By Sometimes working in the wine industry can be very demanding; long, irregular hours, physically and mentally demanding…
And then, other times life is really good.
The biggest part of my job is to talk to people about wine and food. And that is something I genuinely love to do. But to do it, I also need a lot of knowledge and experience. And I fully believe that one never stops learning, there is always more to learn, as long as one stays open to new experiences.
And well, this week, I have learned a lot! First, I finally made it to IGNI. A small restaurant in Geelong, famous for their 8-course degustation menu and of course, extensive wine list. We had a ball, to say the least! Wanting to get the full experience, I trusted our sommelier to make the pairing decisions for us. We ended up with; some given pairings, some unexpected ones and one or two remarkable.
A highly enjoyable experience that reminded me about why I love my life so much!
Later this week, I also made it to a proper wine tasting with an aromatic theme and I was struck by the share number of unremarkable Rieslings there are to find here in Australia. With few exceptions (like Lethbridge Dr Nadeson 2018 and Best’s Foudre Ferment Riesling 2018, both gaining their complexity from fermentation on French Foudre oak barrels), Australian Riesling lacks that umph that makes European Rieslings memorable.
Among many unremarkable wines, two in particular stood out to me during the tasting. Interestingly, those wines where a Slovakian Riesling and a Slovenian Šmarnica (a grape variety I never even heard about before but now am completely obsessed with).
As soon as I find a good matching, you will see Šmarnica added to my grape collection here on the site. Hopefully, I will have to try a couple of bottles before figure the best pairing out. As for now, you guys get to survive with a couple of new wine myths debunked
Cheers,
