George is the magazine for St.George Bank’s corporate customers. Aimed at executive-level readers, it features customer case studies, news, articles on emerging business and management trends, product information, lifestyle features and more.
Issue link: http://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/48224
Cyber-wine What's the best way to start learning about wines? From books and magazines to wine guides and websites, there are plenty of resources out there. Here's Matt's pick of the top websites to build your wine knowledge: Wine Front offers independent wine journalism in Australia: www.winefront.com.au In the last few years, we've seen a rise in biodynamics and sustainable methods of making wine, which is Max Allen's focus: www.maxallen.com.au Wine journalist Andrew Graham discusses his love affair with vino on Australian Wine Review: www.ozwinereview.com Tetsuya's in Sydney as being one of his most memorable. "Just before my brother got married I took him to lunch at Tetsuya's," says Matt. "We had the degustation menu, which included 13 courses. Each course was paired up with a wine – it was phenomenal." Degustation dining in itself is an ideal way to enhance your knowledge of food and wine. Most often the courses are served as small portions and over a couple of hours. The flavours are always balanced and most restaurants offer wine-pairing too. It's the perfect way to get an insider's insight into what chefs do with their produce. "Degustation dining provokes conversation," says Matt. "It gets people talking about what's in front of them and encourages them to understand balance. The wines in degustation dinners often start light, get progressively heavy and eventually turn red at some point. The food follows the same pattern." Straight talkers Like any industry, wine production is based on reputation. When sorting the good wines from the bad at your local bottle shop, the reputation of the wine label is everything. However, the label is also what can cause the most confusion among bon vivants wanting to learn the rules of drinking good vino, in particular when travelling abroad. Take Europe, for example. Unlike wine labelling in Australia where producers label according to variety, vignerons in Europe label according to region. In countries such as Spain, Germany, France and Italy there is barely a mention of the grape variety on the label, and that's what Matt says is the most confusing part. "If you're buying wine from Tuscany or Chianti, it's assumed 46 George www.stgeorge.com.au/george "Have the courage to step outside your comfort zone and try something you've never had before." that you know the wine is made from sangiovese grapes, which most people don't." On the other hand, in Australia if a wine is labelled as chardonnay, by law 85 per cent of what's in the bottle must be of the chardonnay grape variety. It's what Matt refers to as 'straight-talking labels' in his 2011 wine guide. Matt also shares in the guide his top recommendations on organic wines, an increasingly popular form of winemaking both locally and internationally. Matt is a big believer in supporting smaller companies that see biodynamic agriculture as a way of life; he awarded the 'bargain wine of the year' to an off-the-track organic producer in Chile. "There are parts of biodynamics [that] are borderline, but a lot of it is very logical; it's how they would have farmed 200 years ago." So, how do we tell which organic wines are good? In the same way you'd choose your merlot, rosé or champagne, Matt's number one advice for both seasoned and novice drinkers is to simply ask. "If you're in a restaurant or a bottle shop and you don't know a lot about wine, ask someone," he says. "That's your insurance policy [against] getting a dud bottle." We'll hold you to that, Matt.