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Know your wine, On the Vine!
Welcome to On the Vine - where good wine gets even better with the careful application of a few wine smarts.
Wine Myth Busting
What do you do when red wine turns your lips and teeth blue? Is it true that there’s a wine that tastes like kerosene - and that there are people who actually LOVE it? If a person drinks wine with one eye closed, does that make them a wine winker?
If any of these questions has ever popped into your head, you’re OUR kind of wine lover!
2 Pernicious Wine Myths: BUSTED...
On The Vine
Myth #1: Red wine should never be served with seafood
Well, whoever invented this one has clearly never thrown a mouth-watering chunk of tuna on the barbie. That kind of charred deliciousness totally calls for red wine. Maybe not your blockbuster Cab Sav, but a medium-bodied Shiraz, or a Pinot Noir from a cool region - let’s say Grampians or Henty in Victoria.
Here’s the thing: red wine can certainly overwhelm light and delicate seafoods, like white fish, prawns, or oysters, so for these you’d be better off with an unoaked white – like Riesling or Semillon. But rich, oily fish like salmon, swordfish, or your charred tuna will go gangbusters with lighter style reds. Bonus: lighter reds - and older reds - are much less likely to stain your teeth. It’s all to do with the anthocyanins. Later!
On The Vine
Myth #2: Riesling is sweet
Boy, this myth just keeps on keeping on. The Rieslings that your Gran warned you about were probably cheap, German styles that flooded the market here fifty or sixty years back. The cute bottles made great candle holders, and that was probably the best thing about them.
Fact is, Riesling is an extremely versatile grape, and it can be made into a wide range of styles – including sweet. We produce world-class Rieslings here in Australia – and they’re mostly all dry to bone. When you’re ready to give zingy, lemony Aussie Rieslings a crack, look out for regions like Clare Valley, Eden Valley, Henty – and pretty much anywhere in Tassie.
Fun fact: Riesling is the variety that develops those amazing ‘kerosene’ flavours as they age. And we love em!
That’s all for now, Vine-Meisters!
Be bold and set your taste-brain free! Drink (knowledge) deeply and often. The other stuff, you need to enjoy in moderation.
PS - the answer to question 3 is, YES!