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The Shaw Vineyard Estate cellar door is locate up the back of Murrumbateman near the top of a hill, it’s in a nice location, and the restaurant attached looks appealing. There are a decent range of wines available to taste and buy.   [ Key ]: B = Purchased S = Smelled T = Tasted […]

Clonakilla: The cellar door was manned by the winemaker Tim Kirk on our visit. He’s a man who’s got a good product and he knows it. One of the best things at the cellar door was that all wines available for purchase were available for tasting, including their wonderful Shiraz Viognier. As per the history […]

Capital Wines: The cellar door while pretty is quite a dark affair. The food is good and eating out under the marquee is pleasant. Any comments regarding tastes reflect the thoughts of the person I was driving around, if not indicated that I tasted. [ Key ]: B = Purchased S = Smelled T = […]

Mangrove Jacks Dutch Lager kit CBW Pilsen Light pure malt extract W34/70 Lager Yeast SG 1.042   Currently the wort is at 24C, will rehydrate and pitch the yeast tomorrow morning, hopefully it will have cooled to the ~12C range.

This morning I bottled my stout, made from an ESB 3kg “extra special stout” kit and 200gm of chocolate malt grain. It’s been in the fermenter for 16 days and spent the last 5 days at a specific gravity of 1.018 I am a little concerned by the last as I was expecting ~1.012-1.014 range, […]

Just put down a Pilsner to begin ferment in the lovely mid autumn Canberra weather. Using the following: Yeast S-189 Pilsner/German Lager Morgans Golden Saaz Pilsner kit CBW Pilsen Light pure malt extract   The specific gravity was 1.043 and is now sitting in the shed to ferment for the next 2 – 3 weeks. […]

I bottled a home brew cider on the 24th of April. I grabbed one of the bottles and decided to taste, this is the result:   Colour is a fairly deep yellow/orange. Nose is yeasty, herby and apply. Taste hits with a nice sharp apple twang, progresses into a smooth taste, then the yeast dominates […]

As a Canberra local it’s only natural for me to completely take for granted the local wineries, and not visit them until having a visitor to take around. This seems to be a common theme among locals of most wine regions, they rarely if ever visit them and typically when they do visit it’s because […]

8 frenched lamb shanks 2 tbsp plain flour 1/4 cup olive oil 2 med brown onions chopped coarsely 3 garlic cloves 1 tsp ground cinnamon 2 tsp ground cumin 2 tsp ground coriander 1 cup dry red wine 2 tbsp honey 1 litre chicken stock 2 small sweet potatoes chopped coarsely. Toss lamb in flour. […]

This drop hailing from the McLaren Vale this is an interesting wine at the price point. (Currently available at 12.90 when purchasing 6 wines from Dan Murphy’s). Nose: This is nice and brooding, rather dark. Spicy, a little star anise and vanilla. It’s fantastic and seems to evolve in the glass, my favorite aspect of […]