Imagine you have travelled to Georgia, some say the birth place of modern wine, and being a serious student are now facing a line-up of their most popular red varieties, Saperavi, Aladasturi, Aleksandrouli, Chkhaveri, Shavkapito, Takveri and Ojaleshi. Since they now use all the skills of modern winemaking you consider the wines excellent.
Perhaps you believe a market will exist for the wines in the U.K. and order one as a trial. I wonder if it was like that back in the 1860s when the first South Australian warm climate Shiraz was sent to the UK in barrels. Here we are 160 years later and the U.K. interest in Australian warm climate Shiraz, including our local favourite Barossa Valley Shiraz, is close to zero. Why is that?
A chilly night in the UK cries out for the flavour of the Barossa not a weak claret from Bordeaux. Yes, it is one of the mysteries of wine and its taste.
Another is that I prefer wines like this Shiraz even on a warm day in Australia as I know the Barossa delivers flavour which is what I want in a wine whatever the weather.
Note that wines labelled as Glug ‘Alpha’ etc are purchases we make from boutiques and are ‘one offs’. For the Glug staples revert to Goat Square and Karrawirra.
