DAN'S WINE BLOG- RED WHITE WINE

Friday, June 3, 2022

A short one this week, starting with a red-white wine.

RED RIESLING: Have you heard of Red Riesling? No? Well I hadn’t either until recently when I read about it in the excellent European wine blog, wein-plus magazine. Researchers at the Julius Kühn-Institut, in Germany have just proven that unlike most mutations which go from the red variant to a white one, Red Riesling (Aka Roter Riesling) mutated from the white skinned, Riesling.

Although the name implies it is a red skinned variety of Riesling, it is not dark skinned like red wine grapes are. Therefore officially it is still a “white” grape variety. It is very similar in skin colour to Gewürztraminer.

No chance of finding it in Aussie bottle shops in the near future, but at least now you know it exists.

CAN IT: I have been banging on about wines in cans for quite some time now. Therefore I am pleased to advise that Hardy’s have just announced that they are releasing three wines in cans in the UK, in time for summer – Rosé, Chardonnay and Shiraz. They are releasing them so as to “tap into the on-the-go market”. Which probably means that they will be launched here fairly soon – hopefully in time for our summer.

Now that the technology is sufficiently advanced, Wine in Cans (WIC) is a brilliant and practical packaging solution provided that the winery puts good quality wine in the can like the way that some existing “canners” like, Riot Wine Company, do – their canned McLaren Vale Shiraz is excellent.

The practicality of WIC is outstanding for picnics, sporting events, social gatherings, beach parties, etc. And the “anti-tampering” considerations should not be underestimated as it is very difficult to put drugs into somebody’s WIC as opposed to a glass just sitting on the bar. Another benefit of drinking WIC is that it is easy for the drinker to calculate how much they have had to drink, against having to remember how many glasses of booze they have consumed.

SLIM AND TRIM: In my April 29, 2022 Blog I mentioned that the Packamama slim/trim/ovaloid (environmentally friendly), recycled plastic bottle has been adopted by Mo?t Hennessy for their, Galoupet Nomade C?tes de Provence Rosé. Well I have recently found out that it will become a part of both the Hardy’s Wines and Taylors Wines Australian portfolios, in the very near future. One would imagine a spring/summer launch for this consumer friendly, uber practical packaging. Watch this space.

RUSSIA: With all the western embargoes in place, it would seem that Russia is turning to China to source wine, so that soon the oligarchs will be sipping Ningxia Cabernet instead of Bordeaux. In the 1950s and 1960s Russia used to send tanks to China. Now in the 2020s it looks like China will be sending tanks (of wine) to the Russians!

Depending on the volumes involved, this could well be the saviour of the Chinese wine industry whose production has fallen by over 50% in the latter half of the last decade. So if the Chinese won’t drink Chinese wine, maybe the Russians might!

That’s it for another week, please stay safe and #chooseaustralianwine and when possible try #emergingvarieties. Cheers, Dan T.