This is our first reblog of another blog so we don’t do this lightly. I’m inspired by the story of Anthony Woollams from Domaine Anthony Woollams… He is living every wine wankers dream… setting up his own vineyard from scratch and it’s in the beautiful Tamar Valley region of Tasmania, a spectacular wine route all wine lovers must travel one day. His first harvest is due in 2017 with his first release a few years after that.
Those who saw my tweet over the weekend would know that we love our Tasmanian wine!
Please check out his blog and follow his dream. I’ve reblogged this particular post because the conundrum will resonate with everyone. Enjoy!!
For the record, I am a strong believer in community, including shopping locally whenever possible. Sometimes I know I pay a little extra but then I often save on the time and fuel it takes to travel for the sake of a small saving in price. Perhaps because my family ran a village store when I was little, (which eventually succumbed to the power of big supermarkets,) the “use it or lose it” mantra is one I spout to all and sundry when it comes to supporting local business. But how far am I supposed to go?
For example: the other day, I dropped into my local hardware store in Exeter to inquire on the price of trellis wire. I had done some homework on-line as I will need a total of around 30 km to complete the job and, needless to say, every cent counts. The best price I…
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The Wine Wankers 
http://thetasmanians.com/ I follow cartoonist Tony McGurk . He lives in Tasmania.
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Thanks for the link. Fun blog! Cheers.
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are there any plans for Wine Wankerland? that would be nice.
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Yeah, for sure! 😉
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I’m inclined the same way, keep my money local if possible…until it’s obvious they’re just taking the piss, then it’s source-it-cheaper-from-the-city time!
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That’s fair enough.
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I AGREE
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Thanks for reblogging this or I would have missed this post. Whether it’s green products or supporting local businesses, I reckon it still comes down to value for money: http://pipmarks.com/2013/08/17/why-pay-more-for-green-products/. Cheers
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Good point. Thanks for sharing. Cheers!
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I too am a huge supporter of buying local, most especially when it comes to food. And since I live less than 100 kilometres from Niagara’s vineyards, it makes sense that I know my way around Niagara wines, and generally walk right past the import section of the liquor store. But then I was introduced to the most amazing Cabernet Sauvignon I’d ever had. I was completely flabbergasted to learn that it was an Aussie wine! Two Hands Sexy Beast 2011 beat out every cab-sauv I’d tried.
Yeah: I still buy local as much as possible, but this is one time when “doing the right thing” meant buying from the other side of the world
😉
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See, that’s the thing. You should no doubt do your best to buy local but I wouldn’t want to be cutting myself off from experiencing options from further afield if they are superior. Thanks for stopping by!
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Not that I know anything about making wine, I sure do know how to drink it. I relate to your desire to buy local. It paigns me when I’m forced to buy something from any of the big box stores. I will say when I’ve been forced to buy a product bc of significant price difference, later I discovered it was an inferior product which cost me more in replacement.
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I’d say that there is definitely a risk of getting something inferior. It will be interesting to see how the gear hold outs for Anthony.
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Thanks for the link to Anthony Woolams, it must be a BEAR setting up a vineyard, but so worth it. I speak as a serious flower gardner (HAhahaha) sorry, lame. But I do know how hard it is to start any growing project from scratch and one of the things that bites the most is sourcing the seeds and starts. Local nurseries charge a fortune and I suspect they don’t grow the starts. Even seeds are hard to find locally. They’re from all over the place. This season I walked around and asked for flower seed heads (or just took them if there was no one to ask and the plant wasn’t going to suffer) kept back a lot of seeds from my own growns and I’m going to see what it looks like next year without spending a fortune on trucked in starts from god knows where. It’s a goal.
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I’m an avid veggie gardener myself but I could never imagine the sweat and tears that would go into creating a whole vineyard from scratch!
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My brother in laws dad farms 5 acres. very small, just a little extra cash. He bought what was family land back, and farms it. Fortunately it had mature vines on it. I think they sell to gallo here, though. haha. #swill… But for only 5 acres he spends eons on it.
And we all go help take in the harvest. Burn papers and what not. It’s an extended family affair. Hard work….
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Going green in a vineyard could be very scary, worthy of the effort, but so frightening. It must be difficult to keep the pests away.
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No doubt very very hard work indeed! Seems a labour of love for Anthony.
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Thank you for reblogging this, very inspirational post.
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Yes, it was indeed!
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Cool reblog. I am a firm believer in buying local. But I do like my wine from all over the world! 🙂
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Same. There’s just too much good wine that you just can’t get local.
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This site is awesome…since I’m from South Georgia in the states, I’m gonna start me a blog called “The Shine-Wankers”! LOL…I love this stuff!! Thx for the 411 on the subject and a budding passion for wines….specifically Aussie wines!
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LOL!! Excellent blog name!
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I thought you’d like that
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Good article! I agree with you on supporting the locals whenever possible. And thank you for supporting my site with your visit!
Better Days…
Clayton
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No worries! Cheers Clayton!!
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Enjoy your day!
Clayton
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I saw your comment on their site, where you said you don’t reblog lightly. Me neither! It’s best when a reblog has a lot of meaning, and this one definitely is worthwhile.
It’s really hard to understand the expense.
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Yeah, hard to understand the expense and the massive effort Anthony would be putting in.
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