We did our second batch of grape crushing yesterday. A week or two back, we crushed 200kg of shiraz grapes, which we then pressed for an outcome of 110 litres of wine, which is now in secondary fermentation. Yesterday, we drove out to Ardeer where someone was selling various varieties of grapes, as well as …
Author Archives: Ernest Zanatta
Chateau Garagiste – Starting the 2025 Vintage
Most of my friends are aware that I have been, for the past 20 years, an amateur wine maker, and that most of my garage is taken up with wine making equipment. Since retiring 20 months ago, I have been able to devote more of my time to this hobby, and made (with my closest …
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The Veuve Clicquot
I must admit, for all that I love wine and spend lots of money drinking premium reds, I count the times I have actually drank real Champagne, as in the stuff they make in that region of France, rather than other sparkling ones, on one hand. I probably should explain myself a little better. In …
Why I Changed Health Insurance Companies This Year
When I was a child, our family had a private health insurance policy with HBA. We kept it til the mid 1980s when Medicare came in, and then my parents made a decision to drop it. Throughout my twenties and early thirties, I took my health for granted and did not bother with private health …
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Does The Super Bowl Actually Matter?
Given that Super Bowl LIX kicks off at about 10.30am AEDST tomorrow morning, it has been making its way into my news feeds a bit lately. I don’t actually care that much about gridiron, and have never found the patience to watch an entire game, to be honest. Tomorrow will not be an exception. Apparently …
The Rosstown Tavern
You have to feel for the good burghers of Rosstown. The founding developer of this village, 7 miles southeast of Melbourne, William Murray Ross, had gone broke after the land boom of the 1880s went bust in the early 1890s, and all the promise and potential which had come with his big dreams had evaporated. …
Manhattan in Maribyrnong
There is an oblong of land (as a child I preferred the word ‘oblong’ over rectangle) in Maribyrnong, bordered by Rosamond Road, Williamsons Road, Wests Road, and Raleigh Road (fun fact – the latter three roads are named after early land owners from colonial times). This land has mostly been industrial until recently, although it …
Neoliberalism and its Malcontents
Keanu Reeves is one of my favourite actors. He has done quite a lot of interesting roles, starting with playing the stoner boyfriend of Martha Plimpton in the 1989 film Parenthood, where he says ‘Let’s record our love’ whilst brandishing a polaroid camera. Since that role, he has belied typecasting as a stoner, despite his …
The Factory Of Sadness Remains Open
Why the Cleveland Browns? Why not the Dallas Cowboys (who have a famous team of cheerleaders) or the Green Bay Packers or the New England Patriots? If one is going to root for (to use that quaint American word they use instead of ‘barrack’) an NFL team, something which is not exactly normal for an …
Why Teams Need Their Rivalries
The AFL does not do ‘Rivalry Round’ anymore, or at least not at the moment. When they did do them, typically we would see the interstate clubs would each play their local rival, Carlton Vs Collingwood (obviously), Essendon Vs Richmond (mostly because of the Kevin Sheedy link, but possibly because of that infamous melee in …
Lost For Words! 