Snarey
the anti-brique activist.
Well
much to our surprise our recent impression of the
$7
a litre Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon blend from Brique has created a minor
flurry of comments. Many of you took us to task over our
decision to take a container of cheap red into Tasmania's World
Heritage area (Quite
rightly to! - Ed). Rest easy dear folk no
native flora or fauna were harmed in any way, however the same
could not be
said for our kidneys.
One comment
received from
Neil Snare of Winstead
Vineyard, impressed us so much that we have
reproduced it in full for your entertainment/education.
"Why
didn't you ask? Both Julieanne and I are avid bushwalkers, and as a
wine
grower/maker/lover, I was not going to forgo the pleasure of good wine
in some
of Mother Nature's most precious spots. Why spoil a great location with
not-quite-up-to-the-mark wine. Answer: buy a 1 litre plastic Platypus
water
container with a screw top. Pour in a bottle of your favourite young
Tassie
Pinot, squeeze the flask until the wine comes up to the top of the neck
and
screw on the top not allowing any air space. Result - a top class wine
with no
plastic taint, no oxidation (any air that comes into contact will only
be enough
to let the wine "breathe") in fantastic condition. We have walked and
kept wine
like this for several days with no noticeable loss of wine quality. (It
could be
the cup 'o soup effect. That is anything tastes nice after a day of
bush bashing
and hard slogging.) Match this with a couple of plastic Chickenfeed
wine
glasses, minimum weight with maximum enjoyment. Life is too short to
drink bad
wine. Or so Julieanne keeps telling me. This may not be the best way to
try some
of your delicate oldies from the base of your cellar, but for young
virile wines
it is not a problem. We have had top Pinots, Sauvignon Blancs,
Rieslings,
Cabernets etc in some of Tasmania's most beautiful places. eg Mt Ossa,
Pine
Valley, The Labyrinth, Western Arthurs, Cradle Mountain, Pelion,
Bathurst
Harbour etc etc.
Wine food matches:
Sauvignon Blanc - two
minute
noodles
Riesling - Continental
pasta
with cheese sauce
and tuna
Pinot - dehydrated
mushroom
risotto
Cab/Shiraz -
dehydrated spagbog.
Be the envy of every
camp site
as you lean back
on a log sipping top wine from
your plastic wineglass, as everyone else pretends to enjoy their
coffeemilk.
Snarey"
Well
Neil, thanks for the food and wine matching while bushwalking advice we
intend to follow it to the letter if we
can get the folk here at Winepunters HQ off their ever expanding
bottoms and out into the wilderness again.
What
do you think? Send us a comment