Apera

Apera is the term used in Australia for Australian wines made like Sherry, in a solera and usually from palomino grapes. Australian vintners use the term out of respect for true Sherry which comes from the Jerez region of Spain. That said, Australian apera wines are delicious in their own right.

The first modern wide-scale studies of screw caps for fine wines took place in Australia.

Answer: True.

While screw caps had been used to a small extent in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s (mostly in Europe for ultra-cheap wine), the situation changed radically in the 1990s when Australian vintners undertook the first studies using fine wines. At the time, the incidence of cork taint often ran to 10%, and many Australian winemakers were convinced that they (along with New Zealand winemakers) were often sent the worst batches of Portuguese cork. Subsequently, a group of Clare Valley producers in South Australia pooled their resources and bottled their 2000 rieslings under screw cap. Studies done on the wines revealed that the wines retained an amazing level of freshness over time, showed virtually no bottle variation, and best of all, didn’t get corked. Today, Australia along with New Zealand are considered the two countries that initiated a screw cap revolution.

Grapegate

Someone is stealing the great grapes of Burgundy, according to the Burgundy wine bureau (BIVB). As reported in Decanter, there have now been four separate reports of thefts of grapes across the region. A possible… Continue reading

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