Vintage - The Wandering Palate

Continuing our sneak previews of the 2012 New Zealand grape harvest, I asked Kai Schubert at Schubert Winery in Martinborough how the vintage looks, to which he replied, “We are still picking!” Read More >

Profiled Wineries | Related to: Martinborough, New Zealand, Vintage |

With the southernmost wine regions in the world, the New Zealand grape harvest is in full swing with some vineyards almost completely through vintage (late ripening varieties like riesling will be picked throughout May) and many vignerons are breathing a sigh of relief, with ferments finished and the anxiety levels subsiding. Read More >

Profiled Wineries | Related to: Central Otago, New Zealand, Vintage |

From a lost play by Eubulos, (c.405 BC - c.335 BC)
‘For sensible men I prepare only three kraters (large vase used to mix wine): one for health (which they drink first), the second for love and pleasure, and the third for sleep. After the third one is drained, wise men go home.

The fourth krater is not mine any more - it belongs to bad behaviour; the fifth is for shouting; the sixth is for rudeness and insults; the seventh is for fights; the eighth is for breaking the furniture; the ninth is for depression; the tenth is for madness and unconsciousness.’

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read.

But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defence of the new.”

As uttered by the vitriolic restaurant critic Anton Ego, in the film “Ratatouille”, after his epiphany.