Part 3 of the Rhône series

If there is a wine that always confuses me as a Châteaunuef-du-Pape (CDP) in a blind tasting, it would be Gigondas. The name has Latin origins and comes from the word jocunditas, meaning joy or pleasantness. Read More >

Pegasus Bay Pinot Noir Prima Donna 2009 – Waipara Valley, South Island, New Zealand

Also notes from a vertical tasting

Having already announced Pegasus Bay Prima Donna Pinot Noir 2009 as the “Most Auspicious Wine for Chinese New Year 2012 Year of the Black Water Dragon year”, I had in fact already singled it out as my “Red Wine of the Year”, so impressed by its sheer profoundness and energy, yet harmonious elegance. Read More >

Part 2 of the Rhône Series. 12,000 years ago, glaciers melted; ice and water were pushed down south; river rocks were deposited 20 km wide, and Châteaunuef-du-Pape was born. Read More >

Domiciled for Christmas festivities, no sooner had the turkey digested The Wandering Palate was in peripatetic mode, Melbourne bound and yearning for a food fix.

Alas, we forgot about the great Australian shutdown with practically every decent restaurant in Melbourne closed for an extended holiday over Christmas and New Year. Read More >

The Year of the Dragon begins at 6.24pm, February 4^th 2012: To which the Wandering Palate draws a line in the cellar/tasting-notebook and presents a retrospective account of the standout wines of the drinking year – the 2011 lunar drinking year – Year of the White Rabbit. Read More >

I’m not sure if it was broccoli or brussel sprouts that I hated more as a kid. Boiled to the point of going grey, as was the cooking technique of the day, all I can recall was a nauseating taste and practically gagging as my parents forced me to “Eat my greens”. Read More >