Krazy Krystal's Laboratory

Wine, darling!

When I was in Melbourne the Other Dr.K and I did a wine tasting course together and it was *so* much fun. So before I left home, I considered myself to be a little bit of a budding expert on wine. I then moved to the other side of the world. Big mistake.

It turns out that when you grow up in Australia, you drink a lot Australian wine. And I guess it hadn't occurred to me otherwise, I thought that if you grow up in France, you drink French wine, Italy, Italian wine and so on and so forth. But no! It's a global industry! Huh? I am a complete antipodean ignoramous when it comes to wine. Who'd of thunk they made wine in Chile and Argentina.. not me! How did I not know this? I mean I was aware that, yes, california and south africa also plant a few grapes here and there, but Hungary? No one told me. I guess in Australia, we have such diversity of climate and soil that we get a huge variety of wine styles without the need for import. And when you think of the costs, dollar for dollar, anything from far far away just doesn't perform in the same price range. So aside from a few lovely bottles of NZ wine and the odd confession that yes I had drunk Italian wine (Lambrussco anyone?) I was an Australian drinking Australian wine in Australia for most of my drinking years.

Here in the UK, I know nothing. I walk into a wine store and am completely bamboozled by the shiny array of products. I don't know my burgundies from my Beaujolais, let alone how to spell them (thanks google!). Luckily I can talk the talk "I like crisp aromatic whites" and "I'm not so fond of tannins or too much oak", but it has been a little bit of a slap in the face for the wanna-be wine snob in me.

However, I am not to be deterred. This weekend CazAndy (my newly minted bonafide York friends) suggested a group outing to the "Wacky Wine Warehouse" in York, which sells discount wine from all over the world with a minimum 12 bottle (mixed dozen) purchase. I was like a kid in a candy shop, and was soon eyeing off all the lovely familiar labels in the Australia section. However my fellow wine-o-holics set me a challenge, I was to purchase naught from the shores of my birth. I accepted this quest, as part of my effort to assimilate, and now have a wine rack displaying the finest Old and New world bottles that my budget allowed. If it cost six quid, it can't that bad... or so the theory goes. Shamed by my lack of knowledge, I went out and bought a "Wine encyclopedia of the world" and Oz Clarke's 2006 guide to buying wine. I'm now reading up on my Malbecs and Medocs, and have decided to write a wine blog to keep track of all these complex creatures. I don't expect anyone except me to read it, and I'm not an amazing wine critic, so I don't expect anyone to pay attention to a single word I write. It's all bollocks really :)

Generally, I think I do have more of a European wine palate. I am quite un-Australian in terms of my wine taste-buds. I don't like my wine to jump out of the glass and punch me in the face with it's full on flavour. In terms of red, I love soft aromatics with velvety smooth round fruits and hints of spice and for white I favour crisp clean lines, with citrus sparkle and honey.

A far cry from the "plonk" we drank at Balgownie Manor during my university days *giggle*

posted by Dr Krystal @ 9:41 am