A good friend of mine recently commented that Australia is full of very friendly people, but none of them are Australian. Together with The One, who had joined me at the end of week N (2013) I paid a visit to Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne, where I nearly came to the same conclusion.
The Spanish lady who explained how to distinguish the genuine Australian Ugg boot from the inferior Chinese copy was indeed friendly, as was the Englishman from whom The One bought some small opals and the Chinese man selling didgeridoos,which neither of us bought.
In the middle of this cosmopolitan array of mercantile bonhomie I came across a stall selling wine decanted from barrels into reusable bottles. This was run by a true Australian (non-indigenous) who was equally friendly and she explained that not only did her approach to distribution help her keep her prices down, but by reusing bottles her business was more eco-friendly than most of the wine trade.
This week, P (2013), the wine is Re Wine Pinot Grigio. $15 ($11, if you BYOB).
The eco-friendly claim is good, but it did make me wonder why I had learned about the sterile bottling conditions necessary to ensure wine reaches the consumer in a good state. The instructions foe re-use on the back of this bottle says 'rinse twice with hot water', which seems to be a rather lower standard.
I imagine it's all to do with how long the wine is likely to spend in the bottle. Any wine sold in this way is probably not going to be intended for lengthy ageing and that was certainly the case with this particular example.
Bought on the Sunday, it was 'tasted' on the Monday after a long drive which was well rewarded by the sighting of live Platypus in the wild. These little duck-faced fury chaps are as remarkable as I had hoped and I am glad we found them. They were not as accessible as the equally wild Koala who allowed The One to make up close and personal contact as he sat in a roadside bush nibbling on a gum leaf, but at least equally pleasing. I digress. The wine was good. Clear, bright and lemon yellow, with quite concentrated stone fruit aromas it was pleasant to drink and had quite a long finish, especially considering the price. Maybe the bottle reuse does have its advantages.
You may have noticed the style of picture is different this week. That's because all the others have been culled from a producer's or distributor's website. This one I took myself as the Re Wine website is not yet up to the job. You may also notice that there is no plaster on the wall behind the bottle. That is because we spent the night in the Bega Downs Motel and they didn't really go in for unnecessary frills. Like food.
Back to Blighty for next week. A red Q. Any ideas?
The Spanish lady who explained how to distinguish the genuine Australian Ugg boot from the inferior Chinese copy was indeed friendly, as was the Englishman from whom The One bought some small opals and the Chinese man selling didgeridoos,which neither of us bought.
In the middle of this cosmopolitan array of mercantile bonhomie I came across a stall selling wine decanted from barrels into reusable bottles. This was run by a true Australian (non-indigenous) who was equally friendly and she explained that not only did her approach to distribution help her keep her prices down, but by reusing bottles her business was more eco-friendly than most of the wine trade.
This week, P (2013), the wine is Re Wine Pinot Grigio. $15 ($11, if you BYOB).The eco-friendly claim is good, but it did make me wonder why I had learned about the sterile bottling conditions necessary to ensure wine reaches the consumer in a good state. The instructions foe re-use on the back of this bottle says 'rinse twice with hot water', which seems to be a rather lower standard.
I imagine it's all to do with how long the wine is likely to spend in the bottle. Any wine sold in this way is probably not going to be intended for lengthy ageing and that was certainly the case with this particular example.
Bought on the Sunday, it was 'tasted' on the Monday after a long drive which was well rewarded by the sighting of live Platypus in the wild. These little duck-faced fury chaps are as remarkable as I had hoped and I am glad we found them. They were not as accessible as the equally wild Koala who allowed The One to make up close and personal contact as he sat in a roadside bush nibbling on a gum leaf, but at least equally pleasing. I digress. The wine was good. Clear, bright and lemon yellow, with quite concentrated stone fruit aromas it was pleasant to drink and had quite a long finish, especially considering the price. Maybe the bottle reuse does have its advantages.
You may have noticed the style of picture is different this week. That's because all the others have been culled from a producer's or distributor's website. This one I took myself as the Re Wine website is not yet up to the job. You may also notice that there is no plaster on the wall behind the bottle. That is because we spent the night in the Bega Downs Motel and they didn't really go in for unnecessary frills. Like food.
Back to Blighty for next week. A red Q. Any ideas?
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