Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat... you don't see many geese around at this time of year, do you? Keeping their heads down till the danger's passed, I should think.

Come to think of it, have you ever tried goose? Duck, pigeon, quail, pheasant, grouse... sure, but I don't think I've ever had goose.

Anyone tried it? What's it like?


:: SABELLA TAKES MAJOR WINE AWARD

Big news of the day is that Sabella Vineyards, the McLaren Vale winery run by Michael Petrucci (who's a super-nice guy), has won this year's coveted George Mackey Trophy for Australia's most outstanding export wine of the past year.

Good on ya, Michael! That's phenomenal!

Not only did Sabella's 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon win the trophy, but it broke a three-year trophy-winning streak by Penfolds.

In claiming the prize, Michael said his wine's win was "an honour for the McLaren Vale region". 

I told you he was a nice guy, didn't I?

"Joe, my father, has spent 35 years in the region and I am committed to honouring his tradition and encouraging greater recognition of Australia's fine wines," he said.

We haven't had the pleasure of trying the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon yet (must rectify that...), but we are in love with the Sabella 2004 Reserve Shiraz and I have a sneaking feeling that it may feature on our winelist for the up-coming Booze Cruise.

Talking of which...


:: PREMIUM WINES FLOODING BOOZEMONKEY CASTLE

DHL and Australia Post have been wearing a regular path to our door in recent days with more and more bottle-shaped parcels (well boxes actually, but I thought the "bottle-shaped" description was a bit more poetic...): tasting samples for the Booze Cruise. And I know you'll hate me when I tell you this, but it really IS going to be tough to choose winners from all the fantastic wines which are being submitted for review. So far McLaren Vale is topping the charts but we have wines coming in from all over the country and even a couple of NZ wines too. Keep 'em coming guys!


:: YELLOW TAIL ARE ASKING FOR IT

In the same vein as the Vegemite iSnack 2.0 naming fiasco, Yellow Tail have decided to use crowd-sourcing to name their new wine. For anyone who doesn't know, crowd-sourcing is where they ask the public for suggestions : it's good to engage your customers. It has been used to good effect on occasion, but it can backfire too.

Yellow Tail's "sunshine in a bottle" marketing campaign has been hugely successful around the world of course, particularly in America, and whilst that has been good for the Casella Group (who own Yellow Tail), the downside is that the Australian wine industry has largely been tarred with a "cheap and cheerful" tag abroad, making life very difficult for our quality winemakers to sell their premium wines. And it will take time, money and a LOT of effort to shake that negative image. Which is a real shame because we have, without a doubt, some of the world's very best wines here in Oz.

Now I could be wrong, but personally I think Yellow Tail are asking for trouble with this move. There are a lot of people who will be only too happy to tell them what they really think of Yellow Tail's flavourless, characterless plonk, and it may not be the sort of feedback the company wants. And I've spoken to a couple of winemakers who had less-than-charitable suggestions for the new name. In fact, one of them was so graphic that I can't even repeat it in this newsletter...

So I want to know what YOU think: what do YOU think the new Yellow Tail wine should be called?

Don't hold back now. Comments below, please...


:: THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS ARE UPON US

Parents across the country are now girding their loins in readiness for eight weeks of having their kids at home... the summer holidays are upon us. And how long before we hear the dreaded words "I'm bored..."? It's bad enough that they've got almost 2 months to themselves (who wouldn't give their right arm for a 2-month holiday right now?), but when they have the gall to abuse the privilege by complaining, you just want to choke the life out of them, don't you? (Please don't bother calling Child Services: they're already aware of me.)

Actually, #1 son got into trouble yesterday, the last day of term, and came home feeling very hard done to. It appears that in Science class they were told to come up with new laboratory warning signs for things like FLAMMABLE and CORROSIVE liquids. I believe the phrase the teacher used was "use your imagination, boys..."

So he did.

But apparently his teacher didn't appreciate the little fella's FLAMMABLE sign, which was a lab technician running around screaming with his white coat on fire, while his assistant shouted "Roll Dave! Roll!"

Personally, I see a spark of genius...

I hope you have a great week.

Cheers!

Matt