I recently had the pleasure of being contacted by well known Australian Fashion and Wedding Gown designer Henry Roth via the social media site Twitter by Henry admitting he wished he knew more about wine. After communicating for a while backwards and forwards Henry was generous enough to do me a favour I boldly asked of him and to his absolute credit he fulfilled my request as if we were old friends and I felt incredibly humbled and indebted by his gesture.
In order to thank him I wanted to send him some of my favourite Australian wines to enjoy in his new home town, New York City. As I very quickly discovered simply buying a few bottles of wine and sending them to the United States in the post is no easy task and while some speciality bottle shops here specialise in sending wine overseas many people confided in me that no one can guarantee my wine would make it to its intended destination!
I found this rather surprising and disappointing as I really wanted to send wines that I truly enjoy. In the end I figured out that the best way to send Australian wine to a contact in New Yorkwas to find an on-line US retailer who sold Australian wines. As it turned out this was not difficult and prices were surprisingly good even though listed prices were in US dollars.
I went through a number of sites to ensure I could find a good selection of quality Australian Wines and insisted that I only send wines that I have personally enjoyed and, where possible I was hoping to avoid the obvious export brands like Penfolds, Henschke etc Nothing against these brands at all, they make some of the country ‘s best wines, but I deliberately wanted to stay away from the iconic brands to an extent.
So I ended up using www.wine.comand ordered four great wines of different varieties. The wines I selected where the Petaluma 2007 Hanlin Hill Riesling, Cape Mentelle 2006 Chardonnay, Two Hands 2007 Gnarly Dudes Shiraz and the Two Hands 2006 Brilliant Disguise Moscato. All wines arrived in Manhattan within a few days of my order and emails kept me up-to-date as to my orders status, so full points awarded to www.wine.com for an easy-to-use and professional service.
Henry got in touch to thank me for the wines and said that in light of the collection I had sent him that he would run a small wine tasting night in Manhattan for a few close friends. I was really excited about this news and hoped my personal wine selections met with approval on the night! Henry agreed to send back the groups collective thoughts on each wine and so without further ado their remarks on each wine are below.
Petaluma 2007 Hanlin Hill Clare Valley Riesling
(most enjoyable with a zesty twist on the dry side - lovely white wine - thumbs up)
Cape Mentelle 2006 Chardonnay
(very light - soft body- gentle appeal - relaxed drop, Sunday afternoon !)
Two Hands 2007 Gnarly Dudes Shiraz
(Deep, ripe, aromatic, powerful yet curiously soft - wonderful wine - two thumbs up)
(Two Hands Cellar Door, Barossa Valley)
Two Hands 2006 Brilliant Disguise Moscato
(Light, delicate sweetness, fruity, tropical, great light wine with a fizz of flavour! thumbs up)
I confirmed with Henry that his two thumbs up for the Two Hands, 07 Gnarly Dudes Shiraz was his way of confirming it was the groups favourite wine of the night, but as I had hoped all wines were thoroughly enjoyed!
While the Cape Mentelle and Petaluma Riesling are readily available from most leading wine retailers the Two Hands wines are a little but harder to find so I recommend ordering directly from there website.
I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank Henry for his generosity, friendliness and his time in reporting back to me both he and his friends views on some great Australian wines!
