The true Australian Spirit! NNOOTT

Dear Avole,

As i stated this is the story as reported in todays Telegraph and i quoted part of the report directly.

So the full story is different but the timing is very poor.

regards David

quote:

Originally posted by DAVOhorn:
So the full story is different but the timing is very poor.

And thus, once again, the internet allows someone to run with their (wrong) interpretation of the events.

A sort of rumour arson.


"Foster's sacks volunteer firefighters
* February 14, 2009 - 7:57PM

Two Country Fire Authority (CFA) volunteers have lost their jobs at brewing giant Foster's while while fighting the fires which have savaged Victoria."

this was poor timing but it's never good to get a pink slip. Before Christmas or after New Years, Valentines or summer vacation. ugh!

Say you have an underperforming employee to whom you've given every chance to improve for nearly a year. Business targets are being missed because of him. He's been given his final warning, and still hasn't lifted. You make arrangements to terminate his employment, but two days before you were planning to break the news to him, his teenage daughter, his only child, gets killed in an accident in the car he gave her for her birthday. What do you do?

This was a real life scenario in the company I work for. Managers, who are ethical and responsible except for a few rotten apples, have these dilemmas forced on them and agonise and lose sleep over them. They're human, not ogres looking for every opportunity to kick people when they're down.

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
They should of used the stuff on the fire.
Its like water.

I like water.. we need it to survive.. I could never drink it warm.. straight out of the freezer for me.. teeth shatteringly cold on a blistering hot day..

When you guys complain about English warm beer it's our REAL beer that's not frozen, unlike that piss (lager) that has to be frozen so that you can't taste it!
I mean you wouldn't drink a Red wine from the chiller would you?
NOTE* US citizens ignore last sentence.

Lived in Oz for most of my life, would never have it knocked...but the beer? Coopers and Little Creatures aside (which are only actually average) is absolute garbage.

quote:

Originally posted by BigH47:
When you guys complain about English warm beer it's our REAL beer that's not frozen, unlike that piss (lager) that has to be frozen so that you can't taste it!
I mean you wouldn't drink a Red wine from the chiller would you?
NOTE* US citizens ignore last sentence.

Would I drink red wine from the chiller..? Absolutely.. I would throughly enjoy drinking a Beaujolais, Chianti or even maybe a Pino Noir from the fridge. The fuller bodied varieties like Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon would need to be served at room temperature.

Oh..! for a glass of 1990 Penfolds Grange Hermitage.

You cannot beat a good Australian Mornington Peninsular Pinot Noir chilled. Yum.

Quite a lot of the vineyards of one of the greatest producers of Pinot Noir (Yarra Yerring) in the Yarra Valley (not far from Mornington really) were destroyed in the fires. Insignificant next to lives and homes, of course, but decades of quality history gone all the same.

Can't help thinking that a lot of Burgundy fans would disagree with you anyway...

Isn't 1990 Grange getting just a bit funky by now? I had 1990 Hill of Grace two weeks ago and it was tasting quite tired.

quote:

Originally posted by avole:
A Gevrey Chambertin knocks any Australian Pinot into a cocked hat.

Crikey! I know I taste wine for a living, but I've tried some Gevrey Chambertins in my time that I would hesitate to pour down my own toilet. Try a decent Tasmanian Pinot Noir, or something from the southern reaches of Western Australia and prepare to have your preconceptions shattered. In terms of pure quality - Burgundy wins everyday (although Central Otago in New Zealand offers the greatest consistent fine quality), but to dismiss every Ozzie Pinot as being worse than every Gevrey would suggest you can only be French.

quote:

Originally posted by avole:
Don't even want to think about chilling a fine red.

Remember that the phrase 'room temperature' was coined many, many years before central heating. It's all personal, of course, but most red wines are at their best at 16 - 18°C (the less tannin the cooler, to the point of serving Beaujolais from the fridge). If 18°C is lower than the ambient temperature (and your thermostat will most likely be set to 19 - 20°) then slightly chilling the wine will be to its benefit. You can always warm it in the glass, but not cool it down. Warmth makes the wine taste more alcoholic seeming and unbalanced. Food fridges have a tendency to over-chill of course, so a Eurocave or similar might be a good investment if you enjoy great wines.

Santé

Rod

Cheers for that Rod.

Sounds like drinking the grape is as daft and convoluted as HiFi.

I prefer a decent pint.

Adnams from Southwold Suffolk can be very pleasant.

regards a Beer Drinker

Only as convoluted as you want it to be. The chilling thing actually applies with beer too.

The origin of white wine cold and red wine not is due to bitterness. If you chill something bitter, it tastes more bitter. Bitterness in wine comes from tannin in grapes skins, and therefore only really red wines (white wine making does not involve the skins, if it did it would be green wine). It is also why lightly hopped lagers can/should be served very cold, and heavily hopped ales less so or not at all (making "Guinness Extra Cold" something of an anomaly - in my opinion of course). It is also why decent plain chocolate desserts are best served warm, fondant-style.

Adnams is now one of the leading small direct wine suppliers in the UK, so even being a fine brewer does not preclude being seduced by the grape.

I like good beer, but wine is less fattening.