A Concise History of Australian Wine
Been reading A Concise History of Australian Wine by John Beetson. A much more enjoyable way of tracking Australian history than sheep population numbers and self-serving revisionism. Although I know progress is never an unbroken march, this stunned me (slightly edited):
The wraps were off it was now time to reveal the product to the Sydney "cognescenti". They were horrified. Reactions in Adelaide we're no better. Comments varied from 'crushed ants' to 'aphrodisiac'.The wine? None other than the Kooba Estate Fruity Lexia.
Schubert was mortified and received the final blow when the board asked him to cease production just before the 1957 vintage. For three years it officially did not exist. It was a 'non-wine', condemned because it was unsaleable and also because this lack of acceptance and the criticism thus generated was deemed harmful to the company's reputation as a whole. The tide of public disfavour began to ebb and 'the prejudices were overcome'.
Nah, not really. It's this tidy drop
posted by Anthony at Tuesday, December 14, 2004
7 Comments:
the "carton of Fruity Lexia" gives me a carton of "fruity lexia" of emotions.
I laugh: because it's a funny name
I am nostaligic: remembering passing the silver bag ripped from the box to a highschool comrade sitting in the park next to me. Hold the bag high, face stretched to the sky...and neck it.
I shudder: remembering the hangovers
I cringe: remembering the fumbling hestitations of drunken advances on the young ladies.
I am silently impressed: hard to beat that bang for the buck
I cry: cause it's still on sale
I am relieved: not in Japan it's not.
(think I have just unknowingly stolen spiceblogs listing-explanation postings manner)
12/15/2004 05:46:00 am
another quick note. "Fruity Lexia" would have been an apt title for this advertorial
12/15/2004 07:01:00 am
The "spiceblog listing-explanation postings manner", like a cask of fruity, is for sharing
That's frankly a very impressive tribute there and I reckon we could squeeze a poem or something out of the fellow readers. Got me worked up into a song:
When we were young
and sexier
You and me
Fruity Lexia
But wine becomes
air
and soon you weren't
there
There was just nothing
[nothing]
There was just nothing
[nothing]
Just an empty silver bag
and a gut full of heartbreak
12/15/2004 07:04:00 am
Hey just got your follow-up. "The Gay Grapevine". I'd get out quick to start up your own wine news blog/ wine bar this minute before I do.
12/15/2004 07:10:00 am
ah well. I enjoyed remembering.
12/16/2004 01:00:00 pm
You know I was kind of hoping you were going to tell me you had laid down the guitar track.
12/16/2004 03:38:00 pm
well I did but refrained from announcing because a Christmas sampled hiphop version is already out.
12/16/2004 04:24:00 pm
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