Bugga.NET

One of my mates sent me a link to this site that has a step by step build plan for creating a cellar in a cupboard. Instructable for mini wine cellar. This solution intruiges me and is worthy of some consideration. If I could improve my passive cellarability I’d be a very very happy camper indeed. At the moment the high end it possibly a little high (24C in summer) and if i could trim 4C off that figure life would be happier for my wine.

Even after 6 hours decanting time this wine is still very tight and closed up. The nose is fragrant savoury smells along with liquorice, some dark berry - I’ve smelt this before but am unsure what is it. A dash of clove along with some Chocolatey characteristics.

On the palate - there is fruit starts right up on the front, giving way to smooth grippy tannins at the back end. Some spiciness + pepper also. Excellent long mouthfeel. I can’t help but feel this was some vinfanticide opening it up now, but it at least lets me know this one has some time to go yet. The fruit and wood characteristics are becoming nicely integrated compared to 15 months ago when I last cracked a bottle of this. A little dry dustyness too. Fantastic mouthfeel. Loving every taste of this, a pity the bottle was shared w/ 4 people.

There is nothing wrong with my storage conditions.

I’m not too happy with Penfolds today - had a 2002 St Henri Shiraz (one of a 6 pack - this pack had 4 in it, and one of these remaining 4 had a leaky cork). After removing two for gifts I had placed other bottles into the box - 1x 2004 Wirra Wirra RSW and 1x 2001 Chapel Hill The Vicar). I had this sitting in under the stairs in a well insulated, protected environment (not perfect cellaring conditions, but pretty good). One bottle had the following happen:

so I called them to suggest this was a problem with the cork/bottle. They came back with it’s the storage that has caused this damage - this I question: I have drunk many bottles some which have been stored in this very location, and have had a few bottles that have not been great - TCA in 2x cases (cork taint) which is a defect at production time, and 1x heat damage - which I think was transport related, and many many good bottles that have remained good.

So this afternoon I have decanted one of the remaining 8 bottles of St Henri (none of which show any leakage) and what do you know - it’s in perfect condition. It’s not oxidised, it’s not suffering from heat damage, it smells mighty fine - full tasting notes to follow when we start drinking this proper in a few hours.

To Penfolds I say - there is nothing wrong with my storage conditions. There is however something very wrong with the corks you have used in this St Henri vintage. With your recent price hikes for the brand name, I can’t say I’ll be recommending your wines to any one in the near future. Fosters - go back to brewing beer and sell Penfolds to someone who understands wine, for at present, thou art scum.

To anyone who buys wine - check for leakage out of the box - don’t leave the boxes sealed for any period of time.

EDIT: (5h later) I received a phone call from a Penfolds CSU and they’re sending a package to collect the cork and will determine what recourse to take from that point (replacement if 100% sure, substitution if there is some doubt) it’s nice to be taken seriously.

Microwaving beats boiling for cooking most veggies

Dear people of the anti-microwave cult - the mob who say no I don’t want microwaved food it ruins - please allow me to direct you to some research that have quantified how much microwaving reduces the anti-oxidants within foods. Seems like many foods don’t mind this and microwaving most foods is better than boiling.

It seems that there has been a great deal of scaremongering going on regarding vaccinations and autism. While there may be some people/babies who have reactions to vaccinations there has been no link found between vaccinations and autism, and any reaction when taken as a whole are rare compared to the risks of not vaccinating children. While I certainly hope these words don’t come back to haunt me, I feel that as a community we are only protected from outbreaks/risks if large proportions of people are vaccinated - it may not prevent an infection, but like the flu vaccine for adults if they get the bug they’re likely to be better protected against it and not have a severe reaction to it. Yes there are risks, but they’re much smaller than ignoring the potential of the bugs that are being prevented by vaccinating, parents I implore you to feel the fear and do it.

Well I just got a spam from gadgetgear.com.au they are spammers do not buy from them I never have. If I work out how they got my email address I’ll post who/what and how they got it and see what can be done.

I’d like to point out to the EA numpties that the amount of CO2 release more C02 than an electric light lumen for lumen (9.8x or so). To those who say “it’s symbolic and showing your support for the Earth” I’d like to respond with - yes and so is eating a cow to show support for people who would like the lamb industry stopped.

How about working on pollution, over fertilisation, over use of pesticides and stuff that actually matter. End of the day the this little blue ball is going to get cooked quite badly when our sun enters its red giant phase.

2005 Hugh Hamilton Cabernet Sauvignon The Villain Glenelg - Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale (2/11/2009)
A slightly green nose and palate. A good schwag of dark fruit. Oak still very prominent in this wine, held together really well for 48 hours under vacu-vin, there was a large amount of heat on this puppy, I’m not sure how long the fruit will last. It’s still an interesting drop, and was smoother at the 48 hour mark, but had lost a fair whack of the fruit. (87 pts.)

This review is painful to write - I am sure I will be forgiven any offence caused in it’s posting, for in the wine world there is a chance that this is a one off event a bad bottle, some fluke cause by the handling, or it could be representative… so with apologies I pen the following:

B-o-r-i-n-g. This wine was utterly boring - it did not taste bad, it did not taste great, in fact it barely tasted at all. The notes on the nose were of faint, and I mean very faint white table grapes hiding a sliver of under-ripe pear (I like my pears crunchy so for me - under ripe means very very under ripe).

On the palate there was not much, barely any of the grape that was on the nose, although the acid was refreshing. It’s about all that can be said - practically tasteless - a white for wine haters everywhere. The one redeeming feature was that it was definitely a food enhancer. The Salmon that we had tonight went fantastic, no was actually enhanced by this wine, perhaps it was the searching of flavours that I was performing that made the Salmon, Capsicum, Celery, Carrot, Lime+Pepper spiced cous-cous that made up dinner taste so much better, but there was some enhancement.

I would recommend checking this out only for the weird taste enhancement and the sure fire ability to go with any food (barring dessert), but as a drinker this one needs some more experimentation!

This sparkling has been fermented in the bottle on the lees for 18 months.

The nose has subtle hint of creamy lemon zest with an odd smell of skinned carrots w/ freshly cut capsisum.

The tiny bubbles slowly come out of the wine as it hits the tongue, which is disappointing as something like this you’d hope for an explosion of tiny bubbles. Perhaps a little too much sour yellow citrus almost over preserved with SO2) too much acid here. I’ve had worse is about the best I can for this bottle.