Wine Selectors

I consider myself to have been very fortunate while growing up as my parents encouraged my brother and I to try new foods, new flavours, and from what would now be considered far-too-young an age, to try the occasional sip of alcohol. Which was usually very watered down wine. And by watered down, I mean a thimbleful of white wine with a big glass of water!

Dad was English, but his parents allowed him to have a tiny sip of watered down wine from a young age, and he maintained that is what led to his love of fine wines. Something he has passed onto his children, for which I will forever be grateful.

So when I was invited to choose two bottles from the chef selection on offer by Wine Selectors, I immediately said YES!

I had heard of Wine Selectors as they have the fabulous Selector Magazine that I’ve read on a few occasions (thank you Qantas Club). If you’re not familiar with them, then you won’t know that Wine Selectors is Australia’s largest independent direct marketer of wine selling wine online. Their website sells a large selection of wine, including the Chef Series range.

I wasn’t familiar with any of the wines on offer, not surprising, as they were all exclusive to Wine Selectors. So I went for the familiar chef for the first wine. I was due to speak on 4BC later that week with the very entertaining Alastair McLeod, so my first choice was for the Pinot Noir with his name. This wine is from the Mornington Peninsula, a wine region in Australia that I haven’t yet visited (it is high on my list, I promise Melbourne friends!), another reason I was keen to try it.

I am by no means a wine aficionado, but I know what I like, and I did enjoy this. The tasting notes describe this wine as having “generous black fruit flavours … faultlessly soft and supple … perfect for food that is created equally passionately to reflect purity and origin.”

I’m not overly sure what that all means, and my palate didn’t discern any “black fruit flavours” but my food is created with love, so I figured it would be a perfect match!

The second wine I chose was a Margaret River Tempranillo from Frank Camorra’s selection. Unfortunately I’ve also not been to the Margaret River (one day…) but I am a massive fan of tempranillo, and I think it is a vastly underrated wine in Australia. The last time I had a look for tempranillo at one of those big Colesworths owned stores I only saw 3-4 different tempranillo, compared to rows and rows and rows of shiraz. Such a shame.

Now I hope Frank won’t be upset, but I drank his gorgeous wine with an Italian dish. A little known dish called spaghetti Bolognese. More lovingly known around here as spag bol. He would however, be pleased to hear that I didn’t splash any of his wine in my spag bol – I saved it all for the glass, using a lesser red for the bol.

If I had to choose between the two, my preference would be for the tempranillo, but that is mainly because it’s winter and it was cold. And the tempranillo was more warming than the pinot noir. I’m fairly confident my opinion would have been reversed had I been trying these wines in January. Either way, they are two wines I really enjoyed, and I recommend them if you are looking for something new-to-you to try.

Thanks very much to Wine Selectors for providing me with these two wines.

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