Okay, NOW it's starting to feel like spring is here! Bright, sunny mornings, cockatoos squawking in the trees, lizards scuttling into the undergrowth and perched on every wall... seriously, who would want to live anywhere else?!

IT'S THE BOOZEMONKEY WEEKLY UPDATE :: WHAT'S THE BOOZE NEWS?

:: PELICAN'S LANDING MARITIME WINES COMPETITION
This week's competition is sponsored by Pelican's Landing Maritime Wines. CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS of how to win a bottle of each of the four different varieites they produce.

:: BOOZEMONKEY VIDEO COMPETITION WINNER
Well, it was a slow start, but our video competition was a success in the end. We enjoyed watching your entries (well, MOST of them...). And our winner is...

:: BOOZEMONKEY WINE REVIEWS
Our wine reviewers have been busy recently, with over 25 new wines reviewed in the past week alone. Get in on the action: reviewing your favourite wine is really easy and your review will sit up there alongside the pros. CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED!

:: FOLLOW US ON TWITTER!
If you use Twitter, please don't forget that you can LINK YOUR BOOZEMONKEY PROFILE TO YOUR TWITTER ACCOUNT. Your friends will appear on your BoozeMonkey profile and you can follow the whole twitting world from the comfort of your BoozeMonkey armchair.

That's all from me for today. Have a great week and enjoy the sunshine.

Cheers!

Matt
Australian Wine on BoozeMonkey

PS -- please feel free to leave your comments here.
PPS -- FOLLOW US ON TWITTER!

The end of another week: I don't know about you but I NEED this weekend. Why is it some weeks just start out busy and never stop?

It's Friday! What's Hot?!

:: THE BOOZEMONKEY VIDEO COMPETITION IS HOT!
It seems that our Monkey brethren are a little camera shy... as of Friday afternoon we have had NO entries for our video competition. Zip. Zilch. Nada. None. Shall I lower the bar for you? Make it a bit easier? How about this... a video wine review? Open a bottle of wine, switch the camera on, taste it and tell us what you think. It couldn't be easier. We've got a signed copy of Matt Skinner's "The Juice 2009" for the winner.
>>> CLICK HERE FOR FULL DETAILS <<< .

:: A THIRD GALAFREY GENERATION IS HOT!
Without a doubt, my favourite news of the week is that top Mt Barker winery Galafrey is due to see the arrival of a third generation of winemakers this summer. Ian Tyrer founded the winery with wife Linda in 1977, their daughter Kim came into the business in 2003 and now Kim has a pud in the oven. Congratulations Kim! I'm already drawing up a winelist to celebrate.

:: THE FRIDAY CHUCKLE
Today's Friday Chuckle isn't a joke, it's a video. You may have seen this one before, but if not, it's a screamer: Panda Sneeze.

I hope you all have a great weekend, and wherever you are, I hope the sun is shining on you.

Cheers!

Matt

PS -- please feel free to leave any comments here.

BoozeMonkey Weekly (29th September 2009)

Remember I told you I was going away for the weekend? Abseiling, rock-climbing, mountain biking... I suppose I should have known better, but THANKS for not warning me that I would be in serious pain after all that. Does no-one care? Joan, I thought you might have said something... When I woke up on Monday morning and had pain in places I'd only read about in books. Have you tried jumping backwards off a cliff recently and dangling by your nether regions till you hit terra firma? And apparently some people do this for fun...

I have to admit I enjoyed it though (well, before the spasms kicked in) and on the Saturday night we all had a few drinks and told lots of stories round the fire (because it was cold up in the mountains). Only one thing marred the evening, and that was a particularly militant god-botherer who made it his business to convert me to his particular brand of "thrash me with nettles and chains, I'm a sinner" bible-bashing. Clearly religion and alcohol don't mix (well, not in his case anyway) and I after an hour of his fire and brimstone and "what is written in a man's heart?" I can well understand why so many missionaries were eaten by cannibals... maybe it was the only way they could get them to shut up.

But I digress. What have we got for you this week?

:: THE VW MAPS COMPETITION
Maps? What's that got to do with wine? WINE COUNTRY MAPS!! vW Maps make maps of wine country and they are offering five lucky winners the chance to wine one of their fantastic maps covering Tasmania or Victoria. Click here to link to the competition page.

:: THE ZEMA WINE COMPETITION WINNER
Congratulations to Kristy Annetts from Nunawading, the winner of our Zema wine competition! Kirsty is the lucky winner of six bottles of Zema red which the hard-working BoozeMonkey staff haven't even sampled yet (hint hint Zema!). We know you will enjoy them and we hope you will review them on the site when you have tried them. Cheers!

:: WINEMAKERS -- STICKIES AND BUBBLES
We've had quite a few requests for reviews of stickies and fizz recently, so if any of our illustrious wine-makers are interested, we will be doing some comparative tastings soon. You know where to send samples if you would like us to review your wines on the site (and if you don't, you can ask). And as always, everything that comes through the door will find its way onto the pages of BoozeMonkey, guaranteed.

Short and sweet this week, Monkeys. Just like my missus.

Enjoy the lead-up to October... I know, it catches up with you, doesn't it?

Cheers!

Matt

BOOZEMONKEY :: FOR THE VERY BEST IN AUSTRALIAN WINE!

IT'S FRIDAY! WHAT'S HOT?!

Friday again! Another one bites the dust.

At the end of every week we ask the same question: IT'S FRIDAY! WHAT'S HOT?!

:: THE ZEMA ESTATE WINE COMPETITION IS HOT!
Zema EstateLast chance... don't say I didn't warn you. This is by far the easiest competition we've ever had, and you'll kick yourself if you miss out (or I might send someone round to do it for you). Coonawarra winemaker Zema Estate is offering a mixed case of some of their lovely reds and you only need to answer ONE QUESTION to be in the running... ONE QUESTION! You'd be NUTS not to enter: here's the link to the competition page.

:: BRIGHT ORANGE SYDNEY WAS HOT!
orangeIf you weren't here to witness it first hand, you missed the closest thing to the red weed from War Of The Worlds descending on Sydney earlier this week. Here are a few pictures. It was quite remarkable, but by lunchtime it was all over and we could see blue skies again. Fun while it lasted though...

:: ASK THE EXPERTS IS HOT!
We've had some great questions on the ASK THE EXPERTS forum, and some great answers too... who knew that putting bubbles in sparkling wine was so complicated? I certainly didn't. And what about the difference between French and American oak? Check out the forum post, then bore thrill your friends with your superior wine knowledge at the weekend BBQ. I certainly intend to...

:: THE VALE CRU EVENT WAS HOT!
altThe Vale Cru event at Sellicks Hill was apparently a raging success, so no doubt it will become a regular fixture from now on. If anyone has photographs, why not post some here on BoozeMonkey so we can pretend we were there with you? Don't leave us out in the cold, McLaren Vale or we won't love you no more (though we may still sneak a few bottles of your gorgeous wine when you're not looking).


Well, that's all from me for this week. I'm off to Port Hacking for a bit of outward-bound R&R : some climbing, a bit of mountain biking, maybe some canoeing... I don't want to tempt fate by taking my guitar in case I come across a toothless kid playng the banjo... we all know how badly that ends. And anyway, I don't look anything like Burt .

Have a great weekend, whatever you're up to.

Cheers!

Matt

BOOZEMONKEY :: FOR THE VERY BEST IN AUSTRALIAN WINE

BoozeMonkey Newsletter (5th May 2009)

May already? At this rate it will soon be Christmas! So much time, so little to do... no wait, scratch that, reverse it.

:: MOLLY'S CRADLE WINE COMPETITION
Congratulations to Kym from Ballina, the winner of our Molly's Cradle wine competition. For someone who calls herself a novice, you sure did good! Your prize is winging its way to you as we speak and we hope you enjoy every drop. We're also looking forward to reading your reviews on BoozeMonkey. Molly's Cradle will be back with another competition for you soon, offering you the opportunity to win a holiday at their 5-star lodge. More details to follow...

:: GALAFREY WINES COMPETITION
Kim and Linda are enjoying reading the madcap reasons why you think you should win a case of their outstanding wine S~O~O~O much that they have asked us to extend the competition deadline till the end of the week... just three easy questions to win a $300 mixed case of award-winning wines. You won't get another chance at this, so grab it while you can. The winner will be announced next week. http://www.boozemonkey.com/competition.php

:: WINE BLOGGERS
A quick shout out to a couple of our regular Stateside wine bloggers, Randy (http://tinyurl.com/dm52jz) and Alleigh (http://tinyurl.com/cwmpe6): check out their blogs and show them some love. And while you're at it, I think we need a bit more home-grown blogging talent, don't you? Roscoe's the only one waving the flag in the Southern hemisphere right now. So if you fancy yourself as a wine reviewer or a blogger -- even if you're not blogging about wine -- don't be shy, step up and have a crack. I'll make it worth your while... I need to make a couple of calls this week to our secret guest star (he's a busy guy), but there will be prizes for the best blog entries.

:: SANDIE'S BLOG
"Sandie... (sing along) can't you see..." Remember John Travolta in Grease? Now I'm showing my age. Okay, it's not the same Sandie, but I'm willing to bet that after a couple of Chardonnays she does a pretty good impression of Olivia Newton-John. Sandie Holmes is our wine-marketing guru from Adelaide who went on a voyage of discovery this week and got down and dirty with Twitter. And enjoyed it. So if you haven't lost your Twitter cherry yet, Sandie will tell you all you need to know to get you started: http://tinyurl.com/cmxtwg

Have a great week.

Cheers,

Matt

BoozeMonkey Newsletter (28th April 2009)

I don't know how it is where you are, but winter has definitely set in here in Sydney. I swear we had a touch of frost this morning...

:: GALAFREY WINES COMPETITION
There are only a few days left to take part in our Galafrey Wines competition, so stop putting it off and enter now (yes Tony, I'm talking to you): three easy questions to win a $300 mixed case of award-winning wines? What are you waiting for? CLICK HERE TO BE A WINNER!

:: PRIZES FOR YOUR PICTURES
Please don't forget that we're offering prizes for the best profile photos, so give us all a good laugh and show us what YOU look like. Hank's got my vote so far, but I know there are funnier looking folk out there.

:: ROSCOE HALLIGAN
If you've not come across this guy yet, do yourself a favour - read his blog. Roscoe Halligan is a legend in his own lunchtime. Not only does he know his stuff when it comes to wine, but he's always got a great story to tell too: Roscoe's Wine Blog

Have a great week, and keep warm.

Cheers,

Matt

BoozeMonkey Newsletter (23rd April 2009)

It's a short one today -- blame it on the cold weather.

:: GALAFREY WINES COMPETITION
Take a look at our new competition: Galafrey Wines in Mount Barker are offering a $300 mixed case of their award-winning wines if you answer just three easy questions. Would anyone in their right mind say no to that?! So what are you waiting for? You will find the competition link on the front page of the website: http://www.boozemonkey.com/competition.php

:: SHOW US SOME LOVE
Lots of people have emailed me and messaged me on BoozeMonkey to tell me how much they love the site. And I like that a lot -- it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. So why not share the love a little? There are two things you can do right now (no Hank, not that... I'm already married and you're not my type, so get up off your knees and put the ring away):

1) Invite a friend to join us. Don't be shy, just click on the INVITE link on the grey task bar. They'll thank you for it: http://www.boozemonkey.com/invite.php
2) And if you read a blog or a wine review you like, click on one of the social bookmark links to tell the FaceBooking, Twittering, Digging and Stumbling world "BoozeMonkey is cool!"

:: MONKEYS EVERYWHERE!
We like monkeys. You know we do. It would be strange if we didn't. But there are an increasing number of grumpy monkey faces in the members' list recently and one thing we would REALLY like, is to see what YOU look like. Or what you WISH you looked like. So to encourage you to add a photo to your profile, we're offering a prize for the profile photo we like the best. I'm not telling you what it is -- it's a surprise prize -- but I can tell you that I've got one and it's very cool, so I know you'll like it too. SO IMPRESS US WITH YOUR PHOTOS!

I hope you all have a great week: don't worry, it'll soon be weekend again.

Cheers,

Matt

BoozeMonkey Newsletter (15th April 2009)

First off, I hope you all had a very relaxing Easter and that you had your fill of good food, good wine and time with family. It's a shame it has to end of course, but at least it's this week is a short one.

WINE REVIEWS
As I mentioned last week, you can now review your favourite wines on BoozeMonkey, and as we expected it has proved to be an instant hit. We have made the reviews feature VERY easy to use, with step-by-step instructions to guide you. Please try it. We know you'll love it. Just click on the WINE REVIEWS link on the grey task bar at the top of the page to get started: http://www.boozemonkey.com/reviews123.php

SHARE BUTTONS
When you post a wine review or a blog, do yourself a favour and give yourself some instant love: if you suscribe to any of the social-bookmarking services like Digg, Reddit or StumbleUpon, or if you have a FaceBook, MySpace or Twitter account, just click on one of the bookmarking buttons at the bottom of the page to encourage more people to read your posts. Right now we're having some remarkable success with Twitter, with one wine review viewed over 170 times since last week... Try it! See if it works for you too. You can follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/aussie_wine

MOLLY'S CRADLE $240 WINE COMPETITION
Our Molly's Cradle competition ends this weekend, so if you want to wine the $240 case of wine, you'd better make your move now... you will find a link to the competition page in the BoozeNews section at the top of the page when you log in: http://www.boozemonkey.com/competition_01.php

VINTAGE 2009
Our Vintage '09 stories is one of the most read items in the forum (over 400 views so far) and now that the more of the wineries are coming to the end of vintage, we're looking forward to hearing some more of their stories and maybe hearing some teasers about what we can expect from this vintage: your stories bring us a little closer to understanding what goes into the making of our favourite wines : http://www.boozemonkey.com/forum.php?c=topic&op=index&cid=5&tid=30

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Cheers!

Matt

BoozeMonkey Newsletter (7th Arpil 2009)

I'm keeping the newsletter short and sweet today because I only have a few announcements:

COMPETITION TIME
First of all, we have a new competition. The good people at Molly's Cradle have kindly put up a $240 case of wine if you can answer just easy three questions. I offered to give them the answers while I was talking to them on the phone, but they just laughed at me: I was only trying to be helpful...

You will find a link to the competition page in the BoozeNews section at the top of the page when you log in, and we look forward to reading your answers: http://www.boozemonkey.com/competition_01.php
TWITTER
I suppose it had to happen: we have finally succumbed to the lure of the Twitterers (or is it Tweeters?). Please say "HI" if you're on Twitter -- you can follow us at http://twitter.com/aussie_wine

WINE REVIEWS ARE GO!
This is the big one we know you've all been waiting for -- the chance to review your favourite wines. This is hands-down THE most requested feature we've had since BoozeMonkey was launched.

We have made it VERY easy to use, with step-by-step instructions to give you confidence, and we KNOW you will find yourself reviewing like a pro in no time flat. Just click on the WINE REVIEWS link on the grey task bar at the top of the page to get started. Enjoy! http://www.boozemonkey.com/reviews123.php

Some of the wineries have already added their wines to the site, and I am sure many more will be doing the same later this week when they realise how keen you are write your reviews. If you want to review a favourite wine but can't find it, please let the winery know -- they love the attention. But the good news is that you don't have to have to wait for them to add their wines if you don't want to: you can do it yourself if you prefer.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and I look forward to chatting to you on Twitter and to reading your reviews.

Cheers!

Matt
http://www.boozemonkey.com

BoozeMonkey Update (31st March 2009)

Can you believe March is over? I blinked and it was gone!

And what a week we had last week. Busy? My feet didn't touch the ground. We had an amazing run of new winery signups, bringing our total to just shy of 200 for the month!

Our request for stories about vintage hasn't gone unheeded by the wineries: some are stories of success whereas others are stories of disappointment and great sadness in those areas hit by smoke-damage from the Victoria bushfires, but all of them bring us a little closer to understanding what goes into the making of our favourite wines : http://www.boozemonkey.com/forum.php?c=topic&op=index&cid=5&tid=30

And we have a winner for our Friday Monkey wine competition! I have been asked not to give out her name (she's worried her friends will turn up and drink it all), but I spoke to her earlier today and she is delighted with her prize. Aas well she might be: it's not every day you win a $240 case of wine. So congratulations and we look forward to reading the reviews. Next week I will give you the details of our NEW competition.

Here are a few more interesting links for you:

* Richard Randall (aka The Wine Connoisseur) is based in France and he will be blogging about his experiences there for us from time to time. He has an idyllic lifestyle in Corbieres and has a very novel way of uncorking bottles. Check out his blog and the link to his website : http://www.boozemonkey.com/profile.php?user=aude11360

* And if you want to read a some fantastic reviews from a man who lives and breathes wine (and who catches some ENORMOUS fish), then do yourself a favour and take a look at Roscoe Halligan's blog -- he usually has me in stitches and always has me reaching for the corkscrew : http://www.boozemonkey.com/profile.php?user=Roscoe1

As always, we are very grateful to you all for your support and for introducing your friends, helping us to make BoozeMonkey THE social network for Aussie & New Zealand wine-lovers: as you know, our aim is to create the most comprehensive wine information resource on the internet, and to bring you closer to your favourite wineries. And with your help, we're doing it.

That's all from me -- have a great week.

Cheers!

Matt
http://www.boozemonkey.com/

BoozeMonkey Update (24th March 2009)

Man, this wine business is thirsty work! Last week over 50 new wineries signed up to BoozeMonkey and added details to their profiles. That's a lot of Austrlian wine. And a lot of New Zealand wine. And this week we're aiming for three figures. So please lend us your support and tell your friends about us so we can continue to make BoozeMonkey THE social network for Aussie & New Zealand wine-lovers: our aim is to create the biggest, most comprehensive wine information resource on the internet, and to bring you closer to your favourite wineries. And we need YOUR help to do it.

We're currently in the middle of Vintage 2009. There are still a few weeks to go for some wineries, but sadly for others it was all over before it began: the smoke from the bushfires in Victoria destroyed some harvests entirely. We have asked our wineries to tell us how vintage is going, if they have any stories or photographs, and if they can give us any pre-release teasers... keep your eyes on the forum posts for updates: http://www.boozemonkey.com/forum.php?c=topic&op=index&cid=5&tid=30

We are pleased to announce that our much anticipated REVIEWS feature will be released very soon -- we're aiming for the end of the week, but knowing the way these things work, it could be the weekend. Please bear with us. We have been hard at work on it for the past few weeks (yes it does take that long, Sharon) and we know you're going to love it -- you will be able to post reviews of all your favourite (and least favourite) wines, tell us what you REALLY think, and rate them as YOU think they SHOULD be rated: I don't know about you, but personally I would always try a new bottle of wine on a friend's recommendation rather than on a pro's review.

We have lots more new features in the pipeline of course, and we will be releasing those over the coming weeks (Chat, Events, Products & Tasting Notes...), but if you have any ideas about ways we can improve BoozeMonkey, please drop us a line in The Suggestion Box on the forum: http://www.boozemonkey.com/forum.php?c=forum&op=index

And while I'm pointing out links, here are a couple more for you:

* Randy Watson is one of our resident wine bloggers -- always entertaining, & informative, Randy has found a neat way to get around the problem of not having enough money to pay for his expensive taste in wine: http://www.boozemonkey.com/profile.php?user=RandyWatson

* This is your VERY LAST CHANCE to win our $240 Friday Monkey wine case: the closing date is midnight on Sunday 29th March. Don't say you weren't warned... At the time of writing we have a three-way tie for the prize, so it's going to be a very close call. And whilst I can't tell you who the front-runners are or what the current score is, I CAN tell you that we're still in single figures: no-one has succeeded in inviting ten mates yet! Here's the link to invite your friends and win the prize: http://www.boozemonkey.com/invite.php

* And if you are interested in wine-tasting, our friends at The Corkscrew Diary have been hard at work as usual. You will find some of their excellent videos in Deborah Gee's blog section: http://www.boozemonkey.com/blog.php?user=TheToastedHostess

That's all from me for now -- have a great week.

Cheers!

Matt
http://www.boozemonkey.com/