Cobra Premium Beer

Cobra is a great beer.
Clean and crisp and searingly dry. 4.8% a/v, perfect for hot climes and unmistakeably "The Inspiring Taste of India".
That's what it says on the box. 
It's also a "Refreshingly Smooth Premium Beer". But wait there's more and it's a biggie. Cobra also claims to be the "THE WORLD'S MOST CELEBRATED BEER".
Got to laugh. And if you're not chuckling already I can tell you that the cases we have were brewed in Burton-on-Trent.

Our OWL* Price: $40 a box of twenty four 330ml bottles 

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*Buy a mixed or straight dozen bottles of wine in-store at our lowest discounted prices to access our full range of Outstanding Wine Lover specials

The Top Five Wine Suppliers of 2012

My top 5 fine wine suppliers of 2012 in order of dollars
De Bortoli
Haselgroves
Tyrrells
Westend
.Berton
Interesting......... 3 Riverina in origin, 1 Hunter but sources stuff from everywhere and the other McLaren Vale.
Four family owned and the other owned by a bunch of families.
And just as outstanding as the quality and value of the wines are the people I deal with. Thank you so much Mitch, Erin, Andrew and Mr Neville from De Bortoli; Big Jim and Nicole from Haselgrove; the delightful Helen from Tyrrells; the two lovelies Natalie and Kerrie Anne as well as the whole Calabria family from Westend; and Handsome Steve from Berton Vineyards.
It's the way it should be. Outstanding wines represented by outstanding people. A big contrast to the shareholder owned companies run by muppets who are far more concerned with their contracts and bonuses than long term multi generational viability.

Miceli 2001 Mornington Peninsula Rose Methode Champenoise

I haven't tasted a more exciting sparkling wine or Champagne in years. And at a mere, ridiculous $15 a bottle I have NEVER offered a better value one. To get that price we had to "buy the lot" and I had absolutely no hesitation. The flavour complexity is mesmerising and yet it still, remarkably, has some youthful zing which combines to create a truly outstanding wine. Here are Tony's tasting notes, which I found particularly interesting as they help explain how this wine has been created. It IS methode champenoise after all.
Here are the Miceli tasting notes:

Winemaker: Anthony Miceli
Picked: 26/3/01
Tiraged: 10/1/02 (Cope Williams, Romsey, under supervision).
Disgorged: First disgorged June 2003, in batches, matured on lees until just prior to
despatch (recently disgorged).
Winemaking: Picked at much less than normal ripeness, to retain acid levels and aiming to
achieve the fine and delicate flavours that set Champagne apart from many Australian
sparkling wines. A blend was made of the classic varieties Pinot Noir (74%), Chardonnay
(13%), and Pinot Gris (13%). Part of the blend was processed as white base juice, and
part of this wine is from ripe Pinot Noir, crushed, then pressed after 12 hours skin contact
to extract pink colour. This juice for the base wine was fermented warm (25-27 deg C) to
maximise vinosity rather than fruitiness.
The wine was tiraged at Kilchurn (Cope Williams) and then disgorged after more
than 6 years maturation on lees, with enough ready for sale and the remainder to be
freshly disgorged as required.
Oak: Nil
Malolactic Fermentation: 100%
Analysis: Alc 12.5 % /vol, pH 3.00, TA 9.2 g/l Sugar (doseage) 6.0 g/l
Tasting Notes
This wine is a blend of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris, fermented in this bottle,
with yeast contact of more than 18 months. The blend of varieties gives structure and
complexity to the wine.
The colour is a brilliant very pale salmon pink.
The palate is rich and flavoursome, with creamy and toasty yeast, pinot noir fruit,
great length, and a clean dry finish.
Cellaring:
The nature of methode champenoise is that the maturation takes place in bottle prior to
disgorging, at which stage the wine is ready for consumption. For those who like bottle
development in the wines this wine will continue to gain richness, as does a table wine,
over 5-10 years (but at the expense of its sparkling character).
Winemakers Comments :
This wine is aimed at reproducing the spectrum of flavours and palate structure of
sparkling wines from Champagne. We feel this wine is comparable in style and quality,
and altogether different from most sparkling wines made in Australia. This is a more full
bodied wine, with the contribution of riper pinot character, and definitely not at all sweet.

Our Price: $15 per bottle by the dozen

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Eight dozen bottle stained pine Wine Rack

Bit of history here. It started off life at Redheads in Homebush and finished its retail life at Outstanding Wines in Toongabbie. It's held Grange, Hill of Grace, Graveyard and many far better buys.
It's a bit in the way at the moment and looking for a good home with Sydney or Central Coast delivery being negotiable.
Personally I'd whack a flat piece of pine on the top and use that as a display shelf

Our Price: $90
IN STOCK

Westend 2013 "Cool Climate" Shiraz

The joy of Riverina wine producers is that they consistently underprice their wines and they maintain this policy when they venture away from home turf.
Westend's "Cool Climate" range features wines sourced from areas like Tumbarumba, Buckland valley, King Valley and this shiraz from the Hilltops region of NSW. The 2009 was a Gold Medal winner at San Francisco and I believe this is even better.
I wrote before "Think Barwang without the price tag". An absolute bargain.

Our Price: $12 per bottle by the dozen

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It’s all about the GRAPE …

There are upwards of 2000 grape varieties that are used to create wine throughout the world.
Think about it. 2000!
Start counting and if you can get past 20 that you know or have tasted you are doing better than most.

So if you want to venture past a world of chardonnay and cabernet, sauvignon blanc and shiraz you may like to read on ..

 

Let’s start with some advice:

· BE BRAVE and experiment. If we recommend a “different” wine to you there’s no guarantee you’ll like it. But there is a guarantee that the wine is an outstanding value example of its variety or style. We wouldn’t have bought it otherwise

· NO GRAPE is inherently sweet or dry [the driest wine I’ve ever tasted was a gewürztraminer] They may lend themselves to a particular style but ultimately it depends on what the viticulturist achieves and the winemaker devises

· DON’T just buy in the same price window all the time. Try some of the bargain $5 efforts and treat yourself to the occasional $20+. Remember, we recommend the wines that over deliver not the ones that pay to be on our retail shelves.

 

· PLEASE remember to give me feedback. Tell me what you liked about a wine or what you didn’t like– IN YOUR OWN WORDS. It’s like a Wine Education course for free. You can see me in store, email me, post a comment on our wine weblog, become a friend on Facebook, a follower on Twitter or a skyper on Skype. Or you could even phone me if you received our email newsletters. It’s how we all learn.

 

 

 

Victory Point Margaret River "Mallee Root" 2007 Cabernet Malbec Merlot

I'd been waiting for this wine for quite some time now. I didn't know what it would be or where it would come from but I knew I needed something new and inspirational to add to the portfolio of reds that I'd been raving about for some time now. We had the shiraz market covered with Lunatiq and Stephen John but I wanted something a little older and Cabernet based. And so it came .......
The tasting bottle that arrived yesterday was accompanied by a note that there was very little stock. We tasted it today and immediately ordered 25% of what was available. Nudging perfection. A blend of 68% cabernet, 18% merlot and 14% malbec[ [yes, the order is not quite right on the label] that has been brilliantly combined to create one of the Reds of the Year. It's a seductive medium weight red that offers a new experience with every sip. The fruit is enticing but it's the interaction with the tannins that really has it humming. It was aged in small French oak [30% new] for 18 months and alcohol is an unobtrusive 14%. $18 is a joke of a price for a wine of this quality so you could really put some affordable class in your cellar with a dozen or so of this.

Our Price: $18 per bottle by the dozen

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Pindarie 2008 Barossa Shiraz

The 2010 vintage has just scored one of the rare 5* ratings in Winestate's 7th "World's Greatest Syrah/Shiraz Challenge [September/October 2012 issue]. Over 700 wines from around the world were assessed by 16 high profile winemakers, oenologists and an industry icon [Wolfgang Blass].  Their notes on the 2010 vintage were "Huge Christmas cake-like aromas with lovely earthy notes. Powerful oak driven palate but there is an excellent balance of tarry, cherry and raspberry flavours showing through." They could have been writing about this 2008 vintage which we have the last few dozen of. The only significant difference is that 2008 is probably a better wine than the 2010. Very highly recommended.

Our Price: $20 per bottle by the dozen

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Outstanding Wines 2010 Martinborough Pinot Noir

This is NOT your full-on Central Otago style. It's much more gamey with a soft seductive front palate that leads into plenty of power at the back. Very complex and one that should be gobbled up by fans of this style. Apparently under its producer's label it wholesales at $23 a bottle.

Our Price: $15 per bottle by the dozen

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Haselgrove 2012 First Cut Pinot Grigio

Now here's a curio - it's a Haselgrove wine that isn't a bargain bin-end deleted label. It's just a regular run of the mill extreme bargain. I've frequently documented my disinterest in this style/variety and this one just emphasises how boring most of the others are. Its back label describes it perfectly "lively, zesty and fresh, showing elegant characters of nashi pear, white peach and a hint of grapefruit." This is a truly delicious crisp dry white that is a perfect alternative to sauvignon blanc. It's light and delicate yet offers delicious fruit character. Very highly recommended.

Our Price: $10 per bottle by the dozen

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