Wine master's Report

Ballarat Wine & Food Society Wine Master's Report 2024-2025.

Having now completed one full year in the Wine Master role, feel like I am getting to know our cellar and perhaps your tastes?

One aim I have for my time is to try and be a bit proactive in selecting some wines that are already at their peak and will only decline from here. To some extent those wines are at the pinot end of the wine spectrum!

We just enjoyed our second year of the local’s dinner, where this year we featured both Best Wines and Eastern Peake Winery. Special thanks to Hamish (Bests) and Norman (Eastern Peake) for making the time to share both their wines and their respective wineries history while we were treated to magnificent food by Laim Downes at Black Cat Truffles.

One trend I am noticing as a consumer of wine myself is the demand for grape varieties that sit outside those we typically grew up with. That combined with a desire to enjoy some of those grape varieties at a younger age, sometimes presents a challenge as a Wine Master selecting wines for your dinner when we have many aging wines that need to be drunk now. That said, as winter approaches, I will turn my attention to the older wines and try and select the best of the best for your drinking pleasure!

Special thanks to all those who have filled in for me when work commitments take me away on the third Thursday of the month. Thank you Glenn Sharp! Thanks to our President, Andrew Rowan and all on the committee for their work in putting our monthly dinner on. 

Special thanks to Bob House. Bob has mentioned before about a more “interactive blog”. I would love to see each of us sharing via Bob comments on a bottle the opened or a new winery, restaurant they ate and drank at. Let’s get behind this idea.

Thanks for your patience as I try and take the trainer wheels off in 2025!