“Sod the wine, I want to suck on the writing. This man White is an instinctive writer, bloody rare to find one who actually pulls it off, as in still gets a meaning across with concision. Sharp arbitrage of speed and risk, closest thing I can think of to Cicero’s ‘motus continuum animi.’

Probably takes a drink or two to connect like that: he literally paints his senses on the page.”


DBC Pierre (Vernon God Little, Ludmila’s Broken English, Lights Out In Wonderland ... Winner: Booker prize; Whitbread prize; Bollinger Wodehouse Everyman prize; James Joyce Award from the Literary & Historical Society of University College Dublin)


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09 November 2011

A QUIET DRIVE ALONG THE OVENS VALLEY

The old tobacco-growing country in Victoria's Alpine Oven's Valley first came to DRINKSTER's attention through the glass in the form of Wynn's Oven's Valley Burgundy from the 'sixties and 'seventies. Through numerous brutal and generally pig-ignorant waves of ownership, the brand has disappeared. It was David Wynn's response to Penfold's St Henri Claret, and was a high country Shiraz fermented soft in big old oak. We thought much of those days as we drove along the Ovens at the weekend. The tobacco business is over, and many growers have now joined the wine business, but thetre is no unifying wine of the quality of the old Ovens Valley blend. And oh, yes. That's a Cadillac, not an elephant on the corner. photos PHILIP WHITE

7 comments:

OzWogZo said...

Good to see the top three cars are England, Australia and Italy, Whiteman! I want Italy! That's what I call a balanced ride.

Anonymous said...

you should call yourself ŎﺥWӨGﺥŎ

Anonymous said...

Robert Oatley has released an 'Ovens Valley Shiraz' with fruit actually sourced from the Ovens although it doesn't appear to be widely available.The Wynns wine was from over near Glenrowan. Ringer Reef, Mayford and Dalbosco are all producing genuinely good Ovens Valley (now Alpine Valleys) wine.
Cheers

DRINKSTER said...

Thankyou.

DRINKSTER said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
DRINKSTER said...

I'll check em out. But this time I was there to visit the northern side of the ridge, and sat breathing the everything at Castagna. One of the best smells on Earth, Castagna.

mick said...

You don't get this sort of photography on Jancis Robinson's blog Whitey!