A colleague asked me for some advice on finding a dry Riesling, so I thought I’d post the email here, just in case you might be looking for something similar.
Hello,
Forgive me if you know this already, but I think the best places for dry Riesling is Clare Valley and Eden Valley near Adelaide. Anything with those appellations on the bottle will be dry, zesty, limey and zingy! I’m sure there are some good German/Alsace dry Rieslings, but I’m less confident knowing how to pick them.
Look out for Knappstein, Peter Lehmann and Grossett producers, and my favourite is the Pewsey Vale Riesling, but can’t find it in any supermarkets. What’s great about Eden/Clare Valley Rieslings, is they are super fresh and dry to enjoy young, but have enough acid to age for a long time into something even more interesting.
Try…
Pewsey Vale Riesling
From N. D. JohnThe Lodge Hill Riesling 2012 Jim Barry, Clare Valley (nice label)
From MajesticO’Leary Walker Polish Hill Riesling
From OcadoHenschke Julius Riesling 2009 (if I had the money!)
From TescoAlso, Austria tends to make white wines in a much drier style, so check out…
Loimer Seeberg Riesling (Loimer make great wines!)
From TescoAnd maybe try a Gruner Veltliner, which tend to be VERY dry!
From WaitroseHope that helps,
Ed
x
What’s it like to be a winemaker? Here’s a nice short film about the life and work of Ernst Storm of Storm Wines, Santa Barbara County.
Shot in a typical low-budget art-student aesthetic on a DSLR, it has short depth-of-field, handheld wonkiness, a Sigur Rós soundtrack and picture of someone holding something in their grubby hands. If you like that kind of thing, and motorcycles, check out The Build Film and pretty much everything on Vimeo.
Simple type and a wax top, all on a reused glass bottle. What more do you need?
From the Garage Wine Co. website:
What’s with the stencils and silk screening?
Our first few vintages were bottled in reused glass that we painted with stencil like old port and re-used amongst friends. No one seemed to appreciate the Madiera type artistry so we began silk screening a more polished presentation when strangers began buying wine (who sadly but realistically would not be returning the bottles).
Painted labels are still done, one by one, by hand on a machine we built. We continue bottling in previously imbibed bottles because it just feels right, giving two uses to the glass. We have a terrific source of great used glass (see our classic motel champagne bottle for the Carignan, and classic round shouldered port-style bottle for the big reds— for us: perfect, cleaner, and cheaper. Better to reduce and reuse than recycle if one stops to think.
Waxing our bottle necks instead of using capsules has become a tradition. It is the final physical touch required to make GWCo. The secret: we wax bottles with food-safe crayon wax we acquire from a small school supplies manufacturer who just happens to be a big supporter and Futures buyer.
It’s Friday! Wine boobs! Yeah.
Beautiful embroidery style label for Camins del Priorat, which also gives us an excuse to repost the lovely Logan label design in a similar vein.
We don’t usually post student or concept work; you can make a bottle of wine look as cool as you like, but it’s much harder to actually to get something beautiful produced for real.
But this student project designed by Diego Delgado is so well realised we hope we can help get it made for real. Harto de vino is an expression that means having drunk too much wine, hence the posters of Sheen, Hasselfhoff and Moss. We’re not sure their libel lawyers would let that slide.
Seen via The Dieline
Recently Drunk
Here’s a selection of wines that we’re been fortunate enough to sample recently, with quite a big Spanish influence…
Gotes del Priorat, a kind gift from our boss who had enjoyed it at a restaurant the previous evening, and brought in the rest for us to taste. Ripe, juicy and a bit smoky, the perfect match to barbecued meaty things.
During a delightful meal at Moro, we were lucky enough to spot Castell del Remei’s Gotim Bru on the list. It was a favourite from our college days (no money for food, plenty for good quality vino) and was as delicious as we remember, a supple frech Rioja alternative. An ideal house wine (if we could ever afford a house) and an elegant label.
The Bodegas Macià Batle was deeper and richer and a good match the the charcoal grilled lamb we were tucking into.
More from Spain, this Manuel de la Osa from La Mancha, enjoyed at the Clerkenwell Kitchen, was a big jammy blend of Syrah, Graciano, Tempranillo, Cab Franc and Merlot.
All of these wines represent what we most like about Spanish wine. Gutsy blends of classic Spanish grapes and traditionally French varieties, ripe fruit flavours and bags of food friendly fun – hunt them down and crack them open.
A gift from a friend who we explored the Hunter VAlley with, this was a premium cool and very smooth Shiraz – thanks Su!
And finally, the debris from the ‘Same Grape, Different Flavour’ wine tasting we hosted at the Clerkenwell office of Figtree/Prophet. Riesling, chardonnay, pinot noir and shiraz from different part of the world were all compared, contrasted and heartily glugged. We’ll go into more detail in another post, but the Les Gravieres Crozes-Hermitage, with big meaty blackcurrant flavours, was our standout winner.
Cheers!
A preppy nautical theme for Chandon’s ‘American Summer’ themed limited edition.
Beautiful Eero Saarinen-style curved, clean lines for this New York wine shop. Just don’t spill anything…
NYC
Referencing the craft of the winery owner, fashion designer Roberto Verino, the packaging for Vina Verino contains subtle refences to clothes making, including the ‘pinking edge’ bottle labels.
Design by Barcelona’s Solo. Seen via The Dieline.
Champagne Louis Roederer and Philippe di Meo launch $26,000 limited edition Jeroboam
It’s Friday! And the bloody sodding sunshine is oot! Make like a muscle man and crack open that chardonnay.
D&AD Awards Round-Up 2013
Well, it’s spring: that time of the year where the makes a brief cameo, we scrape the mould off our Birkenstocks and D&AD release their award nominations. As always, it’s a mixed bag of genuinely good work, advertising back-patting and a sausage fest.
Here’s our round-up of wine stuff that is in-book and up for an award:
Mysterium Wine
Agency: Spotlight, Client: Jidvei
A super-gold Aztec-style printed bottle with a spot UV varnish that reveals the name of the wine under a black light.
Rasurado
Agency: Morales y Euba (Moruba), Client: Arar
Very funky barber-pole graphics for this Rioja. BUT we have seen this visual before and we don’t think this design has ever actually been applied to a real bottle. We certainly can’t find any stockists or any images beyond what we’ve seen on design blogs.
Stina
Agency: Bruketa & Zinic, Client: Jako Vino
A very simple white label, debossed into thick uncoated paper, provides a ‘canvas’ to be painted on by drips of wine from the bottle.
Well, they’re all quite nice really, but nothing really earth-shattering concept-wise. And we have a real problem with entering mock-ups to be judged as real work.
However, the best wine-related entry has to be this project, selected in the writing for design category…
The Wine That Sold Beer
Agency: Colenso BBDO, Client: DB Breweries
Riffing on the idea that blokes don’t really care much about wine and would rather have a beer, these bottles were placed in New Zealand wine shops. On closer inspection they are coupon to receive money off DB beer.
Although not nominated for an award, we’d also recommend watching this advert from the same campaign.
