Purple Palate Blog

You may have noticed that Purple Palate appreciates wine. Maybe you’ve noticed we stock some wines you won’t find at your local bottle-o or Dan Murphy’s. One of the more unusual wines at Purple Palate is a 27L primat of Langmeil Winery’s The Freedom 1843 shiraz. It’s always entertaining to watch customers’ faces when they notice it. To find out more about this goliath wine, we spoke with Langmeil Winery’s James Lindner. The Lindner family of Langmeil Winery has been immersed in the Barossa’s culture of farming, food, wine and community for six generations.

How do you create fireworks between food and wine? The Long Apron’s chef Cameron Matthews talks about the flavours he loves working with, reinventing traditional tastes, and teases some of the dishes he’ll prepare for the upcoming Kalleske dinner.

The sustainable, organic, and biodynamic food movement has been gathering steam in Australia for a long time now. It’s only natural that it would extend into the wine-growing and wine-making processes. Kalleske Wines of the Barossa region have proved that wine can be organically sensitive and profound in flavour.

Over dinner recently a friend, Iain, called his iPad a ‘spare brain’. “I’ve outsourced my memory – all of the vintages, all of the reviews, all of the mystique – I don’t remember any of it any more! It’s fantastic!” He mentioned a few apps that help him keep up with his burgeoning interest in wines and wine culture. We’ve reviewed a selection of wine-related apps. Do you have any apps that you find invaluable for your ‘spare brain’?   Tasting Vino Mobile Wine Tasting This is easily one of the nicest wine-related apps around. It adds visual cues to the tasting [...]

The Barossa’s summer growing season in 2011 was more like a winter – cold and wet. For winemakers including Kalleske Wines, it meant delivering an usually delicate vintage.

The Old Fashioned is essentially the original cocktail, with roots going back to the mid 1700s at least. Bitters are what makes the Old Fashioned. The first known bitters were patented in London in 1712 as a cure-all tonic to help settle the stomach. These bitters would be combined with white wine or brandy, often taken as a hangover cure. Around 1750, a bit of sugar and water was added to make the mix more palatable. This combination spread to Colonial America as not just a healthy quaff, but a recreational delight. The word “cocktail” was first used in print [...]

Vodka is often considered as one of the few spirits that, depending on how it’s made, can essentially have a rather flavourless taste, making it easy to drink and perfect for mixing.

But what makes vodka this way? Why can it be both such a potent spirit but also have one of the most subtle flavours out there? In today’s blog, we explore vodka’s key components and how these lend to its famously tasteless nature.

As Purple Palate is a proud supporter and seller of a wealth of wines from the Barossa Valley region, we thought it was only appropriate to write up a quick history of how the Barossa Valley came into being.

The region’s name is derived from the Barossa Ranges, which was named by Colonel William Light in 1837. Light had fought for Britain in the Battle of Barrosa back in 1811, and named the range in memory of Britain’s victory of France. However, the “Barrosa” name changed to Barossa due to a clerical error.

At Purple Palate, we love selling products from some of Australia’s most unique and ambitious wineries and breweries.

In today’s blog, we take a look at Fog City Sangria, an inspired adaption of the classic wine punch that is sure to offer you a unique taste and experience.

At Purple Palate, we proudly sell Ballantine’s Finest Whisky as part of our catalogue of quality spirits.

One of the reasons we sell Ballantine’s is because of its rich history and how highly regarded it is across the world. In today’s blog, we’ll be offering you a quick history of Ballantine’s that will give you an idea of the spirit’s rich history and unrivalled quality.