why? Well, there are enough negative people out there and intelligent readers of my blog have probably already figured out what syle of wines I prefer anyway. Besides, my motto is “always looking for the good stuff”, do you really want to read about the bad stuff? If so, drop me a line and I’ll start bashing wineries and their wines left, right and centre.
I do consider myself lucky in that, since I work in the wine industry, I have trade access that other winebloggers may not. And, living in London (which really is the centre of wine universe) I’m lucky enough to be able to attend the numerous trade tastings that seem to be constantly on the calendar.
So why am I talking about samples? Because I got one the other day, that’s why! It’s from Wakefield winery, based in the Clare Valley, South Australia. Wakefield Estate wines were the first estate grown and bottled wines from Wakefield winery and were first released in 1973. Since then they have been consistently winning national and international awards. The estate is situated in the Clare Valley on Australia’s famed “terra rosa” . Check out their website to get the full story.
In the meantime, I received the ’07 Wakefield Cabernet and the ’07 Wakefield Chardonnay. I did a bit of winetasting and cheesematching with the chard, check out the video….
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And the ’07 Wakefield cabernet? I liked it, here are my brief notes:
nose – first impression, fresh – ripe, rich blackcurrants, lots of minty goodness, almost like a thin mint but chocolate is not overwhelming, colour, deep, rich black cherry hue, tastes minty, ripe raspberries, gripping tannins, mouthwatering and mouthcoating, a bit chalky, toasty bitter chocolate finish. With cold roast beef, really good, chocolate character of the wine really highlighted, tannins cut through the meat, the wine worked really well with meat which meant this wine was not your average fruit bomb but had a bit of complexity and character to work with the food.
Hmmm, seems like I’m beginning to like these Ozzie wines, onward ho!
Great you posted about australian wines! I am quite partial to them myself, having grown up in oz… 🙂
Thanks! There’s more to Australia then Yellowtail although Wakefield is not a boutique vineyard, they’re still producing pretty good stuff.
An age old issue is the receiving of samples. Personally I dont have any problem with it and receive loads – I wouldnt be able to afford all the wines I review if I didnt receive samples.
I do try and report on everything received; if its good. The bad stuff doesnt get a mention. ANd I also try and do a food matching exercise too to give the wine full attention.
Hi Andrew, thanks for your comments! Yet another opinion to add to the debate.
Very nice to see you pairing the wines with food. But you didnt say “sniffy sniff” – what kind of wine taster are you! 😛
Also I didnt see any wikiwine info!
Very good Denise. x
Hey Sarah, no sniffy sniff because I edited it out! And who needs wiki? 😉
Next up, possibly Italian sausauge with Italian wine, stay tuned!xx
Hear, hear, Denise! I know what you mean. With all the delicious wine, fun events and great people to write about who has time for the bad stuff? If something is so patently heinous I feel compelled to warn people (you know who you are) away, I’ll find the time, but for the most part, I am all in to our blog motto, too: “So many wines, so little time…”
PS: LOVE the Oz wine. Have to keep eyes peeled for the Wakefield!
Hi Liza, yeah, I did write about wines I didn’t like when I started this blog but now just prefer to focus on the positive. As you say, that’s not to say I wouldn’t give a bad review but….Thanks for your input. Cheers!