SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - 5 February 2021 - a Sydney-based start-up, Good Spirit Co., has put an Australian spin on the world's ancient spirit, Baijiu. Just in.
GLASGOW has a connection to the story of Valentine’s Day. In 1868, a French family made a donation to the Franciscan religious order. It was a wooden box labelled “the body of Saint Valentine” and this relic was sent to the church of Saint Francis in the Gorbals. The chest largely languished in anonymity until it was moved to the nearby Blessed St John Duns Scotus in 1999, placed near the church’s entrance and decorated with flowers on 14th February each year. Glasgow was soon claiming the saint as one of its own, assuming the title “a City of Love”.
There’s been a lot of hype around the quality of the 2019 vintage in Austria. That it would turn out fine seems to have been written in the stars: years ending in nine always work well for Austrian winemakers, with 2009, 1999 and, going further back, 1979, all remembered as some of the finest, featuring wines that are both immediately appealing and capable of ageing. I’m wary of generalisations about vintages. There are always exceptions: bad producers can make bad wines in ‘good’ years, and vice versa. But the Austrian 2019s I’ve tasted so far do seem particularly vivacious, with young winemaker Martin Diwald’s mix of chardonnay, the local favourite grüner veltliner and pinot blanc a perfectly weighted, superbly plump and fresh partner for spicy food.