So, how great is Kromm anyway?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

This coming Friday I go to Canberra for three consecutive evening of reunification with gaming groups from long ago, then for a few days to the Rutherglen, my favourite wine-growing region. And on the way back, a weekend of GURPSy goodness in Newcastle.

Good on yer! ;)

Sounds great. What wines come from the Rutherglen? All I know from Australia are the commercially popular wines like Jacob's Creek, Lindemans, Peter Lehman, Rosemount Estate, Yellowtail and Wolf Blass. There are some pleasant wines there and at least here (where all wine is imported anyway), they provide some of the best value for money, but I strongly suspect that I'm missing some good ones. ;)

Oh, and praise KROMM. May he taste fine wines as soon as His mouth is better after the attentions of the Evil Physicians.

[Jame]

KROMM is great! All Praise KROMM Now, Always And UnCeaseIngLy!

[Pomphis]

Yes, for he is not just glorious, not just gloriouser, but the gloriousiest and the very definition of what perfect gloriousity aspires to.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

It is an area best known for 'stickies': sweet wines, often fortified, such as port, sherry, malmsey, muscat, and tokay. Also for Durif, a variety that is rare elsewhere.

Ah. Perhaps it's a linguistic quirk. I tend to refer to such beverages as 'cordials', even though I suspect that this may be technically incorrect for those which include no additional sugar.

Originally Posted by Agemegos

I am going there for a few cases of Chambers' Walnut Muscat, a stock of sherry, some "bubbling blood" (maybe Cofield's sparkling Durif) and a few cases of Durif, Mondeuse, Pedro Ximinez, Touriga, or whatever takes my fancy. And some pickled walnuts from Gehrig's.

Sounds fascinating.

Except the pickled walnuts. What on Earth are pickled walnuts? How does one pickle nuts? Tell me that they aren't put into the vile fluid that characterises pickled cucumbers and onions!

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Genuine cordials are made out of fruit (and sometimes herbs or spices), spirits, and sugar. I make mine by soaking a dozen ripe cumquats and ninety cubes of sugar in a bottle of brandy for a year, then discarding the fruit.

Ah. That's... quite a bit of added sugar. What was that about fat and diabetes? ;)

Originally Posted by Agemegos

But I have to call it "liqueur", because in Australian English "cordial" is a sugar syrup flavoured with fruit juice &c. (or more often artificial flavours), which is diluted with water and drunk by children so that they will grow up fat and get diabetes.

Liqueur looks and sounds too close to liquor for me. I'd get it mixed up for sure. ;)

B'sides, 'cordial' is such a lovely word. We should use it every chance we get, for the glory of KROMM!

Originally Posted by Agemegos

'Stickies' include both fortified and unfortified very sweet wines. Added sugar is anathema.

Well, I'm not much of a sherry man myself, but I know that if you added sugar to some of the dessert wines I like, tokaj and Italian stuff, you'd end up with a substance that was more sugary than sugar. ;)

Originally Posted by Agemegos

It is. My favourite winery, Chambers Rosewood, has two dozen wildly different wines in the tasting room (besides a few very special wines that they don't give away tastes of). Another winery, Jones', would have perhaps twice as many.

Would you not be much of a red wine man, then, since you go to the Rutherglen for stickies rather than what I'd think of as wine country for Shiraz?

Originally Posted by Agemegos

You pick walnuts green, before they husks dry out and split, and you transfix them (piercing the shell through the husk) with a darning needle. Then you soak the whole thing, husk and all, in a mixture of vinegar and brine (with secret family herbs and spices, usually). After a due time, the whole nut and husk thing can be sliced and served as a condiment (good with beef or hard cheese) or with antipasto. Pickled walnuts consider mostly of the husk, and not very much of the shell or kernel.

I sometimes think of doing the same with pecans. We have a lot of pecan trees here, which produce more nuts than we eat.

Vinegar and brine?

Well, it's as my grandmother should have said, if she knew what comfort it was to have a stock of sayings passed down: "They sure does things funny in dose foreign parts, as yer gran'pappy said when he shaved the monkey."

[Anders]

Would KROMM be more glorious if he was KRÖMM?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

Would KROMM be more glorious if he was KRÖMM?

KROMM could not possibly be more glorious.

The addition of an umlaut would, however, be an abomination unto KROMM.

It would make Baby KROMM weep, if there were a Baby KROMM.

[elShoggotho]

Everÿ öther wörd increäses in coölness with ä few well pläced ümläuts, büt KROMM is KROMM, and KROMM is Our Line Editör!

[Kromm]

I'm definitely not Ķřǿмм. I think I saw that guy playing a FPS once, though.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

KROMM! I don't drink the stuff. I give it away as Christmas presents. In shapely Cognac-bottles.

Is it popular?

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Indeed. Just the same is true of Rutherglen muscat and tokay. And especially of Chambers Grand Reserve Old Rutherglen Liqueur Muscat—which I can no loner afford since Robert Parker got his lips on it.

How much did it go up?

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Not at all. The thing is that Shiraz, Carbenet, Pinot Noir, Merlot etc. are well-distributed and readily available. If a thirsty horde should descent on my house and drink thirty cases of my wine I could replace all the semillions, chardonnays, verdheldos, shirazes, cabernets, merlots, and pinots without leaving home.

You like chardonnays? I detest the grape.

Don't think much of many cabernet sauvignons either, but that's not as visceral.

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Rutherglen does make some splendid shirazes and pinots, and I may pick up a few of those. It also makes colossal reds in varieties that I can't get but by going there: Durif, Mondeuse, Touriga…. Rutherglen durif is smashing stuff, with a colour like purple ink and an intensity of flavour quite unrivalled. Cofield's sparkling durif has lilac foam. Mondeuse is to allspice what shiraz is to black pepper.

You're an inspiration to us all, Brett. We should all have your free time and your dedication to the finer things in life. ;)

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Anyway, where would you think of as wine country? The Hunter Valley? Margaret River? Mclaren Vale? The Barossa Valey? Coonawarra?

Toscana. ;)

Australian geography is not my strong suit. By wine country, I just meant "place where they grow the best red wines", as opposed to "place they make stickies". ;)