“The defining moment in the history of Paradise Rescued was about to arrive. I guess everybody’s life has one of these moments. A critical decision point arrives and we either take it in a way that leads to something significant or we discard it and never even notice that that was just a fork in […]
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There are a number of flaws or faults that can make a wine unpleasant to drink. A “corked” wine is a fault that we hear talked about a lot but one which is experienced less and less frequently with the greater use of capsule closures and significantly improved cork closure technology. What do we mean […]
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I was honoured this week to have been invited to chair the The Eventful Group’s 2016 Mainstream conference in Melbourne. It was an exceptional conference in its field of industrial plant reliability leadership and engineering maintenance. And I was surprised at the change in the content and language since my last participation in the event. […]
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It’s here, ready and now published! We are proud to announce the publication of “Paradise Rescued – From Cabbage Patch to Cabernet Franc” written by our Founder Director – and now Author – David Stannard. “In 1992 when English born and educated David Stannard purchased a small holiday villa in Bordeaux, he never dreamed that […]
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Noble rot (Botyritis cinerea as it is known technically) or ‘Pourriture Noble’ (in French) is a special set of fungal conditions experienced by white wine grapes when they become infected by grey rot fungus as the grapes approach their maturity. When picked, pressed and the juice fermented, the resultant so-called “botyrised” wines have a distinctive […]
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It is tempting to assume that dishes that contain some spice and / or chilli are wine unfriendly. Cabernet Franc is one of the few varietals that can really pair well with a bit – I said a bit – of spice. Our opening recipe in our series of #Food4CabFranc comes from Troy Evans, aka […]
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Yeast is the reason why sugars in grape juice ferment to produce alcohol and wine. Although unexplained until studied by French scientist Louis Pasteur in the mid 19th century, its existence and worth has been around since man started the process of civilisation. In the wine making process, we can use either naturally occurring […]
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Happy New Year. I would like to open this week’s blog by wishing all our customers, fans and readers every best wish for a happy, healthy and successful 2016. So how are we going to make that happen? We need a plan. Good luck is unlikely to just occur! Last week, I challenged you to […]
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It’s becoming more common to see and hear a wine writer, adviser, sommelier or adviser described as a Master of Wine or MW. So who are these wonderful people and what allows them to have this very prestigious and hard to achieve title. Master of Wine is a qualification awarded after considerable study and […]
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“Terroir” is one of those seemingly mythical words that a winemaker or vigneron often uses to magically sum up why their wine has a particularly nice and different taste! In reality every vineyard, orchard, garden vegetable patch has its own unique terroir! Quite simply terroir is the unique combination of geology, geography, climate and […]
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